2015 Guber: I can’t step down for anybody – Ntekim insists

BY EMMANUEL AKPAN

A governorship aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the immediate past Attorney General/Commissioner of Justice in Akwa Ibom State, Barr. Ekpenyong Ntekim, has said that he is not under pressure to step down for any of the governorship aspirants, adding that his aspiration is still very alive.

Ntekim aspired to contest the PDP primaries alongside 18 aspirants who have so far picked nomination forms and declared their interest in the party’s ticket.

Briefing newsmen at his campaign office at 51 F-line, Ewet Housing Estate Uyo, last week, Ntekim said: “I can’t step down for anybody and I am not being sponsored by anybody or group to contest this election. I will run the primaries and I will win squarely and clean as well as the general election”.

Ekpenyong Ntekim, who expressed optimism that the primary election of his party would go well, stressed that the primaries would not result in any bad blood amongst the aspirants. “If I win the election, I will ensure that all sections of Akwa Ibom State feel the impact of my administration. He noted that with over 25 years of his political grooming and experience, he knows how to marry the diverse political classes, divides and cycles of the State for the achievement of a general goal, adding that he decided to offer himself as the next governor of the State with the intent of running a pan-Akwa Ibom governorship that will respect its state character and cherish her common heritage.

According to him: “my major mission is to build a bridge of friendship and proportional development across our rural poor and urban rich; to weld together in our administration, our people and the entire State in pursuit of the core values of the agitation of our founding fathers”.

The governorship hopeful further maintained that his focus in a four-year mandate, will initiate a pragmatic and hard-headed agenda directed at taking advantage of the height in which Akwa Ibom State has been raised, both in infrastructural development and image rating, to arrest the surging unemployment rate and systematically support social stability.

He outlined his core development policy to include: rural urbanization policy on the establishment of 10 integrated rural cities under the home-school-profession scheme, a programme which he said would work in partnership with the respective local economic peculiarities to positively affect general lives in expected gainful employment.

Others are: rehabilitating technical education curriculum and providing training programmes and support, with emphasis on industry, agriculture, entrepreneurship and administration/service and the reality of agro-industrial projects in unbroken chain and integrated process of coordinated form; logistics management, production expertise/knowledge transfer, sales and marketing to substantially meet local food demand and promote foreign trade and guaranteed increased income.

In his words: “our focus through our common sense anchor policy of rural urbanization will be the creation of a new pool of entrepreneurial work force for today’s employment market dispersal of developments, creation of new cities out of the rural areas and substantial reduction of the poverty rate. Through partnership and shared investment with the private sector, my administration will offer complementary unparalled commercial and employment opportunities in Akwa Ibom State through the completion of the Ibaka Deep Sea port and Airport projects, in well-laid out plans to consciously attract private and collaborative investments to the State.