Hon Rootman Ogbor Odop Opens up on the Budget passage by CRSHA

Hon.Ogbor Odop, Member representing Biase State Constituency at the 8th CRSHA

|19 February 2018 | Ukorebi Esien

The governor has made it very clear that you don't think according to your pocket nowadays, you have to go out of your pocket and dig deep into your head. And when that happens, there's nothing you can not realise, man has an almost infinite depth in terms of what he can create. 

That is why on the floor of the House I said that if we are what we should be then even N1.3 trillion will be too small. 

I made it clear that if we can think deep... Are you telling me that for a population of over 4 million that a budget of N1.3 trillion is too much? That's because we have been reducing ourselves, and we have not been bringing our best. 

What the governor is trying to say is to tell us to work harder, to trust in ourselves and if we do, we will realise that even the  N1.3trillion will be small.

—Hon. Ogbor Ogbor Odop, Member representing Biase State Constituency at the 8th CRSHA 

On Thursday 15th February 2018 the 8th Cross River State House of Assembly passed the N1.3 trillion 2018 Appropriation bill into law. The Honourable Member representing Biase State Constituency at the Assembly, Odop popularly called Rootman has borne his mind on the passage. In this interview to the press, Odop said considering our needs, the trillion naira budget is even paltry. Hear his reasons: 

Thedailynews: Today the House met in regards of the budget christened Budget of Kinetic Crystallisation, so what was the result of the sitting?

ROOTMAN: Yes the house met in a sitting and contribution was done on the floor of the House. 

The House has considered the report of the relevant committee agreed in the interest of the State. So, the project will be executed, all the crystallisation will actually start, the House with some amendment, which is natural after a lot of consultation has been done, passed the bill into law. And like the Speaker said, that is the most important bill in any parliament in any given year.

So it's left for us to do our work: first, for the committees of the House to carry out their oversight functions and for the press which the fourth estate of the realm to do their investigations and everything another thing that is necessary for the budget to be implemented. 

Thedailynews: The budget has been passed with a bogus amount of N1.3 trillion? 

ROOTMAN: Yes! 

Thedailynews: The chairman of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation said there was a reduction of about 50 billion Naira from the appropriation bill, sir, what's your take on that? Is it too small or is it too much? 

ROOTMAN: That's why I said that after some consultations, analysis, it arrived at N1.3 trillion instead of N1.3 trillion, that is to say, that about N50 billion have been deducted; and if I have to add, it is budget that emanates from the deep vision budget. 

The governor has made it very clear that you don't think according to your pocket now a day, you have to go out of your pocket and dig deep into your head. And when that happens, there's nothing you can not realise, man has an almost infinite depth in terms of what he can create. 

That is why on the floor of the House I said that if we are what we should be then even N1.3 trillion will be too small. 

I made it clear that if we can think deep... Are you telling me that for a population of over 4 million that a budget of N1.3 trillion is too much? That's because we have been reducing ourselves, and we have not been bringing our best. 

What the governor is trying to say is to tell us to work harder, to trust in ourselves and if we do, we will realise that even the N1.3 trillion will be small. 

Thedailynews: Sir, the House just approved 20 billion Naira in the 2018 budget for the repairs/construction of Tinapa/Odukpani junction and we all know that the road is a federal road had been awarded by the federal government two years ago. 

ROOTMAN: Yes it is a federal road. But, if the state government knows that it has become important and urgent for her to intervene, that is to say, the federal government can make a refund appropriately. It's Ok. 

The same people who will always say that the government should intervene though it's a federal road, and when you tell them that how can the governor intervene when it's a federal road —they argue that the governor should know that he's governor of the state. 

We have to believe for the governor to capture it in the budget despite the amount of money involved, and then it means there must have been an understanding between the contractors or arrangements to get the refund. We should expect that even without been told. We should expect that. 

