Akpabio’s clarion call for strategic human capital development
The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, CON, has appealed to leaders from Akwa Ibom who are placed in positions of authority especially at the federal level to engage in strategic planning for human capital development and subsequent positioning of Akwa Ibom indigenes in the national scheme of things.
Akpabio made this clarion call during an interaction with the leadership of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the State, alongside other journalists who paid him a courtesy call in his Ewet Housing Estate residence in Uyo.
The former governor of Akwa Ibom State observed that indigenes of the State are still lagging far behind in the national scheme of things despite their well reckoned brilliance because of the absence of strategic planning which would have placed the people in enviable positions.
Akpabio urged all Akwa Ibom leaders to always support the promotion of Akwa Ibom people to national platforms to enable them join the slew of policy makers and decision takers in Nigeria and not merely stand by as strangers or mere hewers of wood and drawers of water in the Nigerian Project.
The Man who is christened with the sobriquet, Uncommon Transformer said that leaders must be bound by the moral demand of ensuring the good of the people, adding that it is often expedient to shelve party in favour of public good, since leaders would not be judged by partisanship but by the good their era or generation bequeathed.
Akpabio opined that diligent and strategic planning for our children from earlyhood can assure them of positions in the pinnacle of their professions or careers. He drew an illustration in the case of the Judiciary and how such strategic planning can produce a Supreme Court Judge if a young lawyer of age 25 is recruited into the service, noting that by 30, he or she would be a Magistrate, at 40 a High Court Judge and from there to the Appeal and Supreme Court.
The former governor called on Akwa Ibom leaders to have an ad-hoc Think Tank to always prospect for such opportunities and identify our people who are competent to occupy such positions and counsel them to build careers around strategic national institutions and agencies, so as to also pave way for our people tomorrow, pointing out that success without a successor is failure.
The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs lamented the “Pull Him Down” syndrome against leaders which has gained currency and validity in our State, pointing out that other States or regions do not pull down their leaders, rather they protect them as assets, in acknowledgement that they are the bridge through which their political interest can be preserved at national level.
Akpabio called on leaders to close ranks in the interest of the collective good of the State, emphasizing that leaders must be united as the fist in all matters concerning the interest of the State.
He urged followers not to stoke discord among leaders in the State for their personal gains pointing out that public good which has to do more with the majority would suffer collateral mishap when leaders fail to unite to pursue common interest.
The former Senate Minority Leader of the 8th Senate said that his policy of developing young people through free education and provision of opportunities was for them to grow in confidence and leverage on the advantages to compete even outside our clime.
He called on the youths to continue to be bold and daring in seeking for opportunities outside the State, noting that just as it is said in meteorology that the higher you go, the cooler it becomes, the opportunity at the national level is often more robust and worthwhile.
It would be recalled that His Excellency, Dr. Godswill Akpabio as governor (2007-2015) did a lot to give Akwa Ibom people opportunities at the national stage. He facilitated the employment and promotion of Akwa Ibom kith and kin in different parastatals and agencies, including the military and para-military. There are several testimonies from Akwa Ibom indigenes on how Akpabio helped them either in gaining employment or in gaining promotion. Perhaps the most touching was how he gave AKWA IBOM HOUSE as accommodation for about two years to Akwa Ibom people who were recruited into the Federal Civil Service. That was the extent Akpabio could go in extending support to his people as governor to access national platforms.
Akpabio’s quest for more concerted strategic planning for human capital development of Akwa Ibom people and the placing of the people in strategic places is in sync with his vision on how to improve the wellbeing of the people of the State. This kind of compassion is what we expect from all our leaders. We call on all that providence has smiled upon to buckle down to this same social responsibility, knowing that posterity would remember them by the contributions they made in supporting their kith and kin and not by the magnitude of discord they caused.
