Udom Emmanuel: Steering a ripe state to greatness

BY IMOH  ETIMUDO

To kick-start the administration, he organized a thanksgiving service to re-dedicate Akwa Ibom State to God. He went further to declare a-three day fasting to still commit the affairs of the State into God’s faithful Hands. Then he fastened his seatbelt to croon Flight Akwa Ibom with its song of triumphant conquest of the sky. All of these heralded a much awaited transition from an era of uncommon transformation to another that is set for sustainable development. 

God was moved. Then almost instantaneously, the tree bore fruits, and is ripening day by day. In less than a month at the helms of affairs, Akwa Ibom is ripe for business and commerce under Mr Udom Emmanuel as governor. 

He started with the master key-prayer- and God gave him the golden key into the door of progress and development of the State. Or how else can one describe such a perfect start? 

It is safe to say that in twenty five days on the throne, the Governor has taken twenty five steps in the right directions. Perhaps, the most giant of the steps so far taken is the one that will usher in freight business in the State. Barely a week in office, he constituted a technical committee for the actualization of the Ibom Deep Seaport. The project was treated with the urgency of the moment. It towers as an iroko from its top Akwa Ibom can view her bright future. The deep seaport is a one-all solution to the myriads of economic and development problems of the State. It now perches Akwa Ibom on the cliffs of superlatives in development and progress. It is a tarred road to astronomic economic growth. It will give Akwa Ibom economic claws and tentacles, and wave the State’s flag of arrival and the conquest of gratuitous relegation. What greater idea is needed to crystallize the people into self-reliance? 

In the fullness of time, Akwa Ibom’s economy will function with the efficiency of a-17 karat Swiss wristwatch. This initiative has moved the industrialization praxis of the administration from the books to the bricks of building a golden future for the State. Employment generation and wealth creation are tied to this great step towards industrialization. The sail is smooth, bright and right. The State will sure berth at the shore of greatness. This hope is alive because the captain holds a healthy opinion in predicting economic behaviour looking at his pedigree in sound financial management. The masterstroke governor is a master of innovative management. Udom makes sense, industrialization sense. 

Knowing that the ship of Akwa Ibom’s greatness cannot be peddled like a canoe by one man, he forwarded a contingent of competent nominees for the State Executive Council to the State House of Assembly. The list has crew members whose sail can never sink the ship. Carefully, he picked a perfect blend of the old and the new, the experienced and the professionals, all of whose competence are cast in concrete terms. His visionary leadership and imaginative husbandry of human and natural resources was crystal clear in his ability to creatively combine those young enough for enterprise and old enough for wisdom in the cabinet when constituted. This holds the potential of sustainable development in the State, as it is the magic deployed by mature democracies to plant and harvest development in and out of season. 

There is no need to comment on those who condemned the addition of a dose of members of the previous executive council. Their theory of greatness is from the flip side. They are just thickening the cloud of confusion which will eventually froze in time’s fridge. The truth is that they can neither put Akwa Ibom in the reverse gear nor force the State back into the Golgotha of broken dreams after former governor Akpabio laboured to redeem the people. What rather deserves a prominent mention is the governor’s consistent reminder to members of the expected cabinet that his administration has no room for non-performers. The man of great principles and exemplary leadership is result-oriented, and he expects his team to bear same fruits for the State. Mr Udom Emmanuel, like Benjamin Franklin, eschews excuses from his team. His thinking is that he who is good at giving excuses is seldom good for anything else. And he is right! 

Another right step in the right direction by Mr Emmanuel was the visit to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The visit to this statesman was apt and timely for two reasons. One, Obasanjo owns a farm with global reckoning. Mr Emmanuel also has a blueprint on commercial and mechanized agriculture. Therefore, if he used the opportunity of that visit to propose possible areas of co-operation for the agricultural programmes in the State to come to fruition, why condemn a good foresight? On the other hand, Obasanjo is a patriot. Such visit could as well afford both parties a platform to share ideas on how best to move the country forward through well-placed priorities of government programmes and projects. 

Tapping from the ocean-filled wealth of experience of the former president will ultimately be beneficial to Akwa Ibom State. Hence, when someone consciously condemns such gainful visit, it will be gainful to the society to the society to re-examine such protester except the person is thoroughly bad or irredeemably blinded to growth and progress. Even at that, the number of such apostles of backwardness is to infinitesimal to distract a competent and focused leader like Udom Emmanuel. The governor can only take consolation in the words of Ann Bronte that he, who dares not grasp the thorn, should never crave the rose. Those arrows are the thorns he must receive in his quest to give Akwa Ibom the fragrance of the rose of industrialization that will bring wealth and create jobs. Fruits that the State is ripe for business and commerce!