Udom, first civilian governor to build power substations to boost electricity supply – Engr. Etido Inyang
Plenty heads were turned in surprise ten years ago when Engr Etido Inyang left his rewarding and influential role with Oil giants, Schlumberger Oilfield Services for public service cum politics, at the behest of then Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
Born on January 8, 1965, Inyang, as a proficient Civil Engineer with immense ability, skill and know-how had made loads of valuable impact in his chosen field, building a vibrant career at Schlumberger Oilfield Services and had sent tongues wagging considering his relative young age.
Since making the bold decision to quit the Oil Company in the interest of Akwa Ibom State in 2007, Engr Etido Inyang has without fuss fused a blend of effectiveness, trustworthiness, humility in public service and has managed to stay decent in his political life till date.
As Special Adviser in the Bureau of Technical Matters under Akpabio and then as Commissioner for Special Duties under Governor Udom Emmanuel, Engr Etido Inyang comfortably kept his head up and could easily be classified as one who was never found wanting in public service.
Now, as Chairman of Board of Ibom Power Plant, Engr. Inyang has slotted in smoothly and has been proving his mettle as far as piloting the highly regarded Power Plant is concerned. Since resuming as Board Chairman, Engr. Inyang has been spearheading the process of moving the Ibom Power Plant into phase two of production.
In this interview with a few newsmen, Engr. Inyang talked about the strides of the Governor Udom Emmanuel administration in respect of the Ibom Power Plant and why the governor is building power sub-stations in the state.
Talking politics, Engr. Inyang explains why his native Ikot Ekpene will vote for PDP in the general election despite the defection of Senator Godswill Akpabio to APC.
It’s vintage Etido Inyang: Suave, urbane and straight-talking.
Editor, Udeme Inyang was there for NEWS LINK. Read on:
The State is now 31 and Governor Udom Emmanuel has served for three years and some months, what are his major achievements?
Akwa Ibom State is 31 years with Governor Udom Emmanuel at the saddle of leadership. In each of the past administrations, you could see we had Military Governors and then democracy came and we had successive governments. We have achieved things that have helped build the State. But one thing stands out for Governor Udom Emmanuel. Since inception of Akwa Ibom State, all the industries we have had are what Cross River State have given us and done by Clement Isong. We came up to see history. We have not really seen any governance within that period that has taken us from groundbreaking to completion of industry. I will give it to His Excellency Udom Emmanuel. When he came, his five points agenda was clearly stated. We knew what he was coming to achieve. From Poverty alleviation, wealth creation, to infrastructure sustainability, political and economic inclusion. That goes to tell you that he had a vision of what to achieve. How were we faring economically? We were basically depending on oil, receiving money and sharing. In his eight years in office, by the time he finishes we will be like the Lagos State of this world which are not dependent on Federal Allocation. From his achievement so far, that is what I’m seeing. You could start counting the industries. It takes goodwill, resources and connections to get the kind of industries we have here. Why were we not having industries when we had economic boom? Yes, we had infrastructural development but this is very significant. This is for the youth. This is for the future. This is for sustainability. For me, he has created a niche for himself by creating industries.
You start from toothpick industry to the pencil industry. You start from small to big. These industries includes Metering industry to syringe industry. When he said we were going to have a Flour Mill and it will come up before 2019, a lot of people said he has come again but today, we have the factory standing. I’m sure by first quarter next year, we will have people come to line up their trucks to take the flour. That’s a major economic boost. If you look at the economic boost it will create from truck drivers, hotels or people that will sell food for the drivers, i mean the after effect of that flour Mill. Lagos used to have that and the economic base of Lagos State expanded because of that.
Take a look at the coconut factory that is being developed. It is not only coconut produced in Akwa Ibom State that will be refined there. People from neighboring State will bring their goods for it to be manufactured here.
And of course we are creating a vast economic base for the Ibom Deep Seaport. We are creating reasons why we need a deep seaport as well. Instead of those containers going back empty, they will be going back with goods for export.
Another thing we have brought to bear is making people see the importance of agriculture. Look at where we were. Even the awareness. Now, take for instance my family, we are planting, harvest and processing cassava for garri among other products from garri. We consume it, give it out to people.
You can remember that the Governor stood out there and promised that he was going to crash the price of garri. People that invested in garri have really realized that it has gone down. The same applies with rice. Expectation is that in the next one year, Akwa Ibom State will become a major rice hub. People working on it have already brought in a processing machine. These are areas that I will give the governor thumps up.
You know when planning for industries, you must prepare a power base, the power must be sufficient. That’s another thing he is going into. You can see it glaringly. Before now, we had only two substations developed. During the sharing with Cross River State, we got one station. After that, there was just another one substation. But today, Governor Udom has developed injection Substation and is constructing a major substation in Ekim that will serve five local government areas. These substations are strategic. People get confuse and say he is taking transformer to Ikot Abasi. That is going to be an injection substation with 1.30 MVA. This is about development of another injection substation. The injection substation at 4 lanes is 2 by 15 MVA. The one at Ikot Abasi is 1 by 30 MVA. The one at Ekim is 2 by 60 MVA which will serve five local government areas.
