BusinessDay 08 Apr 2018

Sunday 08 April 2018
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Sunday 08 April 2018
SundayInterview
‘For 2019, Governor Emmanuel’s good work will set him apart’
Ekerete Udoh is the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State. In this interview with ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK, he speaks on the governor’s strides in the area of
industrialisation and prompt payment of workers’ salaries, retirees’ pension; the governor’s second term bid, and the task of media management in the era of social media. Excerpts:
The 2019 elections are fast approaching and
we have seen series of adoptions in favour
of the governor, is governor Udom Emmanuel
interested in a second term?
Absolutely! He is re-contesting and
he is not taking the opposition
for granted, but he believes his
good work will set him apart. The
governor made a very profound
statement during his endorsement by fathers
of faith. He listed his scorecard and said “if I
was able to do all these in three years, and
given the lean resources available to me,
should the train stop in 2019?’’ The resounding
answer was, No! So, if he’s been able to
achieve all these; capital projects all over the
states, recurrent expenditure met on time,
and a new tone and tenure in governance, a
Christ-centric administration, a leader that
connects with his people, a leader that is humble,
that demystifies power, doesn’t allow
power demystify him. He has done enough
and the discerning people of Akwa Ibom state
know that, majority of people of this state are
Christians and they are observing him and will
wholesomely return him. He campaigned on
a broad platform that was encapsulated in
five point agenda, and on each of the items
on the agenda he has done exceedingly well.
So to answer your question, yes! Governor
Udom Emmanuel is going for a second term
and given what he has done for the people
of Akwa Ibom State, his disposition is that
the people will return him overwhelmingly,
the margin of victory in 2019 will be larger
than 2015.
What is the relationship between Governor
Udom Emmanuel and the opposition parties
in the state?
The governor was elected to work for the
people of Akwa Ibom State, so I am not seeing
the opposition you are talking about, maybe
they exist on social media. Akwa Ibom State is
excitingly a Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)
state. So it’s possible that the opposition you
are talking about live, breath and circulate
within the social media. When the real opposition
materialises, we would let the works
of the governor speak for itself.
Akwa Ibom State has been described as a
PDP state because the party has been in
power since 1999, given the fact that you
have an opposition party in power at the
centre, are you not afraid that it may work
against PDP in 2019?
Let me ask you a question; is your life better
off in 2019 than 2015? Are Nigerians better
off? So Nigerians will make a determination. If
APC is the real opposition in Akwa Ibom State
for instance, we will present our scorecard
and allow Akwa Ibom people to compare
where they have been in the past 18 years
that PDP had been in government and look
at the totality of the evolution of the Akwa
Ibom man or woman and juxtapose that with
what APC has done in four years elsewhere,
where APC governors are owing in some
states. I recall a director in one of the states
in Nigeria committed suicide. In some states,
the governors had to tell civil servants that
they’ll be paid in tranches. I have seen states
where wheelbarrows were commissioned as
projects, and the last I checked they were not
PDP states. I have seen a disengagement of
the central motivating impulse of the social
His disposition is
that the people
will return him
overwhelmingly, the
margin of victory in
2019 will be larger
than 2015
contract, and those states are not PDP. I recall
times before 1999 when I used to be very
downcast about the physical ambience of the
capital of my state, we were not inspirational,
and we were just conditioned by that subservient
mentality. Then PDP came in 1999,
Governor Attah gave a purposeful leadership,
handed over the baton to former Governor,
now senator Godswill Akpabio, he brought
about massive transformation, handed over
to Governor Udom Emmanuel; fantastic
expansion of transformation. The governor
also came up with the DAKKADA philosophy,
telling you; get up, do things differently,
you don’t have to fall back to conventional
wisdom. Wealth creation is not about doing
things the same way, it’s about looking at
things and proffering different suggestions.
