RE: REVEALED! How Etido Inyang Made Cool N668 Million From Ibaka Deep Seaport Contract
-By Ezekiel Ntafiong
On the heel of its last fairytale cover story on the Tropicana project which the paper probably felt it succeeded in hurling mire at the character of Engr. Etido Inyang, Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Special Duties, the Guide newspaper this week embarked on another round of a venturesome but lowly enterprise with the above recaptured headline story. The tabloid as a “news medium” has over the time built for itself a reputation of curious negativity. From fiction to comedy, its brand of journalism will effortlessly clinch top prize in a contest of fictitious journalism; that’s if anyone is dumb enough to organize one.
Comedy Fiction, which seems to be the hallmark of Guide newspaper is a work/piece of fiction in which the writer seeks to amuse the reader, sometimes with subtlety and as part of a carefully woven narrative, sometimes above all other considerations. It could well be said that comedy fiction aims primarily to provoke laughter, but this isn’t always as obvious as it first may seem when the concept of dark humour is considered. Black comedy or dark humour tends to be a substantial aspect of much modern fiction. The paper indeed possesses a damaging specialty in this course.
According to the report in its opening paragraph, “mouth opening revelations came into light on Friday last week that the former secretary of the Akwa Ibom State Government Technical Committee for the Actualization of the Ibom Deep Seaport, and at present, the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Special Duties, Mr. Etido Inyang allegedly made a huge kill from the now struggling Ibom Deep Seaport Project”.
For a supposedly “revealed story,” to become “alleged” the paper’s editor(s) certainly needs a dictionary to understand that there is no connectivity between the two. Neither do the basics of journalism provide correlation for both. For this, it can be safely assumed that the paper curiously exhibited an iota of conscience for a decent man it was trying to pin by scripting series of falsehood for public readership, and possible consumption. As curious and inexplicable as that singular act seem, the editor/publisher perhaps should be awarded a bit of unearned commendation for not being unaware that conscience is the voice of the soul. Mohandas Gandhi affirmed it in his eternal words: “There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of CONSCIENCE. It supercedes all other courts”.
Another issue of note in that paragraph is that for weeks now and counting, the commissioner is fully aware of orchestrated media assaults to get him stained and stuck, and subject his person to public hate for political gains. But he isn’t bothered because he really has no decayed wood in his heap. He knows enough to understand that if truth is ever injected into politics, then there will be no politics. Yet it is remarkable how honest he stays in politics and public service. Indeed, “lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons”.
On the inebriated allegation that “the former Special Adviser, Bureau of Technical Matters was using the Ibom Deep Seaport Project as his acres of money making and this had paid off handsomely as Mr. Etido reportedly made at least N668 million during what has now come to be seen as the unusable feasibility of the project,” the paper proved its distaste for facts in its rabid rage just to bite and score a valueless and aimless point. If Engr. Inyang made that much from feasibility studies alone as secretary of the committee, how much did the chairman of the committee make and how much was the cost of doing the studies? For basis of credibility and professionalism, The Guide, should have obtained contractual agreement of the studies and published same. The paper should have provided in details the stages of payments, processes of transactions and bank details through which the then Special Adviser got his share of the kickbacks.
It is laughable, yet pathetic that a supposed news medium could manufacture abstract figures and tag a decent man to it to smear him. If Engr. Inyang could make that much, and in one “deal,” then he needs to tell us why he still lives in a rented house in Uyo eight years after as Special Adviser. This is public truth that cannot be obscured. And who is the former commissioner that served with Etido that was courageous enough to allege, yet too cowardly to show his “face” in the story? That’s, if there’s a flash of credibility in those lines in the third paragraph. Until, the “former commissioner,” clearly an abstract being, speaks up with his identity, or the paper quotes the person alongside an identity, this remains a lie that shouldn’t be dignified with a response.
The ridiculous claim that Engr. Inyang “fronted incompetent companies which he has huge stakes in for the purpose of drawing the designs and consultants to handle the feasibility studies,” was like trying to get water and oil to mix. That’s always a futile effort. An internationally certified engineer with over two decades of global expertise, skilled in and conversant with global best practices can’t be aboard a company run by persons of incompetence. This is a dictum not even his adversaries will deny. Again, one would have expected the paper to publish alongside its story the list of directors and deputy directors and if the commissioner isn’t in any of the two categories, at least his position in the companies and his equities in them. It is imperative that The Guide tells the public if the Technical Committee for the Actualization of the Ibom Seaport was a one-man show that Engr. Inyang as committee’s secretary ran every show and made all decisions solely by himself as seen in “…in 2013, Mr. Etido Inyang brought four persons to the governor, 2(sic) were from Delta Afrique Engineering and Logistics whom he said were going to handle the full design of the Ibom Deep Seaport project…while the other two according to him were from the other company meant to handle the feasibility studies of the project”. It is on record that the first designs and consultants who have had no business concerns with Engr. Inyang captured only the Ibom Industrial City project and did not include the area of the seaport as the latter was an after-thought to complement and effectively drive the Industrial City.
Why then raise a hate-stake to crucify a man who uncompromisingly adheres and insists on standard and specifications in seeing to fruition the lofty ideas of government? During the last administration, the former Special Adviser was a thorn in the flesh of construction companies operating in Akwa Ibom State as he constantly refused kickbacks from companies to certify their projects as up to standard. An instance was when he insisted and ensured that a particular company started a job all over again and to specifications or risk being blacklisted. This and other such strides won him the admiration of many.
How do we reconcile the conflicting statement of N668 million naira as seen in the story’s caption and “imagine one person, a Special adviser at that time, pocketing over N468 million for a project that was on paper throughout the time we served in the last administration? How much did the abstract or faceless commissioner pocket during his time as commissioner? Again, that is if we are to believe such amateurish lines of kindergarten blackmail.
It is time most people understood the concept and processes of building a seaport and a deep one at that. It isn’t like road construction. There are myriad processes involved and lots of bottlenecks which must be surmounted and straightened out even before actual construction begins. Also, if not most important is the issue of funding.
By the laws of Nigeria, seaport is a federal project facilitated by the state with derivable equities split among the federal government, state government and private investors. It is raw mischief that anybody should blame an individual for those hitches. It is pitiable ignorance that one expects the state government alone to drive the mega project to completion. The state government remains determined and committed to the project as has been assured by Governor Udom Emmanuel in his recent media chat and Commissioner Etido Inyang is firmly focused as ever on the task. No stinking degree of cascading torrents of blackmail will cow him to attempt to halt the media bullets. Perhaps someone needs to tell the paper that it’s time to raise its bar in media professionalism.
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