Ofonime Honesty, Uyo
Given what he termed as an outright failure of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led administration in Akwa Ibom State, a leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Obong Nsima Ekere has highlighted the importance of the state electing the next Governor on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Addressing newsmen as the Chairman, Central Planning Committee of the APC presidential rally scheduled to hold on 30th January 2022, Ekere said as the APC remains on course to retain power at the federal level, Akwa Ibom people should ensure that the state is connected to the centre via electing a governor on the platform of the party.
The former Akwa Ibom Deputy Governor and former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) said in the past seven and a half years, the state has suffered poor leadership, economic retrogression and stunted development despite humongous federal allocation and multiple revenue streams.
He said given the poor performance of the PDP administration and discontentment in the PDP; APC is poised to win the state despite its own internal squabbles which he said would be resolved before the elections.
“Most of the projects are uncompleted.
There is hunger in the land, and the youths are unemployed and are roaming the streets, I haven’t seen the justification for the huge resources the state government has. I have seen virtually no achievement in the past seven and a half years. I don’t even see what they would use to campaign. Doing better than we (APC) did in 2019 is very easy because they (PDP) have nothing to campaign with.
PDP in Akwa Ibom State is splitting, I don’t know whether the split is in half or whether it’s a 60/40 kind of split. Who is it in favour of? Is it for the people with the leaf (Young Progressives Party) or in favour of people in the government house? We are no more fighting that so-called PDP that you’re talking about. Come to think of it, the PDP in Akwa Ibom State has been a complete failure for seven and a half years,” he added.
He, however, adjudged that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has so far been fair to the state despite its status of being in the opposition: “look at the issue of appointment, never in the history of the politics of this country has Akwa Ibom State been as favourably treated as they have been in the last seven and a half years of the APC administration.
“Check, it has never happened before.
Looking at the projects, I can talk about myself, I was Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) for about two and a half years.
“Before I got in there, Akwa Ibom State as the number one oil producing state was not getting what they were supposed to be getting but I can tell you that in the past two and a half years that I was there, the number of projects that we had for Akwa Ibom State exceeded what all the other states put together had.
“We were able to address the imbalance which hitherto was the case and even do much better. There’s no Local Government Area where you’ll not see NDDC projects. These are federal government projects. “The Ekparakwa-Ikot Abasi Highway is being rehabilitated by the Federal Government, and the Ikot Ekpene -Odukpani Road is being dualized by the federal government too. There is also a plan to have a railway from Oron all the way to Lagos – all these are federal government projects. Even under the APC administration.
“The monies due to oil-producing states have been paid. Akwa Ibom benefits very heavily from those refunds. They have given us a Federal University at Ikot Abasi. We have every reason to support the APC,” he said.
Speaking at the January 30 presidential rally in the state, Ekere confirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari will attend alongside top national chieftains of the party.
Thumbing up the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima joint presidential ticket, Obong Ekere, who was the governorship candidate of the APC in 2019, labelled the duo as tested and trusted leaders who will propel Nigeria to greater heights.
He expressed the readiness of the Central Planning Committee of the rally headed by him, party leaders and party faithful for the rally which is to hold at the Nest of Champions stadium in Uyo.