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Tag: #Agba Jalingo

Embracing The Reality Of Dwindled Popularity BY AGBA JALINGO

At the thanksgiving mass in honor of Justice Emmanuel Agim, on his elevation to the Supreme Court, at the St. Patrick Catholic Church in Calabar yesterday, Governor Ayade, after launching the 2022 harvest theme and donating N25m, reportedly told the Bishop, John Ayah, who came from Uyo to Calabar that, “Before you depart for your station from Calabar, I will whisper to you.” A euphemism for “I will send money to you.”

And Bishop Ayah replied: “Kindly add the whisper to the salary of your workers and pay them, I don’t need it.” And the congregation spontaneously sprang up and gave the Bishop a standing ovation. As governor Ayade navigates his remaining 294 days in office, there is abundant chances that many more of those kinds of situations will repeat themselves. Whether in the church or village playground or even campaign grounds, he will be booed in many places publicly and with more audacity.

Whether those who work with him tell him the truth about the reality outside the security wall around him or not, honestly speaking, a greater majority of Cross Riverians are unhappy with governor Ayade. Even on his own verified Facebook page, they aren’t sparing him there with invectives whenever he does a new post. Even his own appointees are some of his most acerbic critics then they come out to praise sing him.

While this turn of events and trend should not be encouraged or pampered, it can also be argued that it is becoming inevitable because it is difficult to point to anything that Governor Ayade has done that is functioning effectively. The governor should rather realize now that people are tired of his big grammar and his public drama. It used to sound like music in their ears when they still thought things will change under him.

His songs and shoki dance steps used to ‘ginger’ the crowds. The town used to be grounded and emptied into the airport when he returns from his frequent trips. Now he doesn’t get up to a dozen welcomers. He should also stop thinking that people will continue to genuflect when he mentions money in those public events. They are building their hopes on the next person already. The Governor has to search for urgent results to showcase to a frustrated population. Everytime he has a public outing henceforth, he has to find and point to what he has done that is working and stop the propaganda about he has built this and that, which have all never worked.

Until he can show functional results no matter how minimal, he should expect more public hostility even from unexpected quarters as his days in office get thinner.

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.

August 8, 2022
Learn, Unlearn, Relearn Everything…. BY AGBA JALINGO

We learn everything we know how to do because we arrived here only with an empty disc. Not knowing how to even crawl or walk. Even the crying we arrive here with, is learnt here. It is a product of the fear that overwhelms us on arrival in a strange environment. When we arrive here, we begin to learn. We are told by those who arrived here before us billions of years ago, through their customs and traditions, their writings and arts and other forms of legacies that, this is this and that is that. We begin to accept and assimilate what we are learning into our empty disc. As our senses continue to perceive, our disc too begins to populate itself with the things we are learning. The disc is also equipped with capacity to refuse saving some files it detects to be corrupted with malware.

But as the disc keeps filling it’s space, when there is no more space again, some of the saved files will have to be unlearneds the disc can relearn or better put, accommodate new files. In other analogy, it’s like having grown to become a student, you progress to become a teacher too someday, and grow to become a professor in what you are teaching and begin to profess. You have learned, unlearned and relearned. You become an authority because you can now propound your own prognostications arising from your own research and proven ideas.

Today, I believe in God not because any person or any book or any philosophy told me so. Yes I was told all my life that there is God. That Christ is the only way to God. I was told about the angels and devil also, as well as heaven and hell. I have also read about the esoteric concepts of the universe and the cosmic. But as I grew up, I climaxed by doubting the existence of God.

I challenged everything that told me earlier that there is a God and wanted to believe that there is God only if it was from my own personal conviction based on my experience in my sojourn in this world. I wasn’t asking for evidence. I was unlearning. In that course, simple things both in life and in nature, that will not even matter to you or someone else and even the big things that are unimaginable and inexplicable became part of my awe-ing experience.

I began to relearn that there is a “something” that is remotely controlling the affairs of this green planet and the rest of the stars. That thing is greater than all things perceivable. It is my conviction now. I don’t see God through the eyes of anyone again. Not Mathew, not Mark, not Luke, not John, not Paul, not Mohammed, not Buddha, not Jesus etc. I see God through my eyes. Through the simple things that astound me. I have relearned.

I learnt all my life that Mongo Park discovered River Niger. I have unlearned and relearned that too. I learnt that the devil is black and the angels are white, I have relearned and unlearned that too. I learnt that “Ojuju Calabar” is coming and will run under the bed, I have also unlearned and relearned that too.

