#Live: Media Chat with His Excellency, Pastor Umo Eno, Ph.D, Governor, Akwa Ibom State.

Hinzugefügt: 2026-06-07

[00:00:00]With the governor of Akwa Ibom State indeed the 50th elected governor of Akwa Ibom State Pastor Umo Bassey Eno the man fondly called the golden boy some call him the governor with the finisher's anointing.

[00:00:17]I am Babajide Kolade Otitoju your moderator for today and I have a star-studded cast made up of some of the best journalists in our country. To my immediate right is Juliana Olayinka Channels TV's London Bureau Chief.

[00:00:36]Welcome Juliana.

[00:00:38]And I have sitting next to her Anietie John chairman Akwa Ibom State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists.

[00:00:48]Welcome.

[00:00:50]And I have my friend Dr. Victoria Ibanga the publisher of Next Edition newspaper.

[00:01:02]Sitting next to Victoria is Akpandem James former managing director of Daily Independent Newspapers and fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors.

[00:01:15]And last but not the least Terry Ikumi host of Channels TV's Political Paradigm.

[00:01:25]Thank you viewers and thank you Excellency for the opportunity to speak with you again today.

[00:01:33]>> Thank you. Thank you for choosing to come to Akwa Ibom.

[00:01:38]>> Your Excellency you've been on the saddle for 3 years.

[00:01:44]How has it been?

[00:01:46]How have you been able to run things using the the street lingo in our country?

[00:01:56]>> Well thank you so much, everyone. Thank you, viewers.

[00:02:00]How has it been?

[00:02:02]Well, mixed bag.

[00:02:05]It's been a mixed bag and little of everything.

[00:02:10]But, we are here and we thank God for His grace that is keeping us and um we want to thank God for that grace and thank the Akwa Ibom people for their support uh that has also helped us to be here.

[00:02:29]Their confidence and um we thank Nigerians generally for their cooperation.

[00:02:38]So, how's it been?

[00:02:41]So good. So far, so good as they say.

[00:02:45]>> Challenging?

[00:02:46]>> Of course. Of course.

[00:02:48]To be a governor of a state is challenging, quite challenging. Millions of issues you have to deal with.

[00:02:56]Sometimes, you know, uh Akwa Ibom has 7.9 million people.

[00:03:02]For me, I see it as an awesome privilege by God and the people to be able to serve them.

[00:03:09]So, you work round the clock. Round the clock.

[00:03:14]You are not on break. You are not on leave. Even when you think you are on leave, the box still stops on your table.

[00:03:22]So, it's challenging, but it's also sometimes could be fun depending on the situation. But, we have wonderful people um my subordinates, people in my executive council, the security agencies, we're all working in sync and so that gives you that kind of understanding uh that you have a great team cuz every great leader, of course, uh will always be known by the team he has working with him.

[00:03:53]>> Thank you, Excellency. Juliana.

[00:03:56]>> Your Excellency, the last time we spoke on camera in this room, you told me that Akwa Ibom is the best kept secret in Nigeria.

[00:04:07]Given everything you've built over the past 3 years through the Arise Agenda, is the allure of Akwa Ibom still a secret or are you just a very modest man?

[00:04:20]>> No, it's beginning to come slowly, but we've not come full circle yet.

[00:04:27]We're still building and um the last time you were here and thank you, Juliana, for coming back to see us.

[00:04:34]I I would like you again to go around and see for yourself that uh there's been a lot of progress. We have a way of monitoring the way we work in Akwa Ibom.

[00:04:47]We have our timelines, we have a delivery system in the governor's office. I have delivery advisors and every blessed day we see I have a dashboard in my office that I know uh where we are on our projects. So, we we it's beginning to show.

[00:05:07]Um uh on Friday, I guess, we had a variety night uh in the Arise uh Palm Resort. Not opened yet, but I just wanted Akwa Ibomites and indeed Nigerians [clears throat] to have a taste of what So, we're beginning to start um you really like running the engines.

[00:05:33]But, we're not roaring yet.

[00:05:34]>> Not yet.

[00:05:37]>> Mr. Bid.

[00:05:37]>> Excellency, I would like to stay on one aspect of the tour that you have just mentioned, the Arise Resort.

[00:05:44]The conceptualization, the components, and what are the modalities that you are keeping in place to ensure that long after your administration would have ended, that facility will still remain of topmost use for our people. And I know it is a work in progress. Would you mind to tell Nigerians and the world about how much you are looking at investing in that particular aspect?

[00:06:10]>> Yeah, you know um when I got into office, we were reviewing some work and then I got this brief from the Commissioner for Works that told me we're sitting on a time bomb.

[00:06:28]The whole of Government House in the next 5 months will be gone. That we're surrounded by valley erosion and some homes were already uh giving way and we've lost some people who had heart attack and all of that, businesses collapsing uh about almost five streets coming together 73 hectares of ravine.

[00:06:55]And so I said, we need to go take a look.

[00:06:58]So I remember that first day we went the security was struggling to keep me away from advancing because as you're standing it was caving in.

[00:07:09]And so we came back and um I thought through it and said, we need to What do we do? So we called in um major engineering firms to look at it. They brought the design the cost came it was huge. That was the first major thing I had [clears throat] to take a look at. And they said to me, we have to reclaim this. The cost of reclamation then was 20-something billion.

[00:07:40]With the engineering designs and everything and um they showed all that was going to happen. We subjected it to our in-house checks. We had the bid.

[00:07:51]And that was the best we could get. So, I said to them, "Then, when we reclaim, what happens?"

[00:07:58]We can't reclaim this space and leave it there.

[00:08:03]Then, I got the security report.

[00:08:05]This is the beehive of criminal activities in the state. People were kidnapped, they'll take them there.

[00:08:12]Cultist operations will happen there.

[00:08:14]It's a ravine, you can't approach it.

[00:08:17]So, I said, "Okay. Um when I came into office, part of the blueprint we had was that we're going to have um an amusement park for the kids.

[00:08:29]Up until then, we didn't have any amusement park for the kids. So, they go on vacation, they either have to go to Port Harcourt, or go to Lagos or Abuja, for those who could afford it.

[00:08:43]And um so, I said to them, "You know what? We're considering a different site." So, I said, "If we reclaim this, why don't we put this here?" And so, I told the engineers, said, "I want you to redesign. Not only do we reclaim, let us redesign the park to be here. The theme park, it was at the time." So, they came up with the design of the theme park for the kids. Said, "Look, this is 73 acres.

[00:09:10]We can have something for everyone."

[00:09:13]And um so, we came up with the idea of, "Why don't we turn it into a resort?" Um we have just the theme park for the kids. We have things for the adults, swimming pool, we have a natural lake, uh we have floating bars. And so, they designed it. And that's The rest is now history.

[00:09:35]Um we're 90% through.

[00:09:37]And I'm trusting that um, when we extend a formal invitation to His Excellency the President and Commander-in-Chief, he will accept to come and um, commission the facility. Now, what is the plan for sustainability?

[00:09:56]You just must partner with the private sector.

[00:10:01]Government have always maintained and from advantageous position, I can tell you government cannot run business. So, if you create an enterprise, you must get professionals to run it.

[00:10:17]And my attitude is create a special purpose vehicle and let them run it and use you you sign a contract. And that's sustainability.

[00:10:30]And the next regime comes, they can review it, they can, but I can tell you for free if government makes the mistake of wanting to run that facility, it will collapse before it takes off. So, the best is to partner with the private sector and sustain it.

[00:10:51]>> Okay. Before we go to some political questions.

[00:10:57]Uh, the viewers would like to know some of the other things you are doing in that tourism sector.

[00:11:05]So, we just lose the capital >> Tourism for us is the next um, crude oil in Akwa Ibom. So, we have segmented tourism into every facet of development we have done. In our infrastructural development, we have uh, the agricultural tourism. We have the model farm and I just uh, passed by there this afternoon. We have a hotel there, we have uh, other facilities within the model farm.

