Atuekong Donald Obot Etiebet: 80 Toasts to the people’s general, By Iboro Otongaran

Etiebet is indeed a general leading the way for his people in many theatres of their struggle. His leadership does not show through only in interpersonal relationships and in business. It has been particularly demonstrated in politics. Etiebet’s footprints are unmistakable in every political epoch and in every major political movement in the country in the last 30 years.

All too often traditional titles are thrown around as confetti to scratch egoistic itch. The title for Atuekong Donald Obot Etiebet, a pre-eminent geoscientist and IT geek, came from a different kind of consideration. His chieftaincy title, Atuekong, which translates literally as the head of the people’s army, speaks to his amazing persona on the life stage, his fighting spirit for the liberation of his people from all manner of shackles, and the untameable hunger in his belly to make a difference wherever he is.

For these and more reasons I am at one with the Petroleum Club and all people of goodwill in celebrating the people’s general, the Atuekong of Akwa Abasi Ibom State, a dream-maker, an epitome of excellence and a man of vision, as he marks three score years and ten plus ten on earth. A man whose heart beats with so much goodness, Etiebet has in the course of his illustrious career reached out and lifted countless homes and families with jobs and mentoring for their breadwinners, laying out a huge personal fortune — through endowments, scholarships, prizes, donations and sponsorships — for the benefit of many across the nation. A personal fortune he built by dint of hard work through a business empire stretching across real estate, oil and gas, banking, education, as well as information and communication technology (ICT).

For years, his IT company, Data Sciences, was an incubator for skills acquisition and leadership training. So many people in leadership positions today in Akwa Ibom State and across the country learnt at Etiebet’s feet in Data Sciences. Etiebet’s positive impact has graced my family — so I should know — just as he has impacted many other families around the country. There are, therefore, compelling personal reasons for a host of grateful folks to celebrate with him on this very happy occasion of his birthday. We celebrate and thank God that we have him as a blessing at a personal level, and even more so as a bigger blessing for the country.

For the country, Etiebet offers a luminous profile in exemplary leadership. This is not to be taken lightly. The question of leadership in the world’s most populous black nation, Nigeria, is just so elemental that it deserves every shred of interest. I agree wholly with Chinua Achebe that the trouble with Nigeria is the problem of leadership. So, when a man like Atuekong Etiebet comes along with a sterling private sector record as a business leader, and serves in the public sector as Petroleum Minister creditably, not singed by the sludge of sleaze, then we simply have a perfect case study in desirable and effective leadership.

For the country, Etiebet’s outstanding achievements are many. He it was who cracked the conundrum that held back the consummation of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) project by nudging the Federal Authorities away from hankering after keeping the controlling shares in the investment, a policy stance that had proven to be the stumbling block to the realisation of the project for years. By his common-sense leadership and power of vision, the nation built the NLNG, which is today a bellwether for the national treasury. It was also during his tenure as Petroleum Minister that the Petroleum Trust Fund was established as a major interventionist agency to address serious infrastructure and human capital deficits in many sectors of the society, particularly in tertiary education.

As Minister, Etiebet oversaw the roll-out of a range of other farsighted reforms in the petroleum sector that have since served as the defining features of the industry. They include deep offshore exploration and drilling — a slice of the sector that still retains the interest of relocating oil majors; introduction of the country’s first instance of monetisation policy in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); and the streamlining of operational processes in the then Department of Petroleum Resources, to tame its unwieldy bureaucracy and optimise productivity and efficiency in that critical department in the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources at the time. He equally promoted the policy of local content to domesticate the oil and gas industry and integrate it with the local economy. The local content policy would later crystallise in the establishment of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board in 2010 during the Obasanjo presidency, a culmination of a policy articulation that has been a shot in the arm for local players in the oil and gas industry.

Etiebet’s leadership impact is not limited to his pathfinding work in the private sector, nor is it to his transformational policy initiatives and execution in government at the federal level. At the state level in Akwa Ibom and at the regional stage in the Niger Delta, Etiebet lived up to his stripes as Atuekong when he joined forces with his compatriots who include but are not limited to His Excellency Obong Victor Attah, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, Obong Umana Okon Umana, Senator Effiong Bob, Senator James Akpanudoedehe, Senator Aloysius Etok, Senator Ita Enang and other champions of equity in the country to fight and win the resource control battle.