Like a hare cooling off its thirst at a waterbrook, leaders of Akwa Ibom South Senatorial District after searching said they have found the state All Progressives Congress, APC governorship candidate if he wins the March 2 general election as a man capable of restoring the district to the legendary home of their past transformational leaders.
Coming under the aegis of Akwa Ibom South Senatorial District Strategic Leadership Forum based in Eket, they declared “WE COVENANT with Obong Nsima Ekere that while we shall canvass for votes and vote for him and elect him as governor come March 2, 2019, he shall replicate and surpass the leadership contributions of our leadership heroes of the past.”
Addressing the press in Uyo on Thursday, Ikpoto Edet Nkpubre, Chairman of the forum said “This Senatorial District is home to late Brigadier Jacob Esuene, brilliant officer and gentleman, whose leadership, even in war time, was adjudged the best in his era in Nigeria. His legacies still dot the entire landscape of what was the former South Eastern State.
Nkpubre eulogised the excellent leadership qualities of Dr Clement Isong, who in only four years built REAL industries that transformed the old Cross River State to an industrial hub in Nigeria, and Prof. Eyo Ita, Deputy Premier of Eastern Region, erudite scholar, astute politician and sagacious administrator.
He also hailed the late Honourable Justice Udo Udoma, eminent jurist of international repute, Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Chief Justice of Uganda and former Governor-General of that East African state; Obong Chief Uffot Ekaette, a one-time Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and the late Senator Victor Akan, unarguably one of the finest of his generation.
Nkpubre, an APC chieftain said “The leadership mandate that Akwa Ibom people gave to Akwa Ibom South Senatorial District was to last, as is the current convention, for eight years. The incumbent governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, took this mandate on behalf of the district,” lamenting “four years down the line, the disappointment and disillusionment have become palpable. Where hope once existed, despair has taken over; where aspiration was rife, lethargy now wrings the yearning hearts of our people.”
According to him, “Our growth has been arrested and strangled by crass ineptitude and the gross political and crippling economic naivety of our current leadership. The visionary steps of our immediate past have become mired and entrapped in the debilitating cluelessness of a government lacking in experience and pedigree.’’
Upon this conviction, he said “they have decided to pitch our tents with Obong Nsima Ekere, governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the man we shall vote for as governor, to replace the current governor, Deacon Udom Emmanuel.
“He shall lead Akwa Ibom with the fear of God, give Akwa Ibom South Senatorial District its due development, with the full realization that the district lays the proverbial golden eggs of the financial prosperity of the state. He shall bring about a government that cares; a government that would build bridges of understanding, faith and unity among the peoples of Akwa Ibom State.”
Eseme Eyiboh, the Convener of the Forum and chairman, Cross River Basin Development Authority, assured that based on his pedigree as a tested administrator, Ekere would deliver on his Blueprint/manifestos.
