Let me tell you about a focused, unassuming, and hardworking administrator. Someone who doesn’t play to the gallery. Someone who arrives at his duty post and works diligently. Someone who changes things—real change, I mean. Not the type announced with trumpet blasts, but the positive change you can see and feel.
For two years now, Apostle Abasiandikan Nkono has personified that image in the Akwa Ibom State office of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Today, an ultramodern state office for the Commission is nearly one hundred percent complete. I find myself thinking not only about the building but about all the hard work, follow-up trips, meetings within and beyond the NDDC boardrooms, inspections, and more. This new office is a cornerstone of a renewed commitment to transparency and grassroots impact, symbolizing a pledge to bring sustainable development closer to the people.
But the building itself is just one part of a much larger, transformative story. Under his watch, Akwa Ibom youths have benefited from a youth internship scheme that equips them with vocational skills. They receive not only training but also dignity through a ₦50,000 monthly stipend for a full year, along with vital starter packs. The future of countless Akwa Ibom indigenes is being reshaped through foreign and local scholarships.
I have seen how development is being woven into the very fabric of our communities. It is in the contract awarded for a pavilion at Akwa Ibom State University, in the 1000-capacity solar-powered water project for Ibiono, and in the construction of internal roads and bridges across the State. It is in the electrification of communities. It is in offering tangible support for flood victims, the proactive anti-malaria and anti-drug abuse outreaches, and the free medical missions across the State.
It is in the foundations being laid for a new town hall in Abak, teachers’ quarters in Ukana, and a lodge for corps members in Uyo. It is in the various international and local scholarships awarded. It is also in the “Light up the Niger Delta” project.
You know what I think when I see all this? I think of a gardener who tends his plants every day—watering, weeding, nurturing. He doesn’t make speeches about how tall the plants will grow. He just tends them. And one morning, we all wake up to find the garden in full bloom.
Akwa Ibom NDDC is that garden. Apostle Nkono has been that gardener.
Sometimes, the loudest impact comes from noiseless work. A lack of noise doesn’t mean nothing is happening. Sometimes, it means someone is too busy working to make noise.
That is the story of Apostle Nkono’s two years—a story still being written in the lives of people whose lives are better because he shows up and does his work.
(Ofonime Honesty writes from Uyo, Akwa Ibom State ofonimehonesty@gmail.com)
