I have heard that music is the food of love, so I am left wondering whether the attendant cost is justifiable in terms of whether there are not more compelling demonstrations of love for the people.
It however seems there is something about music in Akwa Ibom but unfortunately it is not music to my ears nor should it be to anybody who loves Akwa Ibom and its good people. I was at the Le Meridien hotel and golf resort in Uyo last week. I ran into two excitable white men at the hotel restaurant and I could sense they were in the mood to chat so I went over. Upon my enquiry about their mission in Uyo, I was stupefied by what I heard – These two Americans had been flown in all the way from the United States of America to install a music system in the private residence of a public officer in the State!
The few people I tried to shock with this did not share my incredulity. In fact I was given many more outrageous examples and evidently, in our oil rich state this display of insensitive exuberance and infantile enchantment with the supposed good things of life is commonplace.
I have no problem with a person with 'too much money' exploring the limitless possibilities of the lifestyle and profligacy of the rich and famous. I have a problem when the source of the 'too much money' would appear to be the peoples commonwealth. I have a problem when the squander-mania seems to be state policy. The prudent management of Akwa Ibom's resources is the primary function of its government. Any deployment of these resources that does not bring benefit to the people is nothing but misgovernment. The reality of the peoples existence clearly suggests that there is so much to be done with our resources.
To start with, my village public school, Ndiya Comprehensive Secondary School in Ikono Local Government does not have any laboratory equipment in the dilapidated structures touted as 'labs'. I spoke with a final year student and asked him what he aspired to be in future. His thoughtful response was sobering. His immediate dilemma was how he was going to pass the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) examinations. When I asked him whether it was on account of the absence of a lab and other facilities, which he had earlier complained of, he said “apart from lab Sir, no student from this school has passed WAEC in the past five years!”
I had to shake off my evident disbelief and say something, so I told him about Edet Ekanem of blessed memory who attended a neighbouring school and famously obtained a first class degree in Physics from the University of Calabar in the early eighties despite seeing an electric bulb for the first time in University! Also about my father of blessed memory who passed London GCE in the fifties by correspondence tuition based in the same Ndiya. The young man listened but I know those tales however true and inspiring do not meet his expectations from society in the year 2013 and certainly not in 'the land of promise'.
I challenged the principal on these issues. Her response was that she has barely spent two months in the school. She blamed the community for most of the school's woes. She has heard that some lab equipment used to exist, but were vandalised or stolen. The teaching staff is inadequate and the NYSC teachers who should complement are too scared to report for work. The female corpers have been raped and their male colleagues beaten up and their property (sachets of indomie!) stolen. Some students have stopped going to school for fear of bullying and teachers get routinely beaten up for daring to challenge unruly students.
The principal is right that the community has a blame but to me the bigger picture is that a dejected and poverty stricken populace will behave like a dejected and poverty stricken people. The manifestations are the untoward and saddening criminal acts in my local community. It is not the community that is making people behave and live like animals, it is misgovernment. If government exists to deploy common resources in an efficient and thoughtful manner for the benefit of the people and fails to do so, these are the kinds of stories we will endure. This is the plain and obvious truth and no government needs to set up any committees to come to this realization.
So after the depressing music emanating from my community in particular, I returned to the tranquil and secluded comfort of Le Meridien. That Saturday evening, I tuned to Akwa Ibom State Television hoping to lift my spirits with some good traditional music. Instead I was assaulted for an hour from 6.30 pm by a program titled 'Akpabiosm Family Hour' or so. The program promoter is a man called Pastor Bassey James, who introduced himself as the chancellor of the Institute of Akpabiosm and I understand he also owns a church. The programme is devoted to heaping praises on Governor Godswill Akpabio and his “uncommon transformation” agenda. The praises are so outlandish that I was confident that the governor will be too embarrassed to fall for such chicanery.
Let us hear from Pastor James: “Nothing happens in Nigeria without Governor Akpabio being consulted! 20 professors overseas are working on putting down the principles of Akpabiosm to serve as a blueprint for good governance all over the world! He is a God sent who has transformed Akwa Ibom to paradise on earth!”
To complete the farce, our Governor is shown on the programme praising the promoters of Akpabiosm and saying with a straight face that there is nothing wrong in celebrating excellence!
But for the sake of the suffering people of Akwa Ibom State, the Governor needs to hear a different kind of music: There is poverty in the midst of plenty, there is despondency and there is desperation. Therefore, as an Akwa Ibomite, if all I can do for my people is to bring this to the governor's attention, then I have done my bit. To keep quiet will amount to complicity in the rape and deceit of our people.
Osun State, with a fraction of the resources available to my state is coming up with forward thinking and important ideas for education in that State. The Opon imo (tablet of knowledge) initiative is clearly a demonstration of that government's understanding of the importance of education. My dear governor Akpabio, let it not be that in twenty years time, the engineers that will be contracted to instal music systems in the houses of moneybags in Akwa Ibom will come from Osun State! My dear governor, in twenty years time, all the billboards with your handsome photographs will be gone; the beautiful roads in the state will only carry the logos of Julius Berger. Your Excellency, the promise that our young generation deserve is that you give them hope!
Edo Ukpong
Legal Practitioner
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