I just returned to my state this afternoon after a fruitful meeting of stakeholders of the Niger Delta Region with Mr President in Abuja.
At the meeting, I reminded Mr President that I’m aware the Maritime University of Nigeria, Oron was just given a temporary suspension and needs to be revisited. I also raised the issue that we are capable of owning and managing oil blocks. It’s a yielding asset.
So if we are good for other environmental degradations, we are also good enough to own those assets. I mentioned some nationalities that are being allocated those oil blocks, and reassured that we too can manage it if not even better. If we talk about the issue of technology, we can buy technology if we don’t have it. Let them allocate to us the oil blocks and we will buy the technology and then find a way to manage it.
I raised the issue of ALSCON in Ikot Abasi, that is a wasted asset. I can create several profit centres out of ALSCON. You need to go there and see how federal government assets are laying waste. The President has reassured to look into those aspects and I’m sure he will do something.
I don’t see why ExxonMobil will do everything in Eket and will not have any head office, not even an office building in Akwa Ibom State. What are they doing in Lagos? These are some of the things that we believe the federal government can intervene without spending money. These people also need to contribute to the economic wellbeing of the state in which they also constitute a nuisance in terms of environmental degradation.
I overheard some people talking about the 5,000 teachers. Let me say it clearly here, the Bible says that if the foundation is not right, what can the righteous man do? We have tried to see how we can pad, readjust and polish to see how we can bring something out of that recruitment process. Believe me, it was a wrong foundation in terms of process.
And if you are putting people to teach our pupils, wards, and children, please let us leave sentiments apart and let’s go for the right people. You can’t take the wrong people to give wrong training to your child. We need to look at the foundation of those people and make sure that they have the right qualification and go through the right processes.