My Support for Ayade's endorsement is based on two unassailable Justifications - Hon. Ogbor Odop

|12 February 2018 | Ukorebi Esien

As for democratic justice, we call ourselves the paradise state, I am a Christian and Christ has told all of us that the road to heaven —if you like call it paradise, if you like call it eldorado any how you call it— the road to heaven is not smooth and it is not for shallow persons, it's for deep thinkers and you will agree with me that in terms of thinking, in terms of visioning, Governor Ben Ayade is a deep visionary leader and you don't castigate visionary men rather you castigate those who do not realize their visions, so we have to wait until after 8 years before we can assess him in terms of vision and to add to that, if under this depression, under this porosity of everything and resources, Prof. Ben Ayade had the kindness to spread appointment the way he has done. Meaning he wants (like he usually says) food to be available on the table of very many persons. I think that utilitarian position should be appreciated. No man is perfect, I agree, but he has been so Benthamite. From Jeremy Bentham, that is the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. They call it Utilitarianism. That is why I said that for doing what he is doing, I think he deserves a second term, to me and to the people of the southern senatorial district. —Hon. Ogbor Ogbor Odop

The Honourable Member representing Biase State Constituency in the 8th Cross River State House of Assembly, Mr. Ogbor Ogbor Odop aka Rootman has borne his mind on the political endorsement of the incumbent Governor of Cross River state, Sen. Prof. Ben Ayade, for the upcoming 2019 general elections. Rootman has hinged his support for Ayade on two principles of justice which he tagged —geopolitical and democratic justices. He has said that Ayade should be assessed after the end of his second term in fitting respect for a 'deep thinker'. Excerpt :

Thedailynewsng: What's your take in respect of the just concluded gale of state-wide endorsements of Governor Ben Ayade in view of 2019 General Elections? 

ROOTMAN : I am fully in support of the endorsement. Biase endorses the governor for a second term, Biase and Akamkpa Federal Constituency endorses the governor for a second term and then the '7 Alive' made up of the 7 local governments that make up Southern Cross River, we all endorse the governor for a second term. And of course, we have our reasons.

If you want me to tell you the reason, I will say that for me there's nothing we do without considering justice, if there's no justice in anything then that thing is actually nothing. Justice in the sense that if we ask ourselves questions we should begin to think about the stability and peace of this state.

I anchor the endorsement of Sen. Prof. Ben Ayade on two planks of justices: one is what I call 'geopolitical justice' and the second, 'democratic justice'.

Geopolitical justice —as shown strongly in the state in this dispensation, that means, starting from 1999. The southern senatorial district enjoyed 8 clear years in a governor's hand and that was under one person in the person of His Excellency Mr. Donald Duke. 

After that 'the central' enjoyed the same thing under one person, not two which is His Excellency, Liyel Imoke; I think if we have to be fair to all of us, the 'north' deserves to also serve 8 years and it should be one person and that person is Prof. Ben Ayade. That is what I call geopolitical justice.

As for democratic justice, we call ourselves the paradise state, I am a Christian and Christ has told all of us that the road to heaven —if you like call it paradise, if you like call it eldorado any how you call it— the road to heaven is not smooth and it is not for shallow persons, it's for deep thinkers and you will agree with me that in terms of thinking, in terms of visioning, Governor Ben Ayade is a deep visionary leader and you don't castigate visionary men rather you castigate those who do not realize their visions, so we have to wait until after 8 years before we can assess him in terms of vision and to add to that, if under this depression, under this porosity of everything and resources, Prof. Ben Ayade had the kindness to spread appointment the way he has done. 

Meaning he wants (like he usually say) food to be available on the table of very many persons. I think that utilitarian position should be appreciated. No man is perfect, I agree, but he has been so Benthamite. From Jeremy Bentham, that is, the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. They call it Utilitarianism. That is why I said that for doing what he is doing, I think he deserves a second term, to me and to the people of southern senatorial district.

Thedailynewsng: There is this section of the society which beliefs for reasons best known to them that it shouldn't be the governor but any other Cross Riverian from the northern senatorial district? How do you respond to them? 

