RE: WHY AKPABIO’S SHOES ARE TOO BIG FOR UDOM EMMANUEL

OUR POSITION, BY IBOM PATROITS

Our attention has been drawn to an advertorial entitled “Why Akpabio’s Shoes Are too Big for Udom Emmanuel” published on page 7 of  The Nation newspaper of Thursday October 5, 2017  and signed by a certain Aniekan Inyang. You can READ IT HERE

Our initial inclination was to dismiss the logically obtuse if not decrepit rants of the writer as the handiwork of an agent-provocateur and wannabe rabble-rouser in search of his 15 minutes of fame. But given the undisguised intent of the writer which was clearly to butt- heads and create an imaginary fight between His Excellency, Governor Udom Emmanuel and the immediate past Governor and the  Minority Leader of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Distinguished Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio (CON) thereby heating up the political space of the State, we, the Ibom Patriots- a group that has within its fold eminent political leaders drawn from all ethnic blocs and Senatorial Districts of the State felt the need to rebut the lies and the mischief the writer had tried to weave.

We wish to state  categorically that there is no friction between our meticulous Leader,-HE Governor Udom Emmanuel and Distinguished Senator Godswill Akpabio, the Senate Minority Leader. The two great friends remain dedicated wholesomely to the Akwa Ibom Project and enjoy mutual respect based on the superlative service each has rendered and are still rendering to the good people of Akwa Ibom State.

Distinguished Senator Godswill Akpabio in his eight-year tenure worked hard to lay a solid foundation for the development of the State. He needed someone with proven capacity, a private sector titan, a manager of men and resources- someone who would be able to deploy his vast experience as a Financial Services guru to manage the lean economic times that the nation had started experiencing before he handed over on May 29, 2015.  He found that person with the right credentials in His Excellency, Governor Udom Emmanuel and today, at every forum Distinguished Senator Akpabio has continued to celebrate his successor as God-sent and the best person to superintend over the affairs of this State at this critical point of our nation’s difficult economic trajectory.

It is therefore, mischievous and preposterous for a political hack like Aniekan Inyang to attempt to create an unnecessary comparison between the stewardship of the two great Statesmen. Governor Udom Emmanuel has built on the solid performance of his predecessor and has worked to fulfil his campaign promises predicated on the rapid industrialization of this State and the expansion and consolidation of infrastructural amenities.

Today, Akwa Ibom people enjoy upwards of 18-22 hours of uninterrupted electricity in most parts of the State. Today, most seminars and conferences take place in Akwa Ibom. The world celebrates this State and the national Bureau of Statistics recently reported that Akwa Ibom State receives the second largest in-flow of Foreign Direct Investment after Lagos. The World Bank Country Director Rachid Benmessaoud also stated that Akwa Ibom State given its infrastructural amenities is the best place to do business.

We will not dignify the writer’s bewildering rant about infrastructural amenities such as roads which the UdomEmmanuel Administration has constructed which the writer claims he has not seen. This assertion dismisses his entire advertorial as a fraudulent exercise which no rational person will believe, because the roads that HE Udom Emmanuel has constructed are all over the three Senatorial Districts and 10 Federal Constituencies for all to see. We invite the writer to take a ride on the 19.4km Dualized Eket-Ibeno Road with three No, Bridges, the Anwana Esin Street in Oron, the Idiaba-Nda Nsit Road, the Nto Edino Ekwere Azu Road, the dualizd Etinan-Eket Road, the Ikot Inyang-Nkana –Efa Road, the Ikot Usop-Ikot Edeghe-Ikot Ekpuk Road, the Nsikak Eduok-Tropicana Complex outfall drainage system that has controlled the perennial flooding on that road, among other major road projects. It is absolutely mischievous for this writer to assert that the Udom Emmanuel Administration has not constructed any road.

The writer also revealed how long he is on lies and short on facts when he asserted that the Udom Emmanuel Administration has received more money than what was received during the first term of the Distinguished Senator Akpabio’s first term. Even the mathematically challenged will know that the price of crude oil was higher then than now and throwing up imaginary numbers to stoke a political fight or create a wedge between the two political brothers is nothing but an exercise in futility.

We advise the writer to do his homework well so in future he will spare himself the embracement of advertising his ignorance. He claimed that the Udom Emmanuel Administration has “not been able to continue the Inter-Ministerial Direct Labour Scheme” that the immediate past administration had introduced. Nothing could be further from the truth. To date, the Udom Emmanuel Administration has done over 600 interventions through the Inter-Ministerial Direct Labour. Some of these projects have been published in several national media platforms and outlets. Apart from the Inter-Ministerial Direct Labour, the administration has through the Universal Basic Education (UBE) intervened in over three hundred projects, and more are in the offing. It is worthy to note here that every administration is at liberty to use any interventionist scheme to touch and affect people’s lives positively, and that’s what the Udom Emmanuel Administration has been doing. The writer in his rush to publish his mischievous advertorial failed to do this basic requirement of verifying facts before e committing them to print.

It is the hopes and prayers of the naysayers, merchants of hatred and purveyors of lies to see His Excellency, Governor Udom Emmanuel and his predecessor, Distinguished Senator Godswill Akpabio, the Senate Minority Leader engage in bloody political fight. We want to disappoint them here: the two leaders will never fall on the banana peel; they will never fight one another. In place of fight, they will continue to collaborate politically;  in place of trading insults and verbal attacks, the two leaders will continue to invoke the blessings of the Almighty God on this State and sow seeds of unity, brotherhood and love. No amount of provocation, lies, manufactured and concocted will drive a wedge of disunity among the good and patriotic people of Akwa Ibom State. The zoning arrangement instituted in the State by the Administration of his Excellency, Obong (Arc) Victor Attah will continue to prevail and promote justice, fairness and equity in our State.

We are gratified by the quick and decisive disassociation of the malicious publication by the Distinguished Senator. In a statement signed by his Media Aide, Anietie Ekong, the Distinguished Senator had reaffirmed his total faith and belief in his successor and his manifest capacity to take the State to a higher level of achievements, stating that he “is confident that Governor Udom Emmanuel will definitely leave Akwa Ibom State better than he met it by the time he completes his eight years in office”. We have nothing more to add. We are the Patriots  of Akwa Ibom State.

Signed:

Rt. Hon. Usenobong Akpabio 

Secretary General 

Dr. Godwin Ntukudeh

Director of Publicity

Obong Bassey Inuaeyen

Chancellor 

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