September 23, (THEWILL) – On September 23, 1987, Akwa Ibom emerged from the old Cross River State with something more precious than a new administrative boundary: the opportunity to define its own political and developmental destiny. Thirty-nine years later, the state is celebrating not as the fledgling entity created by the military government of General Ibrahim Babangida, but as a state that has passed through military administration, democratic transitions, infrastructure expansion, industrial ambitions and now a renewed attempt to connect physical development with human welfare.
The anniversary therefore presents two stories at once. One is the familiar story of roads, buildings, schools, hospitals, airports and other physical assets. The other is less visible but perhaps more consequential: whether those investments are gradually producing a more diversified economy, better opportunities and a higher quality of life for the people. That tension gives meaning to the 39th anniversary beyond the ceremonial cutting of ribbons.
The state government has chosen “Gratitude”, drawn from Psalm 136:1, as the theme of this year’s anniversary and has scheduled the commissioning of 39 projects between September 1 and 30. The projects cut across roads, education, healthcare, aviation, youth development, public infrastructure and social intervention. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was also expected to visit the state to commission some of the projects. The symbolism is difficult to miss: 39 years of statehood, 39 projects placed before the public as part of the anniversary programme.
But the significance of the anniversary projects lies less in the arithmetic than in what they reveal about the changing definition of development in Akwa Ibom.
The early years were about establishing the machinery of a new state. Tunde Ogbeha, Godwin Abbe and Idongesit Nkanga successively administered the state before Akpan Isemin became the first civilian governor in 1992. The turbulent years that followed saw Yakubu Bako, Joseph Adeusi and John Ebiye at the helm before the return of sustained democratic government in 1999. The official state record lists Victor Attah, Godswill Akpabio and Udom Emmanuel as the successive elected governors before Umo Eno assumed office in 2023.
Each era left a different imprint. Attah’s years were associated with the state’s struggle over resource control and the onshore-offshore revenue controversy. Akpabio’s administration became identified with an aggressive programme of roads, public buildings and urban infrastructure. Udom Emmanuel subsequently placed strong emphasis on industrialisation, investment and economic diversification, while continuing the infrastructure trajectory established before him.
Governor Umo Eno inherited that accumulated foundation in May 2023. His response was to frame the next stage around the ARISE Agenda: Agricultural Revolution, Rural Development, Infrastructural Maintenance and Advancement, Security Management, and Sound Education and Health Sector Management, with broader objectives that include poverty reduction, job creation, sustainable economic growth, improved living standards and the development of a skilled and healthy population.
Three years into the administration, the anniversary projects provide an opportunity to examine how that blueprint is being translated from policy language into physical interventions.
Infrastructure remains the most visible expression. In his 2026 Easter broadcast, Eno said the administration had embarked on more than 1,300 kilometres of roads since taking office, including inherited roads that were completed, while the State Executive Council approved another 167 kilometres of roads across the state. The administration has repeatedly stressed that road construction is not intended merely to beautify urban centres but to open up rural communities, connect farms to markets and reduce the isolation of settlements.
That philosophy is particularly visible in the 2.07-kilometre Itu–Urua Ekpa Road, completed with a 1.4-kilometre underground discharge drainage system. On the surface, it is another road project among many. In the history of the communities it serves, however, it represents something much bigger.
For years, Urua Ekpa was synonymous with flooding. Published reports by THEWILL, Punch and THISDAY documented the human cost: houses submerged, businesses disrupted and hundreds of residents displaced. In 2021, reports said more than 120 houses were affected and about 500 residents were displaced, while the village head, Chief Mkpong Okon Mkpong, had been forced to abandon his palace along Urua Ekpa Road because of the flooding.
The road project therefore represents an unusual development story; one in which mobility and environmental intervention meet. The underground drainage component is as important as the asphalt because the old problem was never simply that the road was bad; water was part of the reason the community became increasingly difficult to inhabit.
When the road was commissioned in September 2026, it connected the Itu side of the corridor towards Ikpa Road in Uyo, providing another link between the two local government areas and improving access around the University of Uyo Town Campus and adjoining communities. For residents who lived through years of flooded streets, the project carries a meaning that cannot be captured by its 2.07-kilometre measurement.
It is also a useful test of the ARISE philosophy. If rural development means opening up communities, infrastructure means more than putting asphalt on the ground, and environmental management means protecting lives and property, Urua Ekpa brings those strands together in one project.
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The anniversary programme itself tells a similar story. The 6.475-kilometre Amanyam–Mbiaso Road in Ikot Ekpene was commissioned earlier in the month, with side drains forming part of the project. Other scheduled projects include the Obong University access road, Udo Inwang Road and erosion-control works in Uyo, roads serving Dakkada Global Oil Palm Limited, the Ikot Essien–Ikot Uyo Road in Nsit Atai, internal roads and drainage in Awa, and the internal road network in Ikot Ekpene Udo.
Some of the projects had already been commissioned before the anniversary month. In June, Eno commissioned 4.8 kilometres of roads in Eket, comprising the 2.4-kilometre Ikot Akpa Ikpo–Urua Udo Inyang Road and another 2.4-kilometre internal road network in Mkpok Estate. Significantly, the governor said the Ikot Akpa Ikpo–Urua Udo Inyang Road was inherited from a previous administration and completed by his government because of its economic importance. That continuity is itself part of Akwa Ibom’s development story.
