Strategically located on the Southern flank of Nigeria, nourished by the Gulf of Guinea and other great inland bodies of water, Akwa Ibom is also rich in crude oil and large deposits of natural gas. That is where the good part ends. Thirty-eight years of existence, eleven governors – six military and five civilians, coupled with a large population of highly trained technocrats, bureaucrats, and educated citizens. In spite of these, Akwa Ibom State is rated as the seventh poorest state in Nigeria, with 71.3 percent of her people living below the poverty line. Almost four decades of management of human and material resources, coupled with an excessive dose of unbridled greed, ego, jealousy, mafia-style political governance, and the practice of 14th century capitalism has resulted in a largely impoverished citizenry with a seemingly bleak future, neck-deep in a culture of violence and impunity. Politics and political office, answers all things in the state, it is a one-way ticket out of poverty to obscene wealth, absolute powers and unrestrained fleecing of public funds.
Keywords: Natural resources, Poverty, industrialisation
