Are Akwa Ibom Youth Afraid To Ask Simple Questions?

By UbongAbasi Ise

“I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves” – Harriet Thubman

Politics in Akwa Ibom State is as funny as the play of masquerade in some parts of Annang land. Once Eka Ekpo masquerade is fully dressed, then it is said to have been possessed by certain mysterious spirits. The Eka Ekpo, more often than not, would become vicious and dreaded. His wild proclivities would even influence the masquerade dressers to run away. If not controlled, he can maim, kill or destroy food crops. Whether he behaves fairly or badly, the masquerade dressers would not abandon him. They would still be there to support him against exposure of their well-guarded secret doctrine or any situation that would put the Ekpo cult into disrepute. Similarly, the youths of Akwa Ibom State have contributed in no small measures in dressing up the masquerading government holding sway today. The officials they dressed up for governance have become intoxicated and blinded by power, and the youths, who dressed them up, have shirked their responsibility in calling these political overlords to order. They are scared away by these power-drunk masquerades that now see them as riff-raff that could only be reusable in another electioneering season. The music has changed, so does the dance.

What Akwa Ibom youths should know today is that their involvement in politics should not be revolving around Akpabio, Udom or Nsima. It should be about their present conditions, their future and the destiny of Akwa Ibom State. The endless slugfest between the APC and PDP in the state has become a massive distraction from the attention to the manner the political officials in the state manage the mandate bestowed upon them. The youth are largely divided along partisanship fault-line. Those on one side would act as cheerleaders for the masquerades in government because they are PDP, while the other would be classified as opposition APC because they express flipside views on matters of governance. At the end, unemployment, joblessness, poverty, and hunger fail to recognize the faces of those that either belong to APC or PDP.

So bad that at the age of 35 to 45 years and beyond, majority would still be roaming the streets hoping to find a job many years after graduation; they would either be living and fed by parents or be resorting to subculture of ‘squatting’ with friends. In fact getting formally married and be settling down with kids at the prime of their lives become a tall dream, and building their own shelter becomes also another imagination that belongs to the foggy future. But to the utter dismay of the reasonable minds, these are the same youths that would be backing their feudal, political overlords and be helping them maintain the system that render them miserable just in the name of the political party.

There is a popular saying that ‘mkparawa edo obio,’ meaning, the youths are the society. But in what ways are the present generation of Akwa Ibom youths act as livewire of the society?

"Is this how we should be?," This could be the fundamental self-reflecting question.

Have the Akwa Ibom youths collectively ask the state government led by Mr. Udom Emmanuel how the wealth of the state is managed despite the report presented by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, which has it that Akwa Ibom State received the second largest gross federal allocation of N106.9 in the period of seven months which represents about 7% of the allocation of 36 states?

Given the above tip of statistics, why were the staff of the Akwa Savings and Loans Limited protested recently over two years of unpaid salaries?

The staff of AKEES, a much-talked about employment scheme, were also protesting recently about a nine month of unpaid salary arrears. No questions about the whereabouts of the state’s funds? No questions.

The retirees are dying. The youths are sourcing funds from God-knows-where to bury their parents. Udom’s government, despite the allocation it receives from FAAC, has not remitted both employer and employee pension contributions to the Pension Commission. Doesn’t this ever occured to the youths that if the pension scheme fails to deliver on its promises of a safe and secured future of their parents, that they will bear brunt?

Till now there is no payment of bursaries or award of scholarships to Akwa Ibom students by the state government, and no youth group ask question for fear of being tagged, ‘APC’.

Promotion arrears, non-payment of leave grants since 2015 to state workers are still major worries. Still no youth organization approaches the government they dressed up, just to ask questions.

No question on how many youth the snaggle of factories in Onna axis employ. No questions. Does it means that the youth groups in the state have no concern about the state of employment, or is there any sort of stricture imposed, or it is outright fear?

Since May 29, 2019, the second tenure of Mr. Udom Emmanuel remains mirthless; and no profound activity. How long would the state continue this way?

No youth group ask the government how it could acquire over 100 hectares of land for agriculture to help key the state and the youth into Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System of Agricultural Lending, NIRSAL, which is under the Anchor Borrowers Scheme of the federal government, as done in the neighboring Abia State, which recorded a good maize harvest this year. I don’t want to even mention the tenuous or total lack of commitment by the Akwa Ibom State government in assisting the youth in the state by way of facilitating Bank of Agriculture and Bank of Industry loan schemes, including GEEP, NITDA, YES-P and so on.

Ibom Deep Seaport was promised to be commissioned by Udom Emmanuel less than a year in office when he came to power in 2015. He set up a 10-man committee chaired by Mrs. Mfon Usoro. According to report recently, Mr. Akan Okon, the commissioner for Economic Development and Ibom Deep Seaport, claimed the seaport project is 95% complete. Have the youths interrogated the status of this project? At completion, the seaport project could have been the mother of employments for the youth.

The youth are the soul of the society, but sadly they are ululating about unemployment, hunger and misery, while the masquerades in government keep on misgoverning them. One fact is that youthful age is a glorious period in one’s lifetime. Once it melts away like ice, it could no longer be recovered. It is time for Akwa Ibom youth to close ranks and sit down and discuss their plight, engage the state government with facts and data as available on ground, and see how they can live a worthy life of their time because today belongs to them, while tomorrow belongs to their children.

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

©The Sensor Newspaper

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