Akwa Ibom State Youth Caucus And Their Bad Chorus

By UbongAbasi Ise

"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere" – Voltaire

It is because of grave dangers of disease that we most times drink medicinal concoctions that are too bitter for human consumption. If not for the sake of finding solution to problems around us, people would not have been belabouring themselves in inconveniences. Identifying and demystifying crux of problems are one diagnostic process that gives tremendous health to our society. Given this conceptualization and the quest to address youth unemployment that becomes very problematic in Akwa Ibom society today, yours truly had to take up a noble duty of writing a solution-oriented article titled, ARE AKWA IBOM YOUTH AFRAID TO ASK SIMPLE QUESTIONS? This was published on page 3 of The Sensor Newspaper edition of Monday 2nd September 2019, and subsequently circulated and shared generously on the social media platforms. The piece was well received by the youth audience who felt the need to look beyond the polemics of partisan politics in Akwa Ibom in order to save the state from the prevailing stagnation and uncontrollable retrogression. But surprisingly, this call to reawakening rattled a group of political wayfarers that flocked together under the banner of Akwa Ibom Youth Caucus. My attention was recently drawn to a rejoinder issued by these fellows, and I realized that they were just reinventing the same old jaundiced stories, repackaged and sold them out only to the gullible just to safe-guard the system that feed them at the expense of the majority of Akwa Ibom youths. They failed to understand that the youth of the state are weary of the old chorus that fails to inspire needed salvation from the bondage of unemployment and misery.

I could have ignored the verbose rejoinder, or spit on it all the same and move on without dignifying it with this reposte. It is because of the misleading impression and confusion that the authors mischievously sought to create about my own background that made me give in to conscience and write this down in order to set the record straight. UbongAbasi Ise is never a member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, or a card-carrying member of any political party in Nigeria as the youth caucus wanted the public to believe. There is never a time in my entire life I have my name recorded in the register of any political party. Yours truly is an independent-minded citizen of Akwa Ibom State, a public affairs’ commentator and analyst under the employ of The Sensor Newspaper- a people-oriented news medium in the state. Therefore, it is unfair and malicious for Akwa Ibom Youth Caucus to deny me a middle ground to stand and express my dispassionate views on public issues as well as my advocacy for good governance. It is in this regard that I urge the public to ignore the unguarded claims made by the group of persons merely existing to be used as pawns by power-mongers.

It is no surprise that I have been dubbed an APC supporter because it is in the DNA of the Udom Emmanuel-led PDP government and its accessories to see every well-meaning son and daughter of the state who tend to be expressing flip side views on governance as belonging to the APC. That is why some youths shy away from being expressly critical about the way Udom's government runs our state because of fear of being tagged, "APC." The state government doesn’t know that it has lose popularity by the day. In fact, why a large number of people in the state supported APC is not probably because they so much love the APC label but because of people's desperation to find anything alternative to Udom's government because of its underperformance and complete state of backwardness.

Ibom Youth Caucus in their tactless statement has shown that they are the duplication of PDP youth wing, and that was why they bad-mouthed me altogether with the APC as they described my article as being "fabricated by agent of opposition party that is yet to recover from the debacle of their ill-fated political expedition of the last general elections, which PDP won convincingly regardless of the incessant intimidations by federal might." Since the group is an extension of PDP, Akwa Ibom Youth Caucus therefore lacks the locus standi to speak on behalf of the entire youth of Akwa Ibom State. Their sociopathic tendencies toward opposition elements show that the Youth Caucus is not an umbrella body for all the youths but a collection of individuals whom those in power use to feather their nests.

It is regrettable that the youth caucus is viewing every problem in the state under the prism of partisan politics. On their response to my inquiry on the status of Ibom Deep Seaport project, they rejoined thus, "the Ibom Deep Seaport would have been commissioned and millions of youths employed if your APC led federal government had not been playing partisan politics with it by systematically denying approvals to some key elements of the projects this has hampered its speedy development as the Governor had wished and envisioned." If the APC-led federal government is actually playing politics with the seaport project as claimed by these fellows, then why did President Muhammadu Buhari provided for N2.2 billion for Ibom Deep seaport project? The present Akwa Ibom State government is full of excuses anyway. The state government cannot firmly say it has reached the 99% of compliance with the requirements for the issuance of the license and still denied the approval. Come to think of it, has Willie Obiano of Anambra State who has made significant progress in his state's dry seaport project awaited 100% approvals from the federal government before going ahead with the project? Blaming Buhari's government for failure to implement deep seaport project is not only mischievous, but stifling and implausible.

The youth caucus also claimed that the state government led by Governor Udom Emmanuel has brought over 15 working industries to the State, and that thousands of direct and indirect jobs have been created. Let me tell the Akwa Ibom youth caucus that the total number employed as at the time of this writing by these firms altogether is not up to 1% when placed in ratio to the vast number of unemployed youths in the state. I challenge them to prove me wrong with available data.

Next time the group comes out to make low-placed and plebeian statement, they should define it within the scope of their own association and stop making wild claims on behalf of the entire Akwa Ibom youths because our youth are not in chains and manacles of mental slavery. They are far above all forms of pettiness and Stockholm syndrome.

The youth of Akwa Ibom State cannot afford to maintain Friedrich Nietzsche's slave mentality by ignoring and despising the power-class and then continue to stay contented with the condition of unemployment and general deprivations. The youth need to ask simple questions.

As an unassuming Akwa Ibom son that craves no attention from any quarters, my motive is not about seeking to disparage the government of His Excellency, Mr. Udom Emmanuel as erroneously held by the youth group, but my sincere wish is to expose the deficiencies in the system of governance - a duty that Akwa Ibom Youth Caucus and their ilk wouldn't love to do for the betterment of our dear State.

I am wishing for Akwa Ibom where opportunities are abound for everyone irrespective of political affiliation.

I am hoping for Akwa Ibom where people from other parts of the country and the world over would troop in to avail themselves with available job opportunities.

I wish to see a state where youths would get job early in life and settle on time to family life.

I am hopeful for Akwa Ibom State where agricultural produce and manufactured items are shipped from our shores via the functional Ibom seaport to different parts of the world.

I pray to see traders trooping into our state to purchase merchandises in commercial quantity on daily basis.

I am wishing to see Akwa Ibom with the state-of-the-art infrastructures with good spread across the length and the breadth of the state.

Finally, I pray that my dear Akwa Ibom be transformed in no time from a pedestrian to a destination state.

Yes! I am UbongAbasi Ise. For comment, send SMS to 08189914609 | email: ubongabasiise@gmail.com

©The Sensor Newspaper

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