[00:11:34]It's a 50-hectare uh facility. That's the first we're doing. Our intention, God willing, if Akwai Ibom says so, by God's grace we come back. We intend to replicate it in the three senatorial districts. That is to make our people just go in there, relax, but have um what you call farm-to-table uh kind of meal. And so, we are developing tourism in that regard. We're developing tourism infrastructure, medical tourism infrastructure. We are building one It's going to be, by the grace of God, one of the best. It's an audacious 350-bed international hospital with facilities for cancer treatment, management, and uh about 24 departments, all in a single room, and a single complex with an uh you know, we we have uh uh an helicopter landing facility. It's It's audacious. We'll be unveiling that uh the 24th of June. Work is going on.

[00:12:44]We, in the area of um That's uh All of All of our infrastructure we're building. And then, in Ikot Abasi, you know, we have You saw there was this um stuff the other time on the internet about Lord Lugard building, uh the slave trade uh routes, the Bridge of No Return. We're developing all of that.

[00:13:08]And we now have a destination marketing office that is ensuring that we put all of these together. We've sent a bill empowering our hotel and tourism uh board uh to be able to manage and have a say in some of the things that we're doing. So, we're talking tourism all around. The next gold, the next crude oil for Akwa Ibom is tourism development. And all of that are replicated in all of the infrastructure that we're developing.

[00:13:42]>> Victoria.

[00:13:43]>> Excellency, congratulations on your 2nd anniversary.

[00:13:46]>> Thank you.

[00:13:46]>> Yeah. How you have made you the um the health care and and compassionate governance as the major pillars of uh ARISE agenda. What's your fair your your fair assessment of the health sector?

[00:14:05]And I mean, from recruiting health care workers to um expanding um insurance coverage, you know, for the less privileged and the vulnerable groups. What is your fair assessment of the industry and how have your program impacted the citizens? In addition to that, how have you been able to tackle maternal and child mortality in the state because Akwa Ibom contributes a large number to the ratio.

[00:14:36]And what's uh what is your sustainability plan for uh the 350-bed uh Ibom International Hospital?

[00:14:47]Thank you.

[00:14:48]>> Well, yeah. I >> [laughter] >> I hope I can um just recap um what are we doing in revamping and what are the gains? You know, [clears throat] when we declared health care emergency, health emergency in Akwa Ibom September of last year, it was really bad. We didn't have doctors. We didn't have nurses in the hospitals. And yet, we're building um primary health care centers. We have um first phase, 31 primary health care centers, model primary health care centers that just When you see them, they're like general hospitals in some other clients. And you because they have facility for accommodation for staff. We have full theater there. You can I mean, it's all over the place. It's off-grid sometimes and we solar-powered. We have um all of that. So, we didn't have enough staff. What did we do? They we came up with this idea that look, we have retirees that yes, they retired some at 60 but they you know, at the time, remember when you go into the school of nursing at the time, since government was paying, they started counting the years for you. So, you can be um it didn't matter whether even when you are not 60, but if you have done 35 years, you retire. So, you still have them as we say in our parlance, retired but not tired. We brought back about a thousand of them first. And then we're about onboarding another 2,000. They we've we went through the computer-based test. We've done the oral interview. The head of service have told me the final report of selection should be on my desk in 2 weeks and we we're onboarding 2,000. So, we have staff. Now, in terms of allowances and all of that, we are paying, we are we have now whatever was the issue with the health sector in terms of their welfare, we've taken care of that. And that's why we have the respect, the understanding and the relationship with the health workers in our state. The Nigerian Medical Association, severally they've given us awards. They've also seen that we've done so much. They've said so themselves.

[00:17:19]Now, sustainability um again, like I've said, depends on the kind of people you have. We are fortunate. The Commissioner for Health that the state has today, young man, and he's doing extremely well. Start with his office.

[00:17:36]It's one of the best ministries physically in terms of his office. So, that sign posts the kind of man he is.

[00:17:43]He's a little bit physically challenged right now. He had but he's still working. We've created emergency response uh ambulances. We have about 30 of them. We have uh and they're responding. The numbers are working. They've been able to help like the uh maternal mortality rate you've talked about. They've picked up a lot of uh pregnant women, and they've [clears throat] helped them. The truth is we need to do a lot more of sensitization in the rural communities because you know where we come from. You know, thankfully, you are from Akwa Ibom. Our people are still in this uh yeah, you know, they oh, you know, they want to patronize the um traditional birth attendants. Some will go to church, and they say to them, "Don't go to the hospital.

[00:18:32]Um and you know this local thing. Don't let the knife get on you. If you get under the knife, you will die." As if you know, the knife with a doctor heals.

[00:18:43]The knife with a madman kills. So, sometimes we can't decipher. So, there's a need for a lot of sensitization. The hospitals are there. The medications are there. We need to do a little more of sensitization, and we are doing that. Uh it's just that we need to step it up um so take care of that. It's it's actually coming down. And that's So, in health care, we have gone we've done a lot. Renovation of general hospitals, we've put dialysis machines in hospitals that never used to be. We have ordered MRI and scanning machines. They are already some are being installed right now and we have put funding into the health sector. September will be 1 year we declared a 1-year emergency and by September ending the commissioner for health will be coming up with our total total achievement for one within that one year and we see do we extend the emergency or do we have we reached a manageable size? But from where we met it it oh there's been tremendous improvement. The insurance cover we just started the insurance company. We now have over 222,000 um recently the agency was honored as one of the fastest growing insurance health insurance agencies in the country. So we I believe that we have a team that is good at what they do and I I with the with that team we are sure they will do well because they are medical practitioners themselves. They are young people. The the commissioner for health Dr. John used to be the secretary Eden Eme and he used to criticize government a lot. So one of the things I did was to bring him and say now come with all the criticisms sit here and let people criticize you too. So he's aware of this and is working around the clock to make sure he delivers.

[00:20:52]>> The 350 beds >> The 350 bed the management again this is an ISO certified hospital. We're working in collaboration with international agencies and we're getting it done. We Again, we will have a proper management system in place. I like collaboration a lot. Government will not run it. We will run it in partnership.

[00:21:18]There is Government for me is an enabler.

[00:21:23]Particularly this part where we don't have the you know, the multi from our area. We're [clears throat] building them. We're not yet there. We're We're not like the you know, my papa no be Dangote or Aliko We go there. Okay, that's the song for me. We may not have the Dangotes, may not have the Alikos, may not have but so government here must be an enabler.

[00:21:55]And thankfully, the president, commander-in-chief, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on his assumption have made funding available to subnationals. And so we're able to enable some of these things. But having done that, it will be difficult for us to manage.

[00:22:12]We need to partner.

[00:22:13]And that's that's the way we're going.

[00:22:17]>> Wonderful.

[00:22:18]You actually said you only have 3 years and you have been largely defined by human capital.

[00:22:26]And it's like you have a focus on that.

[00:22:30]That's what I want to do for myself.

[00:22:32]Thank you.

[00:22:33]And of course, there are certain things institutions that you put in place to grow the um human capital aspect of our people.

[00:22:43]So how far have you gone with that?

[00:22:46]More specifically, sir, there is an emerging part of the economy of this state which is national and global, the energy sector.

[00:22:57]And we are rich. The our bio state is rich in deposits.

[00:23:04]And in the last few years investors have been coming to develop the assets and enable further exploitation and development of the hydrocarbon deposits, primarily oil and gas.

[00:23:20]Now, what are the issues because we didn't start producing oil today.

[00:23:26]What are the high level of oil producing the high uh oil producing system?

[00:23:32]You hardly find Akwai people at the planning stage on the table taking decisions.

[00:23:40]Now, that also planned for the human capital aspect.

[00:23:45]What is the government doing to take care of this emerging sector on the [snorts] on the higher level?

[00:23:53]Talking about what? Talking about our own communities and the oil and gas free zone.

