Eno, Ex-NASS Members Seek Bipartisan Ties For Akwa Ibom Development

Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State and two former members of the House of Representatives for Eket and Etinan Federal Constituencies, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh and Hon. Onofiok Luke, have expressed worry over the absence of sustainable developments in the state, blaming distorted succession plans and political party differences for the disconnect.

The trio, who spoke at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Akwa Ibom state council at the conclusion of the weeklong activities marking the annual media week of the union over the weekend, stressed the need to jettison what they described as strict adherence to party politics and embrace liberal democracy across party lines.

Checks by LEADERSHIP revealed that the grand – finale held at the state secretariat of the union along Information Drive, Uyo, the state capital had a mixed grill of party faithful drawn from the two major political parties – the Peoples Democratic party (PDP) controlling the state and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at the centre.

Eyiboh, former House of Representatives spokesman, who chaired the forum, expressed delight at the admixture of chieftains of the big parties conglomerating together without party sentiments, noting that such disposition was what the state and the country needed to grow and develop as the nation under President Bola Tinubu, cannot thrive in an atmosphere of political disharmony.

“Elections are over, now is the time for governance,” Eyiboh, an APC chieftain, who doubles as the Aide on Media and Communications to Senate President Godswill Akpabio, therefore, charged the media to take up the task of unifying and harmonizing politicians across party lines to chart the course of unity, peace and brotherlines for national development.

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Besides, Eyiboh commended Governor Eno, for his unprecedented overtures by opposition party in the state to seek ties with the APC-controlled central government, and expressed the hope that such alliance would engender positive outcomes for the state especially with Senator Akpabio, as the Senate President.

In the same vein, Luke expressed optimism of more dividends of democracy to the state from the centre, regretting that if Senator Akpabio and his predecessor, Obong Victor Attah, didn’t have political disagreements and friction, Akwa Ibom should have been more better-off as it is now due to lack of consistency and policy summersaults that led to abandonment of projects enunciated by previous government.

Luke, also noted that similar quarrel between Akpabio and his successor, Deacon Udom Emmanuel, went a long way in distorting the development paradigm of the state following irreconcilable differences that forced Akpabio, to migrate to the APC, a move he noted had created political instability and robbed the state of more development projects, unity and peace amongst ethnic groups in the state.

“If Senator Godswill Akpabio and his predecessor, Obong Victor Attah, had been in good terms, this is not where this state would have been; if Deacon Udom Emmanuel had been in good terms with his predecessor, Senator Akpabio, this is not where this state would have been,” he recalled and stressed the need for unity of purpose devoid of party politics for the state and the country to move forward.

However, the Governor, represented by the commissioner for information and strategy, Comrade Iniobong Ememobong, appreciated the concerns, pointing out that the need to douse such political tension in order to draw more federal presence to the state informed the bipartisan approach to governance by the current administration in its drive to reconnect the state to the centre, stressing that “party politics, campaigns and elections are over and giving way to governance.”

He, therefore, urged aggrieved politicians still nursing the wounds of the last general elections to take a soothing balm and embrace the government in power as the state can only have one Governor at a time.