Barrister Chris Okorie, one of the founding members of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), former Etim Ekpo Local Government Council Chairman and former aspirant to the Abak Federal Constituency seat in the House of Representatives, is a legal practitioner. Not satisfied with his job as Special Assistant to Governor Udom Emmanuel on Electoral Matters, Barrister Okorie resigned and moved on to join the All Progressive Congress (APC). Today, he serves as one of the key men to the Nsima Ekere project. In this exclusive interview with Ibom Telegraph, he talks on the state of Akwa Ibom. Excerpts:
Akwa Ibom at 30, how well have we fared as a state?
I think we have made quite some progress and our past administrators did their best to lift us from where we were to where we are. I equally believe that there is still a lot to be done and I do hope that in the nearest future, we will head there. We are not there yet but we are moving progressively to where we ought to be, fulfilling the dreams of our forebears.
The present government, within the last two years, has also done some efforts to add up to the 30 years. Can you give an independent assessment of the last two years of Udom Emmanuel’s government?
Well, in the last two years of the Udom Emmanuel’s administration I do not think it will very proper to assess it rightly now but maybe we have gotten to halftime of the administration. For me, I do not know what other things that the administration intend to do but so far, comparing it to what happened in the Godswill Akpabio’s administration, I wouldn’t think we have done very well. But maybe it is taking the Governor some time to put up his plans. The reality is that compare to what we have gotten into the state, compare to what we have been able to achieve, I do not think we can beat our chests to say we have done very well.
Don’t you think the last administration had more money compare to what the present administration?
This administration has money. We have had money, we have had bailout funds, we have had other IGR, and we have money that has come from other private institutions like ExxonMobil and others. We have had money and so we cannot complain about not having money. If you look at the money we have compare to the money that has gotten to other states in the South-East and South-South, you will know that we have had money. So, we are doing better than these states and we cannot claim lack of money but rather we should try to know where the monies have gone to.
What do you should or ought to have been done to satisfy you and other likeminded members of the Akwa Ibom populace?
I think there would have been much more infrastructural development and I do not think we can see those things. We have heard a lot of things on the pages of the newspapers about 700Km of roads and I have not seen where those roads are. They said Second Runway in the Ibom International Airport; I have not seen it and I do not know whether you have seen it. We have seen these things on billboards and I do know whether the government is still thinking of doing them, but practically and on ground they are not there. I must admit that there are some things that the government have done like the toothpick industry, Metering Industry and all that but you must also recall that the Metering Plant, like every others, is a PPP and not an Akwa Ibom investment, they are done by the Akwa Ibom State Government. The government only provided a little bit of assistance and the enabling environment and so we cannot claim them as our achievements in the past two years.
Was that the reason you resigned s Special Assistant to Governor Udom Emmanuel?
Not only that, I did not have job satisfaction. The appointment I was given, I was not given the tools to do my job and some of the suggestions we even made to try and move the government forward were fruitless and so I had to leave. I did not even have an office space. I do not have any problem with anybody in government; I had to leave on my own because I was not satisfied. As we speak, 95% of the Governor’s aides don’t have offices and mobility.
The local government council election will soon come up and it is always been a problem with administration at the local government level. Given your experience as a former Local Government Chairman and what is happening now, what is really the problem in having the right Local Government administration that can add to the development of the communities?
The thing is very simple. If Local Government Councils nationwide receive their allocation directly, they will sit up. Now, what happens is that all their allocation goes to the state and the state just gives them anything basically, because most of these people were not elected but appointed.
Were you having your allocation directly in your days at the Local Government Council?
Yes we had direct allocation and we could function because we knew that the people would hold us responsible. Most of the people you find now do not get the money directly. The money goes to what is called State-Local Government Joint Account and no Chairman is signatory to the account. The signatories to that account are the State Accountant General and the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs. So, they control everything and only give you anything they so wish. But if the allocations go straight to the Local Government Area, they will be able to use the money to develop the local government areas.
You standpoint shows you support Local Government autonomy in the present constitution amendment. What other thing do you support given the clauses that have been sent out by the National Assembly?
From what the National Assembly has done, we do not know the ones they will really send to the State House of Assembly, which when sent must take concurrent before it becomes law. So, we will wait a little while and see what is going to be transmitted to the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly. But for sure, local government autonomy is proper and I also support the separation of the office of the State Accountant General from the Accountant General of the Local Government. I support the split in the office of the Attorney General and the Commissioner for Justice. It will bring efficiency and these are some of the areas that we believe if past by the state legislature will enhanced in Akwa Ibom State and in the country.
The National Assembly also threw away four critical clauses including Devolution of Power; Land Use Act; Affirmative Action for Women, and State Creation and Boundary Adjustment. As a legal practitioner, do you think it was right?
I think they were wrong. We are all agitating for restructuring and there is no way you cannot devolve power and except you do that people are still going to agitate. MASSOP, IPOB are as a result of this, people feel they are being marginalize and that all power are concentrated at the centre and except you devolve it, there will be a lot of killing to try and get to the centre because everybody believes that is where it is done. But the moment you allow states to look for other things to do and raise their revenue and manage their affairs you are going to have an easy way. So, the National Assembly was wrong and they will have to look at those clauses again
What do you think would have become of Akwa Ibom if some of the projects, like the Tropicana, Four-Point by Sheraton and the Specialist Hospital that has just been shutdown, embarked upon by the last administration are completed and properly put to use?
I am surprise that these projects have been said to be uncompleted. Before the Godswill Akpabio left, he said those projects were completed and all heard him. The present Governor has also said that those projects were completed. Now that they are still talking about completing these projects I do not know who was lying, whether Godswill Akpabio or Udom Emmanuel? What I am trying to say is that Akwa Ibom people are being taken for a ride and it is high time they stopped it because the kind of revolution that will come is one they will not envisage.
