2014: THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS My dear friends and fellow citizens of Akwa Ibom, We have all emerged from prayers of thanksgiving for the very challenging 2013 to face a brand new 2014. Across the world, in different tongues and in different modes of worship, one single deity, our almighty and everlasting Lord, is being both blessed and praised on one hand, and approached with supplications for a better life in a safe and secure future, on the other. On this august occasion when the glory of the Lord is being amplified, we have each approached our Mosques, Churches and other places of worship as mere mortals in search of redemption for our souls. We have approached His throne “with thanksgiving in our hearts and praise in our mouths”. We have humbled our physical and spiritual beings to our Lord in pleas of forgiveness for our sins and we have each re-dedicated ourselves to the laws, ordinances and the scriptures that will guarantee our safety in a dangerous world; our prosperity in a sea of poverty; our good health as sickness and disease prevail and our progress, even as opportunities diminish in our land. In our Churches, Mosques and other religious places where so many of us have gone to offer these prayers and make these supplications, we have forgotten the tribes we come from and the tongues that we speak as we have embraced each other and jointly pierced the air in convivial shouts of joy to welcome the new year!!! In our happiness to have been alive to witness this first day of 2014, we have forgotten, albeit temporarily, that we are Ibibio, Annang and Oron people!!! TODAY, THIS FIRST DAY OF JANUARY 2014, WE HAVE EMBRACED EACH OTHER AS ONE PEOPLE UNDER GOD IN A SPECIAL UNITY!!! But tomorrow is another day! The agents of division amongst our people will forget the God of this special unity and remind us all that we have a language we speak and a tribe we should promote above all others! They will tell us relentlessly that money is the God of all politics and that we should worship this above all else. They will promote intra and inter-ethnic disunity and distemper for political reasons. They have said and will continue to say that the Governorship of our dear state should be allocated to this or that senatorial zone or that the majority tribe should have it as a matter of right. They will say, without foundation in truth, that OKON IYANAM has withdrawn from the gubernatorial race and now supports another candidate. Nothing could be further from the truth. In making this false claim, they recognize the power and potency of this candidacy and understand that OKON IYANAM represents the new face of our strategic future as a people. They recognize also that I stand for merit above all else and that, while I believe that Akwa Ibom deserves the best leader the state can produce, I also believe that there is no ethnic pathway to the Governor’s Office. It is in this vein that I say categorically, and without equivocation, that the apostles of an Ibibio, Oron or Annang Governorship have no part in my politics and do not wish Akwa Ibom well. They cannot and will not succeed in this highly subversive and divisive politics. Akwa Ibom is one monolithic and indivisible entity bound together, under God, by a common history and by a shared future! No man can alter this immutable fact. I say unto you again, my dear people, that the problems that challenge us today in our dear state do not speak any language and are universal to all tribes in the state. Therefore, the solutions to these problems cannot be ethnic! How does one address extreme hunger and poverty; universal primary education for our children; the high maternal and child mortality levels; medicare; unemployment for our youths; female equality and other gender issues; revenue security for our long term prosperity and more infrastructure to support industrialization and growth in our transactional economy with Ibibio, Oron or Annang solutions? The time has come for us to raise our challenges to the solutions level. The time has come for us decisively dismiss ethnic bigots from our politics. The time has come for us to ask some of us to give account and declare the source of the monies we now spend on politics without decorum and any sense of morality. The time has come for a new agenda in continuity and for a new experience and perspective in the management of our collective patrimony as a state. That time is now! The strategic future of our state will be safeguarded by strong measures to stabilize our economy and achieve revenue independence from federation sources. It will be protected by strong action to minimize our debt burden and free critical resources for social infrastructure. It will be projected by strong action to reform state administration and focus public policy and action on the people. It will be defended by strong action to expand the wealth and well-being of our people through an all-inclusive agenda which promotes the irreducible fact that while happy days lie ahead, we can only achieve this in an Akwa Ibom state that truly belongs to us all. The leadership that will deliver this strategic future cannot be ethnic. It is in this connection that I see the entire state as my constituency and state again that I am an Akwa Ibom man from Oron and not an Oron man from Akwa Ibom. The era of the accomplished technocrat is born. The era of the ethnic-neutral leader is born. 2014 is here! The countdown begins. I am in the race. OKON IYANAM Oyubia Village, Oron January 1, 2014
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 16:52:03 +0000
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