By Promise NYONG
Anyone perusing Clement Ikpatt’s article titled: “Udom’s Roads in Akwa Ibom State”, would probably imagine that he is a genuinely concerned Akwa Ibomite. Far from it! Ikpatt, a former Personal Assistant to the immediate-past Governor Godswill Akpabio, has always been a disgrace to all morally good and broad-minded causes.
Judging from his past vitriolic comments on the person and government of Mr Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State, the dismissed Police officer seems to have perfected a game plan which modus operandi is to raise unnecessary dust to earn some dishonorable media attention. He has always been a failure though, and this time, Ikpatt has missed the mark.
For those who do not know, Clement Ikpatt is a failed, idle and hungry man seeking opportunities for unearned relevance by attacking a person whose name is sure to get him bonus allowance from his new found paymaster.
Any reader of his 27-paragraph diatribe titled above, dicerns Mr Ikpatt’s sheer odium and hatred for Governor Udom Emmanuel. In any case, some of us who know Clement thoroughly, can state loudly that our brother is not peeved because he does not know that every Akwa Ibom State Government financed road project is completed with well constructed side-drains. He knows. What he does not want Akwa Ibom people to know is that he approached many senior citizens in the State between 2015 and 2016 with his resumè pleading to be appointed as Special Assistant (SA) to the Governor.
Having failed to be appointed because of his putrid and malodourous track record, Clement was embittered and frustrated until he was recently appointed by our brother in the NDDC who celebrates villains and rapscallions. This is the proper context for understanding Clement Ikpatt’s defamatory gobbledygook couched as intellectual discourse
Now, what is the substance of his latest diatribe?
MISLEADING NOTION 1:
According to Clement Ikpatt, “Udom roads… have non-existing drainage systems. For any modern road, adequate drainage is an indispensable part of pavement performance. It is so important that you might as well not construct any road without making provision for adequate drainage”
He went on to say, “drive through most parts of Udom roads to see disturbing distress levels they cause or are likely to cause communities and road users in a few years up”.
Certainly, as is usual with Clement Ikpatt, this is a wicked and irresponsible falsehood. In the last two and a half years of the Udom Emmanuel led administration, all roads (including those less than a kilometer; Atlantic FM Road in Nsukara Offot, Udotung Ubo Close beside the State Library, Youth Avenue in Mbiabong and many others) have well constructed side-drains.
In one of his radio interviews, the State Commissioner for Works; Mr Ephraim Inyang-Eyen, stressed on the importance of having good drainage systems in all the roads in the State. He was of the opinion that the main cause of road damage, and problems with the serviceability of road networks, is excess water filling the pores of road materials in the road and in the subgrade soils. Inyang-Eyen stated emphatically that the present administration would either complete her roads with good drainage structures or forget about such road project since the State is located in the tropical rain forest. He mentioned some roads constructed by past administrations that needed side-drains to include: Udo Udoma Avenue, Airport Road, amongst others. That was when co-travellers of Mr Ikpatt inundated the social media with all sorts of fallacies that the Works Commissioner was “fighting” past administrations. The well informed people of the State who never believed these shenanigans in the past have already ignored Clement Ikpatt’s fallacy number 1.
MISLEADING NOTION 2:
Clement Ikpatt claimed that, Udom roads are not marked or controlled. He added that, “No road should ever be commissioned without well calibrated markings.
How senseless, absurd and ridiculous! While I would not bother to ask our brother to mention any road done by his godfather with the NDDC money (although non outlived six months in the State) that had calibrated markings, I wish to inform Clement that every road constructed by the Udom Emmanuel administration is not only marked and controlled, but, all are secured with speed limit signs put in their places. Anyway, I don’t expect Clement to know because those working for his godfather are still using 1 megapixel camera phones to take pictures. By the time those images are sent to Ikpatt who has since absconded to the overseas, qualities are dropped, they become blurred, and brother Ikpatt with his eyes challenges, eiyaaa.
MISLEADING NOTION 3:
“Udom Emmanuel is driving the State backward using rear view mirror… his administration is taking up more road projects than it can handle”
What an illogical, fallacious and senseless claim. It is obvious that the garrulous Ikpatt is either blind to the reality on ground in the State or is outrightly mischievous. Governor Udom Emmanuel has stated repeatedly that if there are no adequate road networks across the length and breadth of the State, industrialization will not be well seated. However, it is the Governor’s conviction that in his first term, he settles the infrastructural needs of the State, and during the second term which Akwa Ibom people had guaranteed him, he will highly concentrate on industrialization. After all, in Economics 101, they said one of the things that attract industrialization includes good road network among others.
POINT 4:
Clement Ikpat said: “We need one Akwa Ibomite who can lead because Akwa Ibom State must work”.
At least for once, I have accepted with my brother, Ikpatt. Because we need that Akwa Ibomite, whose charismatic, transparent and progress driven leadership is second to non, such that, the APC controlled television Station; Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) recently acknowledged these virtuous characters.
We need an Akwa Ibomite who has delivered unprecedented accomplishments across all sectors of the state less than three years in office.
An Akwa Ibomite who has set sail with emphatic imprints on the geo-political and socio-economic development of the State propelled by his five-point agenda of job creation, poverty alleviation, wealth creation, economic and political inclusion, infrastructural consolidation and expansion.
We need an Akwa Ibomite whose investment in Power has attracted commendation from the Muhammadu Buhari administration. A gentleman, who, in spite of the lean resources has done over 1,700 kilometers of high quality and durable roads and 35 bridges, creating job opportunities for the youths in our Syringe Manufacturing Company, Metering Solutions Company, Peacock Paints, Pencil and toothpick companies even when the naysayers like Ikpatt said it could not be done. An Akwa Ibomite who is currently constructing the Flour Mill, the Plastic Manufacturing Factory and Fertilizer blending Factory to be located in Abak Local Government Area.
Which sane individual would not need an Akwa Ibomite who has refurbished and equipped a good number of hospitals in the State with state-of-the-art medical equipment, such that his achievements in the health sector attracted sincere commendations from the Country’s Vice President; Prof Yemi Osinbajo.
Of course, Akwa Ibom is still in dire need of the Divine Mandate carrier who was recently anointed for a second term in office by Christian leaders and fathers of faith in a prayer converge organised by the Akwa Ibom Christian Assembly at the Ibom Hall Grounds in Uyo.
In conclusion, what is clear in Clement Ikpatt’s motive is his blatant disregard for truth and incapacity for accuracy or fairness as a self-acclaimed public commentator. He should be ignored!
