A TYPICAL DAY WITH HONOURABLE PATTY INEME.

 Please who is honourable Etete Okon Patty?
 Honourable Patty Etete Ineme is a former member of the Nigerian house of representatives who served from 2007- 2011. While there I served the nation in various committees on culture, defence and army, environment, Marine security, federal character, chairman sub committee on works for south south, historical and African cultural researcher, author and arts connoisseur, conceptualiser of the establishment of Annang museum Ikot Ekpene and raffia and crafts skill acquisition centre Ikot Inyang in Akwa Ibom State. I am 44 years old, married with four children, a prince of the Royal family lineage of the progenitors of Ikot Ekpene dynasty of the Annang royal ancestry traceable through our migration from old Ibom lands to present day Akwa Ibom.

 Interesting! I know you have a great love for books and you are also an author. How many books have you authored?
So far I have authored two books.

 Can you tell us the titles and where we can find them?
 They are " A Compendium of Annang Culture" first published in September 2014 and  "Memories of Africa's Glorious Past" published in depth in 2015. I am presently working on my upcoming book titled " The Spirits of Ikot Ekpene Kingdom.


 From your brief introduction, you are a stakeholder in Nigerian Culture and tourism and a conceptualiser of Annang museum in Ikot Ekpene, What is the future for Annang culture and how far do you think we have gone in propagating our culture beyond the shores of Nigeria and Africa as a whole?
 Annang culture is one of the oldest civilisations that existed in present day Nigeria. In fact you can say that the culture even pre-dates the existence of ancient Benin Kingdom, when you consider the fact that we were the progenitor tribe that ruled over old Ibom lands; a kingdom and civilisation which existed and still exists today though decimated and abandoned by the progenitor family during the invasion of the kingdom by the present day occupiers of the old Aro confederacy which was named after we relocated to present day Ikot Ekpene. The inherited thriving and prosperous kingdom with its array of architectural masterpiece was later credited with being the "bedrock of Ibo civilisation. Which means that before the Ibo's, we were civilised. After the 14th century disintegration and migration, some Annangs became Ibo's, settling in such places as Onitsha, Abriba, Rivers state, Ijaw, Tivs and a tribe that inhabits the Mambila plateau, Ghanaians, Efiks and what have you. In fact the Ekpe cultural organisation has its roots in old Ibom lands that was ruled by the Annangs and till date their shrine as old as 800 years and beyond is still in Ibom land as well as that of the Ekpo cultural group which was more activated and enrolled as a war machine for post Ibom lands to use as a tool in keeping the rampaging aro invaders away from our new kingdom which we later took over as the next civilization from the Aro kingdom and continued in its prosperity in the new Ikot Ekpene dynasty which was founded in the fourteenth century as the first civilisation in present day Akwa ibom State; till the British invaders fresh from the victory over the Benin Kingdom were finally able to overcome the once mighty Ikot Ekpene kingdom, the capital of the Annang tribe. Due to their fascination with the advanced and civilised nature of the kingdom which was also expressed through the love of our arts and cultured nature, they created a white holiday colony in Ikot Ekpene where all whites including later younger Queen Elizabeth finally visited as a young lady. That same fascination and advancement led the British government to adopt our inherited system of governance in the implementation of the now famous local system of governance as the first recognised local government Area in the whole of British West Africa. The Annang previously came from the Bantu speaking people of Africa who in turn traced their ancestry to the kushite tribe which also pre dates Egypt and was also part of God's positive plan through the creation as one of his promised tribes.


 Wow! another question for you sir. What sparked off  your interest in Nigerian culture?
 My interests in cultural arts and craft was like an intuition which I later found out was hereditary because though my late father was a fabrication Engineer, he had a knack for using metals to fabricate fun and fancy house hold items unlike his own fore bears who used wood and raffia for decorative and fancy items. It was not until my University days during one of those cash draught days, that I realised intuitively all of a sudden that I could make money to support my schooling by discovering rare artistic objects and works to sell to people from my fellow brethren from Ikot Ekpene who were known as legendary carvers etc and thus began my journey and interests in arts and crafts. I had a thriving arts and crafts business as a student even into my early youth service years. As a fact when I was going for youth service in the year 1997-98, I went into Camp as a youth corper with raffia arts wares with fancy bags shoes and hats worth over 500 thousand naira and I prospered in it before God took me away temporarily to other occupations to garner needed experience and knowledge about life, management and administration, rising through the ranks speedily where I acquired the needed wherewithal and experience to be a successful politician before representing my people at the National Assembly. It was at the National Assembly that my world view and interests became rekindled again once more and I also discovered that arts and culture was very very deep and that those objects that used to catch my fancy held much meaning and expression than what was physically seen. Every object of art represented a story in an era. It was my quest to delve into the stories behind the different eras represented by the works of arts that made me discover the rich cultural heritage of first my own lineage and others too and I knew that development and modernisation had either distorted or thrown even the most fascinating of history's glorious past away due to lack of documentation and most times historical revisionism of different greedy selfish and wicked regimes over time. My interests is to delve into all the time and try to discover the stories behind those spaces with the hope that we can conveniently rediscover those salient and wonderful attributes that ensured our existence and success through a glorious past for posterity and better prosperity of our people.