[00:23:59]So, what is in the place? What is in the opening?

[00:24:03]Is that the people of Akwai state will not be drawers of wood, drawers of water in the existing system.

[00:24:13]>> Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Akpan Dem. It's good to see you again. And you know, we we are in the trenches together at the beginning, but you are an Abuja person.

[00:24:23]So, you don't want to come back home, but I'm glad to see you.

[00:24:27]Um >> [clears throat] >> human capital development.

[00:24:31]I believe we have really, really moved in terms of human capital development in the state.

[00:24:40]When I came in, you know, my predecessor started the Akwa Ibom Skill Acquisition Center.

[00:24:48]But, I I finished it and we commissioned it.

[00:24:53]And so far, we have trained various uh skills over 2,000 over 2,000. I know there are about about 3,000 or so there right now that we have just assigned some papers yesterday. Excuse me. And about 3,000 of them are there right now and they are they are acquiring some skills.

[00:25:21]So, we are developing them and once we finish, what we do is to also ensure that we empower them with skill sets, starter packs. And that's what we do in terms of those skills.

[00:25:36]We have the Ibom LEAD Ibom Leadership and Entrepreneurial Development Center.

[00:25:43]They are there and they help with the SMEs. They're doing so much in terms of training for the SMEs. And we are working with uh the Bank of Industry >> [clears throat] >> that we encouraged to set up in Akwa Ibom. We gave them a matching fund of 2 billion and they had to come up they are Yes, they they came up with 2 billion and they are giving interest uh reduced loan to our people. I think single digit. That's what we agreed and to encourage our SMEs in the state. So, we are developing that capacity. So far, I can tell you that we have also indirect employment from the statistics that I have from our statistics office, we have about 86,000 indirect I mean direct interface that we have been able to give grants, train, empower in the last 3 years.

[00:26:50]But onto your question about um the big the big ones in the oil and gas.

[00:26:59]I don't think government is in a place to do that. It takes a lot of process.

[00:27:05]We need to encourage our young people to take advantage of the opportunities that are available nationally. You have to go through and then go through the ranks, go through the ladder. It's a process. You have to maybe get into any of the oil companies, go through the rank and then study and build up. For the ones we can assist for very and that won't be much, but maybe once in a while you grant scholarship, go and read petrochemical engineering, go and read. That's a one-off thing, you know, but people must be very intentional about developing themselves. And that's the truth, you know. Government will not be able to do everything. And I'm We have some Akwa Ibomites that are already there. We may not be at the very top, but I believe slowly and steadily will will get there. In terms of the oil and gas free trade zone, developing the hydrocarbon. We are talking with I wrote a letter recently to Seplat and I said to them, "You're here and I like them.

[00:28:21]They They're more community based than the company they took over from. To be honest with you, I can tell you that as a governor. ExxonMobil, with respect, was not interested in community development. But Seplat came in, we've been engaging, and I love the engagement. And I said to them, "We can collaborate and we can bring gas to the oil and gas free trade zone. You you can that oil and gas free trade zone will not succeed until you have a feedstock. And the feedstock itself is gas.

[00:28:59]The gas is offshores.

[00:29:02]You have to pipe it onshore and then you can know you have a hub. Then of course investors will come because that is the only way to go.

[00:29:13]We [clears throat] did that um We have that we are doing that engagement now and they've they wrote back to say to us they are willing to have that conversation with us. I pray and hope that that conversation goes through.

[00:29:27]Once we are able to bring gas onshore to the oil and gas free trade zone then you have created a hub around the free trade zone because all of the investors you want to come they need gas. Once the feedstock is not there, why do you have to cite any industry? Akwa Ibom has the potential.

[00:29:52]Make no mistake, we have everything to become a leading state in this country but we need to partner. We need to work things around with other >> [snorts] >> players in the industry and I'm sure and hopeful that we should be able to do that.

[00:30:13]>> Your Excellency, the marine um and the additional >> The marine economy?

[00:30:21]>> We will get to that but not now.

[00:30:24]>> [clears throat] >> Okay Your Excellency, thank you very much.

[00:30:28]I want to stick with the human capital development aspect of this conversation and I recall that I spoke with you last year. You had a lot of projects you were doing.

[00:30:38]You from infrastructure to trainings and grants.

[00:30:42]And my question would largely be how impactful these are on the people direct impact of the people because we look at the federal government's policies as well. And while there are some progresses macro progresses, the micro impact has not really been felt. Now ask this because the World Bank already says Nigeria has a 63% uh poverty rate.

[00:31:05]PricewaterhouseCoopers says that this year 141 Nigerians will fall into poverty.

[00:31:10]We know that the numbers are quite dwindling for Akwa Ibom state because the NBS has employed new method of uh gathering statistics. But then, this is politics season.

[00:31:20]And your opponents are already trying to cash in on what they call object poverty in the state. I recall that the ADC candidate had said that if you look at the budget of uh in the last 16 years, and you compare that to what you've received in just 3 years, it's outrageous. You've received way more. However, he insists that on the streets of Akwa Ibom state, object poverty is roaming.

[00:31:46]What are your What's the impact of your project on the direct lives of the people?

[00:31:51]>> Well, Terry, you know, when the political season, and I expect all those jobs um to be thrown, but uh I don't see the people throwing these jobs to have done any better anyway.

[00:32:04]We have over 136 direct Akwa Ibomites benefiting from all of the infrastructural development in the state. And I can show you from the roads we have constructed 1,300 km of road.

[00:32:19]We've pumped in over a trillion naira uh of roads those I inherited and 40 bridges that I inherited and we are constructing. You can see workers are from this state. A lot of Right now, if you go out, you're talking of poverty amelioration. If you We used to have a place around here where you go to look for skilled workers. Tomorrow morning, I bet you go there you will see anyone.

[00:32:45]We're building We're constructing a thousand So far, we've constructed 1,048 housing units in this state, spread through whether it's the aviation village, whether it's through the judiciary village, whether it's the legislators village. We have constructed over 1,048. Whether it is compassion homes that we have done um 438 of those houses across the length and breadth of this state. When you look These are human beings doing this.

[00:33:17]And so you are employing directly labor. And even when we finish training from the skill acquisition center, they all get direct In fact, companies go there and ask to take staff from there. So, there's a direct impact. When people say poverty roams the street, that means you must also be roaming the street yourself. Let them tell me what they can do differently. It's It's easier to condemn. I'm not going to be politic talk politics around here. All of these people that say these things, each and every one of them Akwa Ibomites know them. They've been around for too long.

[00:33:57]They've been public servants. They've held positions. I'd like them to come tell Akwa Ibomites These are the things I did. And so, give me another chance.

[00:34:07]They have no record to show. No record.

[00:34:10]In 3 years, I can show you one by one in the area of agriculture, in the area of rural development. I am big on rural development. We're opening up roads. We're opening up markets.

[00:34:24]We're building. We're putting people in the rural communities to have good life.

[00:34:29]We're giving them water. We're We're And we These are the things we're doing and you can I invite you not just to run this interview. I can one week spend time. Udom Emmanuel has been here for a few days. Juliana has been here and I'd like you to go around, check. As you go to these companies, look at that employment statistics as confirmed by their uh payee.

[00:34:57]So, I'm not just saying things now. You will see the number of jobs that we've been able to provide for Akwa Ibom people. We are 7.9 million people and we have moved the needle of growth forward and so it's a work in progress, but you can't have all of these. We have 85 audacious projects in these states.

[00:35:23]Not the ones we have commissioned. I'm talking of the one we're working on right now. We can give you the ones we've commissioned, you know. And you can't have all of these projects going on without having human um capital involved in them. And when you talk of budgets, I mean the money we are receiving. I'm not denying it. I am one of the governors to say that the president has released funding to subnationals. But again, we have a budget that goes through the House of Assembly. We have budget performance reporting that we report. Akwa Ibom, since I became governor, has not fallen less than 80% of annual budget performance. And so, if we're doing that and the costs are available, we have state audited accounts published. So, when people just say, "Oh, he received money. We don't know what he's doing with money." Then, you know, why are we glorifying ignorance?