In this life, there is nothing that cannot or should not be learned, unlearned and relearned. Including questioning the existence of God, your nativity, your belief systems. Question taboos, poke your fingers in the eyes of age long cliches and paradigms. Don’t swallow anything hook, line and sinker, including what you are reading now, unless it is born out of conviction based on your own experience. The truth is that heaven will not fall if you do. Even if it does fall, it won’t fall on your head alone.

Good morning.

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.

January 21, 2022
Bye-Bye To Governance, Welcome To Politics… BY AGBA JALINGO

2022 has arrived with the expected political declarations to take power next year, and aspirants are all hitting the roads and combing the rusty clefts they abandoned in the last four years and oiling them for power grab. The people too are making a kill, feasting from the spoils of the quadrennial rendezvous of their cap-in-hand expectations which they must remit, every year preceding election.

The casualty of this melodious reunion is governance. It will come to a stand still. All over the country, the table has turned. It will all be politics until the end of the 503 days remaining. Even when this moment hadn’t come, it wasn’t as if anyone was governing us. What will now change is that, even the skeletal public services that can still be accessible now, will all be diverted into how to grab power come 2023.

In Cross River State, which is my specific interest, Governor Ayade’s tenure as far as governance is concerned, has effectively ended. It is election and handover date that are remaining. Let me be clear that even the governor does not realize what I am saying now and will not agree with me either. He will read this and laugh at me but I will explain. It will not be his will to abandon governance, if he was ever governing, but the sequence of events henceforth will so distract him that he won’t even be able to remember his regular work schedules.

You see the same way the tussle by Governor Imoke in 2014 to plant either Legor Idagbo as governor or allow Jedy Agba have his way or find an Ayade to later replace Legor, distracted Imoke to the point where even garbage could not be evacuated from Calabar, that is how the horse trading, intrigues, and politicking in the months ahead will distract Governor Ayade. Both from the opposition PDP and from within his own party, the APC, the contending interests will ensure every of his remaining days and nights are filled with scheming over who will get what in 2023 and nothing else. While the PDP will keep him busy in the State, some of his own party members who will be opposed to his choice and will want to lobby for the governorship ticket from their national headquarters, will force him to relocate to Abuja to fight for his political future.

Don’t also forget that the Ogoja/Yala federal constituency by-election, a very crucial win-or-mar election for the Governor, is still underway, later this year. And the worst of it all is Governor Ayade’s Presidential ambition. That is not just a major major project and final distraction from governance, it will be a primary conduit to fritter the little resources of our State by an excited governor. His exco, his legion of appointees, the entire government will collapse into that ambition. He is just waiting for the APC National Convention to hold before he joins the fray.

All the talk about completing the airport, super highway, deep sea port, cala this and cala that, rice mill and chocolate factory and all that long list, have all gone into voice mail. He will continue to mouth them and continually refer to them in his public speeches and that’s where it will end. They will window dress them periodically to score political points like they did with calachika during the Yuletide season and when the primaries come in August or thereabout, officials will start telling you government is a continuum, so the next governor will do the needful.

This will not only happen to Governor Ayade. Even our national and state assembly members will suffer same fate as well as the LG chairmen. They will put governance in the limbo. They will stand akimbo. Interestingly, the people won’t bother. Because the politicians are busting bundles this season. The people will think the bundles are good governance and as far as the bundles continue to rain in the various marathon political meetings that will be holding, it will suffice for the people as good governance.

I thought it was important to let you know this. That in the remaining 503 days to May 29, 2023, it is bye bye to governance and welcome to politics. Cut your expectations if you still had any, and save yourself a heart.

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.

January 11, 2022
In Akwa Ibom, Free Education Comes At A Grave Cost BY AGBA JALINGO AND JONATHAN UGBAL

Ahead of the yet-to-be announced resumption date for public primary and secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State, discordant tune trail the more than a decade old free and compulsory education directive of the State announced by the Godswill Akpabio’s administration.

CrossRiverWatch visited the State’s capital city, Uyo and its environs to get the pulse of the people and all may not be well as parents, teachers and experts differ in opinion on what impact the policy has had on the the education sector since it went into force in the 2008/2009 academic sessions.

Common Knowledge…

“Uncommon Transformation” may have been a popular phrase with Mr. Akpabio as Governor, but, the directive of free education is common knowledge.

“I no gree finish school o, na waste of time abeg,” said a tall, dark lanky fellow with brownish teeth and sunken eyes at the Ibom plaza, who wondered whether one of these reporters was a policeman inquiring whether he heard about the free education policy of the State. He was loading mini buses ferrying passengers to Abak road and kept screaming that after Secretariat junction was no longer 50 Naira.