ROOTMAN : First of all as Democrats, we must respect every view, that is what we owe ourselves and others, but don't forget I said that when the south went, they did that under one person, same with the central under one person, should the north now be two or three? That will kind of rock the boat and don't forget the constitution allows the chief executive that is the governor and the president a limit of two terms. So by the time you bring in some other persons from the north, the tendency may be (you know human tendencies when you talk of ambition), when the person serves four years and the constitution allows him to go for another term we will begin to have issues in Cross River state. So I think that we should swallow our ambition and allow this young man complete his eight years. 

Let us think deep as we should, in 1999, Cross River state never met anywhere to decide it should zone governorship to the south so as of that time, you expect all three senatorial districts. In 2007, the south had already gone, so no southerner contested only central and north because they were the only two left. Why did the south decide not to contest? Because they knew they have taken their own share, it's not everything that should be written, it's conventional. That is why after the central had served their eight years, it was only the Northerners and nobody came out from the south and central to contest. If at all they did, they were just pretenders and not contenders.  

So the question you should ask yourself is how come in 1999, the three zones contested? How come in 2007, only two and how come in 2015 only one?

That means that even without being told, we knew that as at 1999 since we had not sat and said, let it start from the south, then everybody can contest. If for instance Chief Kanu Agabi had emerged and not Donald Duke, the tendency that northerners would not have been contesting in every election, but a southerner emerged and having completed the eight years, we knew without been told that south had had their own share. 

That was why in 2015, you saw it very clear that the whole thing centered in the north. Even though when you talk about LGAs we have more in the other two senatorial districts. That should let you know that humans are very intelligent, don't forget convention is part of the law, a source of law if you like. So that is my take on that.

The idea geopolitical justice favours him and the idea of democratic justice also favours him. On that of democratic justice, I mentioned that he is the one who can take us to the paradise. That was why I said shallow thinkers are not needed now. In case some people will get confused let us reduce it to concrete terms. 

The way he made his appointments and considering the fact that he came at the time that Nigeria was down economically and he still had the mind that kindness spreads appointments the way he did. With 3000, 5000 youths in his appointment list getting alerts every month across the state. That type of a person, it's very clear that if he were to have the type of excess funds that others had and are making noise now. He would have performed wonders. 

When we access our leaders we should also look at their resources, if we don't then we will be making a mistake. You can't give a man an elephant and the other one a goat and you expect both of them to donate equal size of meat to the public. So, what I am saying is that he has tried. And one aspect that you can give him kudos is by being selfless, selfless in the sense of saying let as many persons as possible join me in this resource control/allocation.

Thedailynewsng: During Donald Duke's first term, we all knew where he was talking Cross River State to likewise Imoke, can you categorically tell us where Ayade is taking Cross River State to? 

Did you say that during Donald Duke's first term, we knew where we were going to? I disagree with you. In Donald Duke's first term we were hearing of pineapples, castor oil and the rest and none of them saw the light of the day. It was in his second term we started hearing about tourism and the rest. You have to be very historical. The same thing with Sen. Liyel Imoke, don't forget, that more like Ben, Liyel knew he was going to be governor even though he was not a God. We should be very very practical so Liyel unlike others planned, so when Liyel came, the tendency was that he started on a good footing. But even at that, he was not as good as it should. It was in his second term when he now entered the rural areas and did a lot of roads. For Ben Ayade, he came and told us clearly that all he wants to do is to decouple our economy from the federal allocation.

Now one way to do that is to think outside the box. And thinking outside the box is the deep sea port and super high way project of and I will tell people that when a man sells a deep vision to you, it is our collective responsibility to make those visions to be realised. We should just look at the benefit of the deep sea port. When it happens, where will we be? That's all that matters. When the other one comes, where will we be?

Sometimes you allow tomorrow guiding you; you build hope, rather than condemn it. So when some of us begin to condemn and counter it, say it's causing a problem with this super high way. I don't think we are doing that in the interest of the state. Rather, let us corporate with him.

