Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State has charged the Federal Character Commission (FCC) to strive to ensure strict adherence to its tenets as enshrined in the act that established it.
The Governor, who was represented by his Honorary Senior Special Adviser on Special Duties, Rt. Hon. Okpolupm Etteh, made this known on Thursday while speaking with newsmen shortly after a workshop organized by the Commission at Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
At the event, themed “The Provision and Spread of Socio-Economic and Infrastructural Facilities – The Need for Strategic Partnership with Stakeholders,” Governor Emmanuel maintained that “the most needed and required socio-economic and infrastructural facility is security. Our reason for saying this is that the most important stakeholders in our Country remain the people that make up this Country. A talk about socio-economic and infrastructural facilities is a talk about the people of this Country. Socio-economic and infrastructural facilities is all about meeting the people’s needs. These facilities can also only be put in place by the people and they are to be used by the people. Without the people and a stable Country, we cannot sit down here and begin to talk about the provision and spread of infrastructural facility except only to the extent that the talk will be about the security of the people and that of the Country. And in our own honest opinion, we do not think that the Federal Character Commission is in a position to ensure this. We therefore at this stage call upon the Federal Government to take the issues of security very seriously.”
Stressing further, the Akwa Ibom State Governor said “We are again of the opinion, that whatever plan for ‘socio-economic planning’ or ‘infrastructural facilities,’ if it must be complete and properly executed must take into consideration the current political and economic structure or system. In addition, it must take into consideration the peculiar needs of the people of a particular area and the resources available in the area. For instance, we do not understand the spread of Refineries to areas that do not have crude oil deposits. We do not see how strategic this was or will be. Crude Oil deposits, at least the ones being explored for now, are hugely deposited in the South-South Region. Consequently, a proper spread and provision of facilities and infrastructure in the Oil and Gas Industry for instance should be heavily concentrated in the States with huge crude oil deposits.”
“Today, Akwa Ibom is the number one oil producing State. To our mind, there should be more refineries and petroleum-related infrastructures and facilities in the South-South Region and more especially in Akwa Ibom State. Our State and indeed the whole of the South-South Region will be very glad to ‘strategically’ partner with the government or any of her Agencies that will act in this direction. Maybe this will indicate that we are now becoming sincere in our bid to be together as one Country and allay such fears that have led to introduction of such concepts as ‘True Federalism’ and Resource Control.’”
He further informed the people Akwa Ibom has its mind made up to strategically partner with groups, agencies, ministries, organizations and states that are interested in the socio-economic development of the state and the country at large.
Also speaking, Rivers State Governor, Barrister Nyesom Wike, who said the Commission’s choice to host the seminar in Port Harcourt was a demonstration of its confidence in the state’s efforts to change the narratives, stressed that the country, through the Commission, must strive to close the gap of agitations by groups by being fair and just.
“The theme of this seminar has to do with the spread of socio-economic amenities and infrastructure. The Federal Character Commission is not only saddled with the responsibility of ensuring equitable distribution of bureaucratic posts but also responsible of fair and equitable distribution of resources, socio-economic amenities and infrastructural facilities. I am disturbed that the Commission has not taken this mandate seriously, as the mandate that has direct bearing on our poverty stricken people. Waking up from the slumber will afford the Commission to be counted amongst institutions for the people,” Barrister Wike added.
In his remarks, the acting Chairman of the Commission, Dr Hettima Bukar Abba, said “The Commission has devoted the greater part of its existence to the institutionalization and domestication of the federal character principle in the operations of Nigerian Public Service. While we take cognizance of the burden of the past inequities, we have consistently practiced equity as a basis for National Unity.”
“Since the policy thrust of this government aims at bringing about integration and balanced development in the country, it becomes obvious that the twin-mandate of the Commission can provide a veritable platform for its actualization. This conviction supplies the incentives for this Stakeholders’ Workshop with particular focus on cooperation, partnership and synergy between the Commission and other stakeholders,” Dr Abba emphasized.
He further said that, in putting the framework for the actualization of the tenets of the Commission in the spread of infrastructure, it has since commenced a nationwide infrastructure audit for all on-going and abandoned projects in all regions with the view to ascertained and verify its spreads and level of completion
Highpoints of the event included a technical session where papers were presented by the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Barrister Mike Igini; former Director of National and Military Strategy, Air Commodore Darlington Abdullahi (rtd), and a retired career diplomat, Ambassador Spiff Taribo, and a Six-Point Communiqué.
