August 24, (THEWILL) – The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, has described the clamour by different groups in the state asking him to name a successor as a huge distraction, urging that he be allowed to deliver on the mandate given him by the people.
The Governor stated this yesterday during a breakfast meeting at Ibom Icon and Golf Resort, Uyo, while responding to the request by some members of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) that he name a successor.
The Governor wondered why people would worry about the next election without talking about the next generation, stressing that he was not ready to disclose his successor now even if God has revealed the person to him.
He therefore urged the Christian leaders to deemphasise succession matters and support his administration with fervent prayers to achieve his vision as encapsulated in the Eight-Point Agenda to Akwa Ibom people.
The Governor regretted that it was only in Akwa Ibom State that the call for a successor is intensified, querying, “Why is it only in Akwa Ibom day and night that you will be hearing Governor successor, successor, they should leave me alone.
“Please the noise is just too much; even if God has shown me I am not going to show anyone yet. Let us work!
“The vote that you gave us let us give the dividends of democracy, let us even account for it. We cannot be a country where we think only of elections and not the next generation.”
Emmanuel called on the Christian leaders to create the awareness and sensitisation about Voters’ Registration Exercise in their congregation, as many Christians are yet to register, including registration for the National Identification Number (NIN) in order to put the state ahead in data collection.
He said: “Please the continuous voters’ registration is going on. Please can we endeavour to register? So many Christians are not registered voters. All these ones we are saying will not make meaning if we don’t go out to register. When you are preaching in church ask your members have you gone to register?
“We keep cheating ourselves as a people. This National Identification Number, if I check inside this room so many pastors do not have it, so let us not take these things for granted because some of these things are used as indices for revenue sharing but we don’t know. Population is one of them.”
On the COVID-19 Delta variant, the Governor urged the church leaders to always create the consciousness of the third wave of the virus to their members and adhere to the protocols.
Earlier, the Chairman, Christian Association of Nigerian, Akwa Ibom State, Rev. Ndueso Ekwere, affirmed the support of the Christian community in the state for the Governor’s industrialisation drive and the peaceful disposition of the state, pledging to stand by the Governor in his succession plan when the time became ripe.
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