Joe Effiong, Uyo
The National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, has likened Nigeria to a rudderless ship which has neither captain nor direction, saying the country needs divine intervention to survive.
Secondus, who made the comment on Saturday in his goodwill message in Uyo at the inauguration of the 1,000 sitting capacity PDP State Secretariat, lamented that the country was in dire need of truthful, honest and trusted leaders, and called for prayers for Nigeria.
Commending the administration of Akwa Ibom State Governor Udom Emmanuel and attributing the completion of the new State secretariat to his efforts, Seconds remarked the sprawling edifice rivals the national secretariat of the party in Abuja.
‘With a secretariat that is competing with the national secretariat. Your Excellency, that shows the manifestation of your leadership. When you show leadership by example and your followers show faith in their leaders, that means the leader has done well.
‘I can see you are a leader that has shown leadership and your followers are following you with curiosity, and they have seen the works you have shown in Akwa Ibom State.
‘Our country today needs leaders who will be truthful, honest and trusted and by the grace of God you are one of them. The PDP has shown clearly that we have the best governors because of the roll call of achievements and the country can confirm what they have seen.
‘Without good leadership, you cannot have this Secretariat. Our county needs a lot of prayers. A country with no direction, without a captain, we need a lot of prayers. We need God’s intervention.
‘We are happy and grateful to the leadership of Akwa Ibom for providing an edifice that will be ranking with, I don’t know the party, is it the other party that?
‘What we must emphasize today is to build institutions. What we must do in this country is to groom young people that will become leaders to take over the leadership. Akwa Ibom has done well in that regard.
‘PDP is becoming stronger and stronger every day, we have recovered ourself. Anyone from any part of the country can aspire to become anything and realise their dreams in PDP. Akwa Ibom is a state where every other state should follow,’ the PDP Chairman stated.
Governor Emmanuel in his speech said party members were looking up to PDP at the national level to take over governance of the country, especially as the party was still waxing strong.
Emmanuel explained that the secretariat was completed with 100 per cent direct labour, adding that the outgoing State PDP Chairman, Obong Paul Ekpo, had achieved his purpose through the completion of the secretariat.
He said it would have been unfair if the PDP did not have the secretariat in the state since it has been the only party that has moved the state forward.
‘The party is still waxing stronger. Obong Paul Ekpo has achieved his purpose, God sent him. We’ve experienced unity under his watch.
“PDP can only get stronger. It would have been unfair if PDP did not put up something like this in Akwa Ibom because this is the only party that has propelled the state.
‘We look forward to the national to deliver Nigeria back to PDP,’ the Governor stated.
In his remarks, the outgoing PDP State Chairman, Mr Paul Ekpo, commended Governor Emmanuel for mobilising financial support for the completion of the state secretariat.
He said: ‘The Governor had promised that I will present this edifice for inauguration as Chairman of the party and today here we are – at a great cost to his personal finance, energy and time.
‘He engaged his friends from within and outside the state who either donated money, material or services deployed to the completion of this beautiful edifice.’