By ETIM ETIM
Six weeks after he joined the APC, Gov. Umo Eno visited President Tinubu Thursday night at the State House, Abuja. He went with Senate President Godswill Akpabio and the other two senators who defected same day with the governor – Ekong Sampson, Chairman, Senate Committee on Solid Minerals and Aniekan Bassey, Chairman, Senate Committee on Diaspora. The visit served three main purposes. First, the visitors expressed their condolences to the President on the passing of his predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari. The former Nigerian leader died in a London hospital Sunday afternoon (July 13) and was buried Tuesday (July 15) in his hometown, Daura, Katsina State. Second, the governor used the moment to further present his requests for federal support to develop Akwa Ibom State. ‘’Matters of Akwa Ibom interest dominated the discussions’’, Senator Sampson told me the day after the meeting. Top on the agenda is the appeal for federal backing for the construction of a deep sea port in the state, a project that is very dear to the people and their government.
A readout from the state government after the Thursday meeting said the president ‘’reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to the continued development of Akwa Ibom State, assuring that the federal government will work closely with the state’’. The Governor himself is quite hopeful that he would receive the needed help from Abuja. “Of course, I’m certain about that” he told me when I asked him to assess the possibility of the federal government assisting the state.
In the run-up to joining APC early June, Gov. Eno told Akwa Ibom people quite often that he was motivated to join the governing party because he liked the President’s impressive performance in office; and was hopeful of his support for the port project . At one public event in April, he told the crowd: ‘’Watch and see…You’d be surprised at what comes out of my support for the president’’. Many in the state believe that the governor is staking his reputation on the president. But the governor insists that a federal support is an absolute necessity. ‘’The project is too big and too capital-intensive for the state government, and that’s why no state in the country has ever built a port’’, Eno told a group of journalists, including this writer, a week before he moved into the President’s party. The third objective of the meeting was to formally introduce the two senators to the President.
Since it was created in 1987, Akwa Ibom has never had a major federal infrastructure sited in the state. Most of the federal roads are in very dilapidated conditions. The only road that links Akwa Ibom and Cross River has been a state of disrepair for over 20 years. It was constructed in the 1970s. Akwa Ibom has practically fended for itself right from the first day it was created. The state has had to build its own airport and an MRO (maintain, repairs and overhaul) facility for aircraft repairs. Ibom Air, established six years ago – one of the best airlines in the country – is owned by the state government. The only functional and FIFA-rated football stadium in the country is in the state, built by the state government 10 years ago. Without this stadium, Nigeria would have been playing its home FIFA- and CAF-organized games in Senegal.
Akwa Ibom people therefore have strong reasons to expect assistance from the Tinubu administration. ‘’Akwa Ibom has made the best use of its resources since its founding. It’s now imperative for the federal government to lend a helping hand. It’s commendable that our governor and the Senate President are working together to achieve this’’, says Obong Umana Okon Umana, an economist and former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs.
