This is the concluding part of a two part article. The first was published on 1 September 2026. The article X-rays Akwa Ibom State governments’ penchant for high cost but low utility projects for over two decades while majority of the people wallow in poverty.
The new stadium, named after the Senate President Godswill Akpabio, who built it, is said to have cost between $96 million and $250 million (this is a conservative figure. It is almost a state policy not to publicly disclose costs of public projects in the state), when it was built 12 years ago. The “world class” stadium (literally every government project is world class; whatever that means!) does not have a swimming pool, a lawn tennis court, practice pitches, etc. The 30,000 seater stadium has just the main bowl for football, and track and field; indoor facilities and massive parking lots.
Till now, the stadium has not generated enough funds for its maintenance; government always funds repairs and maintenance to host events. Left to fend for itself, the stadium would be history.
Worse, the 21-storey office complex the Udom Emmanuel government built is still largely empty because of lack of a thriving private sector economy in the state. The last time I was there, no more than three floors were occupied.
Imagine for once that this same building was at the Central Business District of Abuja or Victoria Island in Lagos. The state would have been netting about a billion naira a year on rent.
Which explains why I must commend governor Umo Eno for turning the governor’s lodge in Victoria Island into a high rise apartments complex. It ticks all the economic boxes. Obong Attah was the last governor to sleep there. A 2 bedroom apartment in Victoria Island goes for around N600M or a N30M rental value per annum. If well managed, the state will be getting a lot of money from the investment.
One cannot say the same about the ongoing Ibom International Hospital near Uyo. It is simply too sophisticated at this stage of the state development and will not serve 99 percent of its citizens. The Akpabio government built a state specialist hospital in Uyo and it was very well equipped. The hospital is still highly underutilized as most patients cannot afford the cost of medical care. Having to construct and equip another hospital even far more sophisticated than the specialist hospital is a misplaced priority; and certainly not for the majority of the citizens.
Currently, the most used (abuse is a better word because it is over used) hospital in the state is the federal government-owned University of Uyo Teaching Hospital. It is a tertiary hospital that handles minor cases because primary healthcare is not reliable.
Somehow successive governments have failed to address the problems of the majority of the people of the state despite abundant financial resources that accrue to the state every month.
Here is a response from an Uyo-based friend who read the first part of this article: “This was an exciting and insightful read! Successive governments of the state have managed to engage in wasteful white elephant projects, while neglecting the need to uplift the people. What happened to major investment in electricity? What happened to investment in critical areas of human development, education and health? What happened to developing the riverine areas and encouraging agriculture in these places and other rural areas? I am handling a building project in Iwere, in INI local government area. I know how the people bemoan the distance they have to travel to mill rice. What happened to setting up rice mills to encourage food production? The list is endless.”
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE
Below are some of my thoughts on the direction government should take to remedy the situation.
- Privatize Public Commercial Entities
The state government needs to put up for sale the commercial ventures aforementioned. It needs to do what the federal government did with its commercial enterprises since the late 1980s and early this century. First was to establish the Technical Committee on Privatization and Commercialization (TCPC) in 1988 ran by its first director general, Hamza Zayyad. It later became the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE). There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. The state should borrow the public enterprises privatization template from BPE as a guide.
Since the costs of setting up these companies were not competitive and with little economic motives, one should not expect to realize more than half the costs. It is still better than for the state to continue to fund them without deriving economic benefits. When they go to private hands, they stand a chance of being profitable, expand and employ more people. The saved public funds can be channeled into enhancing the welfare of the people.
- Human Capital Development is the Real McCoy
The future of the state is in the quality of its citizens.
- Invest Massively in the Education Sector
This deserves a stand alone article but suffice it to say that the standard of public education in the state is sub par. There is no one public primary, secondary or tertiary school in the state that is of national significance. If in doubt, how come the state is not trumpeting its investment in education? Why is it not showcasing its quality schools for the rest of Nigerians come and school in the state just as we showcase tourism and aviation? The reason government is not doing it is because there is nothing to showcase.
Our public schools are in shambles; there are no teaching aids; teachers are not only not trained for today’s world, they are ill motivated; most rural schools have inadequate teachers. Past and present governments prefer to employ hundreds of political aides to do nothing than adequately staff public schools. True, a handful of schools in some areas have been renovated; and in the rural areas, few breathe fresh paints. Given paucity of teachers, some persons and organizations “employ” auxiliary teachers to augment. The education sector in the state needs complete overhaul, and not the bandaid approach that has reigned for years.
- Healthcare is Real Wealth
We need to rescue the majority from lack of access to quality healthcare. One sure way of saving lives in the rural areas is to have frequent and sustained free mobile medical campaigns across the state. For our rural poor, access to doctors is a miracle talk-less of having them receive free treatments and medications. I have seen this firsthand.
Another way to deal with the health of the people is to have pipe borne water in most communities. It is a wonder that there is no community in the state has pipe borne water, something that was common in few urban areas in the 1970s and 1980s. Safe water drives away certain diseases, improves sanitation and saves time households (especially school children) spend in search of it. But the water board functions to produce anything but water.
- Light up our Homes
Under one year in power, the government of Obong Victor Attah started the Ibom Power Company in Ikot Abasi. 26 years after, many homes are still struggling with electricity shortages. Some villages have yet to know what this 17th century wonder looks like; some are lucky to have street solar lights but not in their homes.
It is trait listing the benefits of electricity in homes and businesses. It is not for nothing that another name for electricity is power! You’re powerless without it! I am aware that this is a national problem but the plank of my argument is that Akwa Ibom is too rich to still be where it is; that the funds are not being allocated in areas that lift the standard of living of the majority of the people.
- Develop the Rurals
Some parts of rural Akwa Ibom have witnessed good roads. But there are still many more areas that require low cost roads and culverts, dispensaries and other basic services. We need to stem the tide of rural-urban drift by encouraging rural people to stay back and cultivate the land by providing them with these basics.
- Back to the Farms
Akwa Ibom State lies within the mangrove and the rainforest belts. Everywhere is green. Some tree crops just grow on their own. The soil is very fertile. We have palm trees, rubber, cocoa, rice, cassava, cucumber, okra, corn and other crops in abundance. But yield per acre is very low because discarded planting methods still hold sway. The way our forbears farmed still subsists. Fish and other marine animals are in abundance. No modern agricultural practices and techniques are available on a large scale. Agriculture is still the major employer of labour in the state; but the state is not investing enough in a sector that guarantees jobs for the majority. It must make agriculture attractive to this generation.
4.Develop Entrepreneurs
Where are the private sector people in the state? Who are the exporters of our abundant agricultural produce? In which sector of the economy are we in the driver’s seat? What do the people who own multi billion naira homes in Shelter Afrique and Ewet Housing (Akwa Ibom’s Ikoyi and Victoria Island) do for a living? Where are their industries? In which sector of the country’s economy do Akwa Ibom people dominate?
Let’s even test it: of all the over 50 companies approved by the Dangote Refinery to participate in the company’s IPO, which of them is owned by Akwa Ibom people?
Literally everyone in the state works in the massive industrial complex called politicking. There should be a deliberate plan by government to o truly empower our people to become real entrepreneurs.
Until we work to raise the standard of living of the majority poor, the Dakada and the Arise agendas will only be rhetorics.
Esiere is a former journalist!
©️2026
