Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State has said he would rather prefer to serve a single term decorated with laudable feats than serve for eight years with nothing to show for it.
The governor stated this on Saturday at a press conference being part of the activities to commemorate the 36th anniversary of the creation of the State christened the ‘Land of Promise.’
Eno insisted that he would rather invest in life-changing projects and programmes for the teeming 7.9 million residents of the state than allow a few influential people to hold him captive.
He promised to invest massively in infrastructural facilities stressing rural development, adding that his administration is working with the local government chairmen to acquire 50 hectares of land in each council for agricultural purposes.
Eno said, “We are trying to ensure that my recurrent expenditure does not run at par with my capital expenditure. Whatever we save is to be put back in the rural areas. Every N500 million I save would give me a school, would give me a hospital.
“I prefer a good first term than a useless two-term. It is only when you account for four years well that you would be asked to go again. I’d rather put money in rural communities. My job is to ensure that the 7.9m people are satisfied. I discovered that almost everybody is waiting for the government.
“The challenge before us is to maintain the existing infrastructure. We lack a maintenance culture. That is why we seek to establish an asset management agency to help in the maintenance of our assets. We build new ones when we have to.
“We are working with the 31 Local Government chairmen on agricultural development. We will be using not less than 50 hectares of land per Local Government Area for farming.
“I am not perfect, but I promise that I will not deliberately launch this state into something we would regret. We will do our best.”
