Engineer Patrick Ekpotu is the deputy governor of Akwa Ibom State. He recently clocked 50. In this interview with Jackson Udom, he speaks on his childhood days, the society and his boss, Governor Godswill Akpabio among others. Excerpts.

Your Excellency, congratulations on your 50th birthday anniversary, how do you feel clocking fifty?
I feel the same, in fact I have not seen any distinction in my feeling, but one thing I have noticed which is of interest to me some times is when I realize that I share the same anniversary with Nigeria. Sometimes, I am compelled to look at myself on the strength of the progress that we have made as a nation. It is also important to give thanks to God when I realize that I am three months older than Nigeria although we share the same anniversary. I do not believe that I have any special feeling except that as one grows, biology comes to play, you begin to find out that things you used to do some years back, you now find it extremely difficult to have them done. Because that youthful fire that stoked you to do those things is no longer there and you find it extremely difficult to run at the pace you used to run several years ago.

Above all, I thank God that I am still okay, I am alive till today to witness my 50th because a thousand and one people we came into this world the same day are no more. And if I have made it in away several people have come to see as distinctive, I also have to thank God in a very distinguished manner. But I do hope that my country which shares the same anniversary with me will some how, have the luxury of enjoying the kind of accolades people are pouring on me. But factually, it is not so because wherever you listen to one or two people speak or you read the newspapers, it is an expression of frustration that we are 50, we have not made any impact at all, we are still crawling, we are still a baby and all sorts, and that is the only worrisome thing.

Taking a cursory look at your life in the last 50 years, can you tell us in details how growing up was like?
My life had been influenced largely by my parental background. I happen to be a son of two teachers and in those days, one knew how strict teachers were. So, I grew up in their hands and I followed them through the various stations that they taught. Permit me to say that if I am anything today, I owe that much to my upbringing in terms of discipline, morals, keeping values, both cultural and religious which were the hallmarks of the disciplinary measure of the parents that I had. They did influence my life in such a way that I had to grow up imbibing those values. I think they have remained the guiding ideals in whatever I strive to be in life and if that has conferred on me any advantage at all, it is that advantage that I have given to the society. It is on the basis of that that anybody can ascribe the impact I have made if any. Generally speaking, the process of my growing up had been punctuated by very few upheavals. I know that there is no human being without  teething problems or challenges. I also had challenges because when I finished from the university, I still had my younger ones behind me and my parents, at that time, had retired. So I now said, how would I cope with these younger ones including my cousins? The major challenge I had was to take a decision whether to work or not.

So I decided to be on my own because I could not imagine how I would be able to take care of my own family and the extended family members. I knew it was not possible that I picked up any paid job that would enable me achieve that. So I decided to be on my own. I set up an engineering firm and went in straight to practice what I studied. I am very grateful that it went on well because God was so kind to me. Most of them were able to go to school. Life itself is always full of ups and downs and I grew up to combine and even face the two. I also witnessed the downside of life which I also recognised as normal. Those challenges made me to explore other avenues of life, which contributed in no small measure to whatever I am today.

As a student, what were those pranks you were always playing?
To be very frank with you, I played all manners of prangs as a child. I had my early life in the North because that was where my father was teaching. But because of the civil war, we had to relocate to the Southern part of Nigeria. The impact of the war was actually felt much in the South. I was then about six years old so, I was able to still recollect the experiences that we had.  I remember that immediately after the civil war, my peer groups and I would set up our own version of the civil war.

We would use catapult, divide ourselves into Nigeria and Biafra sides to face each other. We were firing each other inside the bush. We were also running round the bush looking for anything one could look for. Climbing and cutting tress and all that. It was also an exiting experience coming back home and mixing up with the youth and people in the community. Sometimes I sit down and recollect all of those things that we did and the extent of risks we were exposed to then. All these were done outside the knowledge of my parents. Sometimes on our way to the stream to fetch water, we will leave the container some where and then take to our own vocation of shooting each other with catapult. After about two to three hours we would return home to receive severe beatings from my father.

