By Ubon Marcus
On Aboyade Cole Street, as well as Ajose Adegun Street, both in Victoria Island, Lagos, are landed properties owned by the Akwa Ibom State Government. These properties were not bought by the Umo Eno administration. They have been there for years, through different administrations, but were not economically utilized.
It is common knowledge that on Victoria Island, there is a high demand for office and residential spaces, thereby making it an ideal location for real estate investment. Those old buildings in Aboyade Cole and Ajose Adegun will be phased out and replaced with modern buildings such as the proposed 18-floor “Ibom Towers,” which will earn the state some revenue, and that is just what Governor Umo Eno’s intentions are.
It might interest you to know that he’s not going to Lagos to purchase plots of land afresh with taxpayer funds but is simply utilizing viable assets that are already available in those locations for the economic benefit of the state, and this, without any form of bias, is a smart thing to do.
The question, however, is: why must he do so now despite some other pressing needs? Truthfully, for a state to progress, the government must not dwell on solving the existential problems of the people, such as hunger alone, but must invest in futuristic policies that will place food on the tables of the people in the days to come.
Arc. (Obong) Victor Attah did it when he was governor, and today Akwa Ibom boasts of an international airport/MRO facility. Was there no hunger in the days of Obong Attah? Of course there was, but if the legendary statesman went house to house sharing money for food, Akwa Ibom people as of today would still have been plying the dilapidated Calabar-Itu road with its attendant risks so as to catch flights to Calabar airport. The ease of travel that the Victor Attah International Airport has provided to Akwa Ibom people notwithstanding, the economic benefits that have accrued to the state as a result of that major gateway are enormous—something that the hunger of 1999–2007 would have thwarted if not for Obong Attah’s courage and determination.
Furthermore, Akwa Ibom indigenes at home and in disapora are usually elated each time the Super Eagles play their home matches in the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, a 30,000-seat sports facility, the best in the country at the moment, which was constructed at a whooping cost by the Godswill Akpabio administration. As a matter of fact, had His Excellency Chief Godswill Akpabio not embarked on that very ambitious and futuristic project, our national team would not have had a stadium to play their home matches given the dilapidation of stadiums across the country, thereby making the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium the only befitting turf for them at the moment. Hospitality service providers in Akwa Ibom can attest to the fact that each time a match is played in that stadium, it brings good business to them. This and the economic value chain that the facility offers are once again what the hunger of 2007–2015 would have impeded.
Should I go on? Need I tell you about the Udom Emmmanuel administration and Ibom Air? As a matter of fact, not only was Ibom Air a very ambitious and futuristic project, it also seemed impossible. I remember the hullabaloo that greeted that administration’s announcement that it was establishing an airline, but today Akwa Ibom people are glad that we have an airline that is time-conscious, treats safety with the utmost priority, offers the Akwa Ibom traveler a flying experience hitherto unavailable, earns revenue for the state, and adorns the sky.
The proposed 18-floor Ibom Towers by the Umo Eno administration in Lagos, for reasons adduced in the foregoing, is a futuristic project that I am sure Akwa Ibom people would appreciate in years to come. That building, upon completion, will be leased to interested corporate organizations, and the rent paid to government coffers will be utilized for public good. It will position Akwa Ibom as a major player in the real estate industry of the country and earn good revenue for generations to come. This is the vision of Governor Umo Eno in this regard, and I ask that we give him the benefit of the doubt.
Also, over the years, there have been calls for governments to diversify sources of income from crude oil; this is a major step in that direction. But does this mean that the Akwa Ibom State governor is not tackling the problem of hunger, which is affecting the nation as a whole currently?
He has established the Akwa Ibom State Bulk Purchase Agency, an interventionist agency with the mandate of providing the needy and most vulnerable in the state with staple food items at no cost, in view of present-day economic realities, and so far, they have lived up to expectations.
He has also provided farm inputs to farmers in the state and has gone a step further to provide support services to them, such as the provision of tractors, fertilizers, and so on, for their usage through the state Ministry of Agriculture so as to shore up their output.
In different parts of the state, community farms have been established on his directive. Gov. Eno believes that if everyone cultivates a farm, we can together mitigate the problem of hunger, government efforts notwithstanding, and he has at different times called on all and sundry to return to the farm. In line with his “back-to-farm” initiative, he exempted civil servants from going to work on the first and third Fridays of every month, but instead, they should go and cultivate their farms, declaring those days as official farm days.
“Plant something,” he says, no matter how little, and “before you know it, you will have what you need to feed your family and save money.”
“Things like vegetables should be cultivated at home. It is not everything that you buy in the market,” he emphasized.
Have you heard of Ibom Model Farms? This is another solution put in place by Gov. Umo Eno to make food available for our people. The Ibom Model Farms, an integrated farming project and business hub modeled after the Songhai Farms of Porto Novo, will cultivate crops in large quantities to ensure food sufficiency, create employment opportunities, and provide the full value chain of agriculture. The farm, whose pilot phase is located on a 50-hectare acreage in Ikot Edibon, Nsit Ubium LGA, is currently undergoing construction and will be replicated in each LGA of the state. Already, the state government has dispatched a group of young people to Songhai Farms in Porto Novo to be trained in integrated agriculture. The trainees, upon completion of their training, will be the first set of workers to manage Ibom Model Farms, as the project requires expertise and a specific set of skills.
Also in the works is what will be known as the Ibom Ward Farmers Cooperative. Leveraging on his expertise as a seasoned entrepreneur, Pastor Umo Eno, through the Ward Farmers Cooperative, will help farmers in our local communities build and grow farming businesses that will provide sustainable means of livelihood for them and their families and shield them from exploitation by stronger economic factors, with resultant positive effects on the micro-economy of the state.
Furthermore, through AK-CARES, an intervention program whose objectives are expansion of access to livelihood support and food security services, provision of grants to poor and vulnerable households and firms, etc., the state government has invested millions of Naira in small businesses, low-income households, agricultural ventures, etc. with the view of making them self-sufficient and viable enough to overcome the trying times we are in.
In conclusion, permit me to surmise that Gov. Umo Eno has made provisions such as those mentioned above to ensure that Akwa Ibom people do not go to bed hungry. However, is that all a government should do? By converting old buildings into economically viable assets for the state, isn’t he taking the war against hunger a notch higher by making available an appreciating asset with huge returns on investment for future generations? Ponder on these.
Yes, it would have been a big problem if all he did was head to Lagos to erect a building while his people suffered down here at home; however, that is not the case, as I have explained in this piece. I therefore urge you to give this gentleman, who in just a year on the saddle has proven that his intentions for the state are genuine, the benefit of the doubt, as the proposed 18-floor Ibom Towers is an investment that will yield good returns to Akwa Ibom.
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