|
My last week's piece on the
suspension of work at Okobo Airport evoked series of phone
calls from both friends and foes alike.
While some condemned me as enemy of progress, others
concurred with my stance. They even went on to observe that
the peasants in Okobo and Ndon Ebom were deprived of their
livelihood, subsistent farming, on the platter of few
thousands of Naira, which barely took them half a thousand
days later!
But what appeared to have married both the pros and cons of
my “We Are Not Amused', remained the advocate for the
recovery of all our money from Dyncorp.
Not only that, most callers also mandated me to ask the
government to also recover and explain to Akwa Ibom people
why the job records of Dyncorp were not examined before
being signed-on for such sophisticated contract like
building of airport. If it is true that they could only
service and maintain aircrafts, what business linked them
with runways construction? Why were they saddled with
control tower building and all the aeronautics jazz; and
now, a close shave with advance fee fraud scam!
Above all, why did it take us so long to discover the antics
of Dyncorp and those who engaged them?
Multiple Phases gathered that even after their
increditability was uncovered, they were still obtaining
patronage, (I don't know the level and magnitude) to the
detriment of our intelligence. Some even vow there were
conduit pipes, through which the airport builders siphoned
their fortunes, a sure way which also facilitated their exit
from the site even while evacuating heavy duty machineries
across our boarder undetected!
Sorry for the uninterrupted diversion, I did not mean to
condemn our airport projects in its entirety, nor contest
its appropriateness straight away, when a sizable percentage
of Ekeya, Ndon Ebom, Esuk Inwang and even Okopedi, Ekpene
Ukim and Ituk Mbang indigenes next door hardly find portable
drinking water, decent health care facilities and sufficient
writing desks, work-books for their children in schools. But
I find it amusing to trade off this with a fun seeker or any
serious business mogul wishing to link Amsterdam via a
connecting flight in Ikeja, not being buoyant enough to hire
a car to Calabar, Port Harcourt or Owerri!
That, by itself was not the main issue for the day, even
after yours truly was menacingly embarrassed by the “Rivers”
in Okopedi, Ndon Ebom and Itiam axis of Uyo/Oron road,
following last week-end heavy down pour.
I need not emphasize that the heavens has opened up and the
torrential rains are taking its natural phenomenon,
extensively harassed all and sundry. What sent shocks down
the spines of inhabitants and commuters was the taking over
of the roads and most households by the rampaging
floodwaters.
One of my co-travelers on that fateful Thursday (precisely
on 07-08-08), while savouring the unending cycling of the
contemptuous liquid reverberating its ripples unendingly
into the adjoining houses and helpless cassava farmlands,
continuously scratched his skull for mistakenly leaving his
canoe behind at Ibaka beach.
As this my co-traveler unceasingly enjoyed the water logged
Oron/Uyo road peninsular, he gruesomely argued that the
ability to install some watercraft or even canoes around
these water-troubled spots along the road was more
beneficial than finding lasting solution to this erratic and
seasonal malady.
Yours truly refused to concur with him mainly in the sense
of decency, aesthetics and environmental protocol. Other
commuters also disagreed with our “riverine co-traveler”
over his desire for itinerant canoes and watercrafts to be
strategically positioned around Okopedi, Ekpene Ukim, Ituk
Mbang, Ndon Ebom and Itiam Rivers.
Over 95% of the travelers vehemently condemned the
insatiable demand of our dissenting friend who exploits in
the rivers he wanted transferred to the land (roads) in
excruciating and unorthodox method. While refusing to burn
his head in shame, our friend seemed to have concluded with
all of us that whichever tier of government is responsive
enough should do something.
We recalled that this episode has always stared us on the
face since late 1990's when it was even rumoured that the
deities ancestrally sitting around the land rivers demanded
and even consumed some humans as their own share of
sacrifice. And for how long this myth would be allowed to
circulate remains mysterious itself, except the Local, State
and Federal Government call the bluff.
If indeed it's the responsibility of the Federal Government
to remove these rivers from the middle of the high way, and
as it turns out to be, our federal representatives are not
forth coming and constantly using the road like our kith and
kin, then the state and the local governments' intervention
will not be a misplaced priority.
Whatever palliative measures that could be put in place, at
least to alleviate the hardship and inconveniences of the
people using the road too often, must be seen as necessary
sacrifice for the betterment and upliftment of economy,
devoid of bureaucratic red-tapism and over- bearing
protocol.
Agreed, the peak of rainy season is winding up; but then, a
stitch in time, we are told, can save series of future
headaches, and who knows the magnitude of subsequent
rainfall ahead?
WE ARE TOGETHER:
I must thank the Akwa Ibom State Police image-maker, O/C Gab
Ngban, for his intellectual impromptu response to a mild
protest by one of my brother and professional colleague at
the NUJ Press Center last Friday. Rather than join issues,
the PPRO hammered on partnership of the Police and the
PRESS. Excellent! Though the State House Annex guy
maintained his dignified silence. Beautiful!
Though the federated Chapel Election is a must that must
happen now or later, I refuse to see sufficient grounds for
cultivation of ill feelings and flexed muscles.
If we must disagree to agree permanently, then the tones of
such contention should bear sufficient marrows that will
definitely turn out to nourish both the press community and
the society, including the police, anyway.
Like the PPRO intoned, gone are those days when we were
antagonistic. We should see ourselves as partners in
progress, and I chorus Ami.  |
