Governor Udom to innagurate major projects before May 29

Akwa Ibom state governor, Udom Emmanuel has vowed to commission the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility at the Victor Attah International airport before leaving office on May 29th 2023. According to him, such would attract more resources to the state in foreign exchange, thereby raising the financial fortune of the state.

This was contained in the governor’s Easter broadcast message made available to newsmen in Uyo on Monday. He expressed gratitude to Akwa Ibom people for entrusting him with the huge task of working to extend and deepen the growth and development of the state.

The governor further assured the people of the state that arrangements have been concluded to commission the taxiway in Victor Attah International Airport, taunted to be the longest in the nation, before leaving office.

According to Udom, he will be leaving Akwa Ibom better than he met it, and in the capable, tested and steady hands of the Governor-Elect, Pastor Umo Eno, who, “I believe will further carry the torch of peace, development, growth and unity of our dear people”.

Listing some of his achievements, he said ; in the two remaining months, we hope to commission the 6-lane Airport road expansion, the 23 kilometre Eket-Etinan road, with three bridges, the 29 kilometre Uyo-Etinan road, the Anua-Mbak-Adiadia Ishiet road, the Ikot Ekpo-Mkpaeto road which links Etim Ekpo with Ika Local Governments respectively among others.

“We have also constructed several internal roads in Oron, in Eket, in Ikot Ekpene senatorial district and in Uyo Metropolis, which are too numerous to mention here.

“The effect of Ibom Air, today has made our State the destination of choice for most Nigerians and others across the world. It has generated thousands of employment for our people, it has moved our State to the apex of tourism, and improved our ease of doing business index. It can only get better and it would, in the coming years. Akwa Ibom is rising and we should all be proud.

“It has been a hugely impactful experience, one that tested our capacity and preparedness to fulfill our campaign promises. ​But because we came prepared with a well-defined blueprint anchored on the need to expand the frontiers of development through rapid industrialization, the provision of soft and hard infrastructure, and a new vista of growth predicated on our initial Five-Point Agenda, later expanded to the Eight-Point Completion Agenda, we have been able to rise (dakkada) to the call of the moment, and change the narratives and enlarge the chapters of the Book of our development.

“As I get ready to take a bow in the next month, I am eminently proud and assured that I will be leaving this State better than I met her, and in the capable, tested and steady hands of the Governor-Elect, Pastor Umo Eno, who, I believe will further carry the torch of peace, development, growth and unity of our dear people.

He used the opportunity to again thank Akwa Ibom people for the peaceful manner they trooped out during the last Gubernatorial and State House of Assembly elections to exercise their constitutional franchise.

“From all accounts, including those of the Foreign Observers, the election was peaceful, free, credible and a profound and wholesome expression of the collective will and desire of you, my dear people.

“You voted for the continuation of all that we have started and achieved in the last almost eight years. You voted for the furtherance of peace, for growth, for development and for our unity”.

“​Let me end this speech by again calling for unity and love amongst our people. We may have disagreements on political front, we may have pursued growth and development through different political prisms, but we must resist the impulse of letting politics create unbridgeable schism and chasm of alienation amongst us as kindred.

“​Our Founding Fathers who banded together and established Ibibio State College in Ikot Ekpene may not have agreed totally on their political leanings, but they knew that our kindred spirit can never be broken through the ephemeral or temporary impulses of political affiliations”. He said