Special Adviser, General Duties, Barr. Ekpenyong Akiba.
By Anietie Akpan
Today, May 29, 2025, Governor Bassey Edet Otu clocks two years in office. His close ally and Special Adviser, General Duties, Barr. Ekpenyong Akiba took an in-depth look at his Principal’s performance ranging from infrastructure, empowerment, democratic gains to his humility, others and concluded that he is bringing back what we seemingly lost some years back. Excerpts:
Two years in office, how do you manage your victory at the polls?
It is not about voting or projecting a candidate to victory. It’s about guiding that candidate to success, because it’s more difficult to represent people than to aspire to represent.
Aspiration sometimes may not even take you a long time, especially in a democracy where sometimes you may be lucky to be handpicked. But when you now get into the office, the burden now begins. I have seen political leaders who come in the morning and see the crowd of people in their compound; it is either they go back and sleep or come out and get offended and be very offensive and send people away because of the pressure which they never imagined could be that cumbersome. So leadership comes with normal responsibilities. The successes we are recording today is as a result of our collective responsibilities being handled differently.
Your office of Special Adviser, General Duties is a new creation, what do you really do?
On what I do, His Excellency is a very creative thinker and also a strategic leader. I can say that he’s a master strategist because he created this office. In this office of General Duties, if you check the records, it has never been there. That is why people still conflict my office with special duties. I am introduced or addressed in a lot of official documents as Special Adviser , Special Duties. Whereas I am Special Advisor, General Duties and that creation, has been copied by other states the way it’s going.
The governor, in his own wisdom, spotted me as somebody that has the ability to multitask. He said that, in his words, Iam one young man that can cover the field and in this administration, the governor is covering everywhere.
There is no ministry, department or agency (MDAs) in this state that has not been affected one way or the other. There is no sector that has been abandoned. That is because he himself has the intention or has decided to ensure that every sector requires attention. And he needs people like us to be able to run errands across board without limitations. Now when youare functioning as a general duties special adviser, what comes into mind is that you have no limit of functions. That means he is giving you access because in governance, access is critical. As special adviser general duties, that means you can function at any level of responsibility in the absence of a specific person to function in whatever capacity so as to ensure that the governor or the government doesn’t operate in a vacuum.
There is no opening or lacuna. In the course of administration, for instance, there could be an emergency situation where we may send SEMA Director General (DG) to run in and intervene. And the DG may not be on ground at that particular time. So my office bridges that gap. You must hold brief until the DG is available to take responsibility. So my office can gather whatever information, whatever could be preliminary in that circumstance depending when we will be able to do what is permanent. So the office of general duties is like an intermediary with other government departments and agencies. My office is like a liaison between other top government functionaries and the people because our governor believes in ensuring that there is no gap in communication. My office is working across board, my office can also report to the governor on the spot on what is going on in any sector or every sector as the case may be. The main essence is to ensure that the right thing is done and there is due diligence and adherence to the organisational principles of the government.
Don’t you think conflict can arise with other MDAs in the cause of your job?
I do not also owe any duty to any other person other than my principal because the relationship I share with every other person is secondary. My primary responsibility in a relationship that is paramount is the governor’s one.
So in an event where there could be some conflict, the conflict cannot overlap the governor’s interest. Because that conflict will be swallowed by the governor’s interest. So where there could be seeming conflict, the governor will stand in the gapbecause I will not go to anywhere without taking permission from the governor. I will not also infringe on any officer’s responsibility where the officer is doing what he ought to do. The only time my office might step in, like I said earlier, is where there is a gap.
So my office can be quiet where there is no crisis but where there is mostly needs, crisis, requests, demands, complaints, the office of general duties will now come because my office now is like a shade, to be able to support every other office.
That is why most of the commissioners and other of my colleagues and director generals work hand in hand. We work in close synergy. Because most times I will be able to support with ideas.
I will also be able to guide with the things I know the governor prefers. Having been with the governor for more than two decades consistently, I understand the governor’s character. You know, he’s a man that is very humble and very passionate or compassionate about the people. He is happier when everybody is happy. He is someone that has a lot of contentment. I’m saying this with all amount of sincerity.
Our governor is someone that is very satisfied. His nature of sociability is unprecedented.So for me, many may not understand him to that extent.
