Udom Emmanuel: I’ll provide space for 22 former PDP aspirants Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, in this interview speaks on his vision for the state, his alleged relationship and efforts being made to reconcile with the 22 aspirants who were upset by the outcome of the primaries. BIYI ADEGOROYE captures the report You have an intimidating profile of service, especially in the private sector.How did you find yourself in politics which is believed to be dirty game? First, I want to correct that impression that politics is dirty. I always try to tell people that if you call 10 politicians here and tell them to define the word ‘politics,’ they will give you 10 different definitions. At times, people hide behind criminality and call it politics; people hide behind deceit and call that politics. I don’t think that is really what politics is all about. Politics is all about service to humanity and to mankind. And I also want to say here; it is like if you attend a funeral, while to other people the body you see there in that small box is a corpse but to the owner of that person it is a mother. So while others are calling that same small box corpse, the owners call it my mother. Why is the owner calling it my mother? It is passion, it comes from the heart. What gives you the conviction that you can take Akwa Ibom to the next level? I still want to take you back to the first point I made. Even in the Bible, it was written ‘God said, whom I shall send, who will go for us?’ Isaiah wasn’t the only prophet around but Isaiah’s account is recorded because he is being seen to be the messenger that carried the right message. What do I mean by the messenger that carries the right message? The conviction is on capacity. I keep on telling people if you cannot run a kiosk you cannot run a multinational because the principles of management cut across. If you cannot run a local government you cannot run a state government. So in life, you now sit back and assess yourself. Since I was born, I went to school, the quality of education I’ve had, the quality of training and the experience you don’t buy in the market. Based on that, you also do what I call a self re-assessment. You re-appraise that capacity. And in life have you actually put that capacity to practice to actually yield results? And I’m happy in this part of the world everybody talks about dividend and dividend in any way you look at it; dividend comes out of execution and then results. If you don’t achieve results then you cannot talk about dividend. Then when you now look at a man who throughout his life was busy declaring and paying out dividend for people to share and here are people crying. Their need is ‘we want dividend of democracy,’ and you say throughout my lifetime, I have been involved in decision making that result in good dividend for people. Why can’t I go in here and also offer my services so that the dividend they are actually looking at, even the return on their expectation, no matter how intangible it could be could actually surpass people’s expectation. So having assessed that capacity and having all over again looked at the entire needs of the people and also look at the entire world, what makes the world? The world is made up of those resources that we were thought in elementary economics – man, money and the rest of them. In fact, in the developed world, it is one side that drives the other not the other way round. Looking at it that in developed economies, it is the private sector that drives the public sector and we also know that these people don’t have the monopoly of God. God is for all of us. So if they are actually using that principle and they are actually creating value, quality of living and everything, why can’t I come in and do the same so that dividend can be multiple in nature and also the return can be much higher because everybody is talking about dividend of democracy and all through I have been involved in that. Second, in the entire world, the first set of cameras that we had in those days was totally different from what we have today, because people had to improve upon what had been laid. Even in terms of television, you know these days you have a curved TV; you had HD, LCD and now people are talking of curved TV. If you actually check, they did not change the entire research mechanism. They did not change the entire team, they did not change the entire vision, and they did not change the entire mission. So people came up and built and improved on what the early researchers had actually done. Look at how many engineers worked on Boeing 8380. About 12,000 engineers, even when they had few challenges. So, having looked at the foundation laid in Aiwa Ibom by Chief (Dr) Godswill Obot Akpabio which is a super foundation, I have said this over and over again that if you have a good man like that laying a foundation for a skyscraper and then you give it to a quack, he will come and build a bungalow and then it will be totally wasted. So having assessed my own capacity that the foundation laid for a skyscraper and you need a skilled manpower to actually drive this. You need somebody who is exposed, somebody who knows actually how to build a skyscraper on such a piled foundation. I just assessed it and I said I have the capacity. Above all I have the passion; I have the love for my people… I am a man who had been in top management over these years, a man that both Cross River and Akwa Ibom can boast of being the first man to sit in Africa Finance Corporation board, a man who had played politics in international arena, a man who has spoken in so many international investors fora, a man who has addressed international investors all over the world, a man who has played corporate politics all over and as I said at the end of the day what is the bottom line? Everybody is asking about dividend. Both corporate and public, they are asking about dividend. This one says dividend of democracy, that one says give me dividend out of the bottom line. The funnel empties into just that one word – dividend and having garnered all the