By Ofonime Honesty
I have come to a very disheartening but factual conclusion that this clime together with my generation have been subdued and caged by glaring deceit masterminded by those in charge of our commonwealth.
It is no longer baffling that our society hails executive misdeeds and inanities to high heavens but rebuke common sense, due process and accountability.
The audacity is no longer surprising because we have since become pawns on their chessboard – they push us to suit their intent albeit parochial.
Having succeeded in using poverty as a caging tactic, the powers that-be are hellbent to ensure that we remain eternally caged.
Our rights stripped. Our voices hushed. Our funds mismanaged, or stolen (the appropriate word for it). Even after frittering our commonwealth, they have the presence of mind to manipulate us into clapping and hailing. We are now a timid mob of clappers and nodders. We clap for everything including glaring scam hatched and executed in the corridors of power.
Sycophancy lives here and is not relocating anytime soon.
It is no longer baffling that some officials of the Akwa Ibom State Government still reference the purported “resuscitation” of Peacock Paints Limited as one of the achievements of the Governor Udom Emmanuel administration.
They are not afraid to say that the factory is churning out paints in hundreds and thousands of pails on regular basis. They are not afraid to say that the paint can be found and bought across the federation.
They are not afraid of buying pages of national dailies and emblazon its pages with pictures of the product. And all they tell us are the usual lies we know.
Located at Ikot Ekan, Etinan, the company was established in 1979 during the administration of Dr Clement Isong in the old Cross River State.
Just like the brilliant colours which adorn a peacock, Peacock Paints literally painted the nation with its colours produced with quality. It was a household name in Nigeria. Ikot Ekan village became known throughout the federation and beyond.
Administrative issues, however, led to the folding up of the company after the dawn of the new millennium.
On September 5, 2015, the company was recommissioned by Governor Udom Emmanuel.
Prior to that, “a reactivation process” took place, the process was swift but hectic – engineers, painters and other set of professionals worked day and night in order to meet up with the recommissioning date.
Barr. Emmanuel Enoidem, Commissioner for Trade and Investment (as he then was), whose ministry supervised the project, literally relocated to Ikot Ekan.
He was always in the thick of action. Always barking instructions. You dared not stand idle in the presence of Barr. Enoidem.
The seriousness of his mien inspired hope. The public swallowed the plot hook, line and sinker. Seductive deception was sold at a very high cost.
Then, boom! What started with a bang ended in a whimper. The much-hyped resuscitation was discovered as a half-truth.
Negative rumours soon brewed and the state government made attempts to shoot down the speculations by arranging media tours to the factory.
Hired journalists and bloggers saturated the media space with reports and pictures of a “booming factory.”
In truth, those tours were staged. I remember being told by a commercial motorcyclist (okada man) how he was paid 2000 Naira to pose as a customer during one of the visits.
The actors (staff) and collaborators have become tired of acting. They apparently regret ever being manipulated into performing such ignoble act. Most have since left for greener pastures while the few remaining ones are mere volunteers who go there with the hope that luck could smile on them if the place roars back to life.Their sad tales can make the heart bleed.
Truth is, the said “reactivation” was largely a renovation of the building. Simple!
It was rumoured that billions of Naira was set aside for the project. But government announced 526 million Naira as the contract sum. Was the 526 million Naira even captured in the state budget? No, to the best of my knowledge. I’ll retract this paragraph if there is a contrary information.
The source of funding was mysterious, same with how the funds was put to use. Government officials and a couple of directors in the company apparently used the funds to feed their ostentatious lifestyle.
It has now been revealed that only one new machine was installed during the infamous “reactivation.”
A report facilitated by the International Centre for Investigative Journalism (ICIR), authored by Ekemini Simon, corroborated the claim and gave further insight into it: “Kreis Basket Mill is the only machine that was bought by former trade and investment commissioner. Even with a mark-up of 25 per cent profit for the supplier of the machine, findings show that the machine should not have cost more than N8 million. The best price for 500lt Basket Mill 30 kilowatts with a jacketed tank as of February 2021 on popular global trade company’s website, Alibaba.com is $33,000. The exchange rate of dollar to naira between January and June 2016 was about N199, thus keeping the price of the product at N6.567 million.”
These things are no longer hidden or discussed in hushed tones. The abandoned volunteer staff and the resigned ones are now daring enough to literally “talk and die.”
They have been frustrated beyond measures yet nothing seems to prick the conscience of our leaders and the subdued public. The word ‘shame’ is absent in the dictionary of government. Imagine ‘Resuscitation of Peacock Paints Limited’ being a regular topic in government’s boasting game. It was a campaign topic in 2019, and it remains very much in vogue.
The circus band we call government is continuing its vainglorious self-adulation. The dramatis personae who used the project as a conduit pipe are still holding sway. They keep manipulating us into counterproductive paths. They keep being wolfs in sheep’s apparels. And we keep glorifying their misdeeds. This generation is in dire straits.
My consolation is that a generation shall come. A generation that shall review how their forebears were reduced to a timid mob of clappers and nodders by iniquity men in political offices. A generation that would name and shame the memory of our traitors.
A generation that would spit on the graves of our oppressors. Till then, let the glorification of inanities continue, but count me out of it.
Ofonime, an Akwa Ibom journalist, writes from Uyo