“The people wey dey government, how many of dem go school? No be di one wey dey Abuja dem tok say him no go school,” the fellow said in apparent reference to Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari who is widely perceived in southern Nigeria to not have a certificate despite the Nigerian constitution outlining that the minimum to run for President is a First School Leaving Certificate or “it’s equivalent.”

“Yes, I am aware, and we have not been paying fees,” Itorobong Ibangha, a petty trader opposite the Primary School at Use Offot, along Nwaniba road said.

No Free Lunch – An Intervention, Not Extortion…

Despite teachers and parents acknowledging that education was free, pupils and students still pay sums ranging from NGN500 per term to over NGN6,000, this findings revealed.

These sums were for different reasons ranging from “intervention,” to uniforms and foolscap sheets for examinations among others.

For instance, at the Government Technical School, Ewet in Uyo Local Government Area and the Government Primary School Afaha Ube, Itam in Itu Local Government Area, students and pupils pay NGN500 every term for what parents said was “intervention fee.”

The same was for the Primary School along Oron road, the one at Use Offot and the Government Secondary School at Urruan Local Government Area.

At, Uyo High School, the cost is higher.

“We pay for uniform. They will give you belt, give you socks, and uniform,” Mrs. Akai (surname withheld for editorial reasons) whose grandchildren attend the school said. She spoke in pidgin most of the time and is contemplating the withdrawal of the children to another school due to the costs and issues of gangsterism.

According to her, “We pay NGN6,100 for uniform because it is branded. For the girls, it is NGN6,500. You buy foolscap sheets for examinations and often end up buying locker (desks) for them too and that is about NGN6,000 too. At the end, you still register WAEC (West African Examinations Council) and NECO (National Examinations Council) too.”

Despite all these, she insisted that education was free as they were not paying school fees.

Also, for Ntiense, a store owner, so long as it was not called school fees, it is not school fees.

All respondents say they were not issued any receipts when payments were made with the teachers responsible often writing down names in books to identify who had paid or was yet to – a scenario that could give room for corrupt practices.

Free Tuition, Not Education…

But, not all agree that there is free and compulsory education in the State.

Inibehe Effiong, a legal practitioner who attended public schools in Akwa Ibom State says there is nothing like free and compulsory education in the State.

“The problem I have is that you keep saying free education. There is nothing like free and compulsory education in Akwa Ibom State. My assessment is that the best way to describe the policy is that, it is a free tuition policy,” Effiong said.

He insisted that there was no free and compulsory education and queried why parents and guardians will have to pay anything at all if there.

“As long as the Government does not do the needful, there is nothing like free and compulsory education. Unless, you want to tell me that all there is to education is tuition then if you have free tuition you have free education. But, education is not only about tuition and journalists will have to learn that and say it as it is,” he added.

Tijah Bolton-Akpan, the Executive Director of Policy Alert, a civil society organization agrees with Mr. Effiong.

“At best what we have is a free tuition policy as there is no actual policy document guiding implementation. Yes, the State has a Universal Basic Education Boards which is in line with the Universal Basic Education policy at the national level. But, there was and there has been no document to guide the implementation. The only thing that comes close to that is the Child Rights Law which has provisions prohibiting children being out of school or children of school age being out of school.”

He averred that the State was not sincere in its approach to ensuring public education was really free and efficient as the budget implementation report indicted the State on this.

His position was echoed by the former Chairman of the State’s wing of the Nigerian Union of Teachers, Comrade Etim Ukpong who in December 2019 claimed that the State had not paid the subvention for five terms which meant at least three academic sessions (2017/2018, 2018/2019 and 2019/2020) were affected.

Teachers Keep Mum…

During a recent visit to the schools, teachers kept mum and kept referring questions to the ministry of education.

At some point, one of the reporters visited the Government Technical, Ewet and Uyo High with people posing as admission seekers to get more details.

At Uyo High, a man at the entrance said students were writing examinations and so only external invigilators were allowed in the school as no staff of the school was around despite taking a call and informing the person that the principal “dey for office.”

At Government Technical, the Vice Principal, Emmanuel Akpan, declined an interview and when pressed further for more information, said: “I believe the Principals and head teachers are meeting the Permanent Secretary to know what we are to do as we are opening for a new session.”

But, A Curtailed Outburst…

However, A female Teacher who pleaded anonymity but agreed to be recorded, averred that; “One may not agree that there is free education which I understand because students still buy lockers, they are still made to pay for different things like examination sheets, intervention among others.”

The teacher questioned what extortion actually meant as the hands of teachers and school administrators were tied.

“What exactly is extortion? So, I ask a child to buy textbook as a literature teacher or pay so we can get from Aba (a commercial city in neighboring Abia State) and that is me extorting the child. Why? Because Government has not provided that. How do I teach physics or mathematics without practice books?