[00:36:24]You don't know how to check the budget office. You don't know how to check the uh audited report, query any of the things. I am known on as one of the governors that have saved money for this state than any other governor. Modesty will forgive me. I have in my office a and a team in my office that vets all procurement in line with the procurement act. I have a QS, I have a QS consultant, I have engineers. Everything that comes from any ministry goes through that. And that alone, we have saved over 400 billion there. Because when you see the cost that comes and we subject it through the internal mechanism, you and then you wonder We don't throw money at people. And I am prepared any day, any time to account.

[00:37:24]And it's there. We had our budget audited for 2023, we had it audited for 2024. That of 2025 is almost going to be released, I think about June. How else will you show transparency? So, I like to I like the people talking to just be specific. Take one item. The the the chairman of the NUJ said this project, how much did it cost? And I mentioned it. You can go and verify. You have engineers.

[00:37:53]I'm open.

[00:37:55]You know, we are using the funds for the benefit of our Akwa Ibom people and we are building projects that will ultimately apart from the projects employing Akwa Ibomites at the construction stage, they will ultimately employ Akwa Ibomites um when the projects are ready. Look at the arise park. You know how many people will work there The last time I checked, I got the employment report. We have 4,000 acquire a month on a daily basis working on that park. When we finish, we will have not less than 2,500 staff permanently.

[00:38:40]Are you talking about a convention center? Are you talking of the new hotel? Are you talking of the Ibom hotel? Are you talking of the airport?

[00:38:49]Are you going to talk about the MRO? Are you going to talk about At least our specialized things. We just trained um 20 pilots in um uh help with Airbus. They just got back and they are flying for Ibom Air now. We trained 20 engineers with Ethiopian um uh university uh for in, you know, aviation university and they are back now. 10 have just gone. I'm training three four pi- three pilots and one engineer in uh the aviation school in Jos. In all of these areas where we know we need um we're developing uh long-term investments. We're building up capacity that in the future they'll be able to take over. When The truth here is that we have a blueprint. Terry, we have a blueprint. It's called the ARISE Agenda. And everything we do I just told uh uh Mr. Akan James, he was one of those that wrote that blueprint. And today I can tell you what you need to do. As we get to ARISE 2.0, take the blueprint, let's see each and everything we said we were going to do. Have we done them?

[00:40:04]The question will be where are we? What are the gaps? What can we build? You know, like I said, it's a work in progress. But no one, I can tell you, no one, and I I am prepared to take this debate.

[00:40:17]You can come up and say to me on a specific project, "Oh, you have wasted money on this. You shouldn't have done I will tell you how all of these projects tie together and how they're pushing the economy of this state forward."

[00:40:33]>> Thank you, Your Excellency. We go on this break now.

[00:40:36]When we return, we'll be talking politics and other things that the governor has done for Akwa Ibom state.

[00:40:51]>> Sir, sir, sir.

[00:44:09]>> Mhm.

[00:45:21]>> with the executive governor of Akwa Ibom state, Pastor Umo Eno. Our conversation has been broken down into two governors and politics and we will now switch the conversation to politics. Mr. Utomi, sir.

[00:45:32]>> Yeah, thank you. Then Your Excellency, we just um went through the primaries political parties.

[00:45:45]Your party, APC, had some really rancorous primaries in some states. Akwa Ibom attends went fine.

[00:45:58]Now, people are saying that given some of what happened in some states that your party will be in trouble in the election because there are many people who are not happy.

[00:46:12]How do you think um do you see yourself getting involved in resolving some of these contradictions given that in your state you you had peaceful primaries?

[00:46:31]>> Uh thank you so much. The First of all, I don't think there's any political party that don't have a fallout after primaries.

[00:46:40]None.

[00:46:42]So, we won't be an exception.

[00:46:44]The issue here is how do we manage the fallout?

[00:46:49]Uh thankfully to the people of Akwa Ibom State in our party um loyalty played out.

[00:47:00]Loyalty to the party played out. And in some cases where the party uh took a decision, people chose to abide by the decision. But even at that, we're still working on the people. You like to encourage them um to to stay on in the party. We can only build this party together. Every time you move from party to party, you know, and you're not steady, it's like a wife who is married and uh because your husband has not met your expectation today, you jump out to another marriage. You do not have an idea of what that marriage holds.

[00:47:42]So, I think there's a need to sit back.

[00:47:46]Let's resolve the issues. Let's talk about it. If it's not your turn today, could be your turn tomorrow.

[00:47:56]You know, I I always crack this joke and I love to say so. Some people and this our part will believe a lot in all this church and I'm a pastor but I'm not making a mockery of church, mind you. But they tell you prophecy said I'll be I'll be this, I'll be that. So I was cracking a joke with one of our elder statesman who is now an ambassador, you know. So I told him I said sir, the prophecy you got was I've told you you you'll be called your Excellency and you must have mistaken it to be that you have to be governor before you are called. But now you are an ambassador so we sit down begin to address you as your Excellency so prophecy fulfilled.

[00:48:40]What am I trying to say? I'm saying if we again to depend on the approach, we must be able if you've hurt people, you've not given people what they want, there's a need to give them alternative.

[00:48:55]If there's a need to assuage their pain, I think that is what an internal party mechanism should do and where we are asked to lend a voice or share our model, we'll be glad to do so for our party, of course.

[00:49:14]>> How about those who won primaries and their victory was taken off them given to someone else?

[00:49:24]>> Well, I since I'm not it didn't happen here, I will not be able to speak for other states. I don't have I don't know how you can win primaries that people have seen, counted, results announced and they take it from you. I don't I don't It's strange to me. It's alien to me.

[00:49:42]>> Okay.

[00:49:43]Um still on politics cuz my colleagues are reluctant to ask political questions so I will >> No, we're not reluctant. We have questions to ask.

[00:49:52]>> It is It is what I've seen here.

[00:49:54]Um we >> Do you have questions to ask?

[00:49:59]>> Most of the people contesting against President Tinubu are from Southern Nigeria.

[00:50:05]Whereas Atiku appears to be the only person competing uh contesting for the presidency from the north.

[00:50:15]Don't you think this puts the presidential election at grave risk?

[00:50:21]>> I [clears throat] don't think so.

[00:50:23]The president has demonstrated capacity in the last 3 years. The reforms has been tough, yes, but he had to do it.

[00:50:32]I've said so time and time again. Let us see where did this president pick up from?

[00:50:38]And if [clears throat] he did not do the reforms, what would have been the alternative?

[00:50:45]And when you look at all of that, he chose the reforms.

[00:50:50]Tough as they are, no question. You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs. We are beginning to see the results now.

[00:51:02]And so, would you rather change the direction and we go right back again. We are going to the field. We are going to campaign.

[00:51:14]And let each and every one of us tell our not Nigerians and our opponent again um what you are going to do for the people and not just what you are going to do for the people, how you're going to do it. How would you do it differently? I think I'm I want to hear that debate. I want to hear That's what I want to hear. Don't just say I'm going to do you know My brother, it's easier to play football like Arsenal and which team >> Yes, Chelsea.

[00:51:49]>> from the sideline you could be a good footballer.

[00:51:52]Getting to the Just getting to the pitch. You will understand that it's a tough tough call.

[00:52:00]And for I respect all the people that have come in very highly respected stakeholders. So let's get to the campaign field and let let us ask the right question and for leader You know, the former vice president. There's an understanding in this country.

[00:52:22]The north will have is an unwritten code but we all do it. The north have eight years, the south have eight years. So why are we always trying to truncate the state where it gets to the turn of the south? Why?

[00:52:37]The same thing happened to Jonathan. The same Jonathan we are calling back today.

[00:52:43]And I pray very well that our father President Jonathan will not listen because the same man that we're calling back today was the same man that was crucifying >> He's already listened, sir.

