The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Umo Eno, has lashed out at greedy politicians in his state, saying loud and clear that he prefers an impactful one term in office to having a ‘useless’ two terms.
The governor’s statement was in reaction to threats by some aggrieved stalwarts of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state. The stalwarts threatened to withdraw their support from him for a second term in office except he changes his frugal approach to governance.
The politically aggrieved members, issued the threats after accusing Eno of blocking them from having access to the state’s treasury.
But the governor said that he would rather serve a single term, decorated with laudable feats, than serve for eight years with nothing to show for it.
Governor Eno spoke at a press conference on Saturday to commemorate the 36th anniversary of the creation of the State christened the ‘Land of Promise.’
In outright rejection of the greedy request of his party stalwarts, he insisted that he would rather invest in life-changing projects and programmes for the teeming 7.9 million residents of the state than allow a few influential people to hold him captive.
He promised to invest massively in infrastructural facilities, rural development and food security, promising to work in tandem with the local government chairmen to acquire 50 hectares of land in each local government area for agricultural purposes.
Eno said, “We are trying to ensure that my recurrent expenditure does not run at par with my capital expenditure. Whatever we save is to be put back in the rural areas. Every N500 million I save would give me a school, would give me a hospital.
“I prefer a good first term than a useless two-term. It is only when you account for four years well, that you would be asked to go again. I’d rather put money in rural communities. My job is to ensure that the 7.9m people are satisfied. I discovered that almost everybody is waiting for the government.
“The challenge before us is to maintain the existing infrastructure. We lack a maintenance culture. That is why we seek to establish an asset management agency to help in the maintenance of our assets. We build new ones when we have to.
“We are working with the 31 Local Government chairmen on agricultural development. We will be using not less than 50 hectares of land per Local Government Area for farming.
“I am not perfect, but I promise that I will not deliberately launch this state into something we would regret. We will do our best.”
