The 18th day of January 2017 was the second day I had the privilege of coming close to him. The first day, he had called a section of the media community to react to a news story in one of the Akwa Ibom state based newspapers that alleged that the Udom Emmanuel’s administration in the state was merely deceiving the people with its advertised recruitment of staff for the Metering factory that was to commence operation in the state. That day he was visibly angry. His anger largely stems from what he considers to be the reluctance and general sense of cynicism the people always feel with anything that has to do with government.
He sounded on that day “strange”. He did not seem to have been around us for too long to understand the credulity scars governments have left on the people that have created that hard-to-believe-them attitude among the populace. He sounded “strange” when he alluded to the fact that government believes in transparency in its job recruitment exercises and even “stranger” when he insisted that the people should at all times trust government.
His “strangeness” prompted me to check him out. I was right. He is a strange man from a strange environment, far removed from the everyday Nigerian experience with their governments. He is a creation of an environment of order, merit and excellence; a man from Shell. He is Ufot Ebong, who spent 20 years working with Shell Nigeria Exploration & Production Company. He is Ufot Ebong, the man who once headed the Deepwater Geoscince and Production Geology Principal in Shell. He is Ufot Ebong who was once Regional Production Geology Advisor and Consultant based then in Malaysia. He is the man who was Regional Production Geology Advisor and Consultant for Asia and the Pacific. He was once Asset Development Leader and many other outstanding pedigrees. He is the man spoken of by Dr James Ohioma Arukhe, Lead Petroleum Engineer, in the Saudi Arabian state owned Aramco and an adjunct Faculty at the Baker Collage, when he said, “Ufot was the project team lead for the multi-disciplinary $2 Billion Gbaran-Ubie integrated gas and oil project involving a new Nodal Development comprising 27 fields. Ufot provided clear strategic objectives through superior technical knowledge and strong interpersonal skills throughout the various value assurance review gates. Ufot’s outstanding leadership resulted in a timely delivery of the project and well under budget. Full of initiatives, Ufot motivated the team to excellence and set very high standards against which major projects are measured today within the operating unit. I would be happy to work with Ufot again in a similar or any other role”.
But who would tell this excellently trained man that in Nigeria, governments more than earn the people’s skepticism and doubt? Who would tell him that in this same state just a few years ago employment into the state civil service was based more on who you know and where you come from, than on merit? Who would tell him that even by the governor’s confirmation, 5000 teachers recruited by the state witnessed the kind of massive shenanigans that was so irredeemable that it had to be canceled.
Again on the second time of meeting Ufot Ebong, he was still righteously angry. His anger this time, is borne out of his belief that it takes such an effort and precious time to convince the populace on the workability of government initiatives as a result of deep-rooted mistrust for government programmes. But who will tell Engr Ebong that in the immediate past, a government agricultural programme purportedly meant to employ and empower the youths ended up as a sham and possibly in scandal. Who will tell him that in that programme youths were said to have been given N500, 000 for the programme, which would include the acquisition of land. In my office two young persons were “beneficiaries”. They were each given N250, 000 to commence. One of them spent her own installment of the money on the purchase of a piece of land and she is still waiting for the second half of the money. The other got his first installment and ended up getting duped by land speculators and he is still waiting for the second installment. Who will tell Engr Ebong that with that type of “employment and empowerment” the people only get frustrated and more skeptical of every government programme?
On this second encounter with Engr Ebong, he was upbeat about something close to his heart. He says the government of Udom Emmanuel had given him and others in government the task of getting the youths off the streets and giving them gainful employment. The second marching order was to reawaken the spirit of enterprise among the people. To achieve these mandates, the Akwa Ibom Employment and Enterprise Scheme (AKEES) was established. So far, the scheme has been a success story according to him. He reeled out the numerous enterprises berthed through AKEES and how youths are benefiting from them. He proudly displayed pencils and other products produced by the AKEES-inspired company soon to be commissioned by the Akwa Ibom state governor.
But the queen of it came with his announcement of the coming on stream of the vegetable revolution, still powered by AKEES. Even though the Cameroonian consultants helping in the realization of the revolution were around, Engr Ebong chose to be the tour guide. He regaled his audience with the mouth-watering potentialities embedded in vegetables, now ready for harnessing by the people of the state.
The first port of call was his own demonstration farm just opposite his residence. He said the plot of land had been left fallow for a long time. He had to take permission from the owner to put the land to use. He emphasized that with time, no land in the state would ever be left fallow again, as the target is, “with what you have, get what you want”.
He announced that a study was carried out and about 22 varieties of vegetables were identified as capable of commercial production in the state. Among them were cabbages, water melon, especially the Zebra variety, spinach, cucumber, pepper, tomatoes, onions, garden egg, lettuce etc.
As the tour progressed, it was not difficult to know which of these excites our host the more; tomatoes. When he discussed this vegetable, he beamed with joy at the prospects. A market survey on tomatoes consumption in the state, according to Engr Ebong, shows that a staggering N15 billion is being spent on the consumption of tomatoes every year, with less than 10% of this sourced within the state. This survey is based on 60 per cent of the people consuming only ten tomatoes in a month, this amounts to 2, 800 tons of tomatoes consumed monthly and N1.3b every month.
To mitigate this capital flight, tomatoes production now occupies the pride of place among the 22 cultivatable vegetables. Two varieties of the crop are now being actively promoted to replace the watery tomato variety that comes from the northern parts of the country. With Cobra and Roma Red varieties, and a whopping 60 fruits per stand, the revolution is underway. And the money? Fantastic! The estimated yield per one hectare of land with only N1,674,000 (One million, six hundred and seventy four thousand naira) invested is at least N6million, harvested within 90 days. With Engr Ebong’s enthusiasm and confidence, one can only think of an agricultural MMM at work in the state.
What does the potential investor need to do? Just get the land or lease one, register with AKEES, who will in turn liaise with the Cameroonian consultants for the inputs and the seedlings. They will employ the workers, plough the land cultivate, apply fertilizers, weed, apply pesticide and do every other thing needed to be done in the farm. The land owner is expected to provide the N1, 674, 000. The other alternative is for the land owner without the ability to invest money to ask AKEES to provide investors who would bring the fund and then share the profit.
On the market available for the product, Ebong, who is the Senior Special Assistant to the governor of Akwa Ibom state on Technical Matters and Due Process, says that at the moment the state cannot meet the order already received for the products from the farms. He dreams of such a time that every available space in the state would be devoted to these money minting vegetables. He sees a future where processing plants would be set up to process the produce, but noted that that would only become possible when farmers in the state would be able to meet the demands of such processing plants.
After a tour of at least five thriving farms and the project nursery, the team was thoroughly satisfied that something big may just be in the offing. Many were already making mental calculations on the possibility of participating in the expected boom that would make the state and her people rich. Ebong’s optimism rubbed off on all of us as we munched away on cucumbers plucked from the demonstration farm.
One hopes that the project would be sustainable and the necessary institutional frameworks put in place to ensure that the programme outlasts the Udom administration. The structuring should take note of sharp practices in the future that could derail the program and abort the dreams of wealth and jobs for the people. If managed well and properly institutionalized, the programme promises to make the state the vegetable destination of choice, not only for Nigeria markets, but European markets.
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