CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM GOV. EMMANUEL OF AKWA IBOM STATE

Fellow Akwaibomites,

This is a season of love, of unity, of brotherhood and of goodwill to mankind. My wife, Her Excellency, Mrs. Martha Udom Emmanuel and I send you our warm greetings on the occasion of the birth of our Lord and Savior-Jesus Christ.

For some time now, the chord that has bound us as one indivisible people who are joined together and driven by a shared destiny has been challenged and put to test by the ambitions and naked desire of a few people who do not, and have never wished you well.

As we celebrate the Birth of Christ, let us collectively reject the plans of those people who want to return us to the dark days of slavery and servitude; let us collectively tell those people that the people of Akwaabasi Ibom state are free people and that we are not ready to allow outsiders, people who had underestimated us, fed on our commonwealth, who had reduced us to gatemen, cooks, houseboys and house girls to return us to those dark and tearful days.

Tell them that there is no vacancy in Hilltop Mansion, that you had elected a Governor on April 11, 2015 and that the Governor is working for the people. Tell them that you don’t want to return to the days when you could barely enjoy electricity for two hours, tell them that you now enjoy electricity up to 18 hours a day and that Governor Udom Emmanuel made that possible. Tell them that you say “NO” to people who had signed an agreement with outsiders to come and take our money to develop their areas while our people man the gates of their palatial homes.

Tell them that our money belongs to Akwa ibom people, and that we will use the money to create industries that will provide jobs to our youths, our mothers and fathers. Tell them that the Akwaabasi Ibom people are proud and great people, that we have arisen to the fate of our greatness, and that Akwaibom person is as good as any other person anywhere in the world. Tell them that we will not allow the ambitions of an individual to poison the waters of unity.

The Akwa Ibom Project fellow Akwaibomites is on the RIGHT path, and as your Governor, I pledge to do right by you, to work to improve your living conditions, to continue to make you feel great and proud to be an Akwa Ibom person. We will create jobs through rapid industrialization of our state; we will create opportunities for our people to be comfortable, to earn a living instead of begging for a living. This is the task you gave me on April 11, and as we celebrate the Birth of Christ, we will equally continue to celebrate the ascendance of the Akwa Ibom spirit, our ‘can-do’ spirit while eschewing those tendencies that seek to divide us. Akwa Ibom ema edekkakadda and nothing will take us back to the days of slavery and servitude.

Thank you for the support you have given my administration for the past almost seven months, thank you for the Divine Mandate that you freely gave on April 11, 2015. Merry Christmas to you all and God bless Akwa Abasi Ibom State, God bless Nigeria.