BEING THE TEXT OF THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PASTOR UMO ENO, Ph.D., GOVERNMENT HOUSE, MAY 29, 2026
Promises Made and Promises Fulfilled, Onward to Arise 2.0
My dear Akwa Ibomites,
1. I come to you today, with a heart filled with gratitude, first to the Almighty God, who is the Author and the Finisher of our faith, and you, my dear people, for the prayers, support and faith you have so generously shown in our capacity to move further the needle of development of this great State, aptly named after the Almighty God Himself. In three years, together and collectively, we have achieved a lot, in line with the promises I made during the 2023 campaigns, elements of which I had equally condensed and distilled in my Inaugural Speech on May 29, 2023. What a surprise that we have come three years full circle.
2. We couldn’t have achieved all these, without the love you have shown, without the prayers you have said, without the faith you have invested, and without the peace, unity and deep spirit of kindredship you have so selflessly displayed. I thank and celebrate you!
3. Today, we celebrate the emerging story of our dear State, whose chapters of growth and exceptionalism are not only read and experienced by you, but also ring in the hearts, minds and lips of Nigerians across the geo-political zones.
4. From a once rusty backwater subnational, we are fast becoming a destination of choice, a shining City on the Hill, steady, illuminating, firm, inviting, hopeful and poised to fulfil the dreams of our founding fathers as a true Land of Promise.
5. Let me thank our past leaders for the great work they did, which today we are determined to deepen and expand the rings and layers of our growth and shared prosperity.
6. To the stakeholders, women, elders, students, youths, the clergy, civil society organizations, members of the fourth estate of the realm, and indeed the civil servants of our dear State, thank you for being key partners in this Golden Age of our dear State that is rising and expanding.
7. let me thank the Chairman of our great Party APC, Obong Stephen Ntukekpo for the ebullient manner he is managing the affairs of the party. In the last one month, we have had a very peaceful primaries all across the State where you overwhelmingly voted to nominate our President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR as the APC Candidate for President, our son Distinguished Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio GCON as the APC Candidate for Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District, and of course, my humble self as the APC GovernorshipCandidate for Akwa Ibom State and all other candidates on our slate for next year’s general election.
8. This speech is aptly titled “Promises Made and Promises Fulfilled, Onward to Arise 2.0”. But let me pause here and declare that those promises we had made would not have been so successfully and so impactfully fulfilled without the support and encouragement of our dear President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, whose bold and audacious reforms have put more funds in the hands of subnationals to execute equally audacious projects, and of course the Senate President, our son, Distinguished Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, GCON, for the collaboration we have forged, all for our State’s enlightened interest.
9. On May 29, 2023, when I stood before you and gave my Inaugural Speech, I had made clear and concrete promises anchord around the Arise Agenda, our developmental blueprint. Today, I make bold to state unequivocally, that we have ticked all the boxes and are rearing to do even more when, by the Grace of God, you return me for another four-year tour of duty next year.
10. Time will fail me if I were to stand here to enumerate all that we have achieved across sectors for the collective good of our State and people. However, tomorrow in the full glare of the World Press, the Honourable Commissioner for Information, Elder Aniekan Umanah will moderate the Inter-Ministerial press briefing for the people to engage directly with the drivers of our vision, the members of the State Executive Council.
11. But it bears repeating that we have done so much in the agricultural sector, where just yesterday, we launched the Oil Palm Tree Crop Revolution, an initiative that will restore our place as a leading producer of oil palm in the nation.
We recently launched the Agricultural Equipment Leasing Company which will make equipment available to farmers at highly subsidised rates. We have also given farm implements, seedlings as well as the 2b Naira of grants to farmers. Ibom Model Farm and other farms undertaken by Local Government Chairmen are ongoing. These are aimed at reducing the prices of our stable food items.
12. We have opened up the rural areas with roads, wet markets, model healthcare centres as well as model primary schools. There is no local government today, that has not benefited from a completed project or has ongoing ones. Recently, we approved N7.3 Billion at N20m for each of the 369 Wards in rural areas to form Women Cooperatives and, working with GIFA, each of 369 ward’s will have solar-powered Braithwaite tank borehole.We are determined to open up the rural areas for the free-flow of goods and services.
13. In the area of infrastructure, we have commissioned, or have ongoing 1,300km of economically viable roads with 40 bridges. The details of these critical roads will be provided tomorrow during the briefing.
14. In the education sector, we have continued to fund free and compulsory education for our primary and secondary school pupils and students. We are paying bursaries to those in tertiary institutions as well as the payment of grants to our State-owned institutions. Akwa Ibom College of Education, Afaha Nsit is now fullyupgraded to a University of Education. The House of the Assembly recently passed a bill to that effect. In the next few weeks we will constitute the Governing Board of the University.