“Every now and then, you will see on AKBC (Akwa Ibom Broadcasting Corporation) that they have donated 100 lockers or books and it is not enough. For instance, in my school, they brought a few dozen desks for a school with a population of about 1,500! What you then get is that there are fewer facilities to handle the students which gives rise to the gangs and trouble you see in schools that is now called cultism,” the teacher said.

In a similar note, Ukpong, in that interview had posited that, “when you go to town blaming teachers for collecting this and that, have you also forgotten that you have not addressed those fundamental areas?”

Bolton-Akpan explained the concept behind the intervention which was supposed to be paid by government but has now been transferred to the pupils.

“During the (Governor) Akpabio’s administration, physical investments was there and there was also subvention which was NGN100 for primary school (pupils) and NGN300 for secondary school (students). This was a budgetary provision to support the free and compulsory education program so that parents will have to pay anymore.

“The money was supposed to be used to cover expenses by the school. But, over the years there has been corruption over how these monies were budgeted and spent,” he explained.

But, the payments, as earlier stated, was stopped and it was agreed that students should pay NGN500 to aid the school’s management.

Different Layer’s…

But, even when these monies were paid consistently, Bolton-Akpan says there was some layers of corruption.

“The first was that despite been budgeted, the State was not releasing these sums with no explanation what it was used for. The second is that the teachers collected these sums and did not apply it the way they should be as the embezzled such and the third layer is that heads of schools inflated enrollment figures in registers to collect more monies from the government,” he said.

When asked if these could be verified, he said that one could easily walk into any school and compare the figures of students in the registers with those that attend
classes as well as write exams.

This could not be achieved and these reporters relied on data available in the public domain.

For example, according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, the number of people who completed secondary school in 2016 in public schools was 46,886. These set were admitted in the 2010/2011 session with data from the State Secondary Education Board showing that 321,123 people were admitted into different classes with 61,880 admitted into JSS1 which means at least 14,994 who were admitted into JSS1 did not sit for the SSCE.

In 2017, the figure of those who finished public secondary schools dropped by over 21,000 to 25,838. Meanwhile, 64,707 were admitted into JSS 1 out of the 341,809 enrolled in the 2012/2013 session. The admission was almost 3,000 more than that of the previous session but the difference in those who sat for SSCE in the 2016/2017 session and those who were admitted rose to almost 39,000.

However, this did not prove entirely, Bolton-Akpan’s claim.

Uncommon Perimeters, Common Inside…

Following concerns raised by an investigative series published by Premium Times, the Akwa Ibom State government organized an education summit in 2019 where the decision to erect perimeter fences for public schools was made among other resolutions.

“There is this inter ministerial direct labour projects that cuts across different ministries of government and part of the resolution was that it should be focused on education and like you said, you have seen the perimeter fencing among other things. So, there has been an improvement from what it was when we published that story,” Cletus Ukpong, the regional editor, South South and South East for Premium Times who undertook the investigation said.

He, however said that while the physical structures like perimeter fences was an improvement given the security situation in the country, one could not state exactly whether the soft infrastructure such as “the libraries, classrooms and laboratories were in order.”

And, Bolton-Akpan, reiterated this. “How much investments has government done? The position of the civil societies and the citizens is that government’s investment should be commensurate to the verbal pronouncement. What we have seen in the past years has been continuous decline in capital investments in the education sector.”

According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics enrollment data for 2017, there are 250 public schools which was a slight improvement from the 241 recorded in 2016. But, there was about 400 percent hike for private schools which moved from 87 in 2016 to 488 in 2017.

And, Mr. Effiong said this was a deliberate attempt by public office holders and their cronies to frustrate the public education system. This, according to him was evident in the fact that many private schools were owned by family members of past and current public office holders.

Also, while the perimeter fences in many schools visited were aesthetic, the structures inside were failing with many schools having fewer facilities than the number of students, real or bloated.

The former NUT Chairman, lend credence to these during his earlier stated interview.

“The free education came in and all the persons who did not have the hope of going to school are now in schools and most of them don’t have direct sponsors, not in terms of school fees anymore. But, who buys uniforms? As basic as that. Who buys the first set of books? Who buys pen or pencil, not even talking about the whole math set for that child going to school and the government doesn’t provide these one,” Ukpong said.

However, the News Agency of Nigerian had earlier in 2021, reported that the education commissioner, Idongesit Etiebet said the State spends NGN1.5 billion annually for external examinations.

The report, however, failed to state where she made this claim and where the monies were applied.

