Emmanuel harps on unity as Akwa Ibom celebrates 34th anniversary of creation

Gov. Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom on Thursday harped on unity as the state marks the 34th anniversary of its creation.

It was reported that the governor stressed the need for unity among the people in his broadcast to them.

“As we celebrate our 34th anniversary, I want to urge us all to once again wrap ourselves up in a garment of unity.

“We can achieve a lot when we are united. I recognise the fact that people will share and entertain different political interests.

“I also recognise the fact that politics sometimes can lead decent people to veer off the path of nobility, but such should not motivate us to seek to destroy the best in us, just to satisfy our political paymasters,” Emmanuel said.

He said: “Let me repeat this line I have often used, My fellow Akwaibomites, politics will come and politics will go, but the Akwa Ibom spirit and blood that flows in us all will endure and flourish.

“Political foes today may be political allies tomorrow. May our only God continue to strengthen the bonds of our unity and draw us closer to one another in truth and in spirit,” he said.

The governor said his administration had achieved much in the areas of industrialisation, infrastructural consolidation, education and human capital development, food sufficiency and agro allied concerns and health care delivery for the people of the state.

He said his administration had done exceedingly well, given the resources available to move the state forward in all indices of development.

“As the politics of 2023 beckons, we must be conscious of moving forward as contained in our state 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,” he said.

Emmanuel said the state would never go backward in rewriting and changing the narratives of the development from being a purely civil service state it was 34 years ago to a fast industrialising one it has become in the past six years.