Gov. Udom’s Cassava Factories Have Promoted People’s Socio-Economic Rights - Samuel Edet

 

By THE CREW

 

Dr. Samuel Edet may not be a name that keeps on recurring everyday in the media but this erudite personality has made sterling and significant contributions to the improvement of educational value and general human development in Akwa Ibom State. As a Chairman of the Governing Council of the Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic Ikot Osurua, between 2018 and 2019 he effected needed change in the system and there was no way he could leave the institution the way he met it. During his tenure, the school was able to get 33 programmes accredited, and for the first time in five years, convocation was conducted for graduating students in the school. His administration’s policy thrust was mainly geared toward restoring morals and discipline as there was no more tolerance for ‘sorting’ (bribery for exams score) and sex-for-marks as the school was notorious for. It was in this regards that the Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic dismissed two lecturers on disciplinary grounds. Within four days of assumption of office as the chairman of the council, he resolved a long term strike action. Dr. Samuel Edet, a devoted Christian with principles, had been the President of Uyo Rotary Club and by this virtue, had contributed immensely to the eradication of polio worldwide. While interacting with THE RIGHTS JOURNAL recently, he pinpointed certain socio-economic endeavours undertaken by Udom Emmanuel-led administration that have resulted to the improvement of human conditions in Akwa Ibom State.

 

HIS BACKGROUND

Born on 1^st October 1973, Samuel Edet PhD is from Nnung Udoe in Ibesikpo Asutan local government area of Akwa Ibom State and he is married to Enobong Edet with four children. Edet is an elder of The Apostolic Church at No.16 Oron road, Uyo. He attended Lutheran High School Obot Idim, and later studied at Ikot Essien Community Secondary School and then moved to Ibesikpo Secondary Commercial School where he became the Senior Prefect.  He further earned a B.Sc in Economics at the University of Uyo, and went on to get three Master Degrees in the fields of Economics, Information Management and Industrial Sociology. He is a Doctor of Philosophy in Industrial Sociology.

Growing up, Dr. Samuel Edet was just a celebrated child and always found himself on the path of leadership. During his primary school era, he served in several classes as a class monitor. When he moved to secondary school, he became school senior prefect. Even at the university level, he was always found playing leadership role amongst his fellow undergraduates. When he went to serve at Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Ikot Osurua, he did not begin as chairman. According to him, he was the least in the board. But when Dr. Mrs. Akon Eyakenyie, who was the chairman then, left the office to contest for the seat of Akwa Ibom South (Eket) Senatorial District in 2019 election, mantle of leadership fell on Dr. Samuel Edet. He believes that there is a way leadership would locate individuals no matter how they try to hide away. Even in church, leadership beckons on him. He believes that it is his passion for God that fetches him opportunities to serve humanity. In his words, “I try to serve God because I realized that you need God to be anything. The only jackpot in life is seeking the kingdom of God and righteousness and then other things would be added on to you. I have always gets to positions based on God’s divine intervention.”

                                      

HIS TIME AT AKWAPOLY

In 2016, Dr. Samuel Edet was amongst those appointed by Governor Udom Emmanuel to serve in the Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic Governing Council. He became the acting Chairman when Dr. Mrs. Akon Eyakenyie vacated the office for politics. At the time he assumed chairmanship position, the school workers were on strike. His social intelligence and tact helped persuade the workers to call off the strike within four days of his taking over the governing council. The Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic achieved a lot during his tenure: about 33 programmes were given accreditation; the school had improved ICT as an automated system, a well-designed school portal was put in place; educational frauds were checked; concerted effort was put in eradicating cultism. The first electronic voting system was introduced for the Students Union Government (SUG) and it was possible for the union to elect a female president for the first time. A female secretary was also elected. According to Dr. Samuel Edet, “We were able to introduce the first electronic voting which produced the first female SUG president, and the secretary was also a female because it was cult-free. Students voted at will; everybody had access to the portal to do their electronic voting and it was completely the first polytechnic in the country to have done that successfully.” During Edet’s era, CBT exams were introduced on campus; the school was able to attract TETFUND projects; e-library and a pharmacy were established for the first time there; students’ membership was raised from about 3,000 to about 10,000; convocation was conducted for the backlog of students that were there for over five years. He superintended over a convocation ceremony which had the state governor in attendance.

Mr. Edet said he was interested in winning souls for Christ as he sought to eradicate cultism 100% on campus. He is of belief that if one can change the morals of any institution, it is then possible to have the best of such institution.

 

REACTION TO ‘SORTING’ AND SEX-FOR-MARKS AT AKWAPOLY

The former Chairman of Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic Governing Council had admitted that reports of bribery for scores popularly known as sorting including sex-for-marks were rife before their arrival. To put a stop, his council had to form Integrity Committee with terms of reference aimed at sanitizing the system and to penalize anybody found wanting no matter whose ox is gored. Those subjected for discipline ranged from students to the teaching and non-teaching staff. He said the Integrity Committee did a wonderful job, in that, amoral acts of sorting and sex-for-marks were decisively addressed. In this regards, two lecturers were dismissed. He said: “That was how we were able to stamp out completely issue of victimization. We heard that there used to be a lot of ‘sorting’ and sex-for-marks. We dismissed two lecturers, and we sanitized the system completely. We used to work with some security outfit equally.”