But I have grown up under his tutelage. I have studied him like a course. So I can make authoritative testimonies and recommendations and factual statements of what he wants.can predict what he will like just like your wife that you live with. You can say, oh, my wife on Sundays, she will not miss church because she is your wife. So His Excellency, I can tell somebody, if you do this and that, the governor will be happy. Because I know what makes him happy. So for me, I enjoy my office because the governor has also given all of us equal opportunity to function.
Are you his anointed son?
No not at all. His Excellency, I must say, doesn’t have any preferred son. Because the only time you appear to be anointed is when you have done what is right. Your rightness of action will give you the needed attention of the governor.Rightness of action and your diligence in your duty will also attract you governor’s blessing and that is without boundary.
Regardless of where you are from, regardless of how long youhave been with the governor, the records are there. I have people in this government that are testifying. Some of them did not support the governor. Some of them came to the government having been in PDP. But they are testifying with the level of accommodation and the level of support and encouragement from the governor. So there’s nothing like being anointed. Any anointing that is coming to any of us is in direct response to our performance. It is not singled because we are who we are. So that anointing will be seen in many forms. And it’s relative, like you said.
But I used to say that everybody is entitled to call anybody any name. Even when Christ was on earth, he was called different names. But that isn’t changing from Jesus Christ. So you have to be called any name. But the main thing is who you are in earnest or what you represent that matters. It’s not what people call you.
One of our judges in his dictum, when he wanted to deliver one judgement, said that we are two kinds of people on earth. The ones who are in the day and the ones you are at night. Two kinds of people. And now, this perception of being two kinds returns back to who we really are. Are we really the ones they see us by day or we are the ones that are figured at night? And it’s only you that can answer that question. That’s what my Lord said. Because it’s only you that know who you are at the end of the day.
So for me, I know that I am a very loyal, consistent, submissive, patient follower of the Governor. There is no compromise.
Do you nurse any political ambition come 2027?
People have come to me and said, The way we are seeing you, you should prepare and contest for House of Representatives. Some of them don’t know that the man in the house over there is my direct uncle. Some of them don’t know.
Yeah, people, political pundits just sometimes sit down and analyse who should run what and become what and projectand I told them, I have no aspiration whatsoever. The only election I’m contesting is the governorship. They say, how? You want to contest against the Governor? But I tell them the moment the Governor is contesting an election, that is the election I am contesting. I cannot contest any election when the Governor is contesting. That I am in that election because the Governor is in that election and when the Governor wins the election, we are all one. So for me, my political presence in the present and my political future, as the case may be, is the Governor’s aspiration.
There is no other interest that anybody will be anything in Cross River State moving forward, I have to look at the body chemistry of His Excellency. He is not someone that imposes leaders on people.
He always bends to where the majority interest is bending to. So for me, when we see where he bends to, we will now join that bend. We don’t have any political ambition than the Governor’s ambition, because when the Governor finishes as Governor, by God’s grace, in eight years, we will be in trouble of who should take over from the Governor because of the kind of Governor that we have.
When the Governor stood up for the House of Representatives, the records are there. The shoes he left could not be worn to date. I challenge them. To date, the shoes Senator Prince Bassey Otu left in the Senate, hasn’t been worn even till today. The indices are there. When the House of Reps member that was Chairman of Petroleum Upstream , I know you understand what Petroleum Upstream meant, as at 2006-2007. When the Senator that was Chairman of Finance and later Banking and other financial institution. I hope you know what that meant. And that was a man that came from the minority and was on that front row. Today we have him as a Governor.
The only Governor that has been able to sustain democratic gains. His Excellency, has tempered with what Donald Duke brought that were seemingly non-functional. They are now coming back to life
If you step into Marina Resort, maybe you have not been there for a while. I challenge you to visit any of these days. You will not understand what is going on in Marina Resort. That was betted by Donald Duke which the Governor today has taken it back to where it ought to be.
You go to the International Conference Centre, betted by former Governor Liyel Imoke . After the endemic EndSars, the entire Hope Waddel in the whole world was hosted there. We used to have four events simultaneously going on in the International Conference Centre, beginning to now function optimally because of the Governor’s intervention.
Today the Governor also has another office where he operates from, from the Conference Centre. Sometimes if you don’t see him here, that means he’s in the other office.
You are aware of the monies that this state government invested in industries, curtesy Professor Ben Ayade. Our taxpayers’ monies. We had a lot of industries. Some were completely in the state of comatose having had a lot of investment and the Governor has not abandoned those projects. Today, life is being breathe back in most of the industries because we have a Governor that has standards.