where is your museum located?:
The Annang museum is not my museum. It is the property of National commission for museum and monuments in Abuja but situated at 10 Smith Close Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State. I just facilitated the inclusion in the National budget and it's construction when I was in the House as well out sourcing for the initial antiques and materials that represent the Annang. However I have a personal Centre dedicated to the study, research and preservation of Nigerian and African arts in Abuja, it is called tny gallery and African cultural heritage Centre Abuja. www.tnyafricanheritage.com.

Are your works being exhibited in other centres?
I don't produce works of arts because I am not directly an artisan but I collect works of arts, I visualise works of art in my mind and sometimes If I am lucky to meet an artist who can express my thoughts and vision in concrete art form then that is my lucky day. This is done mostly with contemporary art forms and so on in the production of paintings on canvas and wood carvings and sculptures. I also collect an ancient Nigerian and African antics both for preservation, research and educational purposes too. Some antic works were donated free of charge to the Annang museum because of the historical myth surrounding them, example is the "iso Ekpo, Nkubia" which pre dates the history of Ikot Ekpene dynasty as it was the same artisan that carved the now famous Ibini ukpabi oracle the modern name given to the "ibom" sculpture that is over a century old still in modern day Arochukwu and the Nkubia mask now resting at Annang museum Ikot Ekpene.

What is the future of tourism in Nigeria and how can we can make it more lucrative so as to attract tourists from the diaspora?
We have a great abundance of untapped potentials in the expression and mining of the rich and diverse cultural heritage for an inflow of needed foreign exchange and increased tourism activities for our prosperity. It is just that there has been a disconnect between the respective policy formulators to get into the right mix for a sustainable and financially lucrative sector while offering a varied range of employment opportunities. This much we had realised since 2012 when we invited relevant stake holders both in the public, private sector and government policy formulators to our maiden seminar in 2012 titled "Treasure's within". The lead paper on the topic "culture and tourism as an alternative foreign exchange earner" was well presented by the current DG Nigerian stock exchange during the seminar while the former speaker House of representative, His Excellency Rt Hon Dimeji Bankole and Former Deputy Senate President Senator Ibrahim Mantu were Co chairmen respectively. Each providing legislative insight into how proper legislation can be made to strengthen existing laws of the federation on culture and tourism to accommodate new ideas and resolutions presented by various speakers at the seminar. We also held another seminar in September, 2014 also with the intention of lending our voice to the call for government intervention and input to encourage the growth of local arts and crafts as a tourist attraction by identifying, exposing and bringing to the fore the respective salient but important dominant and rich cultural heritage that dot the length and breath of the country to package them for marketing and tourism purposes. Our intentions was to encourage a public private sector partnership where the best brains and experts in the field will be directly involved in the profession so as to do away with the usual lackluster attitude of government officials in executing projects this time around; it should be run as a business. It was this same concern coupled with years of research on how best to create a synergy between the relevant stake holders as to the reality of the moment where diversification is a must, if we must stop relying heavily on petroleum that led me once again to organize another seminar in September 2015 where the current secretary to the federal government represented by the senior special adviser political to Mr President Rt Hon Gideon Samani presented a wonderful paper on the topic "A rebirth" where different speakers including the Hon speaker House of Representatives his excellency Rt Hon Yakubu Dogara represented by the deputy whip of the house, honourable Binta bello also presented a paper on how to offer legislative frame work support towards the various resolutions reached during the seminar. I am proud to announce that at least one or two of our resolutions titled a "Bill for an act to include various aspects of our historical past in secondary schools curriculum and other related matters" had already passed the first and second reading. So moving forward, it is our intention to offer more ideas and support to government genuine efforts at diversification through culture and tourism by creating a synergy in the relationship between the relevant stake holders for a greater success.
What is your typical day like?
My typical day starts with praising and glorifying Almighty God the creator of the universe for his mercies and divine guidance before resuming at the cultural heritage centre to continue my research into various forms of our historical past and that of other cultures through documentaries, reading and study through antique collection and analysis. I spend at least two hours a day doing that and the rest I spend writing about the ills surrounding contemporary society while proferring solutions based on historical, traditional and religious principle as a recipe to escape these dteange times. I am inspired to meditate when I am in the midst of various objects and artefacts that represent our historical past.

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