EXCERPTS
Question: Gov. Emmanuel’s insistence that his administration have done over 1,700km of road, in the last three years have been described as pure lies by the opposition parties in the state, what is your take on these?
Ephraim: The Governor is right on his assertions that he has done that and even willing to do more. The records and the said roads are there in public domain for all to see, let me start from the Airport-Okopedi Road being handled by Aquatic its 14.6km x 2 since it is dualised that gives you 29.2km, Okopedi- uya oro which is 15km by 2 is 30km, Uyo – Ikot Ekpene is 25km x 2 = 50km, Ikot Oku Ikono-Etinan is 20km x 2 = 40km, Etinan – Eket is 20km x 2 = 40km, Eket remodeling is 8.5km x 2 = 17. Eket Ibeno road is 20km x 2 = 40km, Etinan Ndunuyo is 29km x 2 = 58km, Second ring road is 3.5km by 2=7, third ring road is 9.7km by 2=19.4km among others, if you add the total dualised roads done by Gov. Emmanuel it will give you 634.8km. Then if you come to other roads constructed across the state, Etebi Enwang in Mbo with 1.1km bridge is 18km, Udung Uko road which was just done is 12km, the first intervention in Oron urban roads was 9.6km, the second intervention in Oron urban roads was 12.4km. The roads in Nsit Atai completed by kosel firm is 6.4km. The road in Obot Akara done by Seyan group with the bridge is 6.41km it leads from Ntoedino to the neigbouring Abia state. The road in Atan offot villages already commissioned behind the secretariat 6.1km. The roads linking Obot Akara and Ikot Ekpene 4km Uruan – Ekiritam handled by trident 3km, Mbiaya – Idu handled by Zenith is 12km. Nduetong road is 9km Anua-Mbak Eshiet road handled by Verini is 18.9km. The road in Ibiono Ibom long completed 3.5 Ikot Usung-Ikot Edehe handled by Benest 5km Mkpo Ukat handled by Henserk 5km. Ikot Ede to Ikot Ebida is 13km. Nung Ukim in Ikono just commissioned 4.6km – Ikpe Iko Nko handled by peculiar linking Obotme in ini council area to Arochukwu in Abia State is 15.4km. Ndunuyo-Obio 15km, Ikot Eka ide to Ikot Ebritam in Oruk Anam local government area 24.3km. Ikot Ebritam – Ikot Akpan afaha- Ekefem 18.9. Ikot Akara – Ibese 12km. Ibese Okpokoro – Ikot Ebritam 5km. In Akwa Ibom State University Obio Akpa campus, Gov. Emmanuel had done 6.4km internal roads, if you add up it will give you five hundred and eighty seven (587km) plus 634km and the few I have not mentioned, You will arrive at 1,299.7km without any direct intervention project yet, if anybody is in doubt he should visit my office and I will show him the records. These are not imaginary and believe me with the few additional jobs given to my ministry during the recent commissioning of projects by the Governor, we have done beyond the 1700km of roads. I listened to one young man the other day over the radio saying that from here to Lagos is not up to 1000km, how could the Governor had done up to 1000km. I see his argument as absolute ignorance. He is talking about a straight road not the ones with several connectivity. We are talking about direct intervention of 48 roads done within Uyo metropolis alone, if we are to line them up. You will see how far it can go. look at the believers assembly, the road behind my office, it was about three roads, two of them linking to Oron roads alone go and see justice Nkop and other several roads done in Shelter Afrique Estate. Some 2km, 3km 4km and 5km, if you put them together, it will give you a stretch of a number, the problem is that people are always looking for a long distance direct route which is easy to be captured. But I can authoritatively tell you that the dualised roads alone in Akwa Ibom is 643.8km which is beyond Benin from here without even adding any other roads.
Some of the roads are completed, some are ongoing at various stages of completion, some 80% some 70% some 90%. We will further focused on funding of the projects. The Uyo-Ikot Ekpene road that people used to say that the Governor had abandoned was not abandoned. At the present point we are a few meters away from km25 which is beyond the control post, the only little delay now is that the underground drainage in Ikot Ekpene done by stemco is yet to be completed and it will delay the job. If not I will tell you here right now that in few months we will be at four points sheraton in Ikot Ekpene. The remodeled round about at Etinan is a master piece. The remodeling at Eket was said to be slow but the problem there is that you pay compensation there and people will refuse to vacate. But they have seen that the administration is determined to move forward and once you get government money. It is in your own interest to vacate the property.
