Mr. Samuel Efanga oversees the Ministry of Science and Technology. He once again restates the mandate of the Ministry which is to coordinate science and technology programmes of government. In this interview with the Acting News Editor, Edet Dickson and Asuquo Edem, he speaks on activities of his ministry in developing science and technology in the state; efforts being made to secure patency rights for indigenous technology products; dismisses rumours that Uyo Solidarity Movement is funded by government; and above all justifies government's expenditures on infrastructures, among other things.

Excerpts:

As the Commissioner for Science and Technology, how has it been so far?
We have been working on the development of Science and Technology Park. This happens to be the major infrastructure which was set up by the government to develop science and technology in the state. Even though there has been a dispute between the contractor and the government, but we hope that the House of Assembly handling the matter will this month give report of the probe panel investigating the Science Park. By the recommendation of the House of Assembly, government will be able to determine the next step forward for the completion of the project. Basically, we will not admit that we have not done anything at all while waiting for the issues bordering on the science park project to be sorted out. Under our ministerial mandate, we are working on the development of human capacity in the area of information and communication technology. We have been developing a laboratory in the ministry to be used by innovators ad researchers to develop technology. A lot of other things have been going on in the ministry such as the training of Akwa Ibom people in information and communication technology. We have collaborated with the Exxon Mobil and we have specifically trained about 450 unemployed Akwa Ibom people in ICT and entrepreneurial development. We have also conducted activities aimed at encouraging and promoting indigenous researchers and innovators to enhance their technology. Recently, we conducted science and technology exhibition week where over sixty products of technology, were exhibited and we were able to select few outstanding ones for government's support for the patency of the products for commercialization. We have made successes in that area. Basically, the mandate was to coordinate the science and technology programmes of government and that was why the ministry was created. So far, we have made significant progress in that direction.
What are the challenges you have faced?
Well, I know that in life there are problems. In development, no matter the ideas or plans, if you don't have enough funding to support your activities it would be difficult to carry out your plans. But I want to say that so far within our limited budget, we have done well. Basically, one of the challenges is funding while other ones have to do with the attitude of our people in responding to government programmes. Even in that area we have also tried to sensitize our people to create awareness on the need to embrace activities geared towards improvement of the living standard of the people. It has been a success.
You have mentioned that training programmes are being mounted by your ministry to train Akwa Ibom people in information and communication technology. What are the chances of these trainees being employed?
Already, the training is designed to help the beneficiaries secure gainful employment. It has been encouraging because so far over 60 percent of the beneficiaries of those programmes have gotten gainful employment. Those ones who have interest in entrepreneurial development are supported by government.
On patency right to products of our researchers and innovators, how many of those products has your ministry been able to secure patency right and what is your ministry doing to commercialise these products?
For patency right, that is why we are collaborating with NOTAP, an agency which has the mandate to give patency right. NOTAP is the National Organization for Technology Acquisition and Promotion. When we had science week exhibition, the Director General came and was impressed with what he saw. We have made recommendations to him for patency righty to some products identified. We have also achieved success in that direction, because the Director General of NOTAP came by himself and inspected the products and was so impressed. So the Director General had promised that he would facilitate the patency right for some of those products.
You are the progenitor of the Uyo Solidarity Movement. What is the philosophy behind the formation of this group?
Thank you. I like the way you have put the question because science and politics have a relationship. The relationship is that it is the politics which will promote and establish science because no matter what you do, you need a political will to make things happen. To answer your question, Uyo occupies a very serious position in the government of Akwa Ibom state. Now, for a government to have a conducive environment to operate, the politics within the state capital must be stable. So having realised the strategic role of Uyo as the state capital, we decided to quickly give backing to a government that we identify to be a very good government. A government that has brought development to Akwa Ibom state. And of course, according to Obama, development is as a result of good governance. What we have experienced in Akwa Ibom would not have happened if we did not have a good government in place. So the organisation was to give support to a government, that by all conviction, we know it is a good government for the people of Akwa Ibom. We decided to give a good environment for the government to run. Uyo Solidarity Movement also had a conviction to ensure a continuity of a good government so as to ensure the continuity of development taking place in the state; to ensure that such level of development is fully established. That is why Uyo Solidarity Movement has rallied around such a government which has been so good to continue in office for eight years so as to fully consolidate the level of development we are witnessing today. Uyo Solidarity Movement insists to give support to government and to totally ensure smooth continuation of the government of Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio till 2015. We consider that Uyo has a critical and crucial role to play being the state capital which a lot of people reside. And of course political activities are concentrated in Uyo. You know that whatever we do here in Uyo has a kind of ripple effect over what is happening in other local government areas. We know that by the time we give a good back up to government to continue in office beyond 2011, others who are already looking up to us, will also follow in that direction. In fact the cardinal assignment of Uyo Solidarity Movement is to sensitize the grassroots to create awareness about the good works of the present administration in the state. To let them know about what government has been able to do. We have realised that there was so much blackmail, deception and confusion to mislead, particularly the grassroots. Uyo Solidarity Movement came on board to correct wrong impression about the government; to lift the activities of government for the people to see. The people are now very happy because a lot of things they did not know, through our enlightenment activities, they have come to the knowledge of the good works of the present administration. For instance, we were able to package the activities of government to let people realise that the government is there to serve them. Today they are very happy and they have expressed the happiness that the government of Chief Godwill Akpabio should continue in office beyond 2011 so as to consolidate on the gains of good governance.