I am not saying we should not judge him now. What I am saying is it is better to judge a deep visionary at the end of his tenure.

But while propagating the deep visionary and one thing or the other. We have already called it deep. It will be difficult and sometimes unfair to judge it now because you won't see the result because there are some results you won't see, so what we need is to ask ourselves, will the deep sea port and superhighway take place?

We need to consistently and insistently let him know and all those who are working with him that we need these two things he sold to us and let us do our own aspect. And at the end of it, if he doesn't realize it that's when we can comfortably say Oga, why? But for now, if you condemn, to me it's not too right.

Until the people begin to govern the government, then we are nowhere close. Sometimes we are too aloof, we think by the government we mean one or two persons, No! Sometimes the people force the government to do something. If the press is firm, if the press is constructively critical, it will spur the governor that will be better than condemning him. Saying he did not even mean what he was saying, by the time you do that, then you become a cloak in the wheel of progress.

So, the realisation of the deep sea port and superhighway for instance not only depends on the government but on all of us. And the question we should ask ourselves is, Ben Ayade as a person, what does he want, resources-wise or money wise?

I remember I told him at Abuja that my respect for you is not just because you are the governor but you are an intellectual, let us not forget.

As a private individual, the man discovered a formula that is helping mankind. We shouldn't forget that it's rare. I think he deserves our cooperation.

It's rare in the world to see an intellect advancing politically. I think we should cooperate with him. That had been my stand from day one.

Ukorebi Esien

 blogs and publishes for thedailynewsng(TDN)

C’River State have fulfilled all conditions for Super Highway EIA Approval – SA Technical

 Amongst the conditions, there were certain things that needed to be submitted to the Federal Ministry of Environment. All what we needed to have submitted we have submitted, environmental management plan, social management plan, all those ones we have submitted; we have finished with all the submissions to them and we have also made a commitment for them to know that we are in the process of compensation... —SA Eric Akpo. 

On Saturday 19th August, the Special Adviser to the Executive Governor of Cross River State on Technical Matters, Arc Eric Akpo, granted some journalist an interview session particularly bordering on the Superhighway. 

It was quite an interesting 90 minutes session as the SA took us through a detour of the controversial pet project of His Excellency the Governor of Cross River State, Sen. Ben Ayade. SA Akpo intelligently addressed questions on the manner of funding for the Superhighway, made clarifications on the EIA, and compensation plans for those whose properties has/will been affected by the construction, etc. 

To avoid boredom, this publication on the interview will come in bits of at least two. What follows, is the interview as it transpired last week. Happy reading.  

JOURNALISTS: Can we get to know you, please? 

SA: My name is Arc Eric Akpo Special Adviser to the Governor of Cross River State on Technical Matters.

JOURNALISTS: Can you give us a rundown of your stay in office as SA Technical to Gov Ben Ayade? 

SA: The journey so far been an SA to a governor known as the 'digital governor', you know, means that you have to be the reason behind the 'digitality' of the governor. Being the SA Technical... it’s not been an easy ride I must say because the Governor is a very dynamic person, a very dynamic thinker; he thinks like there is no box all the time, he believes that he can achieve anything so when he mentions something, you know it falls back to you as the SA Technical to decide how to achieve that particular goal.

Good enough, when he mentions those things he already has one or two guidelines to give to you to do those things. But at the end of the day the bulk of the work falls back to you because you have to do the nitty-gritty to ensure that his goals are achieved. So, it’s not been an easy ride.

I think I can say that unofficially, I was one of the first persons who had an appointment with him unannounced even before he was inaugurated.