Works Commissioner, Inyang-eyen stressing a point
Question: How do you feel when people disapprove the records you have just read out?
Ephraim: They cannot disprove them because they are physically available on ground. All they need to do is to come and I will give them contract papers for the roads to go do their measurements.
Question: A prominent online News medium recently published dilapidated and decaying structures of schools in the state saying that government is paying lip service to education, what is your take on this?
Ephraim: I will describe the story as insane if you have 100 items or thereabout and you succeeded in three years in fixing seventy or eighty and somebody chooses not to present all you have put in pleasant condition and go to present what you are yet to do, then the story is understood by everyone as pure sabotage. Okay it is like road construction we are busy constructing roads massively in Uyo and most of our people are happy but there are still a few who believe that as long as it has not gotten to their street, the government have done nothing. If the Online News medium had doubt on the performance of the Governor on the infrastructures in the Educational institutions across the state, I would have personally led them to several of them without the inter-ministerial direct labour team which is in charge of these projects. I will drive them to several hundreds of schools which have benefitted. I have in the course of traversing the state seen the renovated schools including the one in my village of Ikot Ebiere in Onna Council area. I got surprised when people refused to report the good things the government have done. An objective Reporter would have for instance say we visited certain council area, we saw you renovated 6 out of 10 schools please consider the other 4. resources always scarce, no government can in three years correct all the errors in the system. Not even a man in a family can solve all his problems.
Question: Is this government really open to criticism?
Ephraim: Absolutely! That is why I like presenting my facts and always leaving my phone numbers in the public domain for people to tell me what we are not doing well. I have said several times that the construction of roads we do in Akwa Ibom is open to public supervision. Recently in a street we worked, the contractor did not do sufficient excavation and was attacked by the community. The community invited me for intervention and I saw reasons with them. The protesters mostly women said they stopped the work because I have been talking on radio on what is expected of our contractors while constructing our roads. At that point I ordered the man to start the job afresh. I have had cause to break up several drainages poorly done by constructors in some of our communities, we have been able to set a standard and what we do is subject to public scrutiny. That is why if any intervention agency is doing a job here, it is open to our scrutiny. Anywhere in the state people think our job was not done well, they should draw our attention to it.
Question: Are you saying that any intervention agencies of state or federal government wishing to work on the state must get the permission of your ministry?
Ephraim: Not at all, all we need is just information from them, so we can do joint supervision because the project is for Akwa Ibom people. We just need to be part of the supervision team. If we are taken along, we tell you please we don’t need the contract papers but just the design of the projects so that we can urge the contractor to stick strictly to the design.
Works Commissioner on project inspection visit
Question: Are you worried that there are some failed jobs already done by some intervention agencies here and what do hope to do about it?
Ephraim: I will only draw public attention to such projects and ask our people to reject such projects, I have been doing just that. I have gone to radio station to point out some of those roads done on 2016 and told our people that they were substandard and when the rainy season of 2017 came the road were washed away. I said then that those roads have no outflow and good drainages and that they were in the low basin of IBB Road. I made it clear that until the IBB Road flood problem is solved that construction on that adjacent roads will suffer but they went ahead and by 2017 the whole job was gone. Again we discovered that some of the intervention agencies have started taking credit for the good jobs we are doing until we started putting sign posts around our projects to correct that impression.
Question: Stories of compensation for demolished buildings to get the right of way for construction seems unabated with some people saying that they are yet to get their monies. How would you explain these?
Ephraim: What you should note about compensation is that government does not pay for land. By the land use act, all lands belong to government embodied in the governor. Government pays for the structures on the land after due values. I want to say unequivocally here that every structure we took down have been paid for. There are several houses they begged the valuers to value for them so that they will get the money to erect a better structure. Then when we go on ministry of works verification of the valuation report, we discover that there are several marked structures that are not on the right of way and economically we can’t spend all monies meant for the construction on paying for buildings on the right of way so we limit it only those obstructing our jobs. When we finish the construction and for beauty or estatics, we now go back to the road corridor or road furniture and look at buildings that may obstruct the beauty of what we have done and we take those buildings but there are several people who believe that once road passes their village whether the building is obstructing the project or not, it should be taken down for them to be paid. That is not our plan.