Government Remains Mute…

Several efforts to reach the State’s commissioner for education, Mrs. Idongesit Etiebet failed. At least six calls on three different occasions to her known telephone number were neither picked nor returned.

Two text messages were neither acknowledged nor replied. Messages sent on WhatsApp were read by her and neither acknowledged nor replied.

Two visits for two consecutive days to the Ministry of Education headquarters in Uyo did not yield any result as staff said she could only be seen by appointment.

September 3, 2021
Our First Teachers Were All “Illiterates” BY AGBA JALINGO

I am a contributor to “Student Assembly,” an international online resource hub for both students and teachers. There are a lot of curious and contemplative students and teachers who constantly bombard the hub with questions, some of which inspired my earlier post this morning, that it is illiterates that taught all educated people.

Who was the first teacher?

Did they have schools back in medieval times?

What was the first textbook?

WHO TAUGHT THE FIRST TEACHER?

A popular ‘philosophical’ question for students, the idea that the first teacher must have been taught by someone or something is a prevalent concept. And it makes sense: everyone learned from somebody, right? Aristotle was taught by Plato, Plato was taught by Socrates, Socrates was taught by a man named Prodikos, and Prodikos was for sure taught by some unknown Greek philosopher.

But what about the first, ever teacher?

Well, while we may never know who the first real ‘teacher’ was, we could infer that the person who taught the first teacher was himself a self-learned academic and/or philosopher of some sort, sharing his or her knowledge to an eager proto-student, who would go on to teach his or her own proto-students, until they were able to shamble together a proto-curriculum, and over time, were able to produce great minds who would teach Prodikos, who would teach Socrates, and so on, and so forth.

Of course, if we were to believe Greek mythology, it was the god Chiron who taught the first teacher. Chiron was known for his abilities to impart knowledge. In fact, most mythologies answer the question who taught the first teacher by providing some form of god or goddess of knowledge as the source of the first school lesson.

WHO INVENTED SCHOOL?

We have an idea of who invented college, but who invented the concept of a ‘school’ in the first place?

Well, that depends on your concept of what a ‘school’ is: if you mean school as in a collection of eager young minds learning from a teacher, then we can, again, look to the Greeks. It was Plato who invented a type of school called the Academy, named after the mythical hero Akademos, and is a term we still use today for institutions that offer lessons and courses on specific subjects in the hopes of expanding a person’s mindset and knowledge base.

But if you want someone to blame for all the times you had to wake up early to go to school, then look no further than Horace Mann. Horace is credited for creating the modern American educational system during his stint as Secretary of Education back in 1838 when he outlined his ideas for a ‘modern’ educational curriculum in his Common School Journal. From there, States took notice and started applying a lot of Mann’s ideas, like how education must be a public industry (meaning taxes should be used for it) and that all Americans, regardless of age, creeds, or colors, should be given access to education.

WHAT WAS THE FIRST TEXTBOOK?

Again, it was the Ancient Greeks (and also, the Ancient Egyptians) who first thought of the idea of creating textbooks that students can all learn from. Plato and other philosophers of his time would write down their philosophies in long scrolls and pass it on from student to student. It wasn’t until the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg that mass production of books became possible, and with it, the mass production of textbooks. One of the first textbooks to be mass produced and distributed was Ars Minor , a book on basic latin grammar written by Aelius Donatus.

In America, the first textbooks to be used were the Bible, since education was primarily religion-based. However, the first academic textbooks to be used en masse were the 18th century New England Primer and the 19th century McGuffey Reader. The New England Primer was a reading guide that sought to develop children’s reading skills and comprehension by using select texts from the Puritan bible. Meanwhile, the McGuffey Reader was a textbook that included lessons in phonetics, mathematics, and theology, and was used to help students attain a more holistic education that wasn’t entirely based on religion.

DID ANCIENT PEOPLE HAVE VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS?

Not exactly, the ancients had a master-apprentice system that involved an aspiring artisan living and working closely with a master craftsman. In medieval Europe, this became a widespread practice for most people who were involved in some form of artistic discipline (e.g. painters, philosophers, writers, etc.) or some kind of vocational job (e.g. carpenters, stone masons, etc.) that required them to learn hands-on from an experienced teacher.

In those days, an aspiring artisan would first learn all the basics of their craft from a local tradesman. Then, the artisan is encouraged to go out and travel and seek out other masters to learn from. During this period of their learning, the artisan is known as a ‘journeyman’, and he is encouraged to live, work, and be as close to his master as possible. Once the journeyman learns from a specific master, he is given a written certificate, kind of like a diploma, which he can then use to prove his abilities to the next master that he learns from. Over time, and after learning from several masters, a journeyman can approach his local trade Guild, where he is tested by other masters in his craft. If the journeyman passes the test (usually by creating or crafting their obra maestra or master work), he is then conferred the title of Master, and can then pass on his knowledge to other journeymen or take on apprentices of his own.