We conceived the idea of the Superhighway and the Deep-sea port together before his inauguration and he told me, go ahead, go to Federal Ministry of Environment let them recommend a consultant for you so that we can start work on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

I had to step out immediately. And when we moved from Abuja coming down to Calabar for his inauguration, he told me take that car, I want you to put a sticker on it because immediately after my inauguration as people come out, I want them to see a car with the superhighway and the deep-sea port already inscribed, so that they will know that I am serious pursuing these projects. That is how I started my work on the deep-sea port and superhighway before my appointment was eventually announced.

So, it’s been work, work, work all along for the past two years for me. There are so many projects, so many creative projects and so much planning to do and most of these plannings have been my responsibility. Of course, carrying out the feasibility, carrying out the pre-project planning process and everything, it’s my responsibility as the SA Technical. I liaise with the consultant, I liaise with the prospective investors for whatever project it is; they come first to my office. I hold the preliminary meetings with them. I tell them what and what we need to do, and off course, he had given me the guideline for our engagement with investors in whatever project. Which is why I think we were very vested here.

Some people raise so many issues which we from the origin and the conception of any project had already taken care of. For instance the issue of you are partnering with this company, you are going to give them counterpart funding, you are going to give them equity contribution and all that; our guideline with these people is straight forward whatever investor, wherever you come from.

So if you are coming in as an investor, you are coming in as an investor to put in your funds 100%. We do not have any guarantees for you. If you are coming in to invest, you have to carry out your feasibility, you have to be sure that this is a business that you can run profitably and recover your money, so it is your technical know-how that should guarantee your fund recovery, not we tieing our own future down. When you come to do an investment, when the profit comes, you take it; but, if the business fails we bear the loss? It doesn’t make sense at the end. These are the things we discuss with these prospective investors or consultants on any of these projects before we set out to discuss terms of contract and other things generally.

So, yes I have been engaging with almost every prospective investor that has come into the state; I have been going about the budget planning process with most of them and of course I supervise most of the project in the field. For the past two years, that has been what has been keeping me busy besides making sure that Governor's Office and most other facilities are very functional as a duty of my office.

JOURNALISTS: For the purpose of clarity and specificity, can you itemise some of these projects whose planning and supervision you have been involved in for the past few years?

SA: Okay, I will start with our signature projects: we have 2 key signature projects but generally we have 3 key signature projects which include the Garment Factory, the Superhighway and the Deep-sea port.

Economic transformation is one of the key targets of this administration and that is wrapped around the Deep-sea port and the Superhighway as solutions to this economic transformation drive that we have. The deep-sea port, the superhighway have been since we hit the ground running, we are still on course, they very heavy projects. Now, the planning of these projects takes time even though we try to devise different means to see that we save time, because most times, why most of the projects like that are started and not completed or not even stated at all is because when you look at the bureaucracy of achieving these projects, it take too much time, before you know it, you only have four years in the first instance and you have another four years in the second instance and then the time is gone and you are not able to complete it and meanwhile you have put in so much resources into it and because you have not achieved the result, people think you did not do anything.

Look at the international conference center, Liyel Imoke sunk in so much to it but was not able to officially commission it before he left office; Ayade came in and put in some funds to tidy the place up, but most people give the glory to him for having commissioned the project; so, that is how it is.

So, we try to see how we can save time on some of these project; at some point it looked like we were infringing on the law even though we know very well that the law itself is a bit flexible to make these things work somehow; that is for the superhighway and the deep-sea port projects.

It was expected we would have procured the EIA which of course everybody knows that it took us two years to get the approval, we started with identification of site, we started clearing after determining the route of the superhighway, we started clearing while we were still doing the EIA which was an infringement on the law.

But, the law is very clear on that, anybody who starts a project before procuring the EIA certification pays a fine, a well stipulated fine, and I can tell you almost all federal projects in Nigeria do not have EIA, they just go ahead and start the work. I think also that superhighway project has actually given a different out look to the EIA process in the country because it was sensitive and attracted so much interest, I can bet you that not so many people knew what the EIA was all about, but now people can talk about the EIA comfortably. 

