March 9 we are going to vote again. In the last election the state government or the PDP was able to dole out the sum of five hundred thousand naira (N500, 000.00) as voter’s appreciation in all the units in the State and five hundred thousand naira for security, (500,000). During the election eve before the presidential elections were postponed on February 16th, the sum of two hundred thousand naira (N200, 000.00) went round all the units in AKwa Ibom State for the same purpose. Here I am not talking about hearsay, but what I saw and participated helplessly.
Now the future of millions of unborn children in Akwa Ibom depends on the decisions we make today. A thousand kids of the seeming elite class might have gone outside the country for education or for their various vocations but the truth is that there is no place like home. Before I deviate, let me bare my mind as regards the type of politics we play in Akwa Ibom State.
We act as if the people we are leading are some alien. The type of leadership we experience in the state seems to contradict the fact that we are brothers. How can we intentionally impoverish the electorates, starve them, only to give out a ticket which exchange for two, three or four thousand naira per vote in every unit in the state.
If the attention of the government and our leaders are not drawn to these needs then I would vindicate them. But these things are what we have been crying about in the past 3 years yet the government chooses to promote quackery in the state by hiring untrained hungry citizens to attack our little voices rather than explain in low tone why such violations is witnessed in our system.
I am a beneficiary of acquired skills in ICT specifically in html, css and wordpress. Even when I am still learning as new technologies keep emerging the industry, the little I have learnt have kept me so far from being a complete beggar as I handle related projects from time to time – don’t forget most Akwa Ibom youths now beg from government appointees before they can eat 3 square meals.
Therefore, training more Akwa Ibom youths in this area would have withdrawn hundreds if not thousands of young people from dominating the social media in the name of practicing media profession. In the event where these young people are not able to learn the coding part of ICT, they would have been professionals in Digital Media practicing. Such certifications could be gotten at a very exorbitant rate, but using the ‘train the trainer’ approach we would have gotten a handful of young people trained, who in turn would be training other youths in the state and trust me, opportunities abound on the internet.
But the case was in a reverse. Immediately the present government was sworn-in in May 2015, the governor in collaboration with some stakeholders in his government declared that capital for startups was not for the poor or beginners but for those who has businesses already running in hundreds of millions if not billions. Those whose businesses were at idea level were never considered while others were considered through family ties or political affiliations.
The result is that today we have thousands of quack media practitioners supporting the governor while others queue the polling units to thumb print their future for two thousand naira. This is my first article in the series and I am forced to do this because I have been a beneficiary of this heartless verdict against the future. As I pen down this first article, I am asking myself “Is governor Udom Emmanuel worth this sacrifice?” since I have had to sacrifice my conscience to vote such a heartless set of people.
March 9 we are going to vote again. In the last election the state government or the PDP was able to dole out the sum of five hundred thousand naira (N500, 000.00) as voter’s appreciation in all the units in the State and five hundred thousand naira for security, (500,000). During the election eve before the presidential elections were postponed on February 16th, the sum of two hundred thousand naira (N200, 000.00) went round all the units in AKwa Ibom State for the same purpose. Here I am not talking about hearsay, but what I saw and participated helplessly.
Now the future of millions of unborn children in Akwa Ibom depends on the decisions we make today. A thousand kids of the seeming elite class might have gone outside the country for education or for their various vocations but the truth is that there is no place like home. Before I deviate, let me bare my mind as regards the type of politics we play in Akwa Ibom State.
We act as if the people we are leading are some alien. The type of leadership we experience in the state seems to contradict the fact that we are brothers. How can we intentionally impoverish the electorates, starve them, only to give out a ticket which exchange for two, three or four thousand naira per vote in every unit in the state.
If the attention of the government and our leaders are not drawn to these needs then I would vindicate them. But these things are what we have been crying about in the past 3 years yet the government chooses to promote quackery in the state by hiring untrained hungry citizens to attack our little voices rather than explain in low tone why such violations is witnessed in our system.
I am a beneficiary of acquired skills in ICT specifically in html, css and wordpress. Even when I am still learning as new technologies keep emerging the industry, the little I have learnt have kept me so far from being a complete beggar as I handle related projects from time to time – don’t forget most Akwa Ibom youths now beg from government appointees before they can eat 3 square meals.
Therefore, training more Akwa Ibom youths in this area would have withdrawn hundreds if not thousands of young people from dominating the social media in the name of practicing media profession. In the event where these young people are not able to learn the coding part of ICT, they would have been professionals in Digital Media practicing. Such certifications could be gotten at a very exorbitant rate, but using the ‘train the trainer’ approach we would have gotten a handful of young people trained, who in turn would be training other youths in the state and trust me, opportunities abound on the internet.
But the case was in a reverse. Immediately the present government was sworn-in in May 2015, the governor in collaboration with some stakeholders in his government declared that capital for startups was not for the poor or beginners but for those who has businesses already running in hundreds of millions if not billions. Those whose businesses were at idea level were never considered while others were considered through family ties or political affiliations.
The result is that today we have thousands of quack media practitioners supporting the governor while others queue the polling units to thumb print their future for two thousand naira. This is my first article in the series and I am forced to do this because I have been a beneficiary of this heartless verdict against the future. As I pen down this first article, I am asking myself “Is governor Udom Emmanuel worth this sacrifice?” since I have had to sacrifice my conscience to vote such a heartless set of people.
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