Akwa Ibom Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio has called on the Nigerian press to focus on things that unite the nation rather than concentrate on attacks of persons.
Chief Akpabio while fielding questions from Government House correspondents in Uyo in reaction to the editorial of The Nation newspapers entititled, “THE TIN GOD OF AKWA IBOM”, debunked “There is no TIN GOD in Akwa Ibom State. I believe a national newspaper should not personalize issues by calling people names which does not reflect the person. It was quite an unfortunate action and I hope they do learn their lesson and focus on things that would unite the nation and not use their paper for personal attack.
“I am happy that the state government had responded to The Nation newspapers on their editorial comment which was not a true reflection of who really I am. People were even commenting on the change of the immediate past Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr. Umana Okon Umana who has made history as the longest serving officer in this part of the world right from 1979 till date and has served the state meritoriously.
So, making a change in that office is for the state to move forward in style. The former SSG made his intention known for his political ambition which the law states that any officer in office intending for any political post has a right to resign to achieve that ambition. So, the state government making such changes should not attract editorial comment unless people are duly interested in the affairs of others. Let people live to remove the log from their eyes before they remove it from other person’s eyes. So this was never an issue except they had nothing more to write. So I think they should rather write and commend nationally on global challenges”, he commented.
On the registration of All Progressive Congress (APC), he stated “I welcome the registration of APC and any other political party. The beauty of democracy is the opportunity given to all and sundry to partake in the democratic process and as for PDP, we won’t want only one party in Nigeria, rather we love opposition and we look forward with working with APC. And I can assure you that APC is just going to be like another political party.
“PDP is fully attained and we are working hard to ensure that we rise to the occasion from the power sector to infrastructure on the roads and bringing of industrialization such as the recent plans of Ibaka Deep Seaport in the state. And of course you can see the various industries that have begun to return to Nigeria. Let us worry about governance and not the formation of political party, for it is not the beginning of a journey that matters but how to get to the end”.
On the Methanol Industry to be established at Ibaka Deep Seaport, Chief Akpabio disclosed that the process that would lead to the commencement of the work had already started, saying that the state government had released funds for the production of feasibility studies and environmental impact assessment.
According to him, the government had commenced the study of the water to locate the 40,900 hectares of land for the entire industrial city, which he said they had already started and a physical structure would soon start, pointing out that to complete the design, they have to do a lot of work with other procedures as the work is ongoing.
Commenting on the Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state government, Governor Akpabio who explained that the company has to sign MoU with other government agencies as the state government would be one of the facilitators of Ibaka Deep Seaport, stressed that as a Federal Government and a private sector-driven project, Federal Government through Nigerian Port Authority may want to invest in the land and other things.
He further said CCECC would sign a MOU not only with the state government but with the Federal Government which, he said, would require Presidential assent, as their interest was to fund the project by keying into the other interests that involve foreign corporation in the deep seaport.
The Governor who said that the company has the funds, experience, technical know-how, described the company as a tested, serious-minded and a welcome development for the development of the state, stressing that the people of the state want to see the projects on ground and to see work is started.