Beyond roads, the anniversary projects extend the ARISE conversation into healthcare. The Airport Medical Centre at Victor Attah International Airport is among the facilities scheduled for commissioning. The government has also highlighted the remodelling and equipping of general hospitals, including facilities in Ukanafun and Ikot Ekpene, alongside investments in primary healthcare. Three medical oxygen plants in Ikot Ekpene, Uyo and Eket have also been established, giving each senatorial district access to local oxygen production for critical and emergency care.
Education is another important piece of the picture. The administration has pursued Model Primary Schools alongside road and healthcare projects, reflecting the argument that opening up a community without improving the quality of basic public services would leave development incomplete. In September, the government also approved the recruitment of 2,000 teachers, expanding the number beyond the earlier 1,000 approved for schools across the state’s 31 local government areas.
The wider employment picture adds another dimension. Governor Eno recently approved the appointment of 4,000 new civil servants following a recruitment exercise that attracted tens of thousands of applicants. The appointments are expected to begin in October. Beyond the numbers, the development highlights one of the central challenges confronting Akwa Ibom at 39: infrastructure can create access, but an economy must create sustainable livelihoods.
That question takes the anniversary beyond government offices and construction sites.
Agriculture occupies a central place in the ARISE Agenda because Akwa Ibom cannot indefinitely depend on oil revenues and public expenditure as the principal engines of prosperity. The administration has promoted the Ibom Model Farm, agricultural grants, farm support and a large-scale oil-palm initiative. In April, the governor also disclosed plans to provide solar-powered rural water facilities across the state’s wards, while youth-friendly centres are being developed to create spaces for skills, ICT and creative-industry activities.
The aviation sector represents another side of the state’s diversification ambition. The September anniversary programme opened with the reception of another Airbus A220-300 for Ibom Air, described by the Federal Ministry of Information as the fifth aircraft acquired by the Eno administration. The investment is intended not only to expand air connectivity but also to deepen the aviation ecosystem and create opportunities for indigenous manpower.
Tourism and hospitality similarly form part of the emerging economic narrative. The ARISE Palm Resort, among the projects associated with the anniversary programme, reflects the administration’s attempt to position hospitality and tourism as economic assets rather than merely ceremonial infrastructure. The governor has also spoken of the state’s tourism sites, including those around Itu, while projects around aviation and hospitality are being presented as components of a wider economic ecosystem.
Then there is the maritime frontier. Akwa Ibom’s coastline, ports, oil and gas assets and maritime communities offer another possible pillar of diversification. The proposed Ibom Deep Seaport remains one of the most consequential unfinished pieces of that economic ambition. Its eventual realisation would alter the relationship between the state, regional trade and the Gulf of Guinea economy, but the project also illustrates an important lesson at 39: some development outcomes depend on sustained institutional work far beyond the lifespan of one administration.
This is why the anniversary should not become merely a catalogue of completed projects.
A political analyst, Mr George Etim, who spoke to THEWIL on the achievements of Umo Eno’s administration, reasoned that the physical transformation of Akwa Ibom over nearly four decades is undeniable, but the next measure of progress must increasingly be what happens after commissioning. Does a new road reduce transport costs? Does it enable farmers to get produce to market? Does a health centre remain properly staffed and supplied? Does a model school improve learning outcomes? Do youth centres translate training into employment? Does aviation stimulate tourism and investment? Does agricultural production become a functioning value chain rather than a succession of government interventions?
Those questions, according to him, are particularly important because the state’s development history has been cumulative. A road started under one administration may be completed under another. An industrial idea may survive a political transition. A public building may acquire new uses under a succeeding government. The most enduring development, therefore, is not necessarily what carries the name of an administration but what remains useful to citizens after that administration has left office.
Governor Eno has repeatedly acknowledged the contributions of his predecessors. At his second-anniversary thanksgiving, he credited Attah with the struggle that expanded the state’s resource base, Akpabio with infrastructure transformation and Udom Emmanuel with his contributions to the state’s development. That acknowledgement points to an important reality: Akwa Ibom’s 39-year journey is not one administration’s story. It is an accumulation of decisions, projects, institutions and unfinished ideas.
At 39, therefore, Akwa Ibom stands between two eras. The first was dominated by the struggle to build a state and give it a physical identity. The next must be about converting that physical foundation into a productive economy capable of sustaining its people. Roads, hospitals, schools, airports, hotels and public buildings remain essential, but their ultimate value will be determined by the economic and social activity they enable.
That is perhaps the deeper meaning of the 39 projects being commissioned this September. They are not the whole scorecard of a 39-year-old state, nor can a ribbon-cutting ceremony settle the larger questions of jobs, education, healthcare, agriculture, power, investment, accountability and household welfare. But they provide a useful snapshot of where the current administration says it wants the state to go.
From the founding moment of 1987, through Isemin, Attah, Akpabio and Emmanuel, to Eno’s ARISE Agenda, Akwa Ibom’s journey has been one of successive layers. At Urua Ekpa, the story can be seen in miniature: a road once associated with flooding, displacement and abandonment now carries asphalt, drainage and renewed access.
A woman leader from Itu, Emem Ekponta, stressed that the challenge for the next chapter is to ensure that such projects become more than monuments to their commissioning dates. At 39, the real destination is not another anniversary. It is an Akwa Ibom in which infrastructure opens markets, agriculture creates wealth, education produces opportunity, healthcare protects families, technology equips young people, tourism attracts visitors, maritime assets generate enterprise, and public institutions deliver efficiently.
The state has travelled a long distance from the administrative entity created in 1987. The journey is far from over. If the first 39 years were about building the state, the defining question of the years ahead is whether that foundation can be converted into broad-based prosperity for the people who live in it.
