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GOVERNOR UDOM EMMANUEL’S DEVELOPMENTAL STRIDES IN AKWA IBOM STATE

IfiokAbasi Okop

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The Executive Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Governor Udom Gabriel Emmanuel, recently celebrated his sixth anniversary as governor of Akwa Ibom State. To mark this event, he commissioned numerous projects in the state alongside his fellow governors from Rivers and Sokoto states; Governor Nyesom Wike and Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal respectively. Prominent among the projects are a Medical Gas and Vacuum Plant at the Infectious Diseases Control Center, General Hospital, Ituk Mbang in Uruan Local Government Area, and the newly commissioned 28 internal roads totalling 17.1 Kilometers in Uyo metropolis.

Governor Udom Emmanuel listed out the key focus of his completion agenda as Governor of Akwa Ibom state to include: Industrialization, Aviation Development, Infrastructure, Agriculture, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, Security, Human Capacity Development, and Rural and Riverine Area Development.

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Human Capacity Development/Job creation

To ensure economic development and job creation in the state, Governor Udom to his credit, has commissioned over 18 functional industries. Three of these factories had been commissioned by the Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and they include; the Jubilee Syringe Manufacturing Company which is Africa’s first ever syringe manufacturing company, Akwa Ibom Metering Industry, also the first in Africa, and the Lion Plywood Factory which is an initiative geared toward making the state a major producer of finished products for the building sector. Other manufacturing companies Governor Udom Emmanuel has brought to the state include; Greenwell Fertilizer Plant, Ibom Agricon Rice Processing Mill, Kings Flour Mill, AKEES Toothpick and Pencil Factories among a host of others.

Health

The Health sector had been a major part of Governor Udom’s agenda during his first tenure in office and he has built and remodeled major General Hospitals across the Local Governments in Akwa Ibom state. Some of them include;

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State-of-the-art 300-bed space Isolation Center at Methodist General Hospital in Uruan, General Hospital in Awa, Onna LGA, Etinan General Hospital, Iquita General Hospital in Oron, Immanuel General & Psychiatric Hospital in Eket.

Infrastructure

An outstanding aspect of his governance in Akwa Ibom state has been his dedication to infrastructure. All three senatorial districts in the state; Uyo, Ikot Ekpene and Eket have enjoyed construction of major roads and flyovers to allow ease of movement.

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Aside the newly commissioned roads in over five local governments in the state, ongoing road projects include the Ikot Oku Ikono flyover which will ensure free vehicular movements of goods and humans to and from Abak-Ikot Abasi-Mkpat Enin- Port Harcourt, Etinan-Nsit Ibom-Nsit Ubium-Eket-Onna, Uyo- Ikot Ekpene-Odukpani-Calabar. Another ongoing construction is of a 9.5km ring road phase II linking Aka, Oron and Nwaniba roads, by University of Uyo permanent site. It is certain that these projects will be completed before he ends his term.

Education

Despite the not-too friendly state of our national economy, the Akwa Ibom state government under Udom’s administration continually funded the free and compulsory education in addition to over N600 million spent annually on WAEC/NABTEB fees for indigenes in public secondary schools. To commemorate his six years in office as governor, he has commissioned newly constructed and renovated classroom blocks in Primary and Secondary Schools in Itu, Urue Ofong Oruko, Oron, Okobo Local Government Areas. Apart from his previous rural development projects carried out in various local governments in Akwa Ibom, Governor Udom has recently commissioned rural electrification and solar powered water projects in Okobo, Oron, Urue Offong Oruko, Ibiono Ibom, and Itu LGAs.

Aviation Development

Every Nigerian must have heard of Ibom Air and Governor Udom’s developmental strides in the Aviation sector. The highly successful Ibom Air currently boasts of six sleek aircrafts and five flight-destinations within Nigeria – Uyo, Abuja, Lagos, Enugu and Calabar. In the words of many passengers, Ibom Air has become the toast of the aviation industry in Nigeria, having bridged the gap of high service quality, health insecurity, timeliness and hoarded flight schedules. The Victor Attah International Airport was given a facelift through the construction of a world class MRO, and a taxiway to ease control congestion from the point of arrival, down to the Airport junction.

Industrialisation

Governor Emmanuel has committed time and resources to the workability of the Ibom Deep Seaport (IDSP). The IDSP, a Federal Government project driven by the Federal Ministry of Transportation, Akwa Ibom State and the Nigerian Port Authority, has the state government perfecting its role as the host of the seaport.

In one of his remarkable speeches, Governor Udom Emmanuel had said that his administration will raise the bar of performance in all areas and lift Akwa Ibom State to an enviable height, to be the pride of the nation. “Akwa Ibom in my second term will move from a fast-industrialising society to a great and rich society, and will witness an unprecedented growth in all spheres of development and capacity enhancement.” Akwa Ibom state has enjoyed an industrialised transformation during the tenure of Governor Udom Emmanuel but all eyes look forward to his completion agenda being actualized before the 2023 general elections. His blueprint for the industrialization of the state had felt grandiose at first but being a technocrat, Governor Udom quickly put his plans into action and proved to be, in all sense of the word, the “performing governor” as he is fondly referred to.

Like every natural leadership, Udom has had his critics too. There have been calls by the citizens for him to focus on the complete payment of pension arrears and gratuities for primary and secondary school teachers. Payment had long commenced and his passion to ameliorate the hardship on the people of Akwa Ibom is second to none.

IfiokAbasi Okop is a Creative  Writer and Journalist. She has written for the BBC Documentary, “Nsukka is Burning”, Kalahari Review, Praxis Magazine, ChristAPoet and Brittle Paper. She lives and works in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. When she’s not writing, she loves to cuddle up with a book. 

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