A Governor that is interested in ensuring that there is increased wealth. Our internally generated revenue, you are aware, is on the increase. If you look around, you could see that even the state capital is beginning to wear some new edifices that were no more there. Mega companies are beginning to come back. Investors are beginning to have comfort and confidence that they can bring back their resources. Because even the security architecture has been rejiged. So for me, we have a Governor that is living up to expectations. And a Governor that is building a momentum that will be difficult to sustain.
Can you give an instance of some of the industries that have been brought back to life?
Yes, we have a lot of industries that were not functioning. We know of the Calachika, the Pharmaceuticals, we have been following up a lot of those processes and we discovered that there were some inadequacies in the cause of the foundations of those facilities. So His Excellency is taking his time to ensure that what is ours is completely ours. In the coming days, those things will function optimally. Look at what the Garment factory ought to have been which was never. Those things are a work in progress. And I don’t want to begin to speak on specifics. But I know that the Governor has taken over from wherever they were left.
By next year, we will go back there. Some structures are being rebuilt. Because they were having new structures, there have been some level of overhauls in some of the structures that were there, that were not optimally functioning. And most of them too, some of the machines that were there required some other machines. So there are some technical and expert briefings that we are having that will enable us to have those industries function. But I can tell you for free that there is no industry that is of Cross River that Senator Ayade brought, that we have not been able to go into the root of it and also see how they could be productive for the state. For instance, if you go to the airport, the cargo airport. You agree with me that what we have done today, that airport can meet with any airport in the whole world. But when Ayade started that airport, many did not understand. But it took His Excellency the Governor to sit on that airport and take it to where it ought to be by attracting the relevant authorities and the best hands globally to take over the activities that will build the proper airport that we deserve.
And in the coming days too, the issue of Cali Air, our aircrafts will be on ground in the coming days. So for me, the Governor has a lot that will be made public in our second anniversary.
You talked about TINAPA, what are your plans?
Like you said, we were battling with the owners of TINAPA, you are aware. We talked about AMCON. But today we can beat our chest that TINAPA belongs to Cross River and that’s not a mean feat. So for me, these are the kind of achievements the Governor is having. Achievements of recovering what we had seemingly lost as a state because those investments are investments of taxpayers money.. Like someone was trying to criticise the Governor that he is going around building, butnothing that he is building for himself.
On the Renovation of the Governor’s Office.
If you walk into the Governor’s office today, you will be proud that we have that kind of Governor’s office in the city of Calabar. We have had several Governors before this Governorand we are going to have many other Governors after this Governor. So why are we worried? It is not Prince Otu’soffice. It’s Governor’s office. It’s Governor’s Lodge. It’s Deputy Governor’s Lodge. It is Speaker’s Lodge. It is not Akaba’sLodge. You go to Ogoja, we have the Governor’s Lodge project ongoing. We were in the North recently and we visited there with the Chief of Staff and the Deputy Speaker. Job is ongoing, day and night. So if the Governor and others are in the North, with the Governor’s Lodge in Ogoja, they will have somewhere to sleep. Yes, so that the Governor can operate from the senatorial zones. In the North today, the structure we had there was completely demolished because there was nothing to write home about. So we are building from foundation.
And if you go there today, in a couple of months, you will see the impact of His Excellency. I don’t want to even talk about roads. Today we agreed that when you say it’s infrastructure, it’s not just about economic infrastructure, we are talking about physical road infrastructure. If the Governor could go to Adiabo Road, that even the Federal Government had abandoned, if the Governor can go to Okelle Road, you are aware of the Akamkpa Nsan Oban Road, so for me, the Governor has tempered into mind-blowing generational projects. That are known as legacy projects that will uplift our generation because by the time you open Adiabo-Ikoneto Isoku road , you will see a good road. The entire Western Calabar has economic activities. Just like Boki East Road.Those are roads that farm produce, that you are aware, that have been stocked in the communities. You go to Boki, you cannot bring out farm produce. You know how we have a lot of agri-produce in Cross River and the only way you can see the Governor, like you used to see, because all of us cannot see the Governor but we can see the Governor by roads.