HIS STANCE ON GOVERNMENT’S DISPOSITION ON SOCIO-CULTURAL RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE

To Dr. Samuel Edet, what Governor Udom Emmanuel does to improve the socio-economic conditions of the people include providing the farmers with farm inputs and machineries through Technical Committee on Agriculture and Food Sufficiency as well as setting in place security so as to create enabling environment for agriculture to thrive. Dr. Edet believes every government administration in the state had what to prioritize. He pointed that the government of Obong Victor Attah which was in the era of transition from military to civilian rule, had laid the roadmap for the state while Godswill Akpabio’s administration enjoyed oil boom and was able to bring a turnaround in infrastructural development in the state. But in Edet’s opinion, it is in Mr. Udom Emmanuel’s era that opportunities were unlocked for the people of the state for their socio-economic advancement through agricultural revolution. He said the administration has been able to tackle problem of mass hunger. In his words, “If you could address the immediate foods that are consumed, it is presumed that you could tackle some other issues.” Samuel Edet said in almost every local government area, if not every ward, the present administration has been able to establish cassava processing factories. According to him, without these factories, about 50% of cassava products could have been wasted thus causing economic loss. He said the processing factories have been able to absorb the less-privilege as they are often seen working at the factories in order to eke a living for themselves, pointing at the ones sited at Anua Offot and Udo Ekpo Mkpo Street, Uyo, as examples.

Explaining how the present state governor combats hunger, he said “What he did was to build the processing factories that made easy to process cassava whether you plant on your own or through FADAMA. With FADAMA, the improved stem varieties, of course, spread everywhere. He had actually brought in improved varieties that you could only plant and harvest within six months. So within six months, you harvest, that’s twice in a year. He also did firebrand plantain plantation. All these feats were achieved through the Technical Committee on Agriculture and Food Sufficiency he created.”Dr. Samuel Edet reminded that Governor Udom Emmanuel actually came in when garri was N200 per cup and since then he has been able to address the situation of food crisis, saying people could now afford food as prices of commodities have not gone back to what they used to be even during the months of Covid lockdown.

Having evaluated the general performance of Governor Udom Emmanuel, Edet said he would love to score the governor 99% while reserving 1% for the things he has not said he would do, adding that Mr. Udom Emmanuel came to see a state that was purely a civil service state.

ADVICE TO GOVERNMENT

Pointing to how elections are usually conducted at unit level across the state and how everybody would be returning to their units and be relevant at that level, Dr. Samuel Edet said all farming inputs should have been distributed at the unit level too, so that they could go round as this would help identify the real farmers who would get their share at their units without necessarily going to the centre to pick them up, believing that if it is done that way, there would have been a spread, without few powerful individuals hoarding the materials and monopolizing the distribution.  He asserted that the multiplier effect associated with such method could be at geometrical progression much more than arithmetical progression.

HIS CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIETY

As a former President of Rotary Club of Uyo, Dr. Samuel Edet had been a major donor of the Rotary Club. This implies that he has contributed about $10,000 for the eradication of polio worldwide. At his ward in Ibesikpo/Asutan, he offered certain people scholarship and gives away valuable materials. Occasionally, he would go to the hospital to donate blood.  Indeed, it is part of him to assist the less-privilege; he would go to their homes and give them whatever he has. Edet was the chairman of the Squash section of Uyo Club and such office is for persons that are socially inclined to offer helping hand to the needy. With his immense contributions for the betterment of the society, he has been honoured with several awards from organizations cutting across schools, churches, communities and professional bodies.

HIS VIEW ON CRIME REDUCTION

Owing to the belief that most of the criminal elements disturbing both urban and rural areas in Akwa Ibom State were once little children that were driven out from their homes, with many of them labeled as witches and wizards, Dr. Samuel Edet’s was of the opinion that most of the abandoned children are brought in from neighboring states. He said there is the need to sort out these children and the need for government to form a technical committee to address the situation. He also recommended a ban on the Akwa Ibom State borders against the intrusion of destitute children to state. According to him, the ones that are present should be interrogated to know where they come from, with an arrangement put in place to send them back to their states of origin through their respective state governments, while the ones that are from Akwa Ibom should be trained through social welfare programme. He maintained that some of the children may not be what they had been labeled, but subjects of manipulation, believing that there may be some engineers among them, including pilots, medical doctors and so on. He emphasized that it should be one of the agenda of government to address the issue of street children in the state. Dr. Edet further recalled when he used to visit prison as a Rotarian, he discovered that some inmates were not supposed to be in the prison. According to him, some were caught wandering, while others were brought in through manipulation of their bosses. He had to organize ICT for the inmates through the help of Ubotex. He advised the government to get these people off the street, build skill acquisition centre and send them there in order to make them useful and productive to themselves and to the society.

HAS THE CHURCH DONE ENOUGH TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF THE SOCIETY?

According to Dr. Samuel Edet, the church does not work in isolation; it works based on the rhythm of government. He believes that the church has helped a great deal in inculcating morals and has achieved a lot, especially, in the areas of training the orphans and other less-privilege.

PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE

His philosophy is to serve the people. He loves to see himself as a servant-leader. His favorite quote is: “What I have not done in life is what I have not made pronouncement that I will do. The only thing I have not done is the thing I have not said I will do.” He said if he is given the position of leadership, he would do what he promised because that would be for the betterment of the people. 

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