Criticisms Trailing Emmanuel’s Chosen Successor Worry A’Ibom Govt

Okon Bassey

Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Ini Ememobong has expressed worry over criticisms trailing the recent unveiling of the State Commissioner for Lands and Natural Resources, Pastor Umo Eno as the preferred successor to Governor Udom Emmanuel in 2023.

At a press briefing in Uyo, the Commissioner pleaded that those condemning the choice of Pastor Eno as the preferred choice of the governor should sheathe their sword and stop vilifying the governor.

The commissioner insisted that leaders have always been interested in who should succeed them, therefore the recent unveiling of Pastor Eno as Governor Emmanuel’s preferred successor come 2023 was just a normal phenomenom.

He stressed that the development position should never call for the abuse of the Governor or divide the state along nonexistent tribal, ethnic or religious lines.

According to the commissioner, the desire to have a successor have always been a source of concern to every leader, thus it was not out of place for the Governor to disclose his preference after enduring months of humongous pressure to do so from all the quarters.

“If biologically, traditionally and even in churches people are interested in succession, then it is practically impossible that people should not be interested in succession in politics, especially the occupant of the office who understands the pains, challenges and nature of the office, and it is the Governor who wears the shoe and understands the burden of the office in this case.”

“It takes a lot of humility for a person of power at the level of the governor to publicly admit that he submits to a higher power like God before making critical decisions such as who should succeed him at the end of his tenure,” he posited.

The commissioner called on the critics and the media to stop vilifying the Governor whom he described as only a medium, who merely made known who was “ divinely revealed “ to him as his successor come 2023.

“Akwa Ibom is our only state, and if we hit up the political space and things degenerate, we have nowhere else to go, therefore I want to call on everyone of us here to continue to support the Governor and his succession plan for the state, “ he said.

Emenobong rebutted the relegation of governance in the face of heightened political activities in the state, saying, “the Completion Agenda which the governor had promised, and which we have reechoed severally that every critical project in this administration, he would work to ensure that they are completed “.

“We have been praying for a favourable weather like now, and that is why if you go towards the Eket, Uruan and other major sites across the state, including the new ring road, you will notice that work is ongoing at advanced level and to that extent, we are excited that very soon, we would have a season of project commissioning, and that is why I am here to tell you that the Completion Agenda of the Governor is on course, and very soon we are going to publish for you the facts and figures”.

“The Manifesto of the Governor in 2019 is called the Completion Agenda, and in that manifesto he made specific promises. As a Ministry, what we are doing is to track those promises to ascertain how they have been kept.

“We have distilled the promises embedded in those documents, and we are coming out with a factual document that will state on each of them their true stages, and if there is anyone that we have not done yet, we would be sincere to offer explanations on why we have not done them yet.

“As the Governor’s tenure comes to a close next year, judgment will begin to set in, and like I always say, the best time to pass judgement on this administration is on May 29th, 2023. So the fair point of posterity and judgement for him is at the terminal point of his administration,” the commissioner said.