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From Joe Effiong, Uyo
Despite the uproar generated by a sudden request for approval of a supplementary appropriation by Governor Udom Emmanuel, members of Akwa Ibom House of Assembly at their Monday plenary fell over themselves to hurriedly approve a loan request of N150 billion to the governor.
The thinking was that having attracted a lot of condemnation following the accelerated approval given the N45 billion supplementary appropriation, more than 90% of which is recurrent, the assembly would tarry a while to really scrutinize the loan request and possibly reject it.
But the state has been taken aback by the encomiastic verbalizations of the house members in their tortuous effort to justify the wholesale approval of the loan request.
Their rationalization for giving approval to the loan request sounded either absurd or funny or very unreasonable.
The legislative comedy began with the leader of the assembly, Mr Udo Kierian Akpan, who wholeheartedly justifying the approval of the loan, said; “The instrument the governor is asking for is not a loan. He has what it takes to create the money in the money market. When I read the news in the media, I approached the governor and asked him. He told me that he is not taking any loan. He told me, I swear to God, I am not taking a loan. ” What I am going to do is to create the money.”
“He is a banker. He knows how to create money from banks. He knows how to get financial instruments sorted out. He has what is available to use as something to create the money. Having said that he is not taking a loan, I believe we should allow him to raise the money.,” Akpan said.
On his part, the former speaker of the House of Assembly, Mr Aniekan Uko, said; “The explanation from the governor is very clear on where he is going to get this money and the projects this money is going to address. One thing we should know is that no leader will want to allow the projects he embarked upon to become abandoned. I am a case study.
“There is a project I tried constructing in my constituency. If I have the liberty to write to the House of Assembly to give me leeway to get money and complete the project, Mr. Speaker, I will do. I want to say, on behalf of Ibesikpo Asutan State Constituency, I stand to say that I am in total support of His Excellency’s completion agenda. On that, I support the request so that the Governor can complete his projects.”
The deputy leader of the house and chairman house committee on information, Mr Aniefiok Dennis said: “Having listened to the explanation made by the Leader of the House, Rt Hon Udo Kieran on the need for us to approve the request, by the requirement of Order 1, Sub-rule 13 of the Standing Orders of the House, it requires that anytime the Leader speaks, I must support it. So, I call on the House to support the request.”
Obong Godwin Ekpo representing Ibiono Ibom State Constituency would not waste words on a lot of reasoning. He simply said; “Whether it is loan, instrument or anything, the federal government is still collecting loans. For the mere fact that it is attached to projects, I support it. The governor has said he must complete all his projects. Our duty is to support His Excellency.”
It seems every member was eager to speak and point to an uncompleted project in their constituency. Charity Ido representing Ukanafun said; “I align myself with all the former speakers that this request is in order. I want to add that considering the fact that His Excellency, the Governor is a great leader and an Accountant, he knows what he is doing. He is a leader of no mean repute; he can’t lead us astray.
“As an accountant, I want to say we have to ensure we support the governor to leave the State better than he met. Considering the fact that I am from Ukanafun and we have an uncompleted General Hospital in Ukanafun, I know part of this money will be used to complete that project. Mr. Speaker, I have the mandate of my people to support this request totally.”
The preponderance of opinion in the state is that both the heavily recurrent supplementary appropriation and the loan, are all instrument of making money not only to use for the general election, but more importantly, to railroad the Udom Emmanuel’ anointed gubernatorial candidate into PDP primaries victory, while members of the state assembly seeking another term or higher positions would also receive not just the governor’s nod, but also some financial backing for their campaign.
