Akwa Ibom Speaker, Aniekan Bassey is from the entrepreneurial background. So if one chooses to link that to his approach to social investment, they won't be wrong. But then, we can look away from that sentiment and focus more on the model he has developed from this and how workable it has been and can be. After all, in any field of study, whatever can be developed and proven as workable is adoptable, as long as it proffers solution to a challenge.

Through his initiated RHAB-YES scheme, the speaker has been able to show that the political slots provided for representative democracy can move from assisting in merely alleviating poverty to boosting wealth creation. Put explicitly, some more and genuine efforts can shift the paradigm from giving handouts that can only make for temporary solutions, to building or assisting the people in building foundations of financial self reliance for sustainability.

While not attempting to completely outplace their efforts at giving back, truth remains that most of the empowerment programmes seen here and there are randomly done for the purpose of updating scorecards and do not follow any process of needs assessment. For instance, in a list of hairdryers, grinding machines, motorcycles/vehicles, power generating sets being ceremoniously handed out to electorates as empowerment, how many of the beneficiaries were selected based on their core needs? Enquiries have revealed that most of these items ended up being sold out by the beneficiaries, and the monies? Your guess is as good as mine.

Even in the case of direct funds, it is not enough to hand out tens or hundreds of thousands of naira to an individual in the name of business grant. It is primarily important to find out the person's mental readiness to venture into business, as well as their prudence in management of funds. Hence, by subjecting applicants to a training and drilling process, the RHAB-YES initiative has been able to narrow its handouts to only deserving beneficiaries, and the follow-ups have revealed great impacts by the initiative in assisting beneficiaries with existing business boost their ventures, as well as the startups, in setting up solid foundations.

As of the last check, the initiative had recorded needs based support for as much as 144 businesses after its 29th edition. There are about 400 cases of special support which were cases where beneficiaries with critical cases or business with greater potentials had to be given larger funds. Therefore, AB's eight years in the legislature at the state level will be passing into history as one which stretched a bit from lawmaking to accommodating initiatives that modelled a solution to social and economic challenges.

These funds could have been channeled into creating a focus in his primary constituency or narrowed to areas of political interest, and still would have built him the needed goodwill to progress his political career. Therefore, choosing to spread the opportunities across the state makes it more of an interest in state building than for political philanthropy. Reason his senatorial ambition should be seen as an opening to more financial strength that would double the energy and true spirit that inspired this interest in the first place.


Ubong Sampson writes from Akansoko in Akpabuyo LGA of Cross River State.