15. We have built and commissioned Model Primary Schools, which are solar powered, with computer labs and befitting teachers quarters. We have equally recruited 1,000 teachers and recently approved additional 1,000 teachers to be recruited soon. We would be establishing 3 Model Secondary Schools with State-of the -art facilities in each of the three senatorial district, the first of such school is currently under construction in Uyo Senatorial District.
16. In the healthcare sector, we have commissioned or have ongoing work on primary healthcare centres across all the 31 local government areas; recruited 2,854 medical personnel for the sector; enrolled over 200,000 persons into our Medical Insurance policy; commenced work on our 350-bed Ibom International Hospital, complete with 24 departments. Details of other achievements recorded in this critical sector will be presented tomorrow by the Honourable Commissioner for Health.
17. We are priming our State as the tourism hub of our region and indeed Nigeria. Later this evening, we will hold our Variety Night to mark our Third Anniversary in office at our soon-to-be commissioned Arise Palm Resort, a project that will bring immense joy and pride to our people and spur economic growth. The night would be likened to the song “Blessed Assurance, what a foretaste of glory divine.” The glory of our State will continue to be divinely spelt when the Park is opened.
18. Other tourism assets such as the International Convention Centre, the Ibom Hotels, the Arise Shopping City Centre, among others, will be presented with concrete details tourism.
19. From aviation development where we recently made our maiden international flight from our new terminal to Accra, Ghana, and the 2CRJ900 Bombadier aircraft we had bought and paid outright for Ibom Air and an Airbus A220-300 Series aircraft soon to be added to the Ibom Air fleet later in the year; Ibom Air is working on commencing International Flights and this is a thing of joy for our State. From Aviation Village, to the World-Class hospital within the airport, to the MRO, the Taxi way, perimeter fencing etc, we have done so much in the sector, details again would be disclosed tomorrow during the briefing by the Honourable Commissioner for Special Duties.
20. In the area of social investments and youth empowerment, when we came in, we met a backlog of N111bn in gratuities and other emoluments since 2012. Today, we have paid over N83 billion of the backlogs and remain firm and committed to liquidating the entire backlog before the end of our first term in office.
21. We have provided over N6 billion as business grants to our youths and farmers and several other empowerment schemes during our last Town Square Meetings. Thousands of our youths have been trained at both Ibom-LED and at the Dakkada Skills Acquisition Centre (DASAC) with N750,000 start-up packs added to them.
22. Three days ago, we launched our Youth Development Centre in Oron LGA. This would be replicated all over the 31 local government areas. The Centre is to help train our youths in e-commerce, creatives, fashion design, thus creating social mobility in line with what is happening in countries such as India and China.
23. In the power sector, we have taken steps to ensure we provide stable electricity to our people in the very near future. We have also worked on the off grid power supply to our unserved rural communities. On the Ibom Deep Seaport the Federal Government recently approved certifications and compliance processes as one of the five to be so approved. Let me take the opportunity to thank the President for this kind approval. We will pursue the actualization of the Ibom Deep Seaport by the Grace of God and with your support. In the housing sector, we have built over a thousand and forty eight houses in clusters. From the compassionate homes where we have done 438 homes, from the medical village, to the aviation village, to the judiciary village, to the legislative village; all of these put together will provide housing to our people. In sports development, an academy is being primed in Eket to discover and train young talents. Work is currently ongoing on what many have described as the best bus terminal in these parts once completed. With initial 50 CNG buses due to arrive in the State in the month of June, to significant improvements in our IGR through TSA, we are building a future of growth and expansion for our dear State.
24. We have achieved the above, and in the next five years, with your support and by the Grace of God, we will work to complete the 85 other audacious projects that will change the landscape of development across sectors in our State. This is the vision of our Arise 2.0 which will be our blueprint for our campaigns and our document of execution for the 2027 to 2031 administration. We will in that document capture all of the needs that you so articulated and submitted during our Federal Constituency tours across the length and breadth of our State. We will take into consideration, the things that you so desire that we bring into governance, and we guarantee that it will form our step by step blueprint just as the Arise 1.0 captured.
25. As the political season commences, I urge our people to play politics of ideas and not one of name-calling or character assassination. We have kept the peace in our State because no single life is worth shedding for anyone’s political ambition.
26. Politics, as I said in my inaugural address, will come and go but the spirit and bond of our brotherhood will remain unbroken by the temporary passion of partisan politics. Let us imbibe the spirit of genuine sportsmanship in the game of politics.
27. I had promised you that I will be the Governor for all Akwaibomites and so far, I have by the Grace of God kept my word on that score. Today, our political slogan is Akwa Ibom United and as we go to the polls next year, we will remain united, secure in our belief that an injury to one is an injury to all. I came as a peacemaker and I will leave, by the Grace of God leave office in 2031, as a peacemaker. I will continue to pastor Akwa Ibom State with the fear of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit. So help me God!
28. Happy Third Anniversary to us all. God bless Akwa Ibom State, God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
