Governor Udom Emmanuel has rejected the description of his administration as being an appendage of the former Akwa Ibom governor, Godswill Akpabio.
Mr. Emmanuel said on Sunday in a radio broadcast to the people of the state, “Those who oppose my administration have claimed that we are an appendage of the last administration.
“That is not true. We are an improvement on the last administration,” the governor said.
Mr. Emmanuel said Mr. Akpabio took Akwa Ibom people out of Egypt to the Jordan River, and that his own administration is taking the people across the Jordan River into the Promised Land.
“To be fair to the last administration, it initiated programs which increased our self-esteem as a people and earned us respect.
“We have leveraged on this and we have taken our people to new heights of superior performance,” he said.
Mr. Emmanuel argued that no government was perfect, but said it was a sad commentary on Akwa Ibom politics that people who were a part of the Akpabio administration for seven of its eight years would now turn around to demonise it.
“They claim that the administration was wasteful, irresponsible, corrupt etc. and this sounds like cutting your nose in order to spite your face,” Mr. Emmanuel said.
The radio broadcast was to mark Mr. Emmanuel’s six months in office as the governor of Akwa Ibom State.
The governor commented on the cancellation of the April governorship election in 18 out of the 31 local government areas in the state by the election tribunal, and said that he wasn’t afraid of a re-run.
He mentioned the word “mandate” nine times in his radio broadcast which lasted for about 16 minutes, and said that “those who sought to truncate God’s mandate have grown weaker”, apparently referring to the opposition All Progressives Congress in the state.
He referred to himself as “the custodian of the hopes, aspirations and dreams of this generation of Akwa Ibomites” and said that he was firmly in-charge of the state.
He said the difference between him and the opposition was that he was chasing the dreams of Akwa Ibom people, while the people in opposition were chasing their own selfish dreams.
Governor Emmanuel mentioned the successes of his six months old administration to include the reactivation of Peacock Paint Industry in Etinan, the rehabilitation of roads across the state and the payment of 10 years arrears of pensions and gratuities to primary school teachers and local government employees in the state.
“As we move forward, let mischief, hatred and divisive tendencies be replaced by unity, love, and good neighborliness,” the governor said.
“We owe this to our children, not to build a society where mutual suspicion are worn like badges of honour, but to build a state where oneness of spirit binds us in a symphony of love and oneness of spirit.”
The opposition All Progressives Congress in Akwa Ibom State has consistently labeled Mr. Emmanuel’s government as being a continuation of the immediate past administration of Mr. Akpabio.