Now, these projects we all know are not working. Why has Governor Udom Emmanuel find it very difficult to tell us what the problem is? Why are these projects not working? Why were these projects not completed? Like the Four-Point by Sheraton in Ikot Ekpene was commissioned and they told us everything was ready and two years down the line, nothing has happened. I believe that if these projects are completed and put to proper use it will ease a lot of tension that we find in the economy, it will take people off the streets. And I do not know why these projects are still left to rot, like the Specialist Hospital. After all that has been said and celebrated about it, it has been shutdown. Ibom Le Meridien and Golf Resort nearly got shutdown. We do not what is going on in the state and I think it is high time the Governor came out to tell Akwa Ibom people what his problems are because I know certainly that he has some problems.
It has been rumoured that you will running for the Ikot Ekpene Senatorial Seat in 2019. How true is this rumour?
No, I am not contest for the Senatorial seat. I know it is the turn of Abak Federal Constituency to produce the next Senator but certainly not me. I know that we have qualified people and I am qualified, no doubt, but I do not think I am up to it. So, you can count me out of the Senate contest but whatever other position my party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), would want me to go for, I will, if I think I can do it.
Recently, during the last Security Summit, the State Governor issue n order to the Niger Development Commission (NDDC) not to come into Akwa Ibom State or any other of the nine states that make up the commission to do project without collaborating with the states and few days after that we were to that the State Ministry of Works chased some NDDC contractors out of their site. Do you think the State Government is getting it right?
Well, I do not want to say it was an order. I think the Governor was merely making an observation and even at that, I think it was wrong. With all due apology to Governor Udom Emmanuel, I don’t think he got it right with that kind of observation. The NDDC is a Federal Government Interventionist agency empowered by law to intervene and they are not taking over the responsibilities of the State Government. So, for the Governor to have said what he said, I think was a misnomer and I hope that we would restrain ourselves from playing politics with development and with lives.
Firstly, that summit was a security summit and we would have expected our Governor to have told us the things he has done to ensure security of lives and property in the state. I come from an area that is in turmoil. I am from Etim Ekpo Local Government Area and I know that even before the Inspector General of Police came there had been reports to him about the incessant killings in the area and as we speak about 35 persons are confirmed dead due to what they termed cult clashes. I know that indigenes and residents have deserted Ukanafun and Ika. These are areas we would have expected our Governor to have raised but he never did so. What concerned him was trying to fight with NDDC. NDDC has its own budget and programmes so they follow their programmes and their budget. They don’t need to come and discuss their budget with you same way you don’t discuss your budget with the Federal Government. So, I think the Governor was misadvised. Again, why I said we should not play politics with development is that immediately after the summit we heard that a contractor that was given a job somewhere around Shelter Afrique and had been doing that job for about one year on site and when the rain started the man suspended work, just like every other contractors do during the rainy season, and when went back to site he was chased out. I don’t understand whether that is to the advantage of the state or not. If you find out that the job they are doing, according to you, is wrong you can approach them. But you do not have supervisory power over them, they are not under you. And if you have complaints, why don’t you raise it to the Management of NDDC that the job that their contractor is doing is of low quality. You cannot take the law into your hand and go and chase a contractor out of site that you did not award? Again, they claimed they awarded the contract when they went for a thanksgiving service of an Exco member on a public holiday. Can you award contact verbally on a public holiday, a contract that is supposed to past through state tender’s board? Where is the contract paper? Who did you award it to? I mean we are being very funny in this state and until we rise up to say some of these things are wrong we will not get it right. So, with all due apology, the Governor got it wrong there.
You seemed to mean that it was not right for the State Government to have demanded for the NDDC to align itself with the state. Is that what you mean?
No, I am not saying it is wrong for the NDDC to align itself with the state government. They can align and the alignment is not going to be done on the pages of the newspaper. The alignment is going to be done by interfacing. So, what stops you from seeking an audience with NDDC or calling the State Commissioner of NDDC to come to your office to address any issue you feel you have. Must you align by using thugs and policemen to chase contractors out of site? There is always a civil way of doing things and come to think of it, that road is just 300M and is that what the Akwa Ibom State Government would be fighting to show the people that they are working? We have places in my locality, if they don’t have what to do, for them to do instead going to pursue somebody over 300M road. Do your own, let them do their own. We have a lot of places to develop and so if NDDC says they want to come and develop the whole of Ifa Atai, allow them, you can go to other places, go to Mbo or ONNA Local Government Areas.
Is it proper for the NDDC to always liaise with the State Government to know their development plan? Is there any legal or constitutional requirement to this?
There is no law that mandates them to liaise with any state government. They have their own budget and if at all there should be alignment it will during budgeting where the state government gives an input. Other state governments give inputs. We have the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs that is also doing jobs. For instance, we have a problem of gully erosion at Hospital Road in Abak Local Government Area and for the past three months the place has been cut into two and nobody can pass but the Akwa Ibom State Government through the Ministry of Works came, inspected the site and said “we are starting work tomorrow” he stood there and called one company, Hensek Integrated Services, and they brought materials and kept there. The owner of the company, Engr. Uwem Okoko, brought his men and stay there on site for about two weeks and when he was not paid one Kobo, he packed his things and left. The residents of the area are suffering and now if NDDC steps in to arrest the situation, they will react because of perceived future political opposition. That is what we are not interested. Obong Nsima Ekere, the MD of NDDC, as far as I am concern, has not declared any intention to run for any political office and if he does, he is entitled to it because he is from Akwa Ibom. Nobody should use any perceived intention to fight or cause problems for Akwa Ibom people. If NDDC does some, let the State Government do others, let us contact FERMA and other institution and ask them to do all these things. Let us not cause problems among our people.
