By Aniekan Udofia
Many may have watched with pride the Commissioner for Information, Akwa Ibom State, Comrade Ini Ememobong share his perspectives on; “Governance and Developments in Akwa Ibom Under the ARISE Agenda” as guest on Arise TV News Night on Sunday. The young man evoked every sense of pride for his generation and met all the standards of who a spokesperson of the government should be. His confidence, poise, and command of language of communication were testament to a man who trusts his principal and knows the direction of the government.
As he spoke on diverse issues, one that caught the interest of the writer was the question on how the state government intends to handle the palliatives from the federal government to cushion the effect of subsidy removal. Ememobong against the norm of secrecy in handling government income, made public the amount that has been received from the FG and fired the salvo that the governor has warned the elites that the handling of this palliatives will not be political.
Ememobong went further to say, that the government is committed to ensuring that the palliatives get to the poorest of the poor who truly need it. He stated that the governor has told the elites that they do not need the palliatives. Rather, they should contribute to government efforts to ameliorate the suffering of the poor.
This is definitely a break from the convention where the system continuously enriched the political elites at the expense of the poor masses. Tales of how the FG school feeding programme found its way into the hands of some political elites in the state that made the programme suffered greatly abounds. Some members of political elites to the amazement of many in the past have always been at the forefront of anchoring the distribution of suppose palliatives to the poor. And many a time these palliatives hardly reach the people they are meant for and, in most cases, are hoarded and later use as political settlement. How stories of food stuff meant for palliatives either rot in warehouses or were sold are common occurrences. Some even alleged that these palliatives are stored and later released during the Christmas season as a gift to political cronies.
Past administrations in the state have fed the political elites fat. If the administration of governor Umo Eno can call on this class to contribute just a tiny fraction of their emassed wealth from the state to give back to the poor in this period of economic hardship, Akwa Ibom State will be better for it. The political elites have been fed fat for too long. For the governor who worships in the same church with the poor , visits the market of the poor , lives with them, he would understand better the plight of the masses and knows that the widening gap between the rich and the poor is capable of imploding the system. It is time the political elites thought less about self-preservation and begin the journey to giving back rather than taking. Ironically, outside the high fences they live in, their surroundings are marked with abject poverty and people living in squalor.