How is life without Senator Akpabio in PDP in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District? How confident is PDP in respect to the coming elections?
We will return the Governor first. Even Godswill Akpabio used to say four Senators are not equal to a governor. Ikot Ekpene has come out enmasse without any divided house and brought out HE the former Deputy Governor as a Senate Candidate for PDP. We have endorsed HE the Governor. We have moved with other political positions like the House of Assembly and House of Representative. Everybody is cooperative. Zoning is upheld. Where zoning is not done, we have streamlining. There has not been much rancour although in politics there will always be rancour but it is not the one that is tearing party apart. It is what when you talk to the other group they will accept. We are partnering and someone will have to speak up and it will be absorbed with discussion.
Pointedly, how prepared is Divine Mandate prepared to contend challenges that will come from the likes of Chief Sunny Ibanga, Uyo Nathaniel, Don Etim and others?
When we are talking about being prepared and able to contend, these people you have just mentioned are three people. The politics of today is about numbers and we are working on our numbers. There are very few that are having discontentment and we are engaging them, talking to them. If anyone is planning violence, we are going to plan politics of no violence. That is what will win the election for us. We will tell the Federal Government not to support violence or group of persons that are going to come up with violence. We are going to preach peace on the day of election. The days of carrying ballot boxes are over, but the number of people that will come out to vote, I am highly convinced PDP is intact. The very few strategy the opposition is using is to make noise. In PDP we are calm, we meet people, we go house to house ensuring we are not losing our people to opposition. We make sure they are okay and still with the PDP. We go for meetings. When you look at the faces, the faces show they are still intact.
We could recall that Stakeholders of Ikot Ekpene cried foul during the Local Government Election alleging that Don Etim stood alone to have his way prevail… Are you not concerned that such a man is no longer in your party?
You know the issue of Don Etim prevailing, that is not the story. If His Excellency did not want Unyime Etim to emerge, he would not have emerged. At that point, Ikot Ekpene people accepted it and that is why it went that way. It was not Don Etim foisting his will. It was His Excellency Udom Emmanuel that had to let it be. We didn’t even see Don Etim on the day of election. He was not there in Ikot Ekpene on the day of election. I was there. I was the person that anchored the election of Unyime to deliver him. Quote me anywhere. I had to even put a call through to him and to ask him where he was.
So far, the APC faithfuls have been bragging about Federal might. Do you think the APC Federal government will not resort to that on the day of election?
When the people are together that will definitely fail. We are working with the fact that PDP is still intact. Whatever is Federal might will not prevail because it is not only in Akwa Ibom that election will be held. It will be held simultaneously. So anybody that is coming with whatever will find out that PDP is intact. Election will be won by PDP and that’s what I know. But we are going to preach the gospel of peace and bring international community into understanding these are the possibilities and leave the rest to God. There is something the people are forgetting, the God factor.
There has been some cry by some people in Ikot Ekpene that they have not benefited from the current administration…Some are alleging that the Uyo- Ikot Ekpene road has been stopped, Four Points by Sheraton not operational. Some are lamenting about the lack of a flyover at the control post. Won’t that affect the chances of the Governor?
As an Engineer, I start with the flyover. I will not say flyover is not needed in Ikot Ekpene. But as at 2015 through 2018, control post does not need a flyover because of the volume of traffic. It is something you design and keep and when you see the volume you act. Look at the volume at Itam junction even at the main roundabout before 2007 when Godswill Akpabio came in and decided to give that because of the volume. There is one thing to use for aesthetics and the other one to be used for traffic jam. I was born and brought up in Ikot Ekpene. That is my village, I am from Atai Essien Ikot Ekpene. It is a major route through Aba, Calabar and Uyo. Ask anyone to give you the study of the ancient city… within that place, there has not been heavy traffic. Those are the indices that should be used to say let’s incorporate this or that.
First of all, we need a dualized road and with the economic situation, even the federal government they promised calabar -Aba road since 2015, they have put it in the budget, but they have not given even one naira for it to be started and you are putting pressure on the State government to come up with a dualized road. When that dualized road is done, which will be taken over by the Federal government, Federal Government will refuse to pay because it is not in the design of the Federal Government. This road is the sole responsibility of the federal government and not State Government. By State government intervening, it is for the people to help ease up traffic. What we need now is a major roundabout with traffic light and then a dualized road. When once you do that, you study it for the next five or 10 years then you now put your flyover when the traffic increases. So by the time HE Udom Emmanuel finishes, maybe from 2023 to 2031 where Akwa Ibom State will become a hub for major industries like the flour mill coming, you physically see people transcending this road and then it becomes a traffic issue, then you can now put up the flyover.
If you go to Ikot Ekpene today, His Excellency has done a lot. Julius Berger has advanced completely. The bottlenecks of payments of compensation and relocation of pools have been handled. They are going to concentrate at the control post where major drainage will be done to channel the water. When once that is done, the connection between that point, the motor park area, that will affect the hotel will be completed. I am sure by first quarter of next year, that will definitely be done.
