OPEN LETTER TO HON. BARR. BASSEY DAN-ABIA Honourable Bassey Dan-Abia jnr Member,representing Eket Federal Constituency House of Representatives Abuja Our Honourable Member, We have just come across a news item credited to you in the Daily Independent of Monday, August 4, 2014 page 5 with the headline, SCHOLARSHIP:-AIBOM ACCUSES KUKU OF BIAS ON BENEFICIARIES; where it was published that while Akwa Ibom State got a mere 3 slots in the Amnesty Programs Scholarship award recently released, Benue State got 1slot; Cross River got 3; Bayelsa got 101; Delta got 55; Edo got 10; Imo got 10; Rivers got 28; while Mr Kingsley Kukus Ondo State got 43 slots. WHEREAS this story also had a good mention in the social media and other yahoo groups. NOTE that,when we read the story, our first impression was to thank God almighty that you are still in the House of Representatives, contrary to the impression in the minds of our people in Eket(Eket/Onna/Esit Eket/Ibeno) Federal Constituency, that we have nobody in that hallowed Green Chamber since the 2012 eclipse. FURTHER NOTE that, our concern in the story at hand is that of alarm and outrage. We can still not comprehend, how a member representing a core oil state, one that you rightly noted, holds the reputation as the highest oil producing state, would have stood by and the entire processes of award of scholarship for oil producing states are completed and published without even a slot for Eket Federal Constituency. AWARE that, the process may have commenced with the advertisement of the award, then proceeded to the stage of application, screening and then shortlisting of qualified applicants, before the announcement of those selected. FURTHER AWARE that, in all of these stages, our member never deemed it expedient to alert his people on what was going on. The youths of this constituency were never in any way informed of what was going on to enable them even apply. WORRIED that, it appears our honourable member was held up in his infamous bird house theatre of absurdities when other representatives in the House,were lobbying for their people, only for him to wake up with a self-serving press statement when all the processes had been concluded. FURTHER WORRIED that, we do not understand what you as our honourable member sort to achieve by issuing an ineffectual press release, when you have all the legislative powers of oversight, appropriation and other instruments and network at your disposal to tame the angst. Not to worry; we understand. You cannot give what you do not have. Your belated show of Dutch-courage cannot fool anybody, because we are sure you don’t even know where the Amnesty(Kukus) office is located in Abuja. REGRET to mourn with you the loss of yet another opportunity to invest in the lives of young people in our constituency and hasten to tell you that, we are not in the least surprised at this turn of event. Honourable member, why this sudden feeble attempt at fighting for your people? Where were you all this time when our constituency as a major oil bearing area has lost out in various other federal government initiatives meant for oil producing areas? DISTURBED and want to know where you placed Eket Federal Constituencys interest on the interventionist programmes by the same Amnesty office such as Overseas Special Scholarship Programme and Retooling/Skill Acquisition in Welding, Fabrication, Piloting, Instrument, payment of skill gap stipends? How far have you gone in the protection and actualization of the projects your predecessor facilitated in the National Budget including NTA Channel 35, Eket; 8no.Primary Health centres at Akpautong; Uquo; Edor; Etebi; Okat; Ikot Ntan Ide; Afaha Atai; Ikot Nkan, which contracts were awarded by the Primary Health Development Agency and equipment supplied; even as we continue to face challenging public health predicament in our Constituency?Again, what has happened to the Ntan Ide-Ikot Udo bridge, onna; Cross River Basin Irrigation and Canal farm at Onna;Upenekang e-library;the Federal Ministry of Environment Mkpok-Okat Erosion Control/Drainage Contract; agricultural infrastructure in Nduo Eduo, Eket; Ikot Annang, Onna; Ekpene Obo, Esit Eket; Iwochang, Ibeno;Solar Street lights meant for Ikot Okudom - Atabong Rd; Upenekang e-library Rd; Ntan Ide -Ikot Udo community link Rd; Uquo Secretariate - Akpautong Rd.amongst others? How far have you followed up these projects that have the potentiality to make life better for our people whilst creating revenue yielding assets.? FURTHER DISTURBED that,you have forgotten the Amnesty Programme is a Federal Government interventionist Agency for the Oil Producing Areas and funded from the National Budget approved by the National Assembly; it is therefore laughable that, as a member of the budget approving authority (National Assembly), you are using a press statement to engage the outcome of a leadership deficit inflicted on our constituency by your legislative shortsightedness. LEST you forget, time was, when our constituency was the brainbox of that Chamber, and today,we are sulking and neighing because of that leadership recruitment process which you were a beneficiary and a reminiscent of a play rehearsal of Robinhood.Having gone to Abuja and gotten abysmal lost in the ever dynamic and intriguing labyrinth of national politics, we are sure you will now realize that the place is not a cinema where the criteria are age and ability to pay gate fee and watch, nor an epic centre for profanities; rather, it is for people who have the guts and pedigree to travel the road less taken by the feeble mindeds and rabber rousers in the ever turbulent legislative water.He who feels it,knows it. RESOLVE that, as constituents, we have also learnt our lessons; and that never again shall we mortgage our collective interest by taking a plunge in the dark in the ever nebulous National politics of mind power and domination. FURTHER RESOLVE that, the clamour in Eket Federal Constituency is deafening for the intervention of well heeled expertise of vital Corps of men and women with radical new lens, and new thinking; men armed with the competitive spirit to jump start our self recovery from this interregnum of inertia and legislative delinquency. AGAIN, we sympathise with you and your helplessness as can be gleaned from the tone and naivety of your press statement, which further persuades your constituents to appreciate your disability to travel or attempt this road again. As we negotiate the bend for 2015 with fragile toolbox, this road requires vision and courage to harness and carry our collective interest in our quest for a better future for ourselves and our children. We need men with the preparation and identifiable pedigree to drive these collective dreams.We are a people populated by legends, and as a generation, we must sustain the achievements of these legends. Everly yours Lady Stella Edoho on behalf of Concerned Ekid People in Diaspora
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 05:51:08 +0000
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