By Emmanuel Uffot
On Monday October 3, 2023 history was made in Akwa Ibom State when Governor Umo Eno inaugurated 368 personal assistants, the first in the history of the 36 year old state the governor would pick such a large retinue of aides and swear them in at once.
In the 368 list of appointees spread across the 368 wards of the 31 local government areas of the state at one per ward, Oruk Anam Local Government Area led the pack with 16 appointees from it’s 16 wards, which makes it the largest local government area.
Following Oruk Anam in that order are Onna and Mkpat Enin with 15 appointees from 15 wards, Uyo and Eket have 14 appointees from their 14 wards.
The duo are followed by Ibiono Ibom, Essien Udim, Ukanafun and Uruan that all have 13 appointees each from their respective Local governments.
Similarly, Ikot Abasi, Ikot Ekpene, Abak, Etinan, Ibesikpo Asutan and Ikono local government areas boast of 12 personal assistants appointees each from their respective 12 wards while Itu, Ini, Mbo, Etim Ekpo, Oron, Nsit Ibom, Nsit Ubium, Okobo, Obot Akara and Esit Eket have 11 each from their 11 wards.
The last group of local government areas with 10 appointees each are, Ibeno, Ika, Eastern Obolo and Nsit Atai.
In addition to the 368 personal assistants appointees from the 368 wards that were inaugurated, the Governor further announced the appointment of four political advisers.
They are Prince Godwin Ntukude, political adviser to the Governor, Dr Henry Archibong, Honourary Special Adviser to the Governor on politics for Uyo Senatorial district, Bishop Samuel Akpan Honourary Special Adviser on politics for Eket Senatorial district while Hon Udo Kieran Akpan hold the flag as Honourary Special Adviser to the Governor on politics from Ikot Ekpene Senatorial district.
For the records, the four political appointees apart from the personal assistants are tested politicians.
For instance, Prince Godwin Ntukude was a Commissioner in previous administration of Udom Emmanuel and later headed, Akwa Ibom agency for road maintenance.
For Hon Udo Kieran Akpan, he was a two time House of Assembly member and House leader while Dr Henry Archibong was equally a member of the State House of Assembly.
Although the criteria for the selection of the personal assistants ( PAs) is not very clear as most are unknown unlike the 4 political advisers as they were not spelt out apart from the condition that they must live within their wards, but findings revealed that their choices were influenced by political godfathers and forces like the Chairmen of Local government councils and House of Assembly members among others.
This we further gathered may have eroded merit which the Governor emphasised as he had given the respective wards a blank cheque to carry out the selection and forward the names to him for scrutiny and endorsement.
However, the appointment of such a large number of aides by the governor inspite of initially showing an outlook of one that would be prudent in cutting cost of governance has raised serious concern among analysts and concern citizens.
During the inauguration of the personal assistants, the Governor revealed why he appointed them and what is expected of them.
” You are going to serve as the eye of the Governor in the different wards. We had promised to return power to the people according to the PDP mantra of power to the people. Your loyalty is to the Governor, not to any political camp. Go back, appeal to your people, work with them, respect the political structure”.
Indeed, one of the key concerns raised by some analysts has to do with the overhead cost of this under this dire economic condition of the country when some states are even going into borrowing to pay salaries.
Their thinking is that the wage bill of these large number of aides which will run into hundreds of millions of Naira monthly will impact negatively on funds that could have been used for critical capital projects that are beneficial to the people.
Equally worrisome on this angle of argument is that the Governor has also indicated that not less than 4000 men and youths are to be employed into the proposed Neighbourhood Watch to be created by the newly created Ministry of Internal Security. Although many see this as a form of employment, but critics are looking at the positive impact of their assigned role when we have the government security agencies who may work against this group success as had mostly being the case. An instance being the Vigilantee Groups and Peace Corps.
Another area of concern voiced by many is a likely conflict of interest in the respective wards on one hand and the political advisers with the Special Adviser on Bureau for Political and Legislative Affairs on the other hand.
According Dr Aquaisia, a University don and commentator and national issues, there is bound to be a conflict between the appointed personal assistants to the governors and the elected councillors.
He said there will be a power play, as the PAs will see themselves as being superior to councillors that represent those wards and this will defeat whatever good intention the Governor had in mind.
The Governor may have sense this likely conflict when he told the appointees pointedly, that he is not appointing them to go and lord over people or assume a position of a political leader as they were already political leaders in existence in those wards. ” I am not appointing you to go and be a political leader in the ward, there is already a political leader in your ward”.
Apart from the concern of a likely power play and conflict between the PAs in the wards and councillors, another fear of conflict is between the Honourary Special Advisers representing the Senatorial districts and the PAs in wards on one hand and the political advisers to the Governor and the Special Adviser on Bureau for Political and Legislative Affairs on the other hand.
Under the 2 chain structure of communication spelt out by the governor, the PAs will communicate with the political advisers in their senatorial districts who will then past it to him through the political adviser.
But another snag is based on the mandate given to the PAs, they are only loyal to the governor. As such may have nothing to do with the Special Advisers for their senatorial district.
Also, the fear of conflict of interest is also likely in relationship between the Special Advisers on politics to the governor and that of Bureau for Political and Legislative Affairs who is a cabinet member.
Perhaps the governor also sensed this likely conflict when he clarified that the appointment of Ntukude as his political adviser has nothing to do with the office of the Special Adviser Bureau for Political and Legislative Affairs.
But the question is, what will the man heading the Bureau do interms of advising on political front with four other political advisers still in the same boat.
It could be recalled that, the Governor had explained that the personal assistants were appointed to assist his administration in monitoring and reporting situations at the grassroots. Also included in their assigned duties was to monitor projects government executes in their communities as well as liaise with the stakeholders to come up with the project needs of the area as government planned , one project per local government programme under his rural development plank of his ARISE Agenda.
” Follow my footsteps of respect to everyone. Try to unite the people in your wards. Now that you have been appointed, your loyalty is just to the governor. This will enhance planning and implementations of the present administration’s rural development programme as spelt out in the ARISE Agenda and concentrate power in the grassroots in line with PDP. We insisted that everyone that has been picked will live within their wards. Any time we find out that you are not living in your ward, we will remove you. We want people that will give us reports in their various wards”.
To some, this strong position of the Governor on what is expected from them without any monitoring mechanism to check the PAs amount to pouring water on the ‘ back of a hen or inside a basket’.
However, even as the appointment of the aides from the wards and others is still a subject of discourse in many fora in the state, some political followers believe the key motive behind the appointments is the Governor’s subtle move to build his political structures across the state. This they believe will manifest in the coming local government election which governors always have a hand on who becomes chairmen of local councils given the role they are likely to play in future elections. Specifically, a governor’s second term bid.