While some scholars point to the University of Timbuktu, UNESCO records and the Guinness Book of World Records, claim that the oldest university on earth is the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco. Founded in 859 AD, the school started out as a madrasa, a type of educational institution popular in the Arabic world. Its founder was a scholar called Fatima al-Fihri, and while she didn’t go to college, she was an expert in Islamic jurisprudence and the Hadith.

My point with all these random thoughts is that, apart from the scholarly reputation and pride of certificates that the aristocrats want to preserve, it is very very mendacious to claim that professorship and doctorates or even certificates are the hallmark of thinkers for the world. Infact, those calibrations are relatively new creations and still rely on the knowledge that was invented centuries and millennia ago by “illiterates” in caves and secret chambers, to earn their prestigious laurels.

I dare say that, if “illiteracy” is what it is defined today by the prideful aristocratic class, then every educated person is a product of the unblemished thoughts of the illiterate.

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.

July 21, 2021
ECOWAS Court Awards N30million Against Nigerian Govt For Illegal Detention And Inhuman Treatment Meted Out On Agba Jalingo

ECOWAS court in its judgment just awarded N30million against govt of Nigeria for illegal detention and inhuman treatment meted out on Agba Jalingo

July 9, 2021
Hon. Legor Idagbo ‘s 122Million ICT Constituency Project In Obudu BY AGBA JALINGO

Out of the three projects that were brought to the fore yesterday as facilitated by Hon. Legor Idagbo, the member representing our federal constituency, (Obudu/Obanliku/Bekwara), in the House of Representatives, I take the liberty to look at them one after the other. Charity begins at home as they say, so today, I will begin from my home, Obudu.

The execution of an NCDMB ICT Center in Clement Ebri Technical School in Utugwang, Obudu was awarded to, Kresto Paco, a company based in Abuja on September 25, 2020 at a sum of N122,841,325. The work was to be completed in six months from the contract award date.

There is a video attached here and photos of the project. We have visited the project site and observed on the spot that:

1. Two classroom were collapsed into a bigger space, from an already existing block of eight classrooms.

2. That space was then renovated and painted and fitted with chairs and tables.

3. Thirty one flat screen desk top computers have been fitted in the room also.

4. Two split unit air conditioners, solar panels, inverter, two dishes, are also installed.

5. There is also a 20kva generator.

6. There is an aluminum partition inside the room with three cubicles.

7. A projector and screen are also fitted.

Accessing the inside of the center was quite difficult because the place was still locked up possibly because it hasn’t been commissioned. But we eventually did.

My Thoughts:

Apart from other things I am known for, I am an ICT Entrepreneur. I have been doing that business for over a decade. Even with a casual eye view, I can cost everything in that room in 30minutes, but I will come back to that later.

Meanwhile, let me ask our Representative Legor, if you gave someone N122million Naira to build you an ICT Center in your personal school you are building in Abuja and you return after six months to see exactly what you have in Clement Ebri Technical College in Utugwang, will you accept and pay the contractor?

I ask that question because, as our Rep, you are expected to inspect the project and clear the contractor with a satisfactory report before the company can be paid. What report did you write for the company after completion of work?

What exactly is the ICT Center meant to achieve?

What is the utilization plan?

What was the thinking behind it?

Is it just going to be a regular business center for secretariat jobs?

Was the NCDMB contract just meant to renovate a classroom and buy 30 computers and put inside like artifacts or is it going to be an IT innovation center where solutions will be created?

Who was carried along, because apart from party stalwarts, even stakeholders in the community who you will think should have been abreast of the project were all feigning ignorance?

There is only one JAMB CBT Center in Obudu/Obanliku, located inside the FCE Obudu. Should our people continue to travel that distance to write JAMB after investing 122million in an ICT center in Utugwang?

More and more rural communities across the globe are getting access to faster Internet and using it to change their fortunes and the way they live. Tesla CEO, Elon Musk is aiming to bring high-speed Internet to largely rural areas. Most of Musk’s Starlink Internet potential customers are in rural areas outside of urban centers. Eager communities are funding these initiatives through Rural Digital Opportunity Funds, paid for by small fees on cell phone bills as part of an effort to get Internet service providers to bring broadband to them to catch up with a rapidly progressing world.

If we now have the luck of getting government funding to achieve these targets, it is only wise and proper that we ensure the funds and judiciously utilized to that end.

This is my Constituency and I won’t keep quiet. We will look at the other two projects in the coming days.

