Udom’s Eket reception rally erases doubt, as youths embrace a brighter future

Iwaudofia

BY  ANIEFIOK IWAUDOFIA

The reception rally organized by the people of Eket Senatorial District on Saturday January 9, 2016, in honour of His Excellency, Governor Udom Gabriel Emmanuel has erased any iota of doubt about his acceptability by his people.

It has also sent a positive message to all political interests across Nigeria that the Akwa Ibom people are resolute on defending the one overwhelmingly elected and given the mandate to lead this state. At the forefront of this movement are youths, who have dared to embrace a brighter future with a man without blemish, who has shown within just seven months in office, that Akwa Ibom government can make its youths rise to their faith of greatness.
They see in Governor Udom Emmanuel a paradigm shift into greatness. An opportunity to start on a clean slate and rewrite the history of Akwa IbomState in terms of core human and capital development, taking into consideration 16 years of foundation laying by previous administrations in areas of building capacity to control more of our resources and having right infrastructure in place.
This opportunity, to utilize Governor Udom’s wide contacts in national and international corporate finance and business network to erect investment clusters within the state that will ultimately engage our youths and empower them for greater productivity, cannot be sacrificed on the altar of settling mundane political scores. Akwa Ibom youths are very intelligent and are determined to express their decision to move forward and not backward.
They understand that none of the current political and economic situation was created by Governor Udom, but he is indeed leading a team that will bring lasting solution to myriad of issues facing the state today. They are responding positively to his DAKKADA manifesto. Youths have pledged to rise to the faith of greatness that with God all things are possible, that Akwa Ibom was created by God out of greatnessand that as a people, we can move beyond ethnicity, biases, religion, and gender. They believe Akwa Ibom people have resources beyond what others see, human and intellectual and together we can chart a new course for us, our children and a generation of Akwa Ibomites unborn.
As it were, youths know that it is more profitable to concentrate on developing themselves than looking up to money bags for paltry handouts that can barely carter for their needs. They are keen on the prospects of career development and job creation in Agriculture and Agro- allied industries, small scale manufacturing, ICT, Finance and other sectors as envisage in Governor Udom’s Youth Empowerment Agenda, which kicked-off right from his first day in office.
Thus, even if they were to join political groups, it is to support continuation of good governance and promote lofty ideals, not as a form of empowerment.
Youths understand that there is actually no electoral process that is free of human error or certain degree of influence, nevertheless the trend set by that overwhelming result, which although it is still being challenged in the court, shows that majority of Akwa Ibom People across sociopolitical lines agree that the governorship from 2015 till the next eight years is the turn of Eket Senatorial District.
As a matter of fact, this position is currently occupied by an Eket son, duly elected by Akwa Ibom electorates. Therefore, youths in their numbers at the Eket rally showed that they are ready to defend this divine mandate.