By Lawal Adenike
Akwa Ibom State governor, Udom Emmanuel has urged the people of the State to guard against sacrificing the hard earned achievements of past and present administrations in the State all in the name of finding his successor in 2023.
The governor stressed that they must not make the mistake of electing anyone who would keep back the development of the State, adding that the future of the state is already secured in the hands of God .
Udom made this known on Thursday in his statewide address to mark the 34th anniversary celebration of the State.
According to him, as the 2023 election draws near, the people of the State must be conscious of moving forward and not backwards, noting that his successor should be a man that would expand the gains and growth that have already been achieved in the last 34 years.
“Fellow Akwaibomites, the future of Akwa Ibom State, which our forefathers prayed for and got is assured and in God’s hands. It is safe, it is secure, and it is assured. We cannot gamble it away neither can we put it to risk. This is our collective charge, this is our collective expectation.
“I put it to you my dear Akwaibomites that we need to protect these gains by ensuring that the man, whom God will choose as my successor, would be able to continue from these layers of growth and further expand our developmental strides and growth” he said.
The governor continued, “As the politics of 2023 beckons, we must be conscious of moving the state forward as contained in our state’s anthem ‘forward ever, backward never’.
“This state will never go back on peace and security, this state will never go backward on securing the future for our children, and turning our youths into productive citizens; this state will never go backward in recognising the fact that Jesus Christ is the centre of our governance, this state will never go backward in rewriting and changing the narratives of our development from being a purely civil service state it was 34 years ago to a fast-growing industrial one it has become in the past six years.”
