THE MANY SINS OF GOVERNMENT AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF IKONO LGA

THE MANY SINS OF GOVERNMENT AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF IKONO LGA

….As Ediene Ward 10 becomes the fontanelle

 Edet John

Ibianang Ediene, Ikono LGA, AKS

It is no more news whenever we wake each day to either be told in our radio stations or read in the social media how the good people of Ikono Local government Area has been subjected to different forms of inhumane treatments and neglects by government at various level of governance.

For the sake of the reading public who may not really understand who the people of Ikono are and their pride of place in Akwa Ibom State. There is no gainsaying that Ikono Local Government Area is the Ntippe Ibibio (i.e. the Cradle of Ibibio nation).  To put it differently, “Ikono LGA is the place of origin in which every other Ibibio speaking Local Government Areas in Akwa Ibom State and beyond were nurtured and protected in their earlier period of existence”.  

I am aware that someone, while reading through the headline will be asking, who is this government he is talking about? Is he also not part of the government? Please hold on and permit me to also use this medium to say that the term ‘government’, though has different meaning to different people depending on the context by which it is used, means “the group of people with the authority to govern a country or a State”. The term will equally be used while referring to the group of people who hold a monopoly on the legitimate use of force in a given territory (in our context, Nigeria).

It is always said in our local parlance that “eku ufok asekood eku ikot ndia ke esit ufok” meaning it is the rat within that always extends invitation to the rat without for a feast inside the house”. This been said, permit me to say that the many sins committed against the people of Ikono LGA couldn’t have been without the express permission of some of our sons and daughters who sees personal aggrandizement over the collective greatness of the LGA. And someone will be asking, what are these sins?

Permit me to take your mind back some years ago when Old Itu Road, a trunk A road connecting Ikot Ekpene, Ikono and Ibiono Ibom LGAs was the only major access road taking the people of  Abia, Imo and other states to and from Calabar, the then headquarters of the defunct Eastern Region. About 25 years ago, this road was left to rot and the only bridge which happens to be in Ikono LGA collapsed leaving the road abandoned by motorist.

Hope was rekindled sometimes few years ago when the road was awarded and reconstruction started. It will interest you to know that the Ikot Ekpene axis of that road was completed; the Ibiono axis is passable but the Ikono axis precisely at Ibianang and Edem Iyere communities was/is abandoned for over a decade now and still counting. No government at any level of governance care to know why it has to be so. 

May I also draw your attention to the schedule trending in the social media with the heading, “ROAD PROJECTS INITIATED AND COMPLETED BY THE PRESENT ADMINISTRATION AS AT DECEMBER, 2016” purportedly including CONSTRUCTION OF UYO AFAHA NKANG-IKOT NSEYEN-NKWOT, NUNG UKIM ROAD  as a road under construction. Let me state this here and now that that road was abandoned 4 years ago with about 0.5 percent work done on it. What gives us more concern is that the contractors left the road in a condition worst than it was before their mobilization.

I am writing this because I am pained by the unwarranted sufferings meted upon us by the very institution we gave our mandate to protect us. More worrisome is that, in all the atrocities committed against the LGA, the people of Ediene Ward 10 are the worst hit. Why?

It is our plea that the government of the day at all levels will come to our aid with the intention of ameliorating the plight of the people of Ediene in particular and the LGA in general.