[00:52:59]>> Okay, he's listen.

[00:53:00]>> He's already listened.

[00:53:00]>> Okay, he's welcome. He's welcome.

[00:53:02]>> Your Excellency, I want to bring you Yes, I want to I want to bring you back home.

[00:53:07]>> There is you are a political >> You're a politics, absolutely. I want to bring you back mainly because you're seeking re-election.

[00:53:14]And as far as politics goes, we we've come to see some form of collaboration among political parties. We saw the PDP and the APC having a dinner. I don't understand what that is but we've seen that also play out in Rivers State. But then again, you've repeatedly been called the unifier. Help us understand the kind of politics that plays in plays out in Akwa Ibom State because despite being called the unifier, we don't see former Governors Udom Emmanuel and Victor Attah around this unification.

[00:53:49]>> Well, unifier in the sense for me is about queuing behind a common proposal and a common goal for the Akwa Ibom people.

[00:54:00]And um I'm in touch with Governor Udom Emmanuel. We chat, we talk, but you also know that um I am on [clears throat] the APC and he chose to remain in the PDP.

[00:54:17]Um and so we may not have but I have the same ideology, but I have my respect for him and I will always do. Obong Attah is the father of modern Akwa Ibom. Don't forget he's also an elder statesman. So, you don't expect him gallivanting with all of us in the field of play. So, I think as a father is good he maintains his position. But am I in touch with all of them? Yes, I am. And but we're unified as a people, as Akwa Ibomite, pursuing a common goal for our people, pursuing the dividend of democracy for our people. I go to them when I have to.

[00:55:06]I take counsel from them. They are past governors. They have the experience you need to, you know, consult and ask them, you know. But again, I take responsibility for every decision I take as a sitting governor. You know, while you consult, the bulk stops on your desk. That's responsibility I take seriously.

[00:55:28]>> Your Excellency, a topic that is slightly political but lighter in tone, the brain drain. And that really is devastating Nigeria's young talent, doctors, engineers, architects. They're all joining me in London. Many of them are from Akwa Ibom. Now, I know that you have built the hospital and you're hoping that there'll be local medical practitioners. But how are you going to retain them? How are they going to be attracted to stay in Akwa Ibom?

[00:55:58]>> Naijeria, I wish I can speak phonetics like you have spoken because you are made in London. I'm made in the UK. I'm made in England, you see.

[00:56:08]With the kind of infrastructure we're putting on the ground now, I can tell you we already have Akwa Ibom might say to us, "We want to come back."

[00:56:16]It's not all so easy to be in London.

[00:56:18]>> Yeah.

[00:56:19]>> The bills are not easy.

[00:56:20]>> That's right.

[00:56:21]>> They work around the clock and they pay bills.

[00:56:25]So, when we build the hospital, we train them, we give them accommodation, you make give them the right welfare, and they can still have some savings.

[00:56:39]And if you just the right remuneration, the right condition of service, the And with [clears throat] with the Ibom Medical City, there is a medical village that we're building that will house our doctors. Go and see the quality of the houses we're building. And each of the people that work there will be properly remunerated.

[00:57:01]And so, we already have people say to us, "If this is what you are doing, if you are serious about it, I want to come back home."

[00:57:08]>> Can I just quickly follow up because I know the average age of the Akwa Ibomite is 20. It's 20. So, many Well, the vast majority of the people in your state, they were not old enough to have voted for you. You're seeking a second term.

[00:57:23]Speak to them now. What is your promise to the young people of your state?

[00:57:29]>> Thank you so much for this opportunity.

[00:57:30]For our young people, we've done so much already for our youths. And we have, like I said, we've trained, we are still training our young people in the Ibom leadership and entrepreneurial academy.

[00:57:42]We're training our people in the Dakada skill acquisition center. But most recently, we have opened up and we are opening up the youth development centers across the length and breadth of this state. We just commissioned the first one in Oron, and the rest will follow as they finish. That center is for youth development. Where you can go in there, we have a creative center for creatives. We have ICT development. We have um where you can also learn some skills within your local government. We are bringing certified certified consultant.

[00:58:22]We have um Right now, I think what June 22nd, we're starting a program in Oron where our young people will be trained and they will be certified as customer care um providers. They can stay >> What about the digital economy?

[00:58:40]>> Digital That's part of digital economy.

[00:58:42]We have a full ministry for digital economy. And they are bringing it.

[00:58:45]That's why when people talked about The other day, there was this issue about, "Oh, are you going to do the um What is it called? Science Park?" And I said to them, "Look, science park, the idea of a location for a science park today is obsolete. Science park IS IN YOUR YOU CARRY IT EVERYWHERE. Your laptop is with you. You can sit in the house And so, we need to digitalize the system. And that's what we're doing. We have a pact with MainOne. And all over the state, they have given us the cable passed through here.

[00:59:23]And we had a pact with them. Very soon, we're innovating men one services and this whole state will have internet. And this is in the next 3 months. The equipment's already on the way and we can digitalize our state and then you sit in your home and you can do whatever you That is science park. I don't have to go and build one place and put computers, put And when I say so, I see some people glorify again in ignorance and say, "Why don't you build a science park?" I mean, it's What's What's What are we doing with science park as a building in the 21st century when AI is here with us? We must be able to I don't mind Of course, I listen to discussions. I take ideas, superior ideas. But when you just criticize for the sake of criticizing, you know, you know, Juliana, you know what?

[01:00:21]3 years on this job, I've come to a point where I believe that you just stay focused.

[01:00:27]All of these are distractions. People that don't have anything to offer, they want to throw dirt at you and you turn around and start talking, time is ticking. So, you just keep your eyes on the ball and that's what We're talking to the young people. We're I'm speaking to the people of your demographic.

[01:00:49]The Bank of Industry, we're partnering with them to promote SMEs. We are training people on their SMEs. We've given grants. Last year alone, we gave equipment worth 10 billion naira to our entrepreneurs. This year, we're going to do the same thing. All across, we gave farmers grants. We gave SMEs grants.

[01:01:09]Some people got up to 5 million each to support the But we must verify the business. We must come. We must know you're doing something. What I don't do is to allow someone just send me a list.

[01:01:22]No, no, no. We have teams that go out.

[01:01:24]So, we have data we can show you. You can These people are all over the place.

[01:01:29]They form a community by themselves and they know our female youths all the cheerleaders you used to see when we go out. They They They were just there. They just come out. They give them maybe 2,000, 3,000. But when I came, I said, "No.

[01:01:47]We can't continue like this. You must be trained. You must have something to do."

[01:01:52]So, we sent them to Ibom Learn. We sent some of them to the skill acquisition center. As they finish, we set them up with a starter pack and give them funding and we monitor them to make sure they are doing well.

[01:02:07]It's slowly. We can't This road was not created in 1 day. But the truth is that we are making conscientious effort and we are very intentional in developing our young people. And we are doing that.

[01:02:21]Our youth service Those that are serving here in our state, we give them allowance. Our primary ones outside the state, we pay them allowances. We are doing We are paying bus fares. We are giving special grants to people doing medicine, law and all of that. And then, even to the Those living with disabilities, we give them access to education. We have a grant that they get every month. All these tailor us towards youth development and we are doing that.

[01:02:55]That's why when I came into office, I created a Ministry of Youth Development stand-alone focusing on youth development alone. Separated it from Ministry of Sports because before now, sports was actually swallowing youth development. Said, "No. Let them stand alone. They'll have their vision and they are pursuing it. So, to the young people, I I have kids myself and they are young. And so, I want we want the best for you. We want you to be You are hopeful tomorrow. You are the acquirements for tomorrow and we are laying the foundation for you right now.

[01:03:34]>> Thank you, Your Excellency.

[01:03:35]>> Thank you, Your Excellency. I'd like to stay on finance.

[01:03:41]I remember one, Your Excellency, you have said that time that you have not borrowed a dime since you assumed office as the governor.

