Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State replies critics over the proposed purchase of a printing press and construction of a new governor’s lodge
By Ernest Omoarelojie
Lately, Akwa Ibom Governor, Godswill Akpabio, has been in the firing line of critics. Some critics, lapping on the governor’s decision to acquire a new Rotary machine in place of the obsolete one supplied by one of the state’s contractors during the military era, have gone to town accusing him of profligacy. Other critics are miffed that rather than renovate the old Governor’s Lodge, the governor was bent on wasting the state funds to construct a new Governor’s Lodge.
Matters came to a head recently when Lady of Songs, Christy Essien-Igbokwe, fired a petition to the governor, alleging that some unidentified people were threatening her life and those of her family members. In the letter, Essien-Igbokwe threatened to march to the Economic and other Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, if Akpabio goes ahead to acquire a new Rotary machine for The Pioneer, the state-owned newspaper. But government sources insist that Igbokwe may have decided to create the impression that her life was under threat because the purchase of a new Rotary machine for the state newspaper would mean an end to the largesse she enjoys with the company as long as the obsolete machine is being used. According to the sources, along with supplying the machine, there is also a clause that made it mandatory for Chuduak Ltd, the firm she runs with her husband, to supply even the least item for the press. “With a new machine, the steady revenue also goes. That is why she is employing subtle tactics to stop the state government from acquiring a new machine,” one of the sources explained.
But the government says there are genuine reasons why it wants a new Rotary machine for its Pioneer newspaper. Before acquiring the old machine, state government officials, TheNEWS gathered proceeded to inspect a similar one supplied to the Champion Newspapers by the same supplier after which it ordered its own. However, whereas the machine Chuduak installed for Champion newspapers came complete with entire component parts, including compressor, dryer, chilling fountain tank and other accessories, the one it supplied to Akwa Ibom newspapers allegedly came without these vital components. In addition, Chuduak Ltd did not invite technicians of the newspaper corporation to inspect the machine and when it brought the Rotary machine into the country, it was left under abnormal temperature far longer than necessary before being installed. The result is that among other components, steel rollers rusted just as its rubber rollers became useless.
Now the state government says technical reports also indicate that the technical state of the Rotary machine supplied to it fell short of what it initially ordered for. For instance, the Impacta Web Offset Rotary machine supplied to Champion Newspapers was manufactured, equipped and installed for the newspaper with pneumatic control system that makes the inking and damping rollers system operate automatically. The Sterling Gross web offset rotary machine supplied to the Pioneer Newspapers came without full pneumatic control, dryer and compressor. The result is that damping rollers were manually operated with the operator constantly sprinkling water on it to reduce scumming.
In addition to wastage, the machine could not produce colour images and registration.
Another feature that rendered the Sterling Gross web offset rotary machine obsolete even from the beginning is that unlike its Impacta counterpart, the Sterling Gross Chuduak supplied to the state has no chilling system. To find a way around the deficiency, operators devised a method of constantly dropping ice blocks into the damping chemical fountain to maintain the required cooling temperature for the cooling system in the dampeners while printing newspapers.
Apart from that, while Impacta has double units with four heights, which makes it ideal for printing 16 pages tabloid newspapers at a time and in a sequence of 1-8 and 41-48 in full colour process, with each unit capable of printing eight pages of full registered colours, Akwa Ibom Newspaper Corporation’s Sterling Gross lacked all. These anomalies were highlighted in a memo addressed to Deaconess Ekaette Ekpo, General Manager of The Pioneer on 26 August, 2004, by Boniface Okon, the newspaper’s Production Manager.
On 4 October, 2004, Dennis Ale, who was then the Akwa Ibom Newspaper Corporation’s Works Manager, dispatched a letter to the company’s board chairman. In the letter, Ale gave his verdict on the assessment tour of the various units and noted that the rotary machine, designed to produce 30,000 copies, managed to produce 10 per cent of its capacity, while recording 80 per cent waste in just over the three hours he observed its operation. Among other things, Ale cited lack of spare parts as another reason the machine has been in a non performing state. “The egnomic design of the machine with its short, straight forward web path and excellent accessibility should translate to short, make ready time, low waste and high safety. But the reverse was the case. This is because the two most important units, namely, the inking and damping systems are not functioning properly. This is what has given rise to high level of waste recorded by the operators. It is recommended that the manufacturer be contacted to have a second look at the machine with particular attention to the two units identified,” Ale wrote.
