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WHEN the government of Obong Victor Attah of Akwa Ibom State came on board in May, 1999, its vision and mission were the re-ordering of priorities and charting of a new course for the people. Obong Attah set to achieve when in his book, ....
WHEN the government of Obong Victor Attah of Akwa Ibom State came on board in May, 1999, its vision and mission were the re-ordering of priorities and charting of a new course for the people. Obong Attah set to achieve when in his book, titled Come Let Us Build Together he said "from now (1999); on, whether we move forward or stand still, and even the pace at which we choose to move forward, will be determined by factors which we, as indigenes of the state, can influence to a large extent." This clarion call by the Governor has encouraged unity and expanded the frontiers of the state economy.
No doubt that in the first tenure of Obong Attah's administration, a policy of renovating a lot of hospitals, and health centres among other social infrastructures was adopted after having recognized the level of poor facilities existing in these institutions. A total of twenty general hospitals were rehabilitated and stocked with drugs through Essential Drugs Programme and Drugs Revolving Fund. Twelve new general hospitals were also approved for construction by the government at least to make it possible for all the 31 Local Government Headquarters in the State to have a General Hospital. Obong Attah's administration has also emphasized preventive rather than curative care in the health sector and as a result raised the tempo of immunization drives in the state.
One area that the administration of Obong Attah showed tremendous zeal, apart from the rehabilitation and equipping of hospitals with drugs, was the massive renovation of some of its secondary and primary schools not minding that some of the schools and hospitals that belong to the Missionaries would one day be handed over to their owners. Also, among other key infrastructural facilities provided by this administration in the state is the electricity supply in some communities. It also graded more than 300 km rural earth roads across the state to the tune of N180 million naira during its first tenure.
These strides were however stalled due to the Supreme Court Judgement of April 5, 2002, on the Resource Control issue and the resultant shortfall in the Federal Government Allocation to the State. This goes to confirm the submission of the State Auditor-General, Mr. Sunday Udofia on February 2, 2004, which shows that the accounts of the Government of Akwa Ibom State for the two years ended 31st December 2001, 2002 and six months ended 30th June 2003, was N2.4 billion as against N34.3 estimated in the Recurrent Revenue for year 2002. While the recurrent expenditure for the year was N16.5 billion as against N19.7 billion estimated. "The saving in the Recurrent Expenditure for the year 2002 does not portray a sound economic management but rather it was a result of the Supreme Court Ruling on Resource Control," Udofia explained. In 2001, the financial administration according to the report was commendable as the state realized a recurrent expenditure of N37.28 billion as against the estimated revenue of N33.6 billion.
Since Obong Attah was bent on pursuing "sound economic policies and good governance that were imperative for sustainable economic development not minding the cash crunch, construction of some projects such as the Ibom plaza which is now a tourist centre in Uyo the capital city was still going on. It also constructed fifty housing units in each of the 31 Local Government Areas in the state through the State and Local Government Joint Account. This was to reduce the perennial housing problem confronting the people.
In realization of the significance of constant power supply, Governor Victor Attah also embarked on the construction of an Independent Power Plant (IPP) in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area as one of the key projects of his administration. The plant which is constructed in phases would have a total capacity of 685mw. The state government holds 15% shares while the LYK Engineering has 85% shares. Already 11/132kv and 2 units of GE frame 6 turbines have been acquired for the power plant. The developers of the IPP have so far injected 43 million US Dollars in the form of equity and bridge finance.
The IPP when completed is expected to supply constant power not only to homes, small and medium scale industries but would also supply power to the purposed state refinery and petro-chemical industries which the government is preparing grounds for their successful take-off.
Out of the numerous projects that were proposed by the administration, despite their being capital intensive, Obong Attah count three as most important for execution. They are: the Independent Power Plant, the Information Technology Park (IT) and the State University of Technology. They are to be completed and commissioned before 2007. Interestingly, none of these projects is to be executed by the six hundred and fifty-eight contractors that were given contract award letters by the state government last month.
Recently, the State government issued out contract letters to 658 people drawn from the 329 ward in all the 31 Local Government Areas in the State for the execution of various projects. Presenting the letters to the beneficiaries (contractors), the State Governor, Obong Attah said they were selected after due consultations with their Wards Elders who have found them responsible enough to undertake the projects that the government has designated for their wards. The projects are; rehabilitation of schools, health centres and electrification of some communities in the rural areas. The projects expected to be completed in five months is to gulp N3 billion naira. That is, N1 billion for each of the sectors, covering schools, health centres and electrification of communities.
This exercise of contract awarding to the people at the wards level, the Governor explained, would be a continuous one. "So those who are always asking about what is happening to Akwa Ibom money, unless they don't come from Akwa Ibom they could not have seen on their backyard and in their homes where the State money goes to," Obong Attah asserted.
In the past few years, Obong Attah's administration owing to the quantity and spread and in several cases complexity of its projects, deployed the use of contracts as against direct labour in the execution of its development programmes. But this was without its peculiar challenges where some contractors breached the contractual agreement and seek to abandon the projects after collecting mobilization for trivial or frivolous excuses.
This non-challant attitude at which some contractors mismanaged projects funds of government as against those of private organization which they take proper time to utilize and execute to specification is what Obong Attah's administration would not tolerate irrespective of who is involved.
