Akwa Ibom State Governor Udom Emmanuel has urged local governments to replicate economic exploits of the state in their areas.
He spoke yesterday at Ikot Akpa Nkuk, the headquarters of Ukanafun Local Government, during the maiden Ukanafun Economic Development Summit to mark 45 years of the creation of the council.
The governor said economic activities in the urban areas of the state should be replicated at the hinterlands through local government chairmen.
Tagged: ‘Repositioning Ukanafun for Sustainable Development’, Emmanuel said the creation of the local government was a journey in economic self-advancement.
He encouraged councils to make an annual economic assessment so that the purpose of self-government at whatever level would not be defeated.
“The creation of a state, or in this case, a local government area, is in itself a release for a journey in economic self-advancement, and if all we do on a yearly basis is to number the cycles, without counting our blessings on the economic front, the purpose of self-government at whatever level would have been defeated.
This is why at the state level; our number one priority is the economy. The second priority has been the economy and third priority is also the economy. Without a vibrant economy, nothing works,” he said.
The governor noted that the theme of the summit is in consonant with the vision of his administration, which is aimed at transforming the state and fast-tracking, its attainment of destiny by means of a vibrant economy.
He hailed Ukanafun Local Government for immortalising the late state Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Udo Ekpenyong, during the 45th anniversary of its creation, saying the deceased, an indigene of the area, deserved the monuments raised for his posthumous honour.
The Chairman of the Summit Planning Committee, Aniekan Ukpanah, recalled that Ukanafun Local Government was created in 1976 during the regime of Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and appealed to the indigenes to develop the area, to befit its age and status.
Pastor Kufre Okon Okpon, a prominent indigene of Nsit Ibom, said the state government has not sited any industry in the area to boost economic renaissance at the grassroots.
“Today, Ukanafun Local Government is 45 years old, but Governor Emmanuel has not considered it necessary to site any cottage industry here,” he added.
Ekpu urged the governor to consider the area in the industrialisation drive of his administration.
Emmanuel has said the ongoing 8km World Bank assisted drainage project will be completed and inaugurated in December.
The $50million project, which aims to end over 15-year-old flood problem in Uyo, cuts across 17 villages in Uyo, Ibesikpo Asutan and Nsit Ibom local governments.
Inspecting the project yesterday, the governor, who hailed the speed and quality of the project, told the contractors that as a 100 per cent pre-funded project, there was no excuse for the work to exceed December.


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