Pastor Umo Eno, Governor of Akwa Ibom State has reacted to a threat by some disgruntled stalwarts of the People’s Democratic Party in the State that they would not support
him for a second term in office because the governor has refused to hand over the State’s vault to them.
He stated emphatically that he would rather serve a single term of four years laced with mouth-watering achievements than serve for eight years with nothing to show for it.
The Governor spoke on Friday evening at a press conference being part of the activities to commemorate the 36th anniversary of the creation of the State christened the ‘Land of Promise.’
Governor Eno maintained that he would rather invest in life-changing projects and programmes for the teeming 7.9 million people than allow a few influential stakeholders to hold him captive.
He promised to invest massively in infrastructures with particular emphasis on rural development, adding that the government working in tandem with the local government Chhaienen Gas acquired 50 hectares of land in each local government area for agricultural purposes.
His words: “We are trying to ensure that my recurrent expenditure does not run at par with my capital expenditure. Whatever we save is to be put back in the rural areas. Every N500 million I save would give me a school, would give me a hospital.
“I prefer a good first term than a useless two-term. It is only when you account for four years well, that you would be asked to go again. I’d rather put money in rural communities. My job is to ensure that the 7.9m people are satisfied. I discovered that almost everybody is waiting for the government.
“The challenge before us is to maintain the existing infrastructure. We lack a maintenance culture. That is why we seek to establish an asset management agency to help in the maintenance of our assets. We build new ones when we have to.
“We are working with the 31 Local Government chairmen on agricultural development. We will be using not less than 50 hectares of land per Local Government Area for farming.
“I am not perfect, but I promise that I will not deliberately launch this state into something we would regret. We will do our best.”