Can you still recollect some of your childhood friends and where they are now?
Some of my friends in primary school were Uwem Ekanem, Moses Essien and we also did secondary school together. Even Rear Admiral Umoh Essien attended the same school with me though in the higher class. At the secondary school level, one of my classmates is the current Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, we did up to class five together at Regina College, the result was withheld and we left to register at Nsit Peoples Grammar School, Etinan. Incidentally, he was also admitted in that school. Three of us had admission in that school and the third person, who was Ettete Peters got a job at the bank. The three of us repeated class five and I thank God that it was only Ettete Peters and my self that made Grade One in the final examination that year. He is today a professor of medicine and I am also happy where I am. I have quite a good number of them like that, who are well placed and are also products of the discipline of our days.

How did you meet your wife?
I met my wife when I was in the university. In my university days, I was an activist. I was the National President of the Cross River State Students Association. There was student riot in the then College of Education, now University of Uyo and the students were spoiling for a show down with the school authority. So I rushed in from Port Harcourt, met with the Students Union leaders of the institution in Uyo and tried to sort them out. I met with the authority of the college and then proceeded to Calabar. I met with the commissioner for education so we could stem the looming crisis. It was not possible to have the commissioner think along our line and the students were ready to go into the streets while the students of Cross River origin in the university were also ready to join them in a sympathy march. Realizing that such a march sometimes start peacefully but ends in a violent way, and I did not want to be remembered for such, so I implored them to relax and let only few of us, the executive members carry on with the march to the governor’s office.

So, we prepared our placards for about six of us. We went to the state House of Assembly, disrupted the activities of the House until they gave us audience and they assured that something was going to be done. Then Ndaeyo Ita, who happened to be my wife’s uncle was the Speaker of the House. Not satisfied all together because we had also planned to visit the Governor’s Office, we proceeded to the Governor’s Office in spite of the assurances we received from the House.

We got there, demonstrated but on our way out, the Governor, Late Dr Clement Isong, ordered our arrest. We were arrested and taken to the Police Station and the news filtered into the House and the following day the Speaker came to our rescue. Immediately we were released, he invited us to his house. We went there to see him and my wife was on holiday in his house and I met with her. I think that was how the whole thing started. Four years after, we had gotten very close, so I met my parents to discuss with her parents and the entire thing was kick started. For four years, we were communicating through letters not like today’s communication through text messages. You write letters and it would go through the horrors of NIPOST. So in 1989, a year after my youth service I decided to get married to her.

You are currently the deputy governor of Akwa Ibom State, working directly with the state governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio to move the state forward. Who is Governor Akpabio?
Governor Akpabio is a very interesting personality. Sometimes I get biased in describing him because he is somebody we have known for several years before he became the governor. So any description of him by me now that he is the governor and me his deputy, sometimes get influenced by my knowledge of him in the days of studentship. But as a governor, he is a young man that is focused.

He believes a great deal in the principles of a new direction. He doesn’t feel that things should remain as they were yester years. He thinks forward, he is a visionary leader and above all, he understands that politics is not all about the ideologue and ideologies but the people and he has decided to make the people the absolute repository of his power.

He is a young man who desires to change the  society. He does not believe that he can do so by solving all the problems that the people have, rather he believes in providing the tools with which they can solve the problems by themselves, and that has formed the cornerstone of the policies of his administration. I remember the Chinese proverb that says if you give a child a fish to eat, you have only fed him for a day, but when you teach him how to fish, you have fed him all through his life. If you come, propelled by the vision and mission to solve all the problems confronting the people, I think you have done no good for them, all you have to do is provide the needed tools for them, and that is exactly what the government is doing.

I am really happy working with him as the governor and I don’t believe that the state will remain the same by the time he is through with all what he has for the state. My appeal is rather, that for any other person who wants to be a governor, we are not against anybody being a governor. We are not quarrelling with anybody who wants to be governor of the state but the timing. The time is not yet ripe for another governor because as long as society, convention, law and even God still gives him the strength, capacity and opportunity to continue for another four years, we can only appeal to those who have those burning desires to put it in check and allow him to finish just one more term and then they can take it over from there and then see to what extent they can take the state to.