Daily Independent (Lagos)
Michael John
29 December 2008
column
Akwa Ibom is a blessed state, located in the rain forest and Bible belt of Nigeria. It has a lot of natural resources but the most important are crude oil and Chief Ufot Ekaette.
The crude oil is drilled from offshore platforms off the coast of Ibeno and Ikot Abasi, and it is usually exported to foreign countries. But the host communities for the crude oil include local government areas like Eket, Ibeno, Esit Eket, Ikot Abasi, Eastern Obolo and Onna. These local government areas are not as happy with oil companies as they should be, because the oil money has failed to flow like a mighty stream in their communities.
The other natural resource, Ekaette, comes from Onna Local Government Area, and is usually exported to the Federal Government. Unlike crude oil, his people have failed to reap the desired benefits from Chief Ekaette and they do not like it. He was the Secretary to the Federal Government during the Chief Olusegun Obasanjo years and before that he had held several other key appointments. Obasanjo used to mock Akwa Ibom State for agitating for another minister when Ekaette was worth more than five ministers. He may have been worth more than five ministers, but he performed little better than a councillor would do on a bad day.
Currently his wife is a senator and he was recently appointed the Minister of the Niger Delta Ministry. Like crude oil, his people are not exactly happy with him because Ekaete's money has not rolled down like waters.
Unlike Mobil, Shell and others, Ekaette has not gone public, but if he ever does, I intend to buy shares because he sure has ways with Governments. His people are, however, concerned that he does not tar roads, build hospitals or give money to the needy. In fact they accuse him of being everything oil companies are and add that it is easier for the gentleman to donate blood than for him to give you money. They do not even bother to believe that this preference to donate blood instead of money could be, because Ekaette believes that "blood is thicker than water."
But their confusion may be because they do not know the man Ekaette. At sixty-five, he has been in Nigeria longer than Mobil and the other oil companies. But as a man who is scrupulously honest, the man does not know why he should give his hard-earned money to idle men or lazy women.
Those who protest that he should not have been appointed the Minister of the Niger Delta Ministry miss the point - and by a mile. That Chief Ekaette never spoke out against the onshore/offshore oil dichotomy when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo re-introduced it should not be used against him. If a man has a cowardly tongue, how can he force the tongue to say things which could put his stomach in danger and rob his mouth of bread. More so, he perhaps kept silence because he was instructed in school that "silence is the best answer to a fool."
I am therefore nonplussed that militant groups like, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), theNiger Delta Youth Vanguard (NDYV) and the Joint Revolutionary Council, all militant groups have complained over the appointment of this Akwa Ibom export. Which is like Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda complaining about the United States President-Elect, Barrack Obama's appointment of Hilary Clinton as the United States Secretary of State. What, for crying out aloud, has outlaws got to do with lawful conduct of government business? Has Obama ever taken advice on appointment from a terrorist or militant? So why should Yar'Ardua?
But let us backtrack a bit and consider the last objection against him the by the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC). The JRC took their objection too far, and recommended that former Cross River Governor, Mr Donald Duke, should have been appointed in Ekaette's place. It is understood because the person who signed for the JRC is one Cynthia Whyte, a woman. I see Duke is smiling already - a woman again!
Donald Duke has always had the women doting over him. He is too handsome for his own good and he has always excited the imagination of women. He is some kind of Clark Gables and "Casanova" rolled into one with lovely eyes. And so the tradition of women finding him alluring continues and they could not bear the thought of the Prince Charming staying too long out of the klieg lights. I understand - the world is full of men so ugly that one is tempted to believe the Darwinian lie that men descended from apes. Of course we are not descended from apes, though some of us look like them. Duke is refreshingly different.
Running the Niger Delta Ministry is not exactly a beauty contest, though. But trust women, with their wiles, to try and hide their intentions. Hear her, "Duke is a man full of ideas. He is also young and strong." Well though she failed to say what Duke was strong in, we could give Duke the opportunity to prove his strength by running in the Obudu Mountain race - after all he started it (the mountain race) in the first place. Or better still we could arrange a boxing tournament between him and Asari Dokubo to ascertain his strength and fitness. Cynthia is more interested in the man's strength and I wonder why.
Added to this illogic is the fact that Duke is simply too light-skinned to walk about freely in the Niger Delta. Militants are on the prowl and the lighter skinned you are, the more the likelihood of your being mistaken for an expatriate and being targeted.
Militants would never tackle Ekaette because he looks too much like Dokubo's uncle. Perhaps this alone qualifies him for the job and he should be given a free hand and a free tongue to turn things around. In other words Chief Ekaette is the man for the job, leave him alone!
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