In the last couple of days, following a story by an online publication where the reporter had questioned the rationale of the proposed 18-floor apartment building (Ibom Towers) on Aboyade Cole Street, Lagos, by the Akwa Ibom State Government instead of channeling such funds to provide food for the people, there has been a feeding frenzy by certain elements within the media space.
While this press release is not intended to join issues with the reporter who wrote the story, we are, however, constrained to put the record straight since the issue has unfortunately been politicized and several unsanitized and sensational angles drawn – predicated mostly by a herd mentality rather than rational, informed, and reasoned analysis of the rationale of such an investment by the government.
His Excellency, Governor Umo Eno, had, during the groundbreaking ceremony of a proposed Ewet Luxury Gardens – an upper middle class residential estate in Ewet Housing, Uyo, last Tuesday, July 16th, reemphasized his administration’s audacious plan to tap into the bullish Lagos and Abuja real estate markets, by converting hitherto state-owned moribund properties into commercial investments, to earn income for the State.
The Governor had, in his First Anniversary speech stated inter-alia that “we will undertake the construction of Ibom Towers, an 18-Storey commercial property on Aboyade Cole, Victoria Island, Lagos. This will serve as an income-earner for the state, in the nation’s commercial capital. We will also build a medium-density housing estate in Ewet Housing and sell the homes to high-income earners. A three-star hotel will also be built in Abuja where our current Liaison office is located.”
The reiteration of these great investment drives by the Governor, during the groundbreaking of the medium-density estate, in Ewet Housing touting his administration’s desire to play big in the Lagos and Abuja real estates respectively, should not therefore, be an issue where sensational narratives are being woven.
Here are the facts: Governor Umo Eno is a leader who thinks outside the box of conventional wisdom. He desires to increase the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR). He could do so by taxing the people, especially the elites who own homes in some of the choice locations in the state and the middle class and others, but he elected, in his usual people-centric ways to rather channel resources into other areas that will expand the streams of income available to the State.
The 18-storey proposed Ibom Towers will consist of thirty-one, one and two-bedroom flats, and business suites that would be sold to high-income earners and the proceeds sent to the state’s treasury.
Additionally, the administration will convert the current state Liaison office in Abuja Central Business District into a three-star hotel that will also, generate income to the state’s coffers.
The Governor, as a tested and successful businessman, should be celebrated for thinking ahead, rather than the current nattering by people who intentionally know the truth but rather elect to play to the gallery.
Governor Eno has been dubbed a “SAN-Senior Advocate of the Needy”. His story of rags to riches, of confronting debilitating adversities, overcoming them to become what he is today has been well chronicled. In his inaugural address, he told those who may be on the lower rungs of life, that he will be their champion and voice.
One year plus, since becoming the Governor, he has been the advocate for the downtrodden, the forgotten, the poor and the vulnerable. Today, every month, the elderly and the infirm receive 50 thousand naira monthly for their upkeep. Through the Bulk Purchase Agency and the free food voucher programme, over 100 thousand families have been touched. Also, AKWACARES, a programme that takes care of the neediest and those on the Social Register have impacted the lives of thousands of families in the State.
Today, over 20 billion Naira have been paid as gratuities for retirees in the state civil service, primary school teachers and retired local government workers. The Governor had augmented to the tune of five billion naira, the palliatives earlier rolled out by the Federal Government in the wake of the removal of the fuel subsidy.
Over 2 billion interest-free loans have been given to traders to expand their businesses and 500 thousand naira each given to 800 trainees of the Entrepreneurship Accelerator Programme (EAP) scheme run by IBOM-LED. Free medical outreach programmes have been conducted across the state where surgeries and other medical needs were undertaken free of charge to the patients, most of them, the most vulnerable.
The Governor has undertaken the construction of Arise Humanitarian Homes – a 2-bedroom housing scheme built, furnished and donated to the most vulnerable in each of the 369 wards in the state. This gesture has been celebrated all over the nation.
Yesterday, the State Government acknowledged the receipt of 24 thousand bags of 25kg rice sent in by the Federal Government in their effort to cushion further the effect of the high cost of staple food items in the nation.
Governor Umo Eno, true to his humanitarian disposition, has doubled the donation by the Federal Government with 24 thousand additional bags bringing the total quantity to be distributed to 48 thousand. Each of the gazetted 2,272 villages will receive 20 bags each. This is quite a laudable effort by the Governor. Plans are also underway to buy staple food items and store them in two 40-foot containers, to be distributed later to voucher holders from August this year.
Finally, while the media is free to do its job as the interrogator of government’s activities, we hope some of their interrogations would be products of reason, rationality and deep intellectual capital put into analyzing government’s actions, rather than playing to the gallery and the unfortunate celebration of a herd mentality.
Governor Umo Eno came to serve, to uplift, to challenge and galvanize our people to dream more, become more and Arise further and shine. He remains irrevocably committed to that vision, and nothing will distract him.
The 18-storey proposed Ibom Towers and the three- star hotel in Abuja are great investments that would guarantee solid income to the state government.
Like Ibom Air, which was attacked and described as a “ white elephant” project by the same herd of “ nattering nabobs of negativism” apologies to the late United States one time Vice President, Spirow Agnew, the proposed Ibom Towers and the three- star hotel in Abuja, will stand out as enchanting symbols of the continuous Rise and ascendancy of the Akwa Ibom identity when completed. Governor Umo Eno should be celebrated rather than pilloried.
Ekerete Udoh
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor
July 19, 2024
