There is a fine line between eccentrics of genius. If you are a little ahead of your time, you’re an eccentric, and if you’re too late, you’re a failure, but if you hit it right on the head, you’re a genius.”
Half a century ago, when Thomas Watson Jnr, the second president of International Business Machine (IBM) made this golden and remarkable utterance, not quite a few in his generation knew he was making a prophetic statement that will outlive him and generations yet unborn. Today the insightful and prophetic reflection on Watson Jnr, has not only reverberated globally, it has found a perfect rooted expression and deep meaning in the development of the helmsman of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Nsima Udo Ekere, a former deputy governor of Akwa Abasi Ibom State.
Since he assumed office as the Managing Director of the interventionist agency for oil producing states on November 4, 2016, he has been innovative, methodical, logical and strategic in his approach to issues and policies to ensure infrastructural and sustainable development in the Niger Delta region and by extension, Nigeria.
First, before his resumption, he prepared for the task of developing Niger Delta having used four months preceding his inauguration to analyse the challenges and issues affecting the agency and enunciated the 4-Rs strategy, to restore the commissions core mandate, restructure the balance sheet, reform the governance systems and to reaffirm a commitment to what is right and proper at all times.
Innovation is all about doing the usual things in unusual ways or doing unusual things in usual ways and the bottom line therefore is positive change which is what is innovation is all about. The interventionist agency has experienced innovation in all ramifications and part of the reforms involves introduction of technology aimed at enhancing service delivery system in the commission and enshrining best international standards and practices.
For the corrupt and those with itchy hands for enriching themselves with public funds, it is no longer business as usual. Obong Nsima Ekere has set up a committee shouldered with the responsibility to conduct investigative hearing on allegations of corruption in some members of staff. On this, he sought to promote transparency and probity in the commission, ensure significant reductions in leakages of public funds and improved efficiency in public expenditure.
The speed with attendant impact which Ekere is transforming the region is amazing. According to Honourable Akanimo Edet, “Men and women, children and the aged alike, communities and towns, kings and ordinary people stand in astonishment as the innovations that he bring every minute, every day in just six months give us satisfaction. I believe you because I know your history and your antecedents,” he said.
Again, looking at Nsima Ekere’s intellectual and administrative capabilities, the people of Niger Delta can faithfully testify that together the collective rescue mission he promised at his onset in office has crystallized. Indeed, as a result of his ingenuity and critical thinking, people can attest to how he has rescued Niger Deltans from the years of locusts and returned it to the path of respectability, stability and infrastructural development. Nigerians can affirm that he had kept faith with the Roadmap to recovery agenda. Every stratum of Niger Delta can see the footprints on those key sectors he promised to touch and administrators should tap into his intellectual armoury.
Emerging from the backwater of Edemaya clan in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area, where he was born on May 29, 1965 in Udo Ekere compound in Ikot Oboroenyin with no inkling that the place would be the curdle of an MD, NDDC in the making, boy Nsima went to Regina Coeli College, Essene and Mary Knoll College, Ogoja, Cross River State and got his school certificate.
He continued his education at The Polytechnic Calabar in 1981 – 1982. Not contented with that level of education, he went to University of Nigeria Nssuka, where he graduated with
- Sc. Honours Degree in Estate Management in 1986. A fellow, Estate Surveyors and Valuers of Nigeria, Certified Valuer, International Real Estate Institute, Minnesota, USA and Institute of Revenue Rating and Valuation, London.
His distinguished career took him to the exalted office of AKIIPOC, the investment and industrial promotion arm of Akwa Ibom State government as executive chairman, chairman of Ibom Power Company (IPC) and also represented the government’s interest on the board of many companies including Voice of Nigeria (VON). Prior to joining public sector, Ekere was the Principal Partner of Ekere and Associates, an estate valuers and real estate development consultants amongst other reputable organisations.
Later Nsima Ekere turned to politics and, thoroughly furnished with experience from his brilliant career in the private sector, he clinched the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly election where according to a writer “he bestrode the political terrain like a colossus, making his impact felt in all facets of socio-economic development.”
He then moved on to politics at the higher state level to contest the gubernatorial primaries in December 2006 where Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio won and named him his running mate. However, in order to heal the acrimony, poor and jaundiced understanding of the circumstances that followed that primaries, Nsima stepped down in a striking mark of humility. No other politician had before then performed the feat in Nigerian history. Great people like great music, have the ability to uplift and inspire even in the darkest moments of our lives.
But a holistic and dispassionate study of the man would reveal that he is a cosmopolitan man with a vast experience in dealing with problems and different types of personalities and their temperaments. His views are moderated by discretion, good judgment and reason. For him, committed politician is irrelevant if it does not help provide the road map that can enable people undertake various empowerment projects capable of giving them control over their own destinies and lives. This has caused him to strike a rare bond of relationship almost second to none with the people of Niger Delta.
Nsima, his friends and associates equally have every reason to roll out the tambourines on his birthday, because of his indisputable and democratic principles. He demonstrates greatness when he makes himself accessible to the less privileged because “the glory of a king is the welfare of his people.” So you are identified as a result of your worthy and abiding contributions to the welfare and happiness of your fellow human beings and development of your fatherland.
A novel idea from Nsima has been his interventions in the social life of his people even before he became an MD, NDDC such as provision of potable water and regular grading of local access roads in his community. His scholarship scheme is now in its 16th year with more than 300 beneficiaries which covers secondary, post-secondary and post-graduate studies. It is a stroke of genius that critics and the media haven’t accorded its true status as worthy of emulation nationwide! He radiates humility, dignity and nobility. He is a real man of honour, pedigree and brilliance, strong and solid man of character, a Christian and also example of the believer.
As we salute Obong Nsima Ekere at 52, a journey with destiny and recollect some of his interventionist achievements in the social life of his people, we urge him to abide by the credo that has always guided him: first put the interest of the people ahead, secondly put the interest of the people ahead again and thirdly and finally, put the interest of the people ahead!
Happy Birthday Obong Nsima Udo Ekere!
- Udiong wrote in from Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.