Keeping and running such an organisation requires funding, how is Uyo Solidarity Movement Funded?
Well, funding is equally borne by the group. We are happy that the sacrifice has to be made by people who have committed themselves to it. It is a kind of voluntary arrangement to support government. It is not an organization that is paid by the government to do what it is doing. People are willingly and voluntarily making contributions in their own little way to see what they can do to support the government. It is very demanding because there is nothing we can do without money. Recently, we were giving financial support to final year students of University of Uyo from Uyo extraction. And people have assisted in floating skills scheme for those who have genuine aspirations and provided technical support to those who have genuine endeavours. So all those things demand some level of financial commitment. But we are happy because it is a voluntary thing that we have made out of genuine love and affection for what the system is doing to develop Akwa Ibom State. Basically, Uyo Solidarity Movement is not funded by government. The people are simply happy for what the government has done. When you look at the government that within two years has completed an international airport, there is nobody that will look at a plane flying in Akwa Ibom land, when some years ago it was something impossible in Akwa Ibom State, you will not fail to appreciate the government. Today Akwa Ibom people are flying. Today, our children are going to school free and observe the total number of children that are in school today, you will realise that something has happened. The students population has almost tripled. I am impressed at the fact that Akwa Ibom people are also keying into the free education programme of government by donating educational materials. They don't leave it to government alone. Then you look at the roads in Akwa Ibom State, you will bear me witness that there has been a remarkable improvement. Before the advent of this government, Akwa Ibom was almost like Lagos and Port Harcourt because of hold-ups. What was the cause of the hold-ups? Just potholes! But today all that is history. Before now, the level of dilapidation in schools reached what I could call monumental tragedy. It was very embarrassing to see schools that their buildings were completely dilapidated and was becoming a living risk on the verge of collapse. But today, there is no community in the state that the government has not touched in terms of rehabilitation and reconstruction of schools blocks. And whenever you see red roof, you know that it is a project undertaken by Inter-ministerial direct labour committee of this government. The process is on-going. The policy thrust of government is to take everything holistically. It is not like in the past where you would see one structure being renovated while others remained in dilapidated condition. But today, government enters a particular school and renovates all the structures so that students enjoying the free education can as well enjoy a conducive learning environment. It is a level of excitement and development we cannot afford talking about. There are hospitals under construction which we cannot stop talking about. The free medical treatment for children, pregnant women and the elderly which we cannot stop talking about. There are so many other programmes put together by this government to develop the state. Recently, you will discover that almost all the major activities of national bodies are being held in Akwa Ibom State. For instance, Chief of Naval Staff Annual Conference was held in Akwa Ibom State; Auditor General Conference was in Akwa Ibom, the NBA Retreat was held in Akwa Ibom and of course there is no week you will not see a national activity in Akwa Ibom today. It was not like that before. Why is it happening? It is because things have changed. When you look at all these things, unless you are a left winger who do not want to see anything good, you will acknowledge the fact that this government has done creditably well.
Uyo Solidarity Movement is not funded by government. But there are rumours making the rounds that the governor has committed some money into the organization for the purposes of empowerment and that such money has not been used for the purpose meant. How do you exonerate yourself?