By the time you have access roads to your community, you are seeing Prince Otu. By the time you have rural electrification, you can do your barbing, you can do your saloon, you can do your welding. You can sell pure water when you have a borehole, you are seeing the Governor and that is the kind of Governor we have. You walk around and you see the state library, now we have the e-library. That means you are seeing Prince Otu. You wake up around 1am, you want to see your wife in the church, and there are street lights in the night. You are seeing the Governor.
Education and Empowerment?
This is the kind of impact the Governor is doing. And you canbe rest assured that as far as you are an indigent students wewill pay your tuition, we are engaging with the student union, we are going to bring back bursaries. And he has been known for empowerment.
People have been saying, Your Excellency, we support you because we know you for empowerment in the House of Representatives. Do you remember what we did in the municipality field? Lands were given. Yes, dividends of democracy where people had Audi cars. C of Os. So now some people were saying, Your Excellency, as Governor, we have not seen that magnitude of empowerment. But I can tell you authoritatively that the Governor has an empowerment plan that will be comparable to any other empowerment that we have ever seen on earth in the coming weeks and months. And it’s going to be fully packaged, where he is going to reach out to market women, because he wants to empower the vulnerable, the physically challenged, those that are into farming that need support.
As we speak, many people have been going for training in Nasarawa in that angle. We have sent people on training on ICT where they will be empowered in ICT. As you sit here, like I used to tell people, if we don’t tell you what is going on, you will not know. We partner with Skyrun and we have trained people on electrical electronics. So on that day of empowerment, we will be bringing graduates that we have long trained. That you are not aware of and empower them for sustainable development. So he has taken the empowerment to another level. Because you see, in the past, we used to come out and give people items that they sell the next morning. Because they have not been trained in relevant skillsto be able to make use of those items.
For instance, we give people like Vulcanizers a vulcanizing equipment or give a dry cleaner, a dry cleaning machine and a generator and he sells it the next morning, because he’s not a dry cleaner. The Vulcanizer will sell it, because he’s not a Vulcanizer.
The man with the keke NAPEP doesn’t like the Keke NAPEPhe will sell it, because he has no business with the Keke NAPEP. Imagine giving to a driver a minibus, he is not a minibus driver, he will sell it. So he is identifying people with specific skills so that when we give them they will make good use of it.
The Governor has even gone as far as airport taxi. He said he has known the people. They have been driving these cars for the past 20 years and if you see those cars, they don’t befit the standard of Calabar. When you talk about airport taxi, when you operate the car, there should should be Airconditions (AC), there should be space etc… That’s the kind of Governor we have, he identified them and he has gone further to engage them by himself to let them know how far can we assist you.Some of you we can give you this vehicles as a gift. Some of you can sustain it through higher purchases that will not be difficult for you so that there will be seriousness depending on categories and this is something that is for all, not just for Cross Riverians but in as much as you are in the airport and you’re in the business of taxi. That’s the kind of Governor we have. The Governor that is going to different sectors, identifying problems and creating solutions. The Governor that believes that the aged should be well taken care of. The Governor told me, are you aware that people die because they could not just take Panadol?
His Humility and philanthropy
He cares and this is the Governor that is pragmatic, that is people-orientated, that has depth of knowledge, practical knowledge and compassion. And he says that there’s nothing as good as when somebody retires, he can buy his drugs.
This is the kind of governor we have. He believes in the people emancipation. That is why he has been able to tame many of us that never had this kind of ideology of philanthropy.
Because the governor believes that when you share the things you have, those people that you share the things with are the ones that will now return in contribution to you, you can never lack. And that philosophy is the philosophy that can make us coexist peacefully and we are now growing under that tutelage.
Prince Otu, over the years I have been with him, has never been angry. I don’t know if any of you has ever heard Prince Otu’s voice in anger. I wonder how he does it. Those things that will propel anger but do you know that Prince Otu has overcome anger?
All the crises we are having in the world are connected to anger, ego, competition, arrogance, greed, envy and jealousy. So if you can navigate yourself out of all these, then you can be like the man, Prince Otu. He believes in God and doesn’t compromise the activities of God.
I challenge people always to show me which governor in Nigeria today is living in the old house. Prince Otu has been in Ekorinim, you are aware pre-election and post-election and as a Ggovernor because he is contented. There is no governor in Nigeria. That is living in his old house. I challenge people to bring the governor. Prince Otu has a very high level of simplicity.
So for me, public office is a leveller and public office requires somebody that is ready to give all because public office demands all. And public offices are meant for people like Prince Bassey Otu who can give all and His excellency gives all.
