What does it mean to be the best? It means you are better than all others after a careful study, examination, and consideration of qualities have been made which proved that after the best, the other is number two guy and the rest. The best is number one and the winner. But what gratification is there in that? The number two guy and others are losers —that’s why they are number two.
The morning opens; a mist of innocence appears across the countryside that tells each one of us the day is new and fresh with a promising future for us. That feeling of hope, love and the humble awareness remind us of our duty to support Mr Udom Emmanuel whose promising future of a better Akwa Ibom state depends on him.
The man Udom Gabriel Emmanuel can best be described as a man of many parts owing to his professional excellence and commitments to service delivery which catapulted him to the global limelight as one of the leading personality in the international business world of investment and industrialization, coupled with his God given leadership talent.
Above all, Udom Emmanuel who is the Secretary to Akwa Ibom State Government is blessed with all good leadership qualities a revolutionist like him should possess. In terms of accountability; as an excellent student of accounting who served for years in the private sector where every kobo is accounted for, he is very prudent in finance management, and produce tangible results instead of excuses.
He is a man of vision, wisdom, courage, dignity, honour, an achiever, very creative in thinking, and hard working. His loyalty and respect to constituted authorities is never in doubt which singled him out as a personality to rely on anytime. As a Deacon in Qua Ibeo Church, he is spiritually matured, exhibit good conscience and professionalism in governance. The seemingly struggle for supremacy existed in the state Exco among members is now a thing of the past courtesy of Udom Emmanuel’s managerial competence in carrying every Exco member along not minding their political differences. This is clear evidence that he is not only a financial manager but has the capacity and competence to manage human resources effectively for optimal productivity. He strongly believes that politics is only a means to get into power or leadership position for service delivery, while service and good governance should not be sacrifice on the altar of politics which is the very essence of political power.
As a professional financial administrator, he has earned the trust and respect of investors around the world who despite his appointment as SSG still paste around him for his professional advice to grow their economy; he truly understands the importance of promise keeping, punctuality in leadership, teamwork, and service above self. In everything he does, Udom Emmanuel puts the people first even to the detriment of his comfort; these qualities are lacking in our society today.
In Akwa Ibom state, Udom Emmanuel does not have any comparison to match his kind of person in terms of leadership capacity and competence, reliability, spiritual maturity, courage to dare, creativity, self-discipline, track record of excellence and integrity, initiatives, and executive ability to attract industrialization at no cost. He is indeed a compendium of professional intellectual. He is in the likes of late; Dr. Clement Isong of blessed memory who demonstrated rare leadership quality at the expiration of his tenure as the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria. He left the CBN with only his briefcase, he rejected and returned even the official vehicle that was awarded to him, and preferred using a commercial taxi to get home when he finished as the CBN governor. This clearly demonstrate selfless service to the people and country, such are the embedded leadership qualities abound in Udom Emmanuel which stands him out today in Akwa Ibom as the best among to govern the state.
It is very true that if the likes of late Dr Clement Isong, Sir Udo Udoma, and other notable progressive Akwa Ibomites of blessed memories who have made this state proud by their honest, sincere, and selfless services to their fatherland were to have the opportunity to choose who should be the next governor of Akwa Ibom state come 2015, certainly they will choose Udom Emmanuel, but since we are to act on their behalf, we should do it in such a way they will be proud of us and have a sense of fulfilment. They can only have a sense of fulfilment when we all rise up en mass and choose Udom Emmanuel who would have been their choice candidate so that posterity will judge us right.
All these people who are coming out to contest the 2015 governorship do so for their personal and family interest to amass wealth and power for themselves and family not to serve the people, it’s only Udom Emmanuel who has the intention and passion to serve Akwa Ibom people through his industrial master plan that shall generate massive employment for the unemployed. Every Akwa Ibom person should be concern about the employment opportunities he is going to create with a better economic environment not where he comes from or how he came about.
With the exalted positions he held while in the private sector, having risen to the peak in the biggest private financial institution in Africa like Zenith Bank Plc through his intellectual capacity, Udom Gabriel Emmanuel choose a very simple lifestyle that makes him accessible to people, not given to excessive luxury, but very contented with what he has. He sees leadership position as an opportunity given by God to serve people, and as such, he makes the satisfaction of those he serve his priority. With his positive attitude to leadership and issues, he has a creative spirit that empowers him to see vision.