It is unfortunate that it is a blackmail that has characterised the politics of Akwa Ibom State in the past. We will make sure that blackmail does not work in the politics of Akwa Ibom state. We are all out to flush out blackmail. So there is no blackmail that will succeed in Akwa Ibom State because it was not helping us to progress. When people resort to blackmail, it is primitive, barbaric, undemocratic and uncivilized way of playing politics. It is a high level of mediocrity for people who are attempting to use blackmail as a political weapon to fight against government. I want to tell you that it is not true that government has given Uyo Solidarity Movement some money for the purposes of empowerment. It worries me but we will not be deterred. People should look for something reasonable to do rather than go about making campaign of calumny to destroy the system that has been working perfectly. But because we have really penetrated the grassroots by feeding them with correct information I know it will be difficult again to deceive the people at the grassroots. It is frivolous and malicious blackmail that will not take us anywhere in Akwa Ibom. This is an excellent administration which does not believe in blackmail, and its concentration is in the issues of development of the state. Apart from Uyo Solidarity Movement, I know that there are other groups which are drumming support for the government and are not funded by the government. But this is not to say that if we have support from any angle we will not appreciate it. For me, it might be they have seen something they have not seen before: people committed to a cause without financial inducement. But I am telling you that it is a new spirit of revival and a commitment that things must work in Akwa Ibom State. It is a commitment that we must support good governance and it is a commitment that we must contribute to the development of Akwa Ibom State for ourselves and for our posterity. I know the mentality of some people is that before you support a government, you must have been given something. But we do not believe in such a thing. We believe in making contribution to the system; we believe in making contribution to promote what is good; we believe in making contribution to secure for ourselves a better future which we all have responsibility towards it.
You are very much aware of the claims by a former Senator, Obong Akpan Udoedgehe who is contending for the Hilltop mansion in 2011. As an Uyo person what is your reaction?
I have made my position very clear. I don't believe in blackmail. I will never subscribe to it. I do not subscribe to any position against the government. I do not share in any attempt to blackmail the government. It is unfortunate that some people in an attempt to score cheap political point engage in blackmail against the government. I rather emphasize on my very strong support for the government of Chief Godswill Akpabio because I have seen what is good. I have seen everything good in Chief Godswill Akpabio. Having come close to the man, I have discovered that so many things said against him are not true. I believe that Chief Godswill Akpabio is the man that was destined to govern Akwa Ibom State at this time. He is a man that we should follow. When you know what he is made up of you cannot help loving him. What we should do is to encourage him instead of discouraging him through blackmail.
There is still unemployment in the state and youths are complaining that there is hunger in the land because there is no employment. How do you reconcile good governance with these problems because good governance should basically empower the people and reduce unemployment
The issue should be well defined. Somebody asked me sometime ago about failed industries in the state. My response was that there is no failed industry in the life time of this administration. This administration inherited a lot of problems including hunger, as well as industries which have totally collapsed including infrastructures. When this government came on board it saw that this situation was not acceptable. It came to address the issue of development with anger. It is not possible to solving the problems of the state in one day. Even one administration cannot solve the problems of the state. It should be taken step by step and in fact you have to prioritize the approach to solve the fundamental things. So this government came in and saw that one of the problems which led to the collapse of all the industries was poor infrastructure. We did not have good interconnecting roads. The problem of power was a chronic one bedevilling the whole country. That is why this administration committed itself to the development of Ibom power plant. As I am talking to you the project has been completed except some logistic problems particularly the gas supply. By the time the power plant is switched on, half of the problems of industrialization are already solved because this administration has identified lack of power as the bane of industrialization. A lot of things are being put in place to develop new industries and resuscitate ailing ones that can be resuscitated. Then other things will come naturally because small and medium scale industries will spring up having derived the environment to operate. It is a system that will work out itself and employment will be generated.
Truly speaking, government has done well in the area of employment of its people. The expectation is high on the part of government because government has performed so well that it has raised the hope and expectation of the people. Coming to hunger in the land, the way it is being carried about is very unfortunate.
For me, there is no time in the history of man when people will not be hungry except in paradise where there will be no more hunger and suffering. The solution is not crying foul but people should position themselves to come out of hunger. People must be creative and think of something to do while applying the wisdom of God to come out of hunger. A lot of people are saying that it is because contracts are given to foreign companies and there is capital flight and people are not eating! NO! The sacrifice is worthy. We were here in this state when some of the roads were constructed and they did not last for one year. Sometimes contracts were awarded and the jobs were never executed. The belief was that government was empowering the people. This government came to change such mentality. That is why this government is embarking on development that will stand the test of times. Development cannot be compromised on the altar of hunger but that is not to say that this government is not sensitive to the yearnings of the masses. It has designed programmes that will continue to touch lives. It has given jobs to the people because even the inter-ministerial jobs are handled within. The funny thing is that even people who have benefitted from this administration through inter-ministerial jobs are also crying foul of hunger. The priority is to develop infrastructures that will now usher in a conducive environment for things to work out by themselves. Now, we have airport; we will soon have seaport; the roads are interconnected and so on.
As the preparations for2011 general elections heat up, what is your advice to Akwa Ibom people and of course the politicians?
My advice is that you cannot change the system which is working. We must all join hands to encourage Chief Godsill Akpabio to continue in office beyond 2011. I don't see any other power that can undo what has been done already. Chief GodswillAkpabio has already been given the mandate for a second term and all politicians must join hands to realise this mandate. Of course, Akwa Ibom people have spoken. There is no point for anybody to waste his time aspiring to be governor in 2011.