Ime Akpan
The governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr Umo Eno, said Tuesday that the state has made rapid and substantial progress since its creation in 1987.
The governor made the remark while speaking in statewide broadcast to mark the 38th anniversary celebration of the state’s existence.
Starting with the state capital, Uyo, the governor recalled how it was a “glorified village – a rural backwater bereft of modern infrastructure,” but it has, over the years become “home to some of the most elegant housing estates in the nation,” and a “thriving airline, Ibom Air” that “carries our flag of excellence in the nation’s aviation sector – signposting our ascendancy in that sector.”
Looking at the state as a whole, the governor said it has, 38 years down the line “become the destination of choice…” and “in place of dusty narrow streets, some of which looked like bush tracks, we now have possibly the best road network in the nation” while “our people, long thought to be mostly good at performing domestic chores, have all arisen and are holding commanding positions across the world in various professions.
On the ARISE Agenda philosophy of his administration, Eno rolled out a horde of achievements his government has recorded from 2023 when he was sworn in to date.
“Through our Governance Blueprint, the Arise Agenda, we have reignited our passion in agriculture and the need to produce our staple food so our people may have enough to feed their families and to earn income too.
“The tree crop development plan which we will soon launch will provide generational and sustainable economic prosperity for our people and restore our place as the nation’s leading oil palm producers. I urge you to participate in this exercise once it is launched.
“We are providing access roads in our rural communities and have expanded the road infrastructure in the State as we had promised. To date, we have done 771 kilometres of road either commissioned or ongoing across the three senatorial districts – some of these roads were inherited from past administrations on which we have deployed our finisher’s anointing.
“Our schools and healthcare services remain major areas of attention. We will continue to build model healthcare centres across the State as well as model primary and secondary schools in the three senatorial districts. The emergency we recently declared in the healthcare sector will address the gaps in that sector. We hope to flag -off the construction of our 350-bed Ibom International Hospital along the medical corridor as well as the commissioning of the Arise Elders Care Centre, also along the same corridor.
“Through our administration’s compassionate interventions, we have built 267 fully furnished and solar-powered two-bedroom flats out of 500 planned for the vulnerable. In addition, our free food distribution programme, drawn from the State’s verified Social Registe, is now in its third phase, and we have so far reached over 500,000 households. These interventions are practical demonstrations of our commitment to inclusive growth and to protecting the most vulnerable in our society. Last week, we had our Power Summit and came out with actionable plans to work towards providing electricity for all,” the governor said.
Meanwhile, he said the administration was poised to make the state the tourism hub of the nation.
“Our audacious Arise Resort, which has been celebrated by all who have inspected it, will be commissioned in December and is expected to draw visitors in millions to our State. We are building the 5,000-capacity International Convention Centre, the 200-room Ibom Hotel and Arise City Centre – all located within the Tropicana grounds.
“The Ibom Hotels and Apartments in Abuja as well as Ibom Towers and Apartments in Lagos – all previously moribund State assets which we have now converted into money-earning ventures – are ongoing,” he announced.
On security, Eno said the state unveiled the Akwa Ibom Security Trust Fund aimed at bringing the private sector together in the onerous task of ensuring “we remain one of the nation’s safe, secure and peaceful states,” and thanked the security agencies for their collaborative effort.