In another report submitted to the General Manager, Akwa Ibom Newspaper Corporation, Anietie Emem, Technical Officer of the company disclosed that the Sterling Gross rotary machine is far from being in good order. In his 20 page report, Anietie explained that the machine never functioned properly from the day it was installed, adding that in a bid to make it work as expected, experts from its India manufacturing company visited the newspaper house four times in as many years to upgrade the machine. On each visit he explained, they spent six weeks. But they were neither able to identify the real problem nor any lasting solution. In one of the visits, Anietie disclosed, his company bought six reels of newsprint, each at the cost of N15,000 to test-run the machine after service. Apart from not working as expected, the company ended up wasting about 90,000 copies within one week.
On another occasion, Mr. Nizam Ahmed, chief executive of the Indian manufacturing company also visited the factory for an assessment tour. Tried as he could, he also failed to turn things around for the better. “I personally asked him why his installation never functioned and he replied that the machine should be used for daily production, that is, the machine should be run on daily basis, that with this arrangement, the machine will be in steady condition,” Anietie disclosed.
Since the Sterling Gross web machine controversy took a heated turn, especially under the last administration, numerous organisations, including the National Union of Printing, Publishing and Paper Products Workers, Association of Joint Unions in Pioneer Akwa Ibom Newspaper Corporation, etc, have written letters and petitions condemning what they described as Chubuak Ltd’s attempt to shortchange the state government by supplying a refurbished rotary machine in place of the new one the state government ordered. In a memo addressed to the State House Committee on Information by the National Union of Printing, Publishing and Paper Products Workers and entitled, ‘Poor Quality Rotary Machine’, the organisation listed eight grounds on which it believes the state government should buy a new machine rather than continue to use the obsolete one brought in by Chubuak Ltd. According to the group, the machine is among others, a reconditioned one that neither has a serial number nor came with spare parts. The organisation also argued that contrary to claims made by Chubuak Ltd that it supplied new machines to other organisations, the company actually supplied refurbished machines to others, including Rivers State Newspaper Corporation, New Outlook, Enugu and Adamawa Press Limited, Yola. In conclusion, the union pleaded with the committee to ensure that the contractor supplied and installed a new machine without delay.
“The union, therefore, requests your committee to see to it that the contractor supplies and instals a new and modern multi-colour rotary machine,” the union wrote.
Akpabio, himself, explains that buying a new rotary machine became imperative because the old one is simply unable to print quality newspaper. The governor also stressed that because the machine was refurbished rather than a new one, it was never officially launched. “That machine has not been commissioned till today because right from the time it was installed, all the defects were clear. From inception, it couldn’t produce colour prints. In addition, all attempts to upgrade it failed, despite the millions of naira expended on it,” Akpabio said.
Akpabio is equally receiving knocks from critics over his decision to build a new Governor’s Lodge. For critics, building a new lodge instead of renovating the old one only goes to show that he is more interested in spending state funds on projects that will not impact on the general well-being of people of the state.
But Akpabio insists that those attacking him on account of the project are ignorant of the facts behind his decision. The decision, he noted, was borne out of expert evaluation that the old lodge has defects that tend to undermine its structure’s proper functionality. Apart from the defects, additional findings revealed that building a new Lodge will be more cost effective given that the amount required for renovation is almost the same as constructing a new building. He disclosed that a new lodge comprising the block itself, a women centre, including landscaping, fence, etc, would cost about N2.3 billion while renovation alone would take N1.8 billion. “We wanted to do a massive renovation. The previous administration had done the design but when we assessed the cost of the renovation, vis-a-vis the cost of a new one, the renovation was N1.8 billion and the cost of a new one was almost N2.3 billion. It was then we realised that it would look like a waste of public money if we do a massive renovation which would last about 10 years or something whereas if we build a new one it would be there for about 50 years,” the governor said.
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