Ibom Tower: What Gov Eno did not understand

By Samuel Abasiekong-Abasiekong

In our early days in school in the 80s, complex computations were under a form of mathematics known as ‘Algebra’. Today, our algebra is made simpler and it’s called ‘Further Maths’.

Looking at today’s further maths, it doesn’t really come near the puzzle construction of the Algebra of our time.

Findings have revealed that today’s best leaders in public and private sectors were good students of Algebra.

Undoubtedly Pastor Umo Eno, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State started his secondary school in the era where Algebra was taught in schools.

People who went through such tutorials always think everybody understand them. And having such persons as boss always put one on his toes, because the boss has resolved all sorts of case studies that overstretched his thinking capacity and he hardly see impossibilities.

Governor Eno is driving Akwa Ibom State in his thinking capacity of Algebra graduate.

He didn’t understand that the state he presides is populated with some people with limping psychomotor and shallow cognitive capacity to assimilate today’s jet age development plans

Governor Eno didn’t understand that we just migrated from our respective hinterlands where native reasoning was the order of the day, and some of us are not yet oriented to board the flight of development he wants for the state.

Pastor Eno didn’t understand that he needs to carry out much more re-orientation of our people on the 21 century governance, politics and business principles before moving them to the departure lounge to board the flight of today’s techniques of creating employment, scaling up revenues, boosting fallow sectors such as tourism and the likes for long term.

Rational people of Akwa Ibom State extraction and myself expect Governor Eno to explain policies and programs of government in a much more simpler term and language considering that a large chunk of the masses don’t understand politics beyond voting, delegate election, party membership, T-shirt and faze cap wearing for campaigns, ethnicism, support groups, federal allocation, state of origin, federal and state palliative and the likes.

Looking at Akwa Ibom State, a little over 50% of our population are still pedestrian in reasonings, mostly when it comes to sustainable business, governance and or politics.

Thus, being the leader of a state populated with some citizens with slow cognitive acumen, you need to use our early days ‘Counting Sticks’ and crayons colouring teaching methods to explain complex policies and programs of government.

That is the reason we still have dissonant voices over the just concluded groundbreaking of a 18-storey Ibom Tower in Lagos.

Listening to discussions about this project inside commuters, tricycles, public affairs analysis centres, public and private sectors offices, then you will know that the people understanding of complex issues of governance still needs more education.

At this age of proliferation of radio stations incapacitated in content creation which could have serve as dragnet of a large audience for gains, most Akwa Ibom radio stations managers only have one and same style which is to invite plumbers to discuss aviation, painters to discuss critical issues on health and medicine. Often times we see/hear known caterers giving technical advice on radio to government on civil engineering or other technical issues they knows nothing about.

Thus, some radio panel discussions on the 18-storey Ibom Tower in Lagos we have listened in the past few days are not constructive to say the least.

Among the political class, it is much more disheartening to see high echelon politicians in the state who suppose to know better also thumbing down the construction of the Tower, because they lack informed knowledge about such investments.

In the late year 2000, when Obong Victor Attah bought some shares in Econet at the advent of GSM in Nigeria, hell was let loose in Akwa Ibom State as some clusters of people in the state saw it as a waste of public funds.

Same fate befell the plan to build the present day Victor Attah International Airport. The discussion in the lips of some citizens of the state at that time was: “Akwa Ibom State is not developed enough to have an airport” Others asked questions such as: “Why an airport in Akwa Ibom State, while we have one next door in Calabar?”

There are a lot of these dissonances in public investments in the near past, but space will fail me if I reel out all of them here.

I thumb up governor Eno for investing in real estate, and I support him in-toto for planting the tower where such offer is in high demand.

I wish I could be given an opportunity to dismiss the cloud of underdevelopment reasoning veiling the pedestrian minds of some of our people.

Business, governance and politics are not like budgeting for garri and soup cooking that everyone understand and do perfectly.

Business, Governance and politics are much more about searching for gainful and value for money opportunities to anchor long term development plans for self, LGA, state or nation as the case may be.

How I wish some of us have lived in Abuja or Lagos for only about three of fives months to understand what really make those cities attractive.

Oh my goodness, you need to see real estate of unbelievable architectural designs in these cities. And over 80% of those magnificent edifices are not own by the Egbe people of Lagos or the Gbagi who are native of Abuja. But they are own by multinational companies, business men, real estate companies, foreigners etc who are all strangers in these cities.

They do so because Abuja and Lagos are indeed the main market for selling and buying real estates. Those who are in telecom or oil and gas use the profit derived in their businesses as feeder stations to finance real estate in location where the business is in high demand.

While giving these explanations, I acknowledge the reasonings of some leftists who are saying he could as well built it in Akwa Ibom State to develop the state. Others say there is much hunger in the state, he should use the money to buy rice and beans and share to the vulnerable if the governor does not know what to do with money.

Well, I totally disagree with that. Always I beg to remind some of us that when we want to criticize Pastor Umo Eno on some of his policies and programs, we should be fair to him by remembering that he is coming from a business background and he has been doing just that for decades.

Experience business men don’t invest on what they will make no gain. And that is the whole essence of having that tower in Lagos. He could as well build it in Dubai, Paris, Texas or in London. All what the state wants is additional source of income, additional revenue.

We shouldn’t only be dependant on Federal Allocation. We should look beyond oil derivation. Siting the tower in Lagos is to generate quick revenue through leasing, and get paid just immediately.

If you ask me, I would have even advise Akwa Ibom State government to have this building in Dubai or in Europe where real estate is competing with oil/gas and telecommunication.

For those reasoning that the state is over populated with vulnerable and unemployed youths, hence they should be spoon-fed by government on daily basis, they should also know that this investment will create employment and generate revenue to buy more rice and beans to share to the vulnerable.

Akwa Ibom State government manages its real estate and its businesses ventures through Akwa Ibom Investment Corporation – AKICORP. And this agency of government is based in the state. Those looking for employment that will be generated by the Tower in Lagos can approach this agency to seek for job or business opportunities in the soon to come Ibom Tower.

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Samuel Abasiekong-Abasiekong is a senior Editor in 9news Nigeria, reporting in English and French languages