[01:03:50]How are you funding the project that you are doing? And then, what is the debt profile if at all there is any? And then, let me follow that up by first of all, asking you to talk on fiscal uh transparency CS sir, as well as financial management.

[01:04:09]And then, I'll conclude by adding one more one.

[01:04:12]What plans do you have to expand funds to the White Plains State University?

[01:04:23]>> Your Excellency, four questions at once.

[01:04:28]>> Well, thank you so much, chairman.

[01:04:32]Again, we have not borrowed because there's funding.

[01:04:37]You have There's When you have excess liquidity, that in itself constitutes a problem for you as a manager.

[01:04:45]So, I have said here over and over again, I believe I'm one of the first governors to admit that the federal government has funded the subnationals.

[01:04:57]I've said that over and over again. And if I I didn't have any business saying it, but the truth is that is what it is. And so, if the federal government is funding you, why do you have to borrow? When I came in, all of the contractors Somebody was saying contractors, oh, you know, we're not owing contractors today in this state.

[01:05:22]The only contractors we are owing are contractors that don't have their IPCs because we pay based on value of work done. When I came in, I cleared the backlog of all the debts that were owed to contractors, and I moved them to a point where we pay you based on the value of work done. And that's part of the where the money went. We cleared up gratuities. That's part of where the money went. And we started projects. The fundings are there. It's allocated in the budget. There's a There are budget provisions, and there's a source and application of funds. When the source come, you apply it through your budget, and it's very clear. It's transparent, and you can see it. Like I've said, every quarter, 28th of the last month of every quarter, we file in our budget performance. You can see it yourself. If you have questions, please talk to the I also again separated created a Ministry of Budget as a governor when I came in. It used to be finance budget put together. I said, "No, separate it so we can see clearly the budget, and they sit on it, and they are doing it." You talked So, our debt profile, maybe apart from foreign debts that, you know, has a long time gestation period in Naira zero.

[01:06:49]You're not owing anything. I paid up everything. We're not owing any bank because the rates that we got those loan were very high. And so, for me, I had to decide between clearing the debts or continue to pay, and, you know, so I cleared it up. We are not owing any bank today. None.

[01:07:06]>> [clears throat] >> And we are doing the things we are doing again because we budget I don't just take money and spend. Of course, the easiest way to get any governor out of office is to spend money that is not appropriated for. So, we go through the meals and get it's there and we still even sometimes go through the FGPC to do the contract tendering processes and all of that. We have the portal where we have best contractors.

[01:07:34]You know about that and you can check.

[01:07:36]Now, the TSA One of the areas we have stopped leakages in this state and I shared this with at the press briefing yesterday is to have our TSA single treasury account.

[01:07:49]When I came in, our highest um internally generated revenue highest ever 4 4 billion. It used to be 2 2.5. The day when you cross that threshold, you call the chairman and begin to psyche him. Oh boy, what happened today? Thank you. God bless you. How did you do it? And I knew that look, this is we we when you see um assessment come out from the uh agencies, you see Akwa Ibom is always down down there. And I said, "No, no, we can't do this." So, we started First, we audited our staff. You are aware that over 2,000 ghost workers were booted out were discovered from the payroll and we had consultants at the time checking our payrolls and yet we had over 2,000. So, we sent them away I sent the consultants away and there was a lot of noise, but you know, again, I've learned to like they say, face front, you know. And then, we got down into this TSA. We now said every ministry, all of government's remittances must come through the single treasury account. The first month we started, we got 7 billion.

[01:09:10]Second month, 10 billion.

[01:09:12]Last month, 12 billion. It's increasing.

[01:09:15]That's TSA. And you have ask yourself, where were these funds before?

[01:09:20]We've not done anything. Nothing is added yet. Nothing other than saying all funds of government, all payment of [clears throat] government must go through the TSA. So, there there are issues in the system we're also dealing with. And you don't expect these people to be happy with you, do you?

[01:09:39]>> [clears throat] >> You don't expect them to be happy with you because you know you are blocking leakages. I won't chop and I won't let you chop. So, if you see me chop, bring it out and say I've chopped.

[01:09:52]But I won't let people fritter away government money because it's money for the people. It's our common patrimony. I am here as a gatekeeper and I know I am accountable to God first, then to the people. So, I am going on that There are pressures you go through. There are There are things people will say, but I'm determined. So long as I remain governor, we will make sure that people earn their legitimate money. But outside that, I'm not there.

[01:10:24]I'm not there.

[01:10:25]>> There's still a question.

[01:10:26]>> Now, you talked about ABSU.

[01:10:28]>> The university.

[01:10:29]>> Already, the ABSU is expanding. The new vice chancellor is doing such a fantastic job. In 3 months, that guy got well over 20 accreditation including law, medicine. And so, it's expanding. And we're building infrastructure to support it. The governing council is doing such a fantastic job. And I must praise the Is it the chancellor or the of the university, Senator Udoma Udo who is really doing such a fantastic job. This VC perfect guy.

[01:11:02]I will choose him any day and any day and any day. Quiet but delivering. We have no issues at all with the university. We have a The challenge they had, they wanted to be absorbed into the state civil service, and we've done that.

[01:11:17]We We do not joke with welfare of our civil servants, and you know that. The You won't You know you don't play politics with civil servants. They'll come after you. The labor unions will come after you. But I think we are not yet there, but I'm saying that we're doing well. That's why the state is peaceful. When you talk of peace sometimes, you must also know that peace comes at a cost.

[01:11:44]But no matter the cost of peace, still far far cheaper than the cost of war.

[01:11:50]So, in all of these sectors, if we're not able to balance the system, you won't have the peace.

[01:12:00]Agitations everywhere. But we're And the people see that we're intentional about it. People see that we are giving our best, you know. And I think we have we're God, by His grace, have helped us to have their cooperation. Because every time we're sitting here, you ask me questions, I will tell you because I'm on top of my job. I know every sector of this state, what is Every ministry, I can tell you what's going on.

[01:12:30]>> Thank you, Excellency.

[01:12:32]>> Excellency, women play a key role in economic and social development.

[01:12:36]What program What their contributions are really being compromised. What programs and specific policies do you have to encourage women participation in politics, in economic activities, and agriculture?

[01:12:50]>> Well, you said their participation >> participation. Yeah.

[01:12:53]>> Are you satisfied with their participation in politics?

[01:12:56]>> You said their their participation contribution is not recognized.

[01:13:00]>> Their contribution?

[01:13:01]>> Sometimes. Not in Akwa Ibom.

[01:13:04]My deputy governor is a woman. My head of service is a woman.

[01:13:08]Most chairmen of local government are women. Commissioners, women commissioners are in my cabinet. Vice chairman, where the vice chairman of local government where the uh chairman are men, the vice are women.

[01:13:24]And I can tell you we can count so much.

[01:13:29]So there's so much recognition whether politically or otherwise of women participation in Akwa Ibom state. We're in such We're doing very well. You know, my wife, God rest her soul, came to me and said before we came here, women had 35%. Now that we're here, I want 40%. I said and she has more than 40% right now. She must be clapping for me in heaven because I've done so much, you know, with the women. And for me, I have three girls. You know, I have boys, too, but you know, those three girls are like my angels. So I make room for them and I believe so I am I'm a he for she person. I promote I promote gender equality and sometimes even surpass it, you know.

[01:14:20]>> Abundant.

[01:14:21]>> Your Your Excellency, a lot is going on here.

[01:14:25]You've mentioned quite a number of them.

[01:14:28]And you would know that where you have development, you have a lot of concentration of people.

[01:14:35]Security becomes a problem.

[01:14:38]And one of the most challenging issues in discussion today in this country is insecurity.

[01:14:45]Now, this state is peaceful. At least that has been acknowledged.

[01:14:50]And I know something has been done. But you're doing something about it. That's why it is what it is.

