Date Published: 05/24/09

Dear Editor,

My letter to former Governor Attah

Attah, you seem a peaceful man and this aura of yours featured during your regime. Now, through your action and/or inaction, you have bequeathed us with a non-peaceful regime. It is a known fact that Akwa Ibom during your tenure was adjudged the most peaceful in the volatile Niger Delta region. We pray that such tranquility returns. Now at nights, many sleep with their eyes open and even at daylight most people are consciously afraid of what becomes of their day.

During your regime one can stay out beyond 12 mid-night in Uyo City and other Akwa Ibom main cities, with Okada still operating without anyone getting afraid of being kidnapped or visitation of other vices; in short night life existed and people liked it. Now the reverse is the case, yet we are getting from the federation account figures that when compared with your tenure, it is more than tripled. It is a fact that more revenue accruals should translate to more peace, tranquility and security but the reverse, again, is the case.

You had started some foundation-building projects that would have lead Akwa Ibom into industrialization but you did not complete them. You started Ibom Airport and Hangar project; you started the Science Park; you created Ibom Le’Meridien Hotel and Golf Resort (now our pride), which hosts international tournaments and events; you created many gigantic water projects but did not reticulate them; you created the Akwa Ibom University of Technology, AKUTECH; you started the Ibom Power Project, etc. It is a fact that government is a continuum, but alas it is not so in Akwa Ibom you left for us.

The Power Project needed only 43km transmission service lines, according to investigation, and Akwa Ibom would have been with uninterrupted power supply just like what Kwara is today. As a result of this most important project, our small businesses like in hair-dressing, tailoring, business centres, and other areas of artisanship have crumbled and the ever growing number of youths, mostly employed as tugs during political campaigns, have taken to other vices.

Our present leadership is only interested in building Federal and State roads at figures up to One billion Naira per kilometer, yet we may not have seen the reimbursement from the federal government on the projects, which our Governor had confirmed is in the region of over Eighty billion Naira. We do not want to believe that it has been collected quietly into private pockets because Governor Akpabio has asked us to pray that 80% of the further revenue expected from the additional oil wells does not end up in private pockets.

Udy Etop Akpabio,

Umuahia Road,

 Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State

edidiong.akpabio@yahoo.com