The US would not have gotten to where it is
today if the people did not explore different
approaches to doing things. So given all what
PDP has done since 1999, and how Governor
Udom Emmanuel is consolidating and
expanding the layers, I don’t think Nigerians
Udom Emmanuel, governor, Akwa-Ibom state
and Akwa Ibomites in particular, would want
to try an experiment that has failed the nation.
I want to believe that President Muhammadu
Buhari is a democrat, he understands
democratic ethos and ideas, if PDP lost the
election in 2015 and Jonathan did not deploy
federal might, but conceded even before the
final votes were counted, I want to believe
that president Buhari, himself a patriot who
fought for this country, put his life on the line
for the unity of this country, he will not stand
in the way of any state, where the majority
of people have aligned themselves with any
political party. He will not stop their express
will from being respected. The president is
not that kind of person.
Looking at what people or even you may
be considering as maladministration, are
you seeing PDP returning to power at the
centre?
I am very optimistic, because Nigerians have become
exceedingly politically sophisticated; Nigerians now
have the capacity to distinguish falsehood and facts,
Nigerians political culture is deepening. Nigerians for
whatever reason they felt about Jonathan elected
Buhari, and Nigerians now are beginning to say “Oh
my God!”! Nigerians are now going through buyers’
remorse because the change they were promised has
not materialised. So there is no comparison, PDP is
a party of doers and it’s a known facts. PDP stands a
fantastic chance of reclaiming powers.
There are insinuations that Governor Udom
Emmanuel is actually underperforming due to
inherited debt burden from the immediate past
administration
Thank God you asked me that question, take a look at
the Punch newspaper of Tuesday March 20, 2018, on
the front-page, they have listed states that are debtor
states, Akwa Ibom state is not there, so, let people
stop manufacturing lies, let people go by facts, this
is from Punch.
Sometimes some media aides of the governor
actually go mudslinging in an attempt to respond
to critics of the administration, this goes against
your reported approach of letting facts judge.
Don’t you think their approaches may constitute
image burden?
Once you run a media relations unit, there may be a
majority opinion, and once in a while there may be
a tiny itchy bitchy little opinion that is slightly not in
consonance with the agreed narrative. So these are
universal things, it happens all over the world. But it’s
work in progress all over their world, but I am sure our
guys are doing their best.
What is the relationship between Governor Udom
Emmanuel and his predecessor, Sen. Godswill
Akpabio?
I’m surprised you asked that. The distinguished
Senate Minority Leader, Godswill
Obot Akpabio granted an interview recently
where it was massively circulated over the
social media, he said that he has the best of relationships
with his successor. Those rumour
are manufactured by certain entities to throw
banana peels, but nobody would step on it
because the two leaders are brothers who
have emotionally invested in the advancement
of Akwa Ibom State. The two leaders
are bests of friends.
In specific terms, what has this administration
done to make you think that the
governor would retain his seat come 2019?
Because people are saying that the industrialization
stories are only on papers.
So the syringe manufacturing industry is on
paper? Have you gone there to confirm this?
The metering solutions are on papers? Those
things are there! The same APC media apparatus
that put out all those things should
also ask some of their governors leading APC
states what tangible things they have been
able to establish. If you have a man that pays
workers’ salaries as and when due, a man that
pays regular pensions and gratuities, except
for those still on bio-metric processes. This is
a man that has published in National newspapers
all the lists of those he had paid pensions
and gratuities, you can go to the Accountant
General’s office and get the list. This is the
governor that the first task he performed as
governor was to clear the backlog of pensions
and gratuities dating back from 2001-2011,
he didn’t have to do that, he wasn’t the governor
as at the time, but as a product of parents
who were both teachers, he had to do that.
This is a man that won’t go to bed feeling happy
if workers’ salaries are not paid promptly.
He believes that a little thing as payment of
WAEC fee can determine the future of a child.
And the last event when he was endorsed by
fathers of faith, he sadly recalled his smart
but poor classmate whose parents could not
afford WAEC fee and whose education halted
because of that. So for a governor to budget
over N600m yearly for payment of WAEC
fees for children across the state, it means
that he wants a level playing level field for
all Akwa Ibom sons and daughters to aspire.
