Niger Delta
Ayade Wants Oil Producing Status Of C’River Addressed
Cross River State governor, Prof Ben Ayade has tasked National Assembly to handle related Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and other issues related to the bill with circumspection to avoid contentions that are likely to trail its ultimate passage into law.
Governor Ayade made the call while addressing the Joint Committee on Petroleum Industry Bill members led by its Chairman, Senator Sabo Muhammed Nakuda, during a courtesy call at the Governor’s Lodge, in Calabar,
Ayade said owing to the delicate and controversial nature of the bill it remained a subject for further analytical dissection.
Specifically, Ayade flayed the focus of the bill which he noted, centred more on oil-bearing communities, with scant regard to communities that suffer the direct impact of exploration activities.
His words: “In spite of the haste with which we want to drive the PIB, we must exercise ecclesiastical caution to ensure that the PIB bill does not throw up other developments that will bring about other contentions and continuous struggle.
“While we make haste, we must show caution as the people of Cross River State have a very strong feeling that the PIB bill must address their unique concern,
“The PIB bill focuses so much on producing communities without emphasizing on the adversely impacted communities. We are the most impacted because all the oils within the “Akpami” fields find their way into Cross River State.
“Right here where you sit, directly behind my house here, is the Calabar River, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean directly into the Akpami wells. One of those wells is just 36 kilometres from here. When there is a spill, where does it go to? It comes here,” he said.
Ayade who decried the plight of some of his coastal subjects whose main occupation is fishing, said the people who depended on fishing had been completely dislocated from the oil-producing states.
Ayade said: “Our people depend on fishing, our state has been completely dislocated from the oil-producing states.
“I do not understand how on earth Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom States, as well as Cameroon will have oil and only Cross River will be a non-oil producing state.
“As a professor of science and one who had worked in the oil industry before coming into politics, there is no science, no spiritualism, no magic that can explain this except politics.
“The PIB must address that. You cannot even in law and even biblically, take from a brother who has so much to give to a brother who has little. But to take from a brother who has nothing to give to a brother who has more is a political issue that the National Assembly and indeed the PIB must cure.
“A good example is how Cross River State gets less than two billion naira allocation in a month while a sister state will be dealing with twelve, thirteen billion. Such an unequal distribution of wealth exacts pains and anguish. It is unnatural and that is the essence of the National Assembly.
“For an egalitarian distribution of resources, this nation can only become one when there is fairness, equity and justice. That’s all we seek and that’s all we crave as a state.
“As a state, we feel pained. I have been on the same downstream Committee. I asked what is the petroleum consumption of Cross River State? It is near nothing because they have kept us in abject poverty. We have been reduced to want in body, spirit and in the soul.
“This is a great opportunity for us as a people to say if you are making a new law, please whatever is the revenue, whatever are the taxes ensure that the price regulation you give to the oil industry should also be commiserated to what the state consumes”.
The Akwa Ibom State Government has released N132 million for the maintenance of General Hospitals across the 31 Local Government Areas of the state in the last one year.
The State’s Commissioner for Health, Prof. Augustine Umoh, disclosed this during an Inter-Ministerial Briefing, tagged, “Tracking the Promise” in Uyo, recently.
Umoh said Governor Udom Emmanuel is committed to effective healthcare delivery service in the state.
He noted that the State Government is aware of shortage of Nurses and Midwives in the health sector, adding that the shortfall of medical personnel has been addressed through employment of over 300 Doctors and Nurses in hospitals .
The Commissioner, however, said the number of recruited medical personnel was not enough, and government planned to bring back retired Midwives, who are still strong to support existing ones in the healthcare service.
“We will soon bring back retired Midwives who are still strong into the state hospital service. Government will pay them stipends to encourage them in contributing through their acquired experiences in the health sector.
“However, more health personnel would be employed to ensure efficient healthcare delivery in the state”, Umoh said.
He reeled out achievements of the Governor in the health sector in the last eight years to include renovation of hospitals and construction of new ones.
He listed the remodeled hospitals in the state to include; General Hospitals in Ikot Abasi, Eket, Anua and the procurement of medical equipment.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Ini Ememobong, said it became necessary to sensitise the public on the true position of government’s projects, programmes and activities.
Ememobong said it was worrisome that after seven and half years of governance with numerous record of achievements in all sectors, some sordid and disparaging news items are still being spread around.
“We have, therefore, brought every section of the society together here to find out the reason the stories and reports sent out do not correspond with what we have on ground in the State.
“Governor Emmanuel has constructed numerous roads in the State, such as the Uyo-Etinan-Ndon Eyo Road and Ikot Oku Ikono flyover, among others but someone will write that there is no road in Akwa Ibom State,” he said.
The management of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) has expressed grief over the death of Prof. Michael Ibadin, a former Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital.
In a statement made available to The Tide’s source in Benin yesterday, the CMD, Dr Darlington Obaseki, said the deceased succumbed during a brief illness.
Obaseki described the late Ibadin as a quintessential leader and a mentor to many.
He said his demise was a big loss not only to his family, but also to the hospital community and the medical world.
“With a deep sense of loss and pain in our hearts, we submit to the will of the Almighty God on the passing into the celestial realm of our former CMD, Prof. M.O. Ibadin after a brief illness.
“Until his death, he was a Professor of Paediatrics, a Consultant Pediatric Nephrologist and an astute health administrator.
“He was also a mentor who introduced several persons into hospital administration and management, including myself.
“We commiserate with his immediate family at this time and pray that God himself will console them and grant them the fortitude to bear this irreplaceable loss,” he said.
Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has directed the management of the Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, to immediately reverse all recent disengagement letters issued to some staff of the institution.
The government directive is contained in a statement by the Special Adviser on Media Projects to the Governor, Mr Crusoe Osagie, and made available to newsmen in Benin.
Obaseki, in the statement, said the sack notices issued earlier to some staff of the university were illegal, null and void.
“The management is to retrieve any such illegal letters if they were ever issued and reinstate the affected staff.
“I have ordered an in-depth investigation into what led to the sporadic issuance of illegal sack letters and ensure that anyone found culpable will be brought to book”, the Governor said.
Obaseki reiterated his commitment to the welfare of members of staff, adding that he was working to find solutions to all lingering issues affecting workers in the state-owned institution.
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