Udom.salutes journalists’ gallantry as Akwa Ibom marks 33 anniversary

Joe Effiong, Uyo
Akwa Ibom State governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel has publicly expressed appreciation to Nigerian journalists for the support they have accorded him since he came into office.
In his statewide broadcast to mark the 33rd anniversary of the  state’s creation, Emmanuel, very uncharacteristically, described the press and “dear compatriots in the Fourth Estate of the Realm, our gallant journalists, I thank you for the co-operation you have extended to my administration since we came into office in 2015 and urge you to continue to exercise utmost level of circumspection and objectivity in your reportage.
“We do not have any other state to call our own except this blessed land if ours,” the governor said.
He also tasked stakeholders across the political divide not to de-market the state or to sponsor spurious and false allegations against those they disagree with politically.
” We should not poison the well of our brotherhood with vitriolic attacks on our leaders using blackmail and other unwholesome tendencies. There is no need to heat up the system with unnecessary and unhelpful agitations for 2023 succession plans. 
“When the time comes, our God, to whom all power belong will guide and direct our footsteps.”
 He used the opportunity to caution all those who may entertain certain devious political ambitions to refrain from some of the antics which he wasalready  aware of. 
“Akwa Ibom people will be monitoring you to see if you are executing the task for which you were selected out of seven million people or you are busy using government’s time to indulge in a project which time has not yet come.” The governor cautioned. He after 33 years,  Akwa Ibom story has been chronicled in thirty three spectacular chapters, each chapter, a celebration of a people’s faith in their capacity to fulfil the dreams of their Founding Fathers;  and each chapter, an acknowledgment of the fact that the awesome love and blessings from the ONLY GOD whom the State is named after is ever present and enduring to define the course of her growth and development.
“My fellow compatriots, I stand here today as I have done in the past five years, humbled and grateful for the opportunity you have given me to be the Team- Lead of this great Land of Promise. “For more than five years, and counting, with your prayers and support, and in spite of the turbulent economic climate that has defined most of the years I have been in the saddle, we have experienced great and wonderful years of renaissance, of the reawakening of the Akwa Ibom identity.
“We have seen five and half years of great developmental strides that have confounded the cynics, and drawn admirations even from those on the opposite side of the political divide. It could only have been God.”