Let’s talk about the relationship between
the governor and the media in Akwa Ibom
State; we understand he hardly reads
newspapers
Where did you get that from? The governor
respects and adores and appreciates the media
community in Akwa Ibom State. Don’t forget
that corporate communication was part
of his responsibilities as Director at Zenith
Bank. He understands the role of the media,
the world of corporate communications and
media relations, so whoever told you that is
another manufacturer of pieces of junks.
How is it like, operating as an image maker
of the governor in a social media era?
The experience has been interesting and
exciting. Operating as an image maker or the
spokesperson to the governor in the age of
social media, where ethical considerations are
all but desirable proposition but not attainable.
Where somebody with a smart phone and an
Ekerete Udoh, chief press secretary
insidious thought process, somebody who
wants to intentionally and maliciously create
a public relation nightmare, can just manufacture
a piece of lie and throw it out there on the
social media and give it wings to fly and even
very intellectually astute people would believe
those kind of very obtuse and insidious as a
fact. So, that is the major challenge, but God
has also given us the presence of mind to be
able to handle those kinds of issues. But the
normal conventional media that you and I
belong to, the world of mainstream journalism
has been wonderful, I have had a wonderful
and very robust relationship with my brothers
in the media, and you guys have supported the
governor on your media. However, there are
certain areas that we disagree, but overall, I
would say it’s been pretty exciting. It means
I didn’t spend 32 years in journalism for nothing;
those years prepared me for moments like
these. The media terrain in Akwa Ibom state
has been very interesting; I think we are the
only state where it is fashionable in the part of
the country for some ’practicing journalists’
to ignore certain ethical foundations that you
and I were taught. In a state where there are
over 100 tabloids and publications whose
motivation may not be to edify the state or
to promote and project the ideals which this
state represents, but whose intention may be
to satisfy the ‘he who pays the piper’; somebody
gave you money to produce a paper and
tells you this is what I want you to put there,
front-page to back page, and the fellow is not
trained in the profession as you and I have
been, he is very likely to do certain things that
you and I cannot do. I think we are the only
state where journalists or people who pass
themselves off as journalists just take delight
in intentionally de-marketing the state to
satisfy a certain political interest, but so far, the
discerning majority of Akwa Ibom people have
the capacity to separate facts from fiction.
It is alleged that the government fraternizes
with the opposition media; that the
government is actually cuddling them in
order to curry their favor, while neglecting
the mainstream media. Don’t you think this
may motivate them to consider their trade
lucrative?
That is news to me, I am not aware of government
cuddling a particular layer of the media
community, but what government does is
to disseminate information using as many
media platforms as possible to project what
the governor is doing. If once in a while you
see certain things in some papers that may
be considered opposition, it goes with the
saying that if you want to catch a thief, you
use things that he likes to catch him. so if
somebody has been manifestly lying against
you, using a particular medium, and certain
people read those things, maybe once in a
while you need to tell the people the truth. But
I know I deal with media across lines, but I am
a stickler for professionalism, I try to operate
along those lines.
How have been able to leverage on the
emerging role of the social media in shaping
public opinion? Or do you see social media
as an aberration?
No! The social media is not an aberration, as
a matter of fact; that is the new frontier, and
any journalist worth his name and training
who has not actively come to terms with the
fact that the social media has come to stay
and it is shaping public opinion, shaping the
contours of governance, is possibly not ready
for prime time. But users have to create their
narratives and ensure that their voices are
heard in the cacophony of the entire crack
that makes up the social media platforms.
The president of the country that I lived for 17
years, Donald Trump makes use of the social
media, he tweets. And that’s a new frontier,
but the challenging part of it for image makers
is that the boundaries are expansive, you
can’t control, no restraint. But on the whole,
it’s a major platform that no responsible image
maker can discountenance.