[01:14:56]But going forward, with all these um industries coming up, with all the um investors coming in, with all the facilities that are being built, they are going to attract all manner of people into these things.

[01:15:14]And the security situation may be a bit more complex than it has to be.

[01:15:19]So, planning forward, what do you see?

[01:15:23]What are you doing?

[01:15:26]>> Yeah, you know, I don't know sure there's any war general that will come on the TV and discuss his uh security strategy on camera, but I can tell you we're working a lot behind the scene.

[01:15:41]I must thank the security agencies.

[01:15:44]First, they are working in sync.

[01:15:46]Secondly, leadership.

[01:15:50]You must consult. You must the people must be averagely happy with you.

[01:15:57]You know, insecurity has a lot of When you analyze insecurity, there are a lot of things to it. It didn't start in one day. From the out-of-school children you're not putting in school to the people that are not having things to do to all of that.

[01:16:15]It begins slowly. So, what we are doing is to ensure that you provide the people with the right leadership and ensure that you keep building the people so that all of us have interest and investments and interest to be protected in this state. If you have an interest in this state, you won't it destroyed. But if you have nothing here and you are hungry, there's nothing You I mean, what's your business? So, we keep trying to ensure that everybody have something, and we're all busy. We go to work, they come back in the evening, they are tired, they will have their shower, have their meal, they sleep. You begin to reduce the capacity for making trouble. And let me also say, from what I know a little bit about security, no external uh aggressions succeeds without an internal uh uh uh collaboration. So, if we know that we have a state that we love, love of country must come first. And we thank God for the citizens of Akwa Ibom.

[01:17:27]We have witnessed this before.

[01:17:29]The In this state, we have witnessed it before. There was a time where kidnapping, killings, everything was here.

[01:17:37]So, I'm not sure anybody wants to go back to those days. If you've not passed through something before, you think it's a child's play. When I see people call for war, call for this, I laugh. Ask those who fought the war before, they will not want to go near it, because you can only know when trouble begins, you don't know when it's going to end. And we by ourselves, even as we get into the political era, should not in any way import criminality into this state.

[01:18:07]Because when you do, you never know where it will end. If you put guns in the hands of these young men that are you because you want to use them for political gains, after the whole thing, you can't take those guns back from them. They come after you, you know? So, we must be careful. We must continue to let our people know, let this peace we God has given us continue to Let's report criminality.

[01:18:36]When you see things, uh there's this slogan, see something, say something.

[01:18:41]Let's work with the security agencies.

[01:18:42]The state itself is building security architecture that we believe is working and we'll continue to improve on it by the grace of God.

[01:18:52]>> Your Excellency, um the federal government has been heavily criticized for its slow pace of reactions to addressing some of the concerns around removal of fuel subsidy.

[01:19:05]One of them is transportation. The president points to the governors and says, "I give them more money now." So, ask them what they are doing to ameliorate your own sufferings. I want to know from you because you're doing a lot of road infrastructure.

[01:19:19]Do you have buses on these roads? What's your plan for the people of Akwa Ibom state as far as transportation is concerned? And the reason is if you take away transportation cost, which has quadrupled over time because of fuel subsidy removal, it will save the people some money to focus on some other important things in their lives.

[01:19:35]And then secondly, I want to hear what you have to do you can you can speak a little more on this your agricultural revolution and its impact 3 years in because the people will judge you on that as to whether or not they want to reelect you. And also, talk about how it aligns with the federal government's farmer money initiative.

[01:19:57]>> Okay.

[01:19:59]Thank you for the question on transportation. And you are you are right about it. Um one of the things we've done, as we speak, we have ordered, paid for completely, 50 CNG buses from Turkey.

[01:20:16]And 20 of them will arrive in June.

[01:20:20]We're building a world-class terminal, bus terminal, not far away from here. I don't know if you had the opportunity to see it. And not just the bus terminal, It's a It's a mechanic workshop. It's a training facility and other things embedded there. It's world class and if you have time I can you can see it.

[01:20:44]And then we're having Since we have good roads, these buses will ply the 31 local government areas of the state. We have already identified bus terminals in the each local government. Because again for safety and security, we partner with the local government. So, this local government headquarters will have a terminal. That's where you So, we put a bus terminal there, mini terminal. And then the buses will go from Uyo and then they'll have bus routes. They go through it. They're CNG CNG motor station is also part of what we're doing right now.

[01:21:22]And um so, I believe that between now and September, our buses will start running.

[01:21:30]>> At reduced cost?

[01:21:31]>> At reduced cost. At reduced cost. And you just have to buy your tickets.

[01:21:36]You'll be online. It will be It's a card. You just swipe and it will be uh borrowing from Juliana. It will be made in London.

[01:21:46]But this will be made in Akwa Ibom. And the bus has tracking system, has everything. It's done. As we speak, I think from the advice I have, uh the 7th of June, the first 20 should be arriving Lagos and then we'll bring them here.

[01:22:05]Before July, the rest will come, fully paid for. And then the terminal is on now. But I'm sure going at the pace we are going, from my delivery advisor, I think by September, October, we should be running full bus service across the state and it should be awesome.

[01:22:26]>> Agricultural revolution.

[01:22:27]>> Agricultural revolution. Yes, on Friday we gave out 500,000 each to people that have we we we we won the home farm competition. When we started the home home home garden competition, you know what led to it?

[01:22:48]Encouraging our people to have home garden. I start from there. We Someone said to me, "Oh, you guys can see pepper is now three for 1,000 there." And I looked at the man and I don't know what to say. Man, what do you want me to do now?

[01:23:03]So, I should manufacture pepper. She said, "Madam, I live with my grandmother in the village.

[01:23:10]And she had a garden by the house in the village. All these vegetables, pepper, okra, all of pumpkin leaf, she never bought anything from the market. You know, if there there was anything she had to buy, maybe crayfish and protein. But never. So, why don't we go back and have a home garden?

[01:23:36]And so, the idea came. Let's start with competition and to encourage, you know, the people. The first year the commissioner for agriculture said that on Friday. Then we had about 600,000 600,000 that, you know, did the entry of that.

[01:23:55]I'm showing you that. You know, last year how many? 50 15,000.

[01:24:02]So, from 600 to 15,000. That shows you fast. You can take that statistics. And this are 15,000 that sent in entries and verifiable entries. They go to their farm, they take the coordinates, they know. So, Akwa Ibom gravitates towards agriculture today.

[01:24:25]We now declared We started by declaring two Fridays in a month. We call it farm days. So, the civil servants can go to their farm. And then, at the point when we saw that that has sunk in, we now reduce it to first Friday of every month, so that civil servants can also go to their farms. I have a farm.

[01:24:49]All of the vegetable we consume in government house is from my farm in the village. So, you Everyone has a farm.

[01:24:56]And you don't ever know when you want to visit your farm. So, it starts from us.

[01:25:01]We must be able ourselves to grow the kind of food, basic things we want to have.

[01:25:10]We keep shouting government, government.

[01:25:13]So, we must get to a point where we know that there's a part government will do.

[01:25:18]There's a part the citizenry will do in terms of agriculture. Planting pepper, okra, tomatoes cannot be government. It has to start with us. And so, we we leave that.

[01:25:32]We launched recently the tree crop revolution, where we want to bring back oil palm. Akwa Ibom used to be a leading state in oil palm production in this country. And for way, far, far before crude oil was discovered, that was the mainstay of our economy. And so, we don't have a 100 hectares of land to set aside. And so, we said, "Look, let's go on households."