I do not know if any of us has been in any public hearing for any project ever before on an EIA? In fact, we don’t even hear about the EIA but we have the Odukpani Power Plant; we have the NIPP power plant. When did anybody ever come for a public hearing? We have electrification projects going on everywhere I have never seen a gathering of a public hearing, to tell you that the laws were there but nobody was actually following them.

It is only the Superhighway that everybody in the country is now looking at to say okay, we actually press on this EIA to know how things are done; for me it is a plus.

JOURNALISTS: The statement you made that almost all federal project do not have EIAs, is it across Nigeria or just in the Cross River state?

SA: No! It’s nationwide. If you ask them for EIA, they don’t have and even if they do, it is actually after the project has been executed just to have something to show.

That's why am telling you that, we have so many federal projects in the state, so you would have been hearing of several public hearing everyday but you hardly hear of any because they don’t actually carry out EIA. 

However, the governor in his wisdom had told me to secure the services of a consultant for EIA even before he was sworn in as governor.

JOURNALISTS (cuts in): What is the name of the consultant?

SA: PGN Resources. We had recommendation of three companies, we engaged the three companies and luckily we had PGN who knew the terrain around Cross River and Akwa Ibom, so we procured their services. Precisely, on the 9th of May, 2015 that was when we engaged their services for the EIA. 

The governor knew we needed the EIA and as an environmentalist, he wasn’t going to undermine that; even though negative publicity made it looked like he was going to undermine that. No, he didn’t, he took it very seriously.

Under my office, for every where we had contractors clearing the superhighway we had somebody called an Environmental Management Assistant (EMA), employed from within the community and we always asked the community when we go to engage them, if you have any of your children who studied Environmental Science, Agriculture, Forestry please recommend one for us we need someone to serve as environmental management assistant (EMA) with us.

They are all engage in my office. They are the ones who took records of all the farms, economic trees, take measurement of the farm size, etc. So, they record it against your name, phone number and other contact details. We had all these records because these were supposed to be components of the EIA; so we gathered all these information. There is nobody whose property was touched, be it cash crop or economic trees, we have records in my office. We have details of everyone. It is people from your community doing this job, so if you think you are been marginalise or cheated, it is your own son you will call.

JOURNALISTS: Are there plans for compensation?

SA: Of course, why we are doing this is because there will definitely be compensation for what you have on the land —not for the land; government does not pay compensation for land according to the Land Use Act. But you pay for any valuables on the land. There’s what you pay for economic trees, melon farms etc the stipulations are there, when it has to do with places of critical or cultural importance to the various communities, it depends on what the community demands. The community will say you need to give us so so and so for us to carry out some particular rituals to relocate our shrines, grave, deity to so so and so place. In the clearing so far, none of those ones were touched, if you tell us that this is a sacred area, this tree or from here to here to here is a sacred area, our machines don’t go there, they just avoid that area. Before now, before we do that we must have negotiated with them to do the needful. You are not just going to sweep through somebody’s father's grave, we must strike a balance between communities and the people.

The answer is compensation will be paid for any valuable that will be affected on the Superhighway and the Deep-sea port.

JOURNALISTS: How far have you gone with the 23 conditions given by the Federal Ministry of Environment as it regards the Superhighway? 

SA: Amongst the conditions, there were certain things that needed to be submitted to the Federal Ministry of Environment. All what we needed to have submitted we have submitted, environmental management plan, social management plan, all those ones we have submitted; we have finished with all the submissions to them and we have also made a commitment for them to know that we are in the process of compensation. 

May be I should explain something about compensation. Compensation is not something any government does one-off. It is usually a gradual process, Compensation begins with enumeration. What you have to prove is that you are in the process. There is no government that will just demolish somebody's house and walk away; it's not obtainable unless the house in the first instance is an illegal structure that was marked hitherto for demolition, that’s a different case.

But first of all, what we do is enumeration which is usually a very tedious process. You know why? It would have been very easy to say bring your claims and then we settle, but people go and proliferate the numbers. In fact, if you allow it like that you will pay billions and billions and you have not finished paying. 