For, the International market, we are engaging with investors. Investors are ready. His Excellency has approved compensation for land owners. When once these compensations are paid, investors will get into the land and develop the International market. These are the promises that he is keeping.
Please shed more light on the substations built by the governor…
We have two more injection substations and one substation. Another one will soon be built in Oron. There is a difference between injection substation and substation. Injection substation is to boost whatever is given by the substation to the people. The two substations we had before now were done by the Military administration. This is the first time a civilian administration has done a substation.
Talking about the election of the Governor, we see solidarity visits but how certain are you about the sincerity of your kinsmen that they will not betray the Governor?
There is one thing about human beings… you can’t read their hearts. However, so far, you have seen that the people that are not able to pretend are on the other side. For me , the people that are with us are 100 per cent with us. The solidarity visits are political. It is needed to ginger the system and bring about the subconsciousness of the people. There used to be so many solidarity visits to Godswill Akpabio. Second term is not gotten by a platter of gold. If you recall, Attah’s second term was not easy. Let us not forget what happened in this State. Godswill Akpabio’s second term was the worst heated. There were a lot of skirmishes and contending issues. It seems Akwa Ibom State tends to forget that in this State ,when Godswill Akpabio looked for second term, there was heated contention. There was even once we wanted to go for Federal constituency briefing and he had to calm down, re-strategize to reengage. And everyone said if you did not reengage by yourself, we would have lost the election. I still have that intact in my head. So second term is here again, there are challenges as normal. But from what His Excellency is doing, for me, he is on top of issues and he is going to win and win convincingly.
Recently, PDP brought in former Deputy Governor, Chris Ekpenyong to run against your Former boss, Senator Godswill Akpabio…Do you see him as someone who will emerge victorious at the polls?
When it comes to that level of politics, we are looking at PDP. As a party stalwart, I am wishing my party well. We are working towards ensuring PDP wins all the seats. There is no going back on that. I am a strong party man. We are not talking about winning only Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District. We are talking about winning all the senatorial seats. That is the intention of PDP and we are working towards that.
What has been your major achievement in Ibom Power Company?
Okay, I will summarize. I didn’t get into a green field. I got into a terrain that I know very well because sometime ago, I was a Director in Ibom Power. And I was a Special Adviser in that administration. So most of my jobs on technical right from supervising the company that was installing and having the first start of the generating system and all of that. It was a known terrain but over the years, things have gone really bad in the industry. Not only in Ibom Power but policies of government. Of course you know that is an institution that is led by the federal government. It is on the exclusive list. So you are pumping everything to the national grid. Payment is not coming and when it comes, it is not coming on time. 20 to 25 percent is made currently. So we are not getting the value of what we are using. We are using gas to start up. That has been a big challenge but be that as it may, we were nominated to go in there and see how we can change things and ensure things are straightened. So we look at how we deal with the community, technical issues and management. In terms of management, we have been able to restructure. We had a good head there, the MD, Engineer Meyen whom the Governor had put there before we came in. So I have been working with Engineer Meyen very closely to ensure we carry out restructuring of the management team to give us a better output.
And of course in Ibom power, if you compare Megawatts of power that we produce vis-a-vis the number of people that are being employed, it is mostly our people from Akwa Ibom that are there. Even when Federal government is not paying you, you don’t want to go into retrenchment. But you want to engage them for optimal output so that things that should be done are carried out by employees and not contractors to come and get that money.
And the technical situation is now arrested. We are dealing directly with most of the issues that are supposed to be dealt with by employees technically.
On managerial, we are now watching to see the restructuring we did to work out. In terms of the community, the community were not engaged even though the Chairman then from inception being the son of the soil. He was not engaging with their community. A lot of things should have been sorted out. But the Chairman of the Board, Nsima Ekere was not engaging with them and those things are throwing up now. So, when you hear people talk, I keep on reminding them that their own son was the head of the place and didn’t do much for them. But His Excellency, Governor Udom Emmanuel has engaged with the community. And there is a community development package that we are coming up with for the immediate and surrounding area. The issue of power has been a sour issue and that is why Governor Emmanuel has made provison for the development of the injection substation for the entire Ikot Abasi. We have engaged NERC and Ministry of Power. We have engaged the Minister of Power himself, the Permanent Secretary has been very supportive, for NIPP we have been working with them closely as a Board. And the fallout is beginning to come in, like the high tension cables that are supposed to evacuate power is not powered. Like the 2 KV lines that have not been completed throughout the years, they have promised that by half of next year it will be completed. The lines to Calabar and Aba, all of these are in top gear. Soon, we will ensure that we get these lines fixed so that we will be able to evacuate power. We are also working with one turbine over the years. Two are down. We are working to fix one immediately, the other will be fixed in the next one month. We have ordered for the equipment. These are the things we are doing. For optimal result, we are going to get more money for the value of what we have invested.