Question: It is on records that in the last few years students of Akwa Ibom have not received any form of bursary government, Why?
Ephraim: When was the last time bursary was paid?, Even when Akwa Ibom was receiving huge sums of money owning to the rise in oil prices above $100 per barrel, bursaries were not paid not even scholarship was given. Few individuals that got it was not a standardized thing. But if you are saying that now the oil prices have collapsed to about $36 per barrel that government should suspend payment of salaries and pensions, WAEC fees for students, teachers salaries, renovation of schools and massive road constructions to settle some people and give them bursary, well it doesn’t make sense. There must be priorities, when I went to school as an indigene of this state I never received bursary nor scholarship. So that is no standardized and I want to tell you that Akwa Ibom is one of the few states that have invested so much in education. The government pays WAEC fees for youths annually of about 600 million naira. Don’t forget that the education in this state is free from primary to secondary schools, so with the limited funds where do you expect Government to get money and pay the bursary. Before now the state was receiving 35 billion 40 billion naira or more but suddenly gets 7 billion, 6 billion or 5 billion naira and must have scale of priorities. For me what is important is to spread what is available to everyone and not just individuals, Governor Emmanuel believes that everyone is important and that the resources must go round. We are aware of some states that send their youths on scholarship aboard and they got stranded there. Gov. Emmanuel will not be a party to deceiving anybody. Right now, I mean this moment government does not have resources available to go into the bursary issues.
Ongoing road project
Question: What is the situation at the international worship centre project embarked upon by the Governor?
Ephraim: We are making tremendous progress with the project. The building will be of international standard and the contractors are taking their time to do a very solid foundation for the massive building. More people will begin to appreciate it when the blocks start rising up. It is like a road projects which beauty appears when Asphalt is laid. Just like in road project drainages, removal of unsustainables, earthwork and stone base laying takes longer time but once they are completed, the job is as good as over because it takes no time to lay Asphalts.
Question: But Some critics believe that we don’t need that project in the state
Ephraim: Well this is a Christian state. If you agree that the state worships God but don’t need a worship centre then something is wrong. People should not be going to church on Sundays and turn back to deny God. If such people say that Akwa Ibom people should not have a common place to worship God together, I will like the people to come out openly and deny the existence of God in the public glare.
Question: A cross section of people said you are hard and difficult person to work with, Are you one?
Ephraim: The truth remains that I am a very principled person and a non conformist. I stand by what is right and never bend to pressure. For instance when we wanted to construct Etinan- Ndunouyo road, a lot of people desirous of extorting from government quickly went and erected illegal structures, that alone would have taken off a whopping sum of money from government coffers but I got the illegal structures demolished without paying a dime to anybody, such people do not like Ephraim Inyang-eyen at all.
Another group of people who don’t like me are those whose buildings were on the right of way and were valued with their cheques given to them, but they will want to keep both their building and the cheque or money but to me once you get your money, your property is gone.
How about those who erected all sorts of tombstones and shrines on the right of way and expected me to come with money, cows and drinks to appease their fetish objects before the jobs will continue. Those ones failed woefully because I will not commit one dime of government on such useless ventures. However how will a man said i am bad or evil but enjoys daily on well built roads I painstakingly supervised on behalf of the governor and people of the state and will not claim or take it back home when I am leaving. The money and projects belongs to the people of Akwa Ibom and must be prudently managed. I pray for all those who may have taken offence over my desire to remain on the side of the truth for them to know the truth so that the truth will set them free.
However I will remain focused on the assignment, I have been given a job to do and I will do it to the best of my ability. I will do it sincerely honestly and passionately.
One of the completed roads by Gov Emmanuel’s administration
Question: You appear to do your job with great ease what is the secret?
Ephraim: I put my entire being and best in whatever I chose to do, any time you give me an assignment. My spirit soul and body get involved in the assignment because I want to be remembered tomorrow that God gave me an opportunity to serve and I gave my best.