A’Ibom Gov: With  Right Leader, Nigeria’s Challenges Can be Overcome

Okon Bassey in Uyo

Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel has expressed optimism that the challenges affecting the country could be overcome if the right leader emerges in the 2023 general elections.

“Issues confronting Nigeria are very surmountable. It would always take a leader to emerge somehow, somewhere, and things could change.

“I believe in Nigeria, we know that this thing could change if in 2023, could emerge a leader who has the love for the people, who knows what to do, an action to take, and what to actually carry out, that’s all that we need, and this situation can be  remedied,” he said. 

Governor Emmanuel made the assertion  yesterday  while declaring open the 2022 national conference of Forum of Former Deputy Governors of Nigeria in Uyo Akwa Ibom State capital; with the theme: “Nation Building a Challenging Times”.

According t him, it would be a tale of woes if in 2023, “we don’t even know we are in challenging times as a country. We are looking for a leader, not someone who is on self aggrandisement, not somebody that has sworn that when I come to the earth, I must be a president before I die.

“As a people, we must realise that we are under a very challenging time, especially in this country. Never a time we’ve had this, a country that as we are sitting here, we don’t know by the first quarter of next year how people would move in this country because domestic airlines are almost extinguished, nobody can have anything to move again not to talk of foreign airline.

“Every country is tossing us left, right and centre. The most populus nation in Africa, the world cannot exist without Nigeria and a nation would wake up and say we are not giving visas to Nigerians. I believe the solution is on those that would appoint to lead us.

“We are in challenging times, not only in Nigeria, but across the globe. Countries are trying to adjust and re-adjust, so many things are changing over night. How could we wake up one morning and hear a whole state is under water in Nigeria.

“No matter what we do or say, challenging times did not start today, it started from the days of the old testament. What this teaches me is that God created the world of man to face challenges.”

Also speaking, the former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Kanu Agabi, SAN, lauded members of the forum for coming together  to find solutions to the problems affecting the nation.

He said: “And we shall find solutions to them. The fetters that bind us now shall be broken. Those who are deaf to the cries of the nation shall hear.”  

Agabi, who was the chairman of the occasion,  noted that the conference was held at a time when corruption had permeated every department of the  nation after decades of dictatorship.

He added:”The military spirit had pervaded the nation. You hold this conference at a time when our democracy is characterised by our misconception of politics as a game without growth.

“We are under the illusion that in politics, good and evil are equal, we proceed on the false assumption that politics without force or fraud cannot produce results. We aim at being strong in numbers without being strong in spirit and in truth, that cannot be right.

“You have come together, out of the realization that the tenents of our country require radical change. You appreciate that we must make ourselves the agents of that change. You appreciate that if we fail to do our duty, no one is going to do it for us. .

“It is a good thing that we continue to make these efforts at helping the nation to overcome the distresses and disasters that now befall us.

“We must unite, and I am happy that here in this hall, you have people from the North, from the East, the West, the South, together bonded by the fact that you are former deputy governors.

“Whether you are Fulani, Yoruba or Igbo, you have a bond and that bond has brought you together in Akwa Ibom State. That is the hope for our country.

“There will never be a time in this country where we will never have problems, we will always have problems, there will never be a time when there will be no injustice, there will always be injustice.

“There will never be a time when people will be totally and completely none violent, we will always suffer violence but that will not separate us.

“We are one people, and we are better off as we are, and my hope for this nation is that a day is coming when this nation will bring together the nations of Africa together, so we are talking about a United States of Africa. Divided, we cannot stand, united we stand.

“We are definitely having problems but we can solve, and we have done better than other nations which came from dictatorship as we did. In 1999, we returned to civil rule, and we have survived very well since then.

“We are a good people, we are a competent nation, we are a nation of geniuses. We are very patient, very resilient, very intelligent, very hardworking. Of course we have a problem with leadership.

“It is very difficult to rule a nation like that but we can overcome even that and we proceed with hope. We are not to resort to methods of despair.”