experience in both sides definitely that is why I think I am the right man for the right job. Look at the challenges of the economy all over the world, we need to move from the point where at the end of every month we go and sit down with our biros and our laptops waiting for statutory allocations. There must be a little bit of creativity because if you keep doing the same thing over and over again you’ll keep getting the same results. I keep telling people, if you look at the whole world today, we woke up overnight and we heard there was a financial meltdown and what is financial meltdown? Where did it melt to? Certainly it must have melted somewhere but it didn’t melt into Africa. Africa suffered for it. So this time around, we want to say no matter how you call it, money is paper, whatever they used that melted was paper and at the end of it that paper melted into one kind of development or the other for the developed world. Can we also at this time let that paper melt into Akwa Ibom so that by the time you turn around you can be prouder of the state? Take Uyo capital city for example, you compare it, the other time the governor said that by the time we finish with Uyo, what happened to York City will happen to Uyo because York was York City but when it was totally transformed it was called New York City. So why can’t we, after we’ve built blocks, redesigned the entire city change it to New Uyo City. That is what we want to see. We should be able to actually turn even our capital to New Uyo. It is rumoured that you were brought to replace Bassey Albert Akpan as the Commissioner for Finance in the state but it turned around the other way. What is the true picture? Let me help you here. There can only be one captain in one ship at a time. So, irrespective of whatsoever you hear, they are all rumours, because as at today, we have just one leader and one visioner, and that is Chief Akpabio. He has the vision, he knows what he wants the state to become, he is the father of us all and he knows at what point he needs a round peg in a round hole. And the idea of bringing Udom Emmanuel as Secretary to the State Government had nothing to do with any other individual. I didn’t come in as a commissioner. My brother (Bassey Albert) was serving already as a commissioner. And if you also know who Udom Emmanuel is, he is one man that does not believe in struggling for space because we believe your skill at any point in time should speak for you. So what our leader, our great leader, visionary leader needed at that point in time was a replacement. There was a vacancy and he had to fill it and he was just looking for somebody that will fit into it. He needed an experienced person and he searched and found me somewhere and I had to come and serve my people. I couldn’t hesitate on that… Constitutionally, there are certain officers that are by appointment and if it is by appointment the Chief Executive decides who goes where, at what point in time and what job function is assigned to that person provided it is not a constitutionally elective office. And once it is by appointment, please let no man make any mistake, your blood brother can fill an appointment. Even your wife can fill that appointment. An appointment does not have tenure because it is not an elective office. So, if somebody just decides, probably out of love and whatever to keep you beyond what human beings think is a ‘reasonable time’, it shouldn’t be taken for granted. And for sure, we should still come back to the drawing board and see how we should learn to respect our leaders because leaders are made by God. After your nomination, aggrieved members of your party formed what is known as G22, quite alien to Akwa Ibom State. What has been your personal effort to pacify them and bring them back? Let me start from the party, because the party is supreme here and we are all under one umbrella which is the PDP. The party during its meeting, the caucus meeting, had actually set up a committee to reconcile all the parties who are aggrieved in one way or the other. And let me also tell you here, this is purely an internal issue of the PDP. Where I come from, it is said where two plates are kept in the same tray, that whether you like it or not their bodies will touch each other. It doesn’t actually mean that the bodies touching each other will make them to break. I want to use this medium to say, whether you say it is G22 or G23 because I will like it to be G23 so that I will be included as well because I am also a candidate and at one point I was an aspirant. Whether we are 23, we are 24, 25 or we are 22, I want to believe all of us had one objective in mind. How do we serve our people? And unfortunately, there is only one seat but my advice to all my brothers (because we are all brothers) and sister, for the fact that there is only just one seat and government is large enough, I think we can just come back and see how we can re-align ourselves internally without actually letting the public know. We can actually accommodate each other and see how things can move on. No matter how we do, external people cannot solve our internal problem. We must sit down and discuss our own internal problems. So my advice is that my brothers should come back, so that we can sit back together once more. I know the PDP as a party has actually set up a committee headed by a distinguished Senator Effiong Bob to actually see how we can bring all the parties that were not happy about the outcome of the primaries together. It is just human that at times, like this people may not be happy in one way or the other. You cannot help that. That is the nature of man. I think what matters most is what God expects us to do. He says pursue peace. I think that is what the PDP is trying to do. We are even trying to pursue peace, seek peace amongst ourselves so that we can move in as a team and then confront opposition during the general elections. I think that is what we are trying to do. Even as a candidate today, I want to let you know that every single member of G22, or G23 now because I am also a member