The contractors who trouped out joyously in large numbers into the palatial Hilltop Lodge to collect their letters of contract awards perhaps expecting an enclosed cheque mobilization sum for their projects were however disappointed when Obong Attah surprised them by emphasizing that government would not pay any mobilization to avert the occurrence of what some of them did during the first tenure of his administration.
"We cannot run after nearly 700 people who have collected money and perhaps have not performed. In the same token we don't want 700 people running after us (government) to say I have done the work and haven't been paid," Obong Attah stressed.
By this arrangement therefore, one could easily read the anger on their faces as the grumbled. But since their action could not perturb government in its decision taking, they had to take a queue for their letters in alphabetical order of their respective local government areas, a development that could be likened to a typical pensioners arrangement.
It could be recalled that in November 2003, when the State Government realized the amount of time and money wasted on jobs awarded to contractors and were not executed, it organized a two day seminar on Contract Administration and Project Management at Governor's office Uyo. The aim of the Seminar was to expose participants to the basic issues in advance payment (mobilization) and the Management and Administration of performance Bonds. Mr. Anthony Ndah, a Principal Partner, Cost-Link Associates in his welcome address at the occasion said the seminar was packaged to also educate participants on cost control methologies and construction contracts.
This goes to show that some of the Consultants did not understand that the performance Bond for any contract is an agreement that binds the contractors to execute a project to full and effective completion on the terms of the construction contract and binds the insurer to pay certain sum of monies in event of failure to execute the project.
At the Seminar, Governor Attah blamed some of the Consultants on their high level of ignorance about the bond which they had allowed to lapse thereby causing the government to loose huge sum of money.
"I will query the way bill one is used in executing the job. The issue of bill one has been badly abused," he said. "It was a sad and costly experience that the first seminar mounted was to arrest the wrongs to correct the future but some of the lapses of the past are still found now" Attah noted.
It was then a case of some banks through whom the state government had sought to enforce performance turning around to frustrate government contractors through spurious deductions and introduction of near impossible conditions for fund withdrawals. One need not be surprised at this kind of practice because in Nigeria it is common to secure a contract just to lay hands on mobilization money and without the slightest intention of executing the project at all.
Based on this unhealthy development, the state government had to act swiftly to set up two supervising bodies; the Administrative team and the Technical team to supervise every project under construction in the state.
In his message to the 658 Contractors, Obong Atta said
"We have got a system in place that is going to make sure that you work and until we are satisfied with the volume of work done there and then the government will pay. The money for the jobs has been set aside."
On the other hand, Governor Attah appealed to the people in other communities yet to benefit from government infrastructural development programme to be patient, noting that all its envisaged projects cannot be executed at once but rather, his administration decided to adopt a gradual approach to get things done properly.
Appraising Government assistance in terms of alleviating the suffering of the rural poor, the state commissioner for Rural Development, Barrister Ime Ekpotai said 70% of the people have been affected by government infrastructural amenities.
In this first phase of rural electrification which cuts across all the 31 local government areas, Barrister Ekpotai said more than 123 communities are to benefit from the exercise.
He said it was the determination of the state government to get all the communities electrified before the exit of this administration in 2007 also and called on all stakeholders in the state to supervise the projects, protect the facilities from vandals and show greater sense of dexterity at all times.
Expressing his gratitude to government for the contract award for the provision of electricity facilities in his community, the chapter chairman of Ika local government area Mr. Andy Usoro said the gesture was a way of empowering the electorate.
"If you come to see Ika, a border area of Akwa Ibom State with Abia, we were almost left behind in all things done in this state, but this government has actually remembered us by awarding this electrification project" he said.
It could be recalled that Ika is one of the local government areas that engaged in political fracas two years ago where many lives and property were lost. Today the indigenes of the area are picking their pieces as peace has returned to the area. Thanks to the military men that were drafted from Ibagwa barracks to maintain the peace.
Also speaking, Mr. Bassey Bassey who got the contract to execute a project worth a million naira in Itu Local Government area described government's provision of the basic infrastructure to the people as dividends of democracy and good governance.
He noted that the provision of these facilities would not only accelerate development but would reduce the ratio of the young people migrating from the rural to urban areas for the sake of establishing small scale industries like wielding workshops and other jobs that require electric power supply.
Having realized the efforts of government in improving the socio-economic well being of the people, the contractors whom I believe were participants at the November 2003 seminar should learn to bear the experience garnered in the execution of the various projects with its level of magnanimity exhibited by government, Chiefs, youths and community leaders should brace up and assist in the supervision and protection of the facilities in their communities.
Government consultants should render their professional services all pre-contract stage, supervise the rehabilitation and construction of those projects to ensure that contractors build to specifications. They should also act as agents of their employers on matter related to the execution of other government projects especially now that the government is racing against time to ensure that its actualizes its vision and mission to effectively resposition the state as well as reawakening the consciousness of the people to think positively and act wisely.
Indeed, with the spate of development in Akwa Ibom State shouldered by Obong Victor Attah, indigenes of the state at home and in Diaspora were asked to close ranks and build and transform the Akwa Abasi Ibom State into an eldorado.