10 Facts Highlighting Obong Attah's Contribution to Manpower Development in Akwa Ibom Airport and AKSU

10 Facts Highlighting Obong Attah's Contribution to Manpower Development in Akwa Ibom Airport and AKSU

1. Obong Attah understood the relevance of training and equipping Akwa Ibom sons and daughters, to prepare them to become managers of the state and nation's economy in the future.

2. To birth his vision, he drafted in a team of experienced professionals to look at possibility of gathering the best in the state and sponsor them for training in the best of institutions, to prepare them for take off of the Ibom Int'l Airport as well as Akwa Ibom State University of Science and Technology

3. The window was opened for thousands of Akwa people, which over hundred were selected through a free, fair and credible process, supervised by reputable professionals in related fields

4. The selected persons were sent for training in avionics and some related fields of Engineering. One of such institutions, being the highly rated Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, in the USA, where the current Head of Engineering Unit at the Ibom Int'l Airport, Engr. Iboro Cosmas, attended

5. Before exiting in 2007, Obong Attah ensured all entitlement of trainees were settled, some in advance, to guarantee their stay was without rancour

6. Although the programme was designed to be continuous, based on peculiarities and needs assessment; other potential beneficiaries were denied opportunity to be part of the scheme as the Akpabio led Government uncommonly drifted from the programme

7. Despite what most of the beneficiaries alleged as unfair treatment by the Akpabio administration, bulk of them showed absolute commitment and loyalty to the state and returned upon completion of their respective programs

8. On return to the State, majority of them  where to man facilities such as the MRO at the Ibom Int'l Airport, but were redeployed to various MDAs, other than being redundant. The decision was traced to the non completion to the MRO section of the Airport

9. Aside from the persons that were redeployed, another batch of trainees sponsored by the Attah administration, also returned from the US, UK, Canada etc. Most of them are currently with Akwa Ibom State University and are manning various key positions. For example the current Head of Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at AKSU, Dr. Unwana Ekpe and his counterpart in Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Bassey Bassey, were beneficiaries the scheme

10. Governor Udom Emmanuel's infrastructural consolidation in Akwa Ibom Int'l Airport and Akwa Ibom State University, has created the much needed platform for these trained professionals, to express themselves and perform their duties optimally; Hence justifying why HE Obong Victor Attah, invested huge resources of the state in their development.

At 80, Obong Victor Attah is worth being celebrated for these and more

Promise Etim, Uyo