of that G, all of us have one objective in mind, we have one goal in mind, we love the people of Akwa Ibom, and because we love the people of Akwa Ibom we are willing and we are moving to seat back together and to discuss. How do we serve our people in different capacities? We have different strengths that we can actually bring to the table and once we harness this together we’ll build a very strong synergy that will deliver to the people the core value system that they are expecting. When you hear people say that Udom Emmanuel is not on ground in the politics of Akwa Ibom State, how do you feel? It depends on what you mean by ‘ground’. I mean that you are not on ground politically, structure, and strategy? Speaking about being on ground in terms of politics structure and strategy, I don’t know who else has these more than Udom Emmanuel. I said it earlier that if you cannot build a kiosk, if you cannot actually manage a kiosk you cannot manage a multinational. How can a man who all through his life has been dealing with human relations not be able to build structure? And let me also correct one thing here, I came into the financial services as Head of Strategy and Strategic Planning and at that point in time when I came in there were other financial institutions that had existed since 1894 and the rest of them… I see politics as being close to what I have done all through my life. It is the same thing because it is a game of persuasion. How do you relate with people, how do you persuade people, and what can you offer people that will differentiate your qualities from that of another person? So, whoever is trying to say so, as you rightly pointed out early enough, it is a game of bring-him-down syndrome but I as Udom Emmanuel I don’t believe in that. I don’t bring down people in order to rise, because, if you bring down someone definitely you are down with that person. I believe all of us should rise and rise and rise and rise. I don’t believe in bringing down people. So I believe whoever is saying so is trying to score a cheap point politically. And I want to let you know that every man on the grassroots level, anywhere I go to, when I walk the streets or go inside the villages, anywhere I enter, even a little child (short of little children inside their mother’s womb to leap) chant “Udom is Correct, Udom is Right, the Right Deal, the Real Deal.” These are slogans all over the place. Anywhere I move to people are screaming, people can’t even wait for the election day to express themselves and actually exercise this and say’ look this is the man that we want.” I am a man that is willing to let go of every other thing, a man who is not after self-aggrandisement but after the welfare of the people. It breaks my heart when I move into a street or village, even if it is for one hour and I don’t see light. I now wonder, I say “Oh my God, did you create people in the Western world; differently the day you created us, that we also deserve to have light 24/7. So these are the kind of things that bother me. The other day, you exchanged pleasantries with Obong Victor Attah, even getting the same blessing in the church with him. Was that politically motivated or it was a way of expressing your political dexterity? Before I take that question, let me clear the air on some other issue. You were talking about Udom being brought to clear the mess. Well, if what Akwa Ibom people call the mess is an international stadium that is not found anywhere in Africa except in Uyo, if Akwa Ibom people call having an airport, not going through bad roads, accidents and every other thing, landing in 10 or 15 minutes and they are home, if that is what they call a mess I want to be part of that mess. Coming back to your question, we were in church and whether you like it or not Obong Attah is our father. Seeing my father in church, I’m always very happy. And throughout the time he was governor till now, he loves all of us and we respect him without limit. I repeat, we respect him to no limit. And that respect does not differentiate whether he is in church or outside church. It is even in church we should respect more because God says respect your father and your mother without conditions. It is one commandment God gave without condition. It is something you must do. So, the issue of we exchanging pleasantries in church shows that we were happy and we were thankful to God seeing ourselves in year 2015 and we were all praising God together. That is why you saw all of us together and we were excited. What are your plans towards curbing youth unemployment in the state? I want to start from human capital development. I love that area because it is a major primary focus for us. Today, we have free and compulsory education at that basic education level but I want to take you a little bit further that what the next administration will do will go a little beyond the basic education level. Today, I don’t know if I call up how many people can qualify to be Surveyor General (even of a State). I don’t know today how many pilots that we have in training. Today, I don’t know how many of our people we are preparing that will be MD, CEOs of NNPC etc that we are yet to produce. I don’t know how many we are preparing that will take over as MDC of Mobil. I think what the next administration will do, let me take it from the grassroots. We are going to add more quality to that basic education level. Where will that quality come from? The quality will definitely come from the quality of the teachers that will teach the pupils. That is from the grassroots level. We will expose the teachers to more on-the-job training. We will concentrate on that. We will look at the curriculum and see how that will shape in line with the needs of the country and Africa as a whole. And once we move from there, I also discover that in this part of a developing economy, career guidance and counseling is something that we really need to make a bit more elaborate.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 06:03:00 +0000
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