The governorship project of the ACCORD candidate in Akwa Ibom State, Engr. (Dr) Emem Coffie, COREN, FNICE, FIMC, FICEN, FIMS, has received a major boost, following his endorsement by 57 family heads of Ediene Clan, Abak Local Government Area.
The custodians of families and tradition of Ediene clan, who converged at Midim on Wednesday, declared their support for Engr. Coffie, who they warmly received and prayed to God to grant him success.
“Our collective desire and prayer is for God to lead you to the Government House. After paying rapt attention while you reeled out your plans for Akwa Ibom people, we are amazed that Akwa Ibom has someone like you. May the Almighty God and our forefathers lead, guide and protect you on this journey to become the next governor because we believe you will work for the entire State and make our people smile,” the royal fathers told Coffie.
They urged him not to be distracted by the corrupt politicians, assuring the governorship hopeful that they will rally their subjects across the fifty seven families – where they held sway to support him at the polls.
All the family heads that spoke at the meeting noted that time had come for them to speak out and take a stand against the way Akwa Ibom was being run, where hardship has become order of the day, retirees left to die of hunger without receiving their entitlement from government.
The emotion-soaked governorship candidate, accompanied by his wife, Mrs. Coffie, deputy governorship candidate, Evang. (Dr.) Love Charles Archibong, leadership of the party, led by the State chairman, Rt Hon Martins Ansa, alongside House of Assembly candidates for Abak State constituency Princess Iniabasi Akang, Ibesikpo Asutan; Mr Aniekan Johnson, among others, told the royal fathers that he entered the governorship race because he sincerely wants to rescue and develop Akwa Ibom State.
He said, as a successful businessman who has never held political position in the State, he was not seeking power just for the sake of it or for egocentric reasons, but to use it to turn around the dwindling fortunes of the state and reset it for holistic development.
He regretted that poor leadership in the state was responsible for the untold hardship faced by the masses, advising the people to reject any politician who comes with N10,000 to lure them to vote.
“Our people have been making and repeating the same mistake of voting for people because of money since 1999. If we do not change in the forthcoming election, it would be more difficult for our children and the generation yet unborn,” Coffie stated.
He used the occasion to enumerate some of his plans for a better Akwa Ibom to include, providing jobs for the teeming youths to drive away insecurity, citing of at least 10 cottage industries in each local government areas of the State, housing scheme for civil servants, massive investment in agriculture, education and vocational schools, provision of grants to women and men to support their businesses, payment of monthly allowance to the entire Mboong Ekpuk in the State.
His words: “Our industrialization plan is not the type some people are talking about. We intend to focus first, on cottage industries and at least 10 would be provided in each Local Government area. These would be constructed and completed under 6 months. From there we will build medium scale industries. Imagine if we have 10 cottage industries in each local government areas, we would end up having about 310 of such industries for our people who would be managed by professionals from abroad.
“This thing is not rocket science. If government is ready, things can work. But they are not ready, the reason our people are suffering. For instance, our people are using nails everyday, do you know that we can have a befitting nail factory with only 60 million? But our state government would prefer to spend over 30 billion naira to a foreign company to construct just one road; what a waste!” He roared.
Continuing, Guber candidate noted: “My government will also encourage mechanized farming through cooperative and will empower our women who are traders. We will also invest in education. There will be vocational units in all primary and secondary schools so that if you’re not brilliant, you would have a vocation; what you can do with your hands.
“The first thing my government will do is to pay our retirees because these people are dying on daily basis. There will be mortgage banks who will be in charge of housing scheme for all civil servants.”
The 2007 candidate for House of Assembly, Nsit Ubium State constituency, who stressed that Akwa Ibom is in serious problem owing to the bad management of its resources, thanked the family heads for endorsing and accepting to partner him to rescue and develop the State.
Earlier, the State Chairman of ACCORD, Rt Hon Martins Ansa, had hailed the ‘Mboong Ekpuk’ for their wisdom in adopting Coffie as their candidate of choice, saying he was the best prepared to fix Akwa Ibom.
He described the Ikot Ntung in Nsit Ubium born Engineer-cum- Real Estate Developer as “God fearing man and people-centric”, who has overdose of ideas, will power, passion and know-how to fix Akwa Ibom and bring the state to the greatness envisaged by the founding fathers.
The well attended event had all the family heads in Ediene Abak clan alongside coordinators, youth and women leaders. It was preceded by an endorsement meeting where the same family heads adopted one of their daughters and candidate of ACCORD for Abak State Constituency in the forthcoming House of Assembly election, Princess Iniabasi Akang, as their sole candidate.