I am doing this, conscious of the fact that I have also raised public money to repair a court in Ogoja and will want to be held by the same standards.

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.

Disclaimer: The opinions in this article are strictly that of the author, Agba Jalingo and does not represent The Lumine News or the organization the author works for.

March 31, 2021
No Drinking Water In Ayade’s Village But He Wants To Plant ‘King Grasses’ For Cows, To Solve Farmers/Herders Crises In Nigeria BY AGBA JALINGO

Governor Ayade is from Kakum village. Let me give you an abridged quote from his fellow Kakum man.

“It is sad that despite having the number one citizen and ‘richest man in the land’ from my village, …. safe drinking water is still a luxury that nobody can afford at home.”

“The pictures below are taken from my village – Kakum, South South Nigeria and am sure most communities around would relate. This morning, Kakum people drank from this well and will continue to do so choicelessly. As shocking as this may sound, this well is not only in the immediate community of the incumbent Executive Governor of CRS – Sir Benedict Ayade, it is on the spot (polling unit) where he regularly cast his vote……Kakum people will continue to dream of the day they won’t have to drink from this infested well and other ponds again or travel to neighbouring villages to get cleaner water for their families.”

Justin Udie PhD, Nottingham UK, an indigene of Kakum.

It is noteworthy that there is one other surface well in Kakum that is serving one section of the community and the one in this picture, which is about 20meters from the governor’s house. It was constructed by former President Babangida’s Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructures (DFRRI) around 1989 and later became dilapidated until a good Samaritan came to build that wedge the boy is standing on to allow families use it again.

There is a borehole in the governor’s compound but the mobile policemen who guard the governor’s house do not give villagers access to fetch water from there. They trek to neighboring villages to get water. Some get their water from Professor Zana Akpagu’s house in neighbouring Babuagbong village.

That is the same person that wants to plant grasses that will feed cows and end the farmers/herders crises in Nigeria. He obviously doesn’t even understand the historical perspective, the depth and extent of the crises.

But what can we say?

We still have to endure this comedy and rain of brain waves for another 796 days.

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.

Disclaimer: The opinions here are strictly that of the author, Agba Jalingo and does not represent The Lumine News or the organization the author works for.

March 31, 2021
Wike Did Not Abuse Ayade Or Cross River, He Raised Salient Issues That Demand Answers – Agba Jalingo

Wike Stir Clear, Wike Stir Clear, Wike Stir Clear, From Where?

Indeed, I will not allow my voice to be drowned by that sanctimonous claim that Wike in that his recent video reaction, is leading an assault on Cross River State and our governor. It is those who are urging other full grown adults not to express how they feel about Wike’s reaction to Governor Ayade’s earlier outburst that should actually be ashamed of themselves.

When aides and Governor Ayade himself were throwing direct jabs and veiled diatribes at Wike on TV, were they actually expecting that the Rivers State governor will keep mute?

You don’t call someone out for an open fight, the person accepts your challenge and calls you out also, then some self appointed defenders of Cross River state are on the prawl warning Wike to stir clear of Cross River as if our State is not part of Nigeria. Is there anything that legally preclude Wike from commenting on developments in Cross River? Did any law say that if you are a governor of another State, you cannot comment on the State of affairs in another?

It is true that Wike is seeking to interfere in the politics of Cross River State but in the end, it is the people of Cross River that will determine their governor come 2023, not Wike. We have had governors in Cross River before Ayade and every succession was a tough battle for the incumbents with external interference, but in the end, it was always Cross Riverians that went to the polls to decide their leader. This time will also not be different. I think the Wike-phobia is exxaggerated.

As for what Wike said, was he even wrong?

He said, “I am not a 419 governor.” Implying that Ayade that he was referring to is a “419” governor. In Nigeria, 419 is obtaining something under false pretence.

Has governor Ayade not been collecting lands up and down in the State under the false pretence of building this and that?

Has he not made numerous promises and failed Cross Riverians?

Has he not pretended to cry on TV and the things he cries about never change afterwards?

Wike also said, he declosed Rivers state’s share of the money FG refunded to the State for the construction of federal roads in the State and wondered if Ayade did same. Is Wike lying? Has Ayade disclosed to Cross Riverians how much was refunded to Cross River State and what it has been used for or will be used for?

Wike talked about Ayade selling our forest reserves as timber. Is that a lie? Our forest, the largest rain forest in West Africa, is ferociously depleted by criminal timber cartels who daily carry truck loads of illegal timber for sale with the active connivance of State government and security officials. The governor has appointed numerous SAs and PAs on Forestry, who have no other job specification than to depend on illegal logging for survival. Till today, we have no knowledge of what happened to the timber that was harvested from the portion of the Super Highway that was cleared before the project was abandoned.

