BEING THE TEXT OF THE EASTER BROADCAST BY HIS EXCELLENCY, MR. UDOM EMMANUEL, GOVERNOR, AKWA IBOM STATE, GOVERNMENT HOUSE, UYO – APRIL 18, 2019
My dear Akwa Ibomites,
My wife, Her Excellency, Mrs. Martha Udom Emmanuel, and I wish you a Happy Easter.
Easter is a season of sacrifice; of circumscribing one’s interest, desires and needs for causes that are greater than ours; it also symbolizes victory over the forces of hatred, betrayal, anger and vile temperaments. No one epitomises this selfless quality than our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Our Saviour endured excruciating and harrowing pain; was put through the most dehumanizing treatment and torture ever meted out to man, was derided, taunted and abused. He had the power and the capacity to confound and defeat the evil plot of his traducers and tormentors, but because of the love He has for us, because of the need to fulfill the Scripture which is so eloquently expressed in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” our Saviour elected to sacrifice His life so we may have ours. Three days after making the ultimate sacrifice, He rose gallantly and triumphantly, cleansing us of our sins. Today, we are considered worthy inheritors of His grace, love, sacrifice and blessings.
Therefore, as we celebrate this great day of sacrifice and spiritual renewal, I want to enjoin you my dear brothers and sisters to follow the footsteps of our Lord and Saviour- Jesus Christ. I want you to make a solemn pledge that going forward, all ancient animosities, the anger and vile dispositions we may have exhibited against our brothers and sisters, all forces of disunity of division we may have entertained and helped push, all the ill-resort to malign, blackmail or the urge to pull your brother and sister down in order to advance your personal growth; the zero-sum tendencies, the galling feeling of betrayal and back-stabbing that have unfortunately defined our daily engagements with each other should give way to a season of love, of kindred spirit and a renewal of our soul and essence in line with what our Saviour did, at His death and Resurrection.
We have just concluded an election cycle where the chords of our brotherhood and amity were severely tested. Even though some of our political gladiators had likened the contest to going to war and had unfortunately invoked certain metaphors of war and violence, the battle has been fought and won to the glory of the ONLY GOD we worship and serve.
The time therefore, has come for us to close ranks and show love to one another. We went to the polls as sons and daughters of Akwa Abasi Ibom State joined together by shared hopes and aspirations for our State and our people. My opponent and I were both motivated by the need to serve our people and advance the cause of our development, but the people have spoken and made their choice. We must respect the will they expressed in my capacity to lead our people for the next four years.
Let me again use this opportunity to thank you, our great and wonderful people for reposing your trust in my humble capacity to continue to lead and move this State to an enviable height of peace, security, development and growth. I am truly humbled by the faith you have shown in me, and I promise you again, that I will not sacrifice the trust; neither will I treat this confidence with levity. I will continue to pursue the development of this State with renewed vigour, passion and faith in our common good and common essence.
In the spirit of Easter, I am again inviting my brothers and sisters on the opposite side of the political divide to join hands with me to build a prosperous, safe and secure State where our people will continue to rise and claim the faith of their greatness. This should be no time for mutual recriminations. Let us show that politics can and must be more ennobling than how certain people may make it appear. Let us begin to build a new vista of understanding of what political contest is all about: that a winner must emerge and the loser must not be treated with contempt or derision.
I remain dedicated to promoting and projecting this beautiful virtue – politics that is played without bitterness as the Second Republic politician Late Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim had preached. Today, I urge you again to celebrate all that is good and ennobling in us. We are great people, of great heritage, and we must stand ready to work together to ensure and sustain a great future for ourselves and our children.
This broadcast is significant in many ways: it caps the last Easter of my First Term in office and the preparation for what will be my continuous impactful Second Term in office which you – my dear people had so enthusiastically given me on March 9th, 2019.
About four years ago when we came in, the economic horizon was darkened by the thick clouds of uncertainty. The price of oil, our mono- foreign exchange earner was at its all-time low.
In spite of the turbulence on the economic horizon, we went to work and armed with our Five Point Agenda of: Wealth Creation, Economic and Political Inclusion, Poverty Alleviation, Infrastructural consolidation and Expansion and Job Creation, we were able to fulfil against all odds, the cardinal electioneering campaign promises we made to you.
Today, AkwaIbom State remains the reference point in good governance, a State where accountability, probity and transparency remain the hallmarks of governance.
In almost all the areas we had highlighted in our Five-Point Agenda, we have touched and impacted lives greatly. From healthcare delivery, to infrastructural consolidation and expansion, aviation development to education, to power sector, industrialization,wealth and job creations, we have raised the bar on how lean resources could be applied to get the most for the people.
I do not intend to go over our score-card in this broadcast, you have, already so kindly and against all the lies that were told, believed in what we have been able to use your resources to achieve for you my dear people. It was based on this conviction that you so massively returned us to continue the good works we started so well in our First Term. You know we don’t tell lies to achieve political mileage, you know we do what we say we will do, and not engage in a vain-glorious dance just to receive applause but rather are on the course for sustainable development.
In our Second Term which we are gearing to commence on May 29, this year, we will work twice as hard to sustain and expand the layers of good governance, touching lives, challenging our people to further rise to the faith of our greatness and show as I have always emphasized, that government can indeed be a force for good and not one for ill.
We will, as enunciated in our 2019 Manifesto, dedicate ourselves to the Completion Agenda predicated still on massive industrialization push, infrastructural expansion, more investments put into ensuring our children are prepared through quality education that will get them ready for the 21 Century, our health care delivery will continue to expand, agriculture and tourism will receive the necessary boost, we will work to provide power for all, build human capacity, expand our job opportunities and wealth creation mechanisms.
We will continue to engender in our youths an entrepreneurial or ownership mind-set and ensure that our women are encouraged through soft loans to expand their businesses of trading and other small and medium scale businesses. In short, we will work to build a State whose economy will be the envy of all. I urge you as always to continue to pray for us and support our determined efforts to use our resources to build a solid economy for our people.
Let me end this broadcast by quoting the inspiring words of the 6th United States President, John Quincy Adams “if your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, you are a leader”.
May our actions beginning from this Easter celebrations and beyond inspire us to love more, be more united and do more to advance the interest of the great and wonderful people of Akwa Ibom State.
Happy Easter once again! Akwa Ibom Edakkeda, ami mmedakkanda!
