Strategic Governance and New Business Ventures

Sustainable Industrialization Summit: I want to demonstrate the urgent need for an Akwa Ibom State Sustainable Industrialization Summit that will involve stakeholders like:

• Akwa Ibom Indigenes Abroad (Ibom Peoples Congress)
• Private Investors / Businessmen
• Foreign Economic Delegations from Malaysia, Brazil, Korea, China, India, Indonesia, Taiwan, etc.
• Nigerian Research Institutes and Universities
• Oil Companies
• Nigerian Export Promotions Council
• Manufacturer's Association of Nigeria (MAN.)
• Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce of Industries, Manufacturers, Mining and Agriculture (NACCIMMA)
• Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN)
• Financial Institutions
• Raw Materials Research and Development Council
• International Agencies (e.g. World Bank, UN Agencies, etc.)
• Foreign Embassies

The Summit will evolve a practical, phased agenda for industrialization, with processes and products, machinery, manpower, capital, investors, markets, start-offs, etc.

Strategic Partnering and Alliance with Asian Tigers

Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore; and in fact even Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand are countries for beneficial strategic partnering that would transfer technology in agriculture and agro-allied businesses, vocational and technical education and a whole gamut of manufacturing.

Those Asians would come over to Akwa Ibom, like the Tsonga White Zimbabwe farmers who have revolutionized farming in Kwara State . In our own case rice and catfish and other fisheries; palm oil and rubber processing; Nipa palm management; and a host of high priority SMEs would involve Asian Joint Venture Partners.

My Government would bring them into our Local Government Areas and support them. Strategic alliances with China and India would even open more opportunities to our people and institutions. But the trade missions, business delegations and a host of protocols and expectations and diplomatic and bilateral matters that these will entail are far beyond the capabilities of our local businessmen; and will be handled by government.

Build-and-Privatize Model

Establish industries and then turn around and sold them to local private investors. The doctrine that government should not own business should not be carried too far. Government could start and then privatize. In their documentary titled: "Public Enterprises &: Parastatals in Akwa Ibom State ", produced by the Akwa Ibom Investment and Industrial Promotion Council (AKIIPOC), we have learnt enough to know our next steps. 

Maintenance Culture: Ethical and Technological Challenges

Road maintenance poses a headache to men and women of integrity, who would want to see durable Nigerian roads, built with the best designs and materials, to last. But to the corrupt, a road contract is a bonanza, and the gateway to the Nigerian goldmine and windfall called "empowerment".

Road maintenance has always been a thorny problem throughout the federation. Roads don't last; they get washed away; highways become impassible; communities are cut off from each other; accidents result with heavy casualties. Urban trunk highways are affected, not to talk of rural roads.

The emphasis in my Administration will be to re-introduce and institutionalize the road maintenance culture of the past. In colonial days there were the ubiquitous Road Camps of the PWD (Public Works Department), now Ministry of Works. They undertook routine repairs, clearing of roadsides and whatever measures were needed to maintain roads in good condition. Those were the days when winding up-hill, down-valley roads with less asphalt and more gravel, snaked their way across the country; while rural roads, altogether untarred, linked everywhere. By comparison and by far Akwa Ibom today is served with better roads, especially being a new and urbanizing State.

Rather than concentrate only on the more glamorous construction of new networks, except where necessary, my Administration will achieve more for less expenditure through infrastructural maintenance. To maintain access for all part of the State will entail budget resources allocation to repairs, improvement and general maintenance of the existing road network. However, new tarred roads opened through high population density areas that have hitherto not been served, will also be a matter of priority for my Administration.

Other public utilities such as electricity, water supply and public buildings, hospitals, schools and sanitation works will have maintenance programmes, introduced for them. These programmes will also provide a means of gainful employment to many people.

Akwa Ibom Concerns as a Coastal State

• Maritime Boundary: Our maritime boundaries with neighbouring coastal states of the federation have not been well demarcated in ocean (offshore) depths shallower than 200m, where we collect oil revenue. Often times offshore oil wells that should belong to us have been assigned to neighbouring states for oil derivation revenue calculation. We shall, jointly with the Federal Boundary Commission, the Surveyor-General of the Federation, the Department of Petroleum Resources and certified international maritime survey consultants, define our maritime boundaries. Special co-ordinates, buoys and appropriate devices will be installed to define Akwa Ibom State Maritime Boundaries by international standards. For a region with very rich oil deposits a little boundary misplacement means colossal loss of oil revenue.
• Marine Pollution and Coastal Protection: During my Administration we shall convince fellow Nigerians of our ability to police, manage and protect our marine environment and coastal resources and ecosystems upon which our livelihood and future survival depends. Our waters - ocean, rivers and streams - have always sustained us; hence we shall protect and use them sustainably. We shall protect our marine life from oil in coastal waters and ocean vessels that clean up in the high seas.

Akwa Ibom State is entirely coastal with a small landmass but solid ground throughout, except for wetlands along the shore line and river courses. As such, the dense populations of nearly four million, are supported by the marine and coastal ecosystems. Other ecological threats additional to high population density include pollution by municipal wastes, unplanned human settlements, soil erosion and sediment pollution, and poor infrastructure. We should be aware of and participate, therefore, as important stakeholders in regional and international marine and coastal environmental protection programmes.

Outsourcing: Industrialization Attracted by Locally Available Skilled Manpower: A Challenge to Our Educational System

Technical education involving skill acquisition, the thrust of education in our 21st century knowledge-driven global village, offers unusual opportunities today, for human capital, by itself, to attract industries. Termed outsourcing or international division of labour, companies in North America and Western Europe outsource the manufacture of clothing, cars and heavy duty engineering to China where the skilled labour, huge population, good infrastructure, good education and low income offer incentives to manufacturers and investors. Other Western companies outsource their manufacturing to India , Brazil , Russia and Eastern Europe for similar reasons.

This is the advantage of investing in sound education that imparts the know-how, discipline and high and efficient productivity. This is real investment in human capital development through quality, focused education. My Administration will re-direct our investment in higher education into empowering our large population to acquire the skills and competencies that will attract foreign industries. This is the advantage of the Ibom International Airport Cargo Terminal that would freight the goods we produce to any part of the world just over-night. That would be among the best strategies for arresting unemployment, generating wealth and alleviating poverty, the Millennium Development Goals.