[01:25:58]And so, we took Again, everything I do, I have data for it. Cuz these are the days you say, "Where are the data? Show us." So, we took um We did go around uh to take all the farmers, 500 household per local government. We round where we ordered 620,000 620,000 tenera oil palm tenera seeds for these households. And we want to place generational wealth in their hands. For us, oil palm in Akwa Ibom is not just about agriculture. It's about a way of life. It's about generational wealth and values. Our parents and our forebears send their children to school owning oil palm plantation. So, every home we give them 40 seeds, which is about a quarter of a hectare. And in 2-3 years, these things will fruit. And then we know that we can now begin and oil palm mills all over the state. So, you can begin to have them in small small clusters. Government will buy those fruits at a price that will beneficial to the farmers because agriculture all over the world is subsidized, but you must have a way of subsidizing it to put money in the hand of the farmer, not the middleman. So, we'll buy it off them and we'll take them to the mills. Then, of course, that's money for you. Then, in terms of um the seedlings we're doing, we're giving farmers seedlings, we're giving them all of the fertilizers, all of that. It's a It's a thing we do. The Ministry of Agriculture does that. We have a food and security food security committee that we set up and they are also helping to bring out things we must do. We have the the Ibom model farm that I told you about, 50 hectares, and we intend to replicate that. We are trying to create um farming cities, farming villages that you can have like the Israeli kibbutz system where farmers live on the farm and they can produce. We come to your village, we say look, we this is we we [clears throat] we either lease your land or we pay outright compensation, but we employ the villagers to work in the farm. So, they live in the village and then we can give them 1 hectare, 2 hec- 1 hectare, 2 hectares and they face it. I government will take from them. These are all of the things we are doing to make sure that prices come down. Well, it's it's again, in 3 years we have brought prices again to come down, you know. So, we we think we're intentional about it.

[01:28:59]Um agriculture is becoming a way of life right now. I doubt if there are many too many homes you will go to they don't have a farm garden. So, all of them even plant using um plastics because they don't have land.

[01:29:13]Just give us you you So, you you can't tell me you you went to the market to buy pepper. It's everybody will laugh at you in Akwa Ibom. You should be planting something.

[01:29:24]>> Okay, Your Excellency, let's um talk about uh the Oro maritime infrastructure and some of the interventions you are doing for the coastal communities.

[01:29:39]I went to Oro some months back.

[01:29:45]Can you give us an update in terms of the progress that has been made with that work?

[01:29:51]And there are concerns about safety because you you want to um encourage uh >> marine transportation.

[01:30:02]>> marine transportation, but there are concerns about the activities of uh uh pirates and even uh doctors on the waterways. So, can we know what you are doing to address that? And then of course, Ibeno, many people think that Ibeno is wasting away.

[01:30:27]White beach has a lot of potential, but we are saying that your government has not prioritized Ibeno. That is to actually we should actually do a lot more to take full advantage of Ibeno coastline.

[01:30:48]>> Thank you, sir. You know, in states like Lagos, Port Harcourt, I don't know how many people call on government, government, government for everything.

[01:31:08]But we are unfortunately, that's why I'm saying that the government in this part acts like an enabler. So, everybody expects we're almost becoming um um uh like a communist system where everybody waits on government. But I think again, to be honest, we should begin to de-emphasize this mentality where everybody wakes up and it's about government, government, government, you know?

[01:31:44]But having said that, the as a young child, my interest in Oron as a young child, my grandmother used to go to Oron to buy fish, to buy fish.

[01:32:01]Oron remains one of the most Uh they they they they they are um They are fish, they are great fish, >> [clears throat] >> they are prawn, remains the best in in terms of taste in this country.

[01:32:17]So, then when I became governor, I visited Oron again.

[01:32:22]And it was a shadow of itself.

[01:32:25]So, we had to spot of marine economy, we claimed the jetty first of all, where those um ships, where those uh um uh fishermen reclaimed the jetty. It's uh it's uh it's another ambitious project. So, all these things we have done are very audacious.

[01:32:51]If you don't have the love of your people, you won't go into it. You just get into things that, you know, quick fix, quick fix, quick fix. So, these are very intentional. We are reclaiming that jetty. We're building building building it up. Now, we put um cold room facility, we put drying facility, because what used to happen, our people come back with their catch, and our brothers in the neighboring from neighboring states wait until this evening. So, they just go and they make it the buyer's market. And this your fish will spoil you if you no sell am now. So, the people out of frustration, so I said, "No, we must stop this." So, we have a cold room there. In fact, I've ordered a second one. Um and then we have a drying facility there. We've We are building the whole jetty. It's also We have a floating bar there. But, to add So, we want to bring back not just the marine transportation. We have ordered three boats right now. One is built by the Nigerian Navy, two were from another company in Lagos. But, we also got into a pact with the Nigerian Navy to give them a base a jet a jetty that we have also developed to enhance security. So, they will be escorting the boats whether it's the fishermen or at least within the area that they are going to uh do their uh fishing, security will be present and we are going to partner with the Nigerian Navy to give that security. They will escort our passengers ferry, you know, to through to Calabar and back and that will provide that security.

[01:34:46]When you partner with the security agencies from the beginning and give them the tools they need to work, they will work. I'm one believer and I've tested it severally. If our security agencies are confronted with challenges and they want to solve it, they solve the problem.

[01:35:08]That's the truth I've found out how many times. So, what we do rather than criticize and criticize, we criticize people a lot.

[01:35:16]And when you criticize too much, you demoralize them.

[01:35:20]So, for once, let's learn how to salute their courage. These people have lost lives. They've paid sacrifices.

[01:35:30]Yet, we criticize them. We sleep in our houses. They are out there on the street. We condemn them as if they've not done Okay.

[01:35:39]What makes them a different Nigerian from us? Why don't we go to military academy or police academy and join and fight crime? So, I believe that if we work with them, there will be mistakes.

[01:35:52]But let's don't overblow it.

[01:35:55]We encourage them.

[01:35:58]Outside this climb, if you see a military personnel at the airport, maybe in the UK, in the US, the kind of ovation they give them. If they get into the aircraft or get into a bus, you see the ovation they give them. But here, you don't want to know what they say to those people. So, you did No, even though in even though we are we are taking it one step at a time. That's why I'm saying government cannot do everything. We need investors.

[01:36:31]And we have a destination marketing office now, and that's part of what they are putting on the table.

[01:36:37]>> Sir, can we very briefly talk about the flight the flight to Accra?

[01:36:42]>> I I know that we're running out of time.

[01:36:46]>> It's a historic moment.

[01:36:48]>> you to speak to the Akwa Ibom people on the occasion of 3 years in office.

[01:36:56]Let's have your message to the Akwa Ibom people.

[01:37:00]>> Well, to all Akwa Ibomites in and out of the state, those in diaspora, let me first of all thank you for the privilege you have given to the deputy governor and I to serve you as your governor and deputy governor. It's such an awesome privilege that we cannot take it for granted.

[01:37:20]We're 7.9 million people and to be given this privilege, we cannot take it for granted. I want to assure you that we're working round the clock to ensure that we serve you and we walk our talk with the projects we have lined up, the plans we have lined up, some of which we are executing and we've 2 hours is not even enough to showcase the things we have done. But I want you to trust us that we don't take this responsibility lightly. We're working around the clock to provide security for our citizenry, to provide welfare for our citizenry, to develop critically needed infrastructure that will aid our economy and create jobs for our young people. We're working this and we're ensuring that this will happen. I trust God that with your support as we get into the next election, God willing, you give us another opportunity to wrap up some of the audacious things we have started doing. By the time we leave office in 8 years, before we leave from this fifth year, you'll be able to see critical changes and Akwa Ibom is rising. And I know together we will rise. Thank you.

[01:38:34]>> Thank you, Your Excellency. Uh we've had such a very interesting um conversation with the governor of Akwa Ibom State. And um every good thing has to come to an end.

[01:38:48]We thank you once again for the opportunity given to us.

[01:38:53]Uh thank you, Juliana, for coming. Thank you, Sibet.

[01:38:58]Thank you, Victoria, for being part of this show.

[01:39:02]Thank you, my friend Akpandem James.

[01:39:06]Thank you, Terry, for those good questions. God bless you.

[01:39:09]My name is Babajide Kolade-Otitoju.

[01:39:13]We'll be back.

[01:40:00]>> Mhm.