Undoubtedly, Udom Emmanuel is in the class of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore and George Washington of the United States of America, who both sacrificed their comfort and pleasure to revolutionize their countries industrially which is exactly what is about to happen in Akwa Ibom state with the emergence of Mr.Udom Emmanuel as the next executive Governor of the State.
In the end, Lee ran his country efficiently and brought prosperity unheard of before his tenure, at the cost of a mildly authoritarian style of government. By the 1980s, Singapore, under Lee’s guidance, had a per capita income second only to Japan’s in East Asia, and the country had become a Chief financial center of Southeast Asia which Udom is about to replicate same in Akwa Ibom state, so that by the end of his tenure Akwa Ibom will not just become the Chief financial centre of Nigeria but Africa.
It is important for Akwa Ibom people to forswear the spirit of sentimental politics and sectional differences to avoid entanglement in underdevelopment again, but should consider first the huge industrial development the state is about to enjoy under the leadership of Mr, Udom Emmanuel. He will generate employment for the teeming youths in the state who are today rooming the streets without employment.
Governance is a serious business for serious minded person like Udom Emmanuel. For those who are in the school of thought that Udom should have remained in the private sector, I dare to say that it will be a disservice to God, Country, Akwa Ibom state, and humanity for him to exclude himself from the service of his fatherland which may paved way for mediocre to come in and enslave the people. Besides, if not Udom Emmanuel who understands what accountability means in leadership, who else should then be interested in the 2015 governorship? Is it the mediocre politicians that we have which we all know their evil deeds in the past and wicked plans for the future? Or those who while serving in this government embezzled the resources of this state and divert same to their personal use should then be allow governing this state? Are we so blinded that we cannot see that some of these people who either were sacked or resigned are almost richer than the state (wolfs in ship clothing)? So the very people who stole billions meant for development of this state at various time should be governor of this state in 2015? God forbid, it should be a fresh one who has never dabbled into politics of deceit and gambling but a progressive politics that promotes professional excellence. Now that the opportunity has been given to Udom Emmanuel as SSG, he has proved his sincerity, focus, commitment, and dedications to the task of industrializing Akwa Ibom state. This he vigorously pursue with passion steadily coupled with his professional excellence and hard-working nature without any compromise. He perfectly fit-in as the best when considering who possess the requisite qualities to move Akwa Ibom forward.
Akwa Ibom people must understand that good governmental policies is what give investors the confidence to invest, so there must be those investors friendly policies put in place if industrialization must thrive in Akwa Ibom state. And no other person is so competence to formulate those investors and business friendly policies apart from Udom Emmanuel who wears the shoe of industrialization and knows where it pinches, that is why he is the best. It is true that nobody can be more Catholic than the Pope himself, so no other person is competence to formulate favourable policies that will attract investors around the globe to AkwaIbom state apart from Udom Emmanuel. These are the reasons that the SSG stands out as the best among other aspirants, he must be encouraged and supported by all well-meaning AkwaIbomites to emerge as the next governor of this state.
Have you ever wonder why a competent and professional medical doctor will never use the same needle he or she used to draw injection from the bottle to administer it? It is because the needle has been contaminated with the bottle, and cannot perform well again on human body; to get the best result in administering the injection, the doctor needs a fresh needle for optimal performance. That was exactly what happened in Akwa Ibom state these past years, there were some human needles the governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio used in 2007 to draw injection (start administration) which has been contaminated with the virus of corruption before 2013. So to effectively administer the injection of industrial transformation in the state, the governor needed a fresh and new needle who is Udom Gabriel Emmanuel to inject industrial revolution into Akwa Ibom state without failure or disappointment.
Let me emphasise that Akwa Ibom state does not need a politician as the next governor. What the state needs is an economist to build a strong and viable economy for the state through industrial revolution which will unbundle many sectors of the state economy, and bring in private sector participation in governance to engender job and wealth creation, poverty alleviation, peace, and security in the land which are panacea for development and industrial growth.
Up till now, many people still believes that government should revamp or build new industries, but this is practically impossible because it will go moribund again since everybody regards government business as a no man business, and handles it with recklessness abandon. It is only the private sector that can drive industries and sustain them for a very long time. In the private sector, Udom Emmanuel is the leading light and commander-in-chief of industrialization in Africa. He is an authority that one can conveniently rely on having the capacity and competence to attract investors around the globe to invest in all sectors of the state economy. This again makes him the best man to succeed Governor Akpabio.
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