Wike also mentioned the scandalous budgets that our governor has signed in the past five years. No matter the professorial grammar you want to use, it was never going to be possible for a State that earns barely N50billion as allocation to meet an annual budget of over a trillion Naira. Those highfalutin figures were not only unrealistic, they were actually hallucinatory and the governor has abandoned that path himself. So what is the lie that Wike told?

Those urging us to go up in arms against Wike for insulting our State, what exactly did he say that is a lie or are you just angry with the manner he said it?

Since #TeamAyade had already dared Wike and vowed that they were ready for a fight, they should go right into the ring and respond to Wike, allegation for allegation and stop whining. Wike did not abuse or insult Ayade or Cross River, he raised salient issues that demand answers. That is what I want to hear. Not anyone telling me, an adult, how to react to what Wike said.

In a State where most of the citizenry is cowed by fear and stomach infrastructure, where the political class have lost their voices to complicity in the rot, if Wike and Ayade’s unusual style of open peer review is the mechanism that will stir the nest in our State, so be it. Let the roforofo continue. Afterall, both are not radically different.

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.

March 21, 2021
Operation Akpakwu: I Thumbs Up For Governor Ayade – Agba Jalingo

In December 2020, when Governor Ayade launched Operation Akpakwu, a special joint security team to combat rampant kidnapping in the State, it was a tall order. To enhance their operations, Ayade handed over 100 patrol vehicles fitted with communication gadgets, 10 power bikes and drones, to the operation.

“You must deal decisively with any form of criminality, banditry, cultism and kidnapping of any form. Let this therefore be a message to every resident in Cross River; today is the end of criminality,” he said on the occasion.

For months to the time the Governor was reading this riot act, CrossRiverWatch was reporting an average of 9 to 12 incidents of kidnapping every week in Calabar/Akpabuyo alone. But since January 2021, the frequency of such incidents have reduced to 1 in a month. Also worthy of note is the fact that these kidnappings are now restricted to riverine areas like Jebbs and Esuk Atu at the University of Calabar axis; unlike when these dare devil criminals came frequently into the heart of Calabar Municipality, in broad day light and pick their victims randomly, and escape with ease.

The joint security operations have relatively cleared notorious criminal rendezvous in 8 miles, Uwanse, Asabanka in Akpabuyo, Essien Town and Bogobri. The remnants are also running out of town due to the heat from Operation Akpakwu.

But there are still names that security sources say remain a real danger and must be caught before they can relax the security alert level in Calabar. The four names according to sources who spoke to Yours Sincerely include, Romance, Emmanuel AFANG, Bombo and Virus. The Police say they are currently on the trail of the four.

Romance, according to a security source, is the leader of the gang that stormed a police post near Tinapa in February, killed four policemen on duty and escaped. Some suspects were later arrested while others are still fleeing.

Information available also reveal that a Police Orderly to a serving Judge in the State was withdrawn and detained in the course of the investigation after he was fingered in the incident.

I commend Governor Ayade hugely for this particular initiative. I think this was well thought out and the results are self evident. Kudos also to the field commanders and the public that has been cooperating with the security forces.

There are however grey areas in the activities of Operation Akpakwu, which the Governor and various field commanders of the component forces on ground will have to address very quickly. Victims of the arbitrariness of some operatives of Operation Akpakwu are swelling by the day and that trend must be checked with alacrity.

Almost every other day, there are verifiable accounts of brutality, highhandedness and illegalities perpetrated by men of Operation Akpakwu. Still fresh in our memory is the molestation of a 17 year old daughter of an aide to the Wife of the Governor of the State, at Bogobiri market, where the terrified teenager was harassed by a soldier attached to Operation Akpakwu and forced to sit on the ground, for not greeting them when she walked past. And only two days ago, soldiers attached to Operation Akpakwu, brutalized a Chief Magistrate and his doctor at about 11pm by UCTH Road Calabar. The duo were hospitalized.

Public opinion also seem to agree with ending the curfew imposed in Calabar at the peak of the security challenges. Even if it is not ended, it should be extended from 10pm to midnight or further into the night. This will reduce the chances for security forces finding alibis to trample on citizens rights.

There are also concerns that Operation Akpakwu operatives, are getting involved in civil disputes.

These boundaries must be clearly defined and enforced strictly. But on the whole, Governor Ayade has done well with Operation Akpakwu. The security situation in Calabar has improved greatly. Kudos to him again.

God bless Cross River state.

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here ate strictly that of Agba Jalingo and does represent The Lumine News or the organization the author works for.

March 21, 2021