To be continued... 

I want to become a Gynaecologist- Joyce Ewa, Winner of Calabar Poetry Competition (INTERVIEW)

Joyce Ewa, Star Prize Winner of Calabar Poetry Competition

While Cross Riverians were celebrating the Golden Jubilee Anniversary of the state, some teenagers were busy working out their brains at the Box (James Ene Henshaw Foundation) beside Transcorp Hotel as they competed for the star prize of the Calabar Teens Poetry Competition.

The Competition which took place on Monday, 29^th May was organized by Teens Issues, an organization that sees to the total well being of teenagers in our society in Partnership with Poets in Nigeria.

   Miss Joyce Ewa, a 14year old Senior Secondary School Student of Hilcrest High School, Calabar was declared Winner of the Calabar Teens Poetry Competition 2017 by the judges. 

In this interview with Veralyn Chinenye of Beau2fulfeet. Miss Joyce Ewa gives an insight to what led to her clinching the Star prize of the competition.

Except:

B2f: Good to have you, Miss. Joyce

Miss. Joyce: The pleasure is mine...

B2f:How is life with you?

Miss. Joyce: Well, well, fine-fine...
Not really easy, especially with distractions beckoning all around. 

B2f:Let's talk about these distractions

Miss. Joyce: As teenagers in school we are faced with distraction from social media, party and peer pressure, but we just have to focus on the things that are important-Our studies.

Joyce and her Siblings

B2f:So you don't socialize, you the bookworm kind of girl?

Miss. Joyce: Yes, I will agree with that title, but not withstanding, it doesn't prevent me from engaging in my hobbies and skills.

B2f: What are these hobbies/skills that can match school activities?

Miss. Joyce: Well, that's why I said earlier, important things first.
I am a student, a choir leader in a singing club in school and also a writer, through which I got in to the competition and emerged winner and I also dance a bit.
(Laughs)

B2f: Speaking about the competition, how does it feel been the winner?

Miss. Joyce: I feel so happy and privileged.
I never expected it. I just came to try out my skill.

I would just say a very big thank you to God who made me a winner.

Pst. Dr. & Mrs Desmond Ewa, Joyce Happy Parents

B2f:We learnt a cash prize was given to you, how do you intend to spend it?

Miss. Joyce: I will give it to my mum, who will remove my tithe and keep the rest...
But I will still buy something... (Laughs)

B2f:How has the writing journey been?
Miss. Joyce: I write at leisure, sometimes I'm inspired by something and sometimes I am not.
My first poem was written 2013, I just watched a tree, got inspired and wrote.
It was appreciated, although my first. (Smiles)

B2f:Do you see writing as a career for you in the future.

Miss. Joyce: Not exactly, I intend to study Medicine.
I want to become a Gynaecologist.
Although, writing can come to play also, but Gynaecology will be my main focus.

B2f:Why Gynaecology?

Miss. Joyce: I think my love to see people fit and okay is my driving force. Especially with women and their reproductive organs being healthy and always in check.

B2f: Do you think you have made a mark at your age?

A Happy Joyce Displaying her Cheque

Miss. Joyce: I can't really say, maybe persons would have to answer that for me.
But, I don't think I have really made a mark as I should have. Because my favourite book still remains "I wish I knew this before I was Fourteen" by Tekena Ikoko.
I just have to work hard and focus on important things, because time waits for no man.

Joyce and her Family

B2f: What's your word for young people out there?
Focus on what is important. Your studies, skills and talents and so on...
Don't waste your life on irrelevant things, because time waits for no man.

So harness your talents and skills accordingly and let it make you shine.
Parents, please be supportive of your kids, watch them closely and train them in the fear of God.

B2f: Woah! Woah! Woah!
It was mesmerising talking to you.

The feeling is mutually shared.

Miss. Joyce: Thanks so much.

B2f: You are welcome.

Ukorebi Esien 

Blogs and Edits for TDN