An Open Letter To His Excellency Pastor Umo Bassey Eno, Governor Of Akwa Ibom State On The Necessity To Begin The Improvement Drive Of Your Arise Agenda From The Areas That Had Long Been Beseeching For Infrastructural Development To Give The People In The Area Perception Of Concern And Inclusiveness

Your Excellency,

We in the Oro Youth Movement (OYOM), one of the leading community-based civil society organisations in the country deems it necessary to use this open medium to address you and your office on needs, why you should begin your action plans as enshrined in your Arise Agenda from the areas that have been deprived of perception of concern on the infrastructural development and inclusiveness for several years of their existence in the state of which they are a fraction.

We see this open medium as the right channel to address your office as we filled that the agents in the government house have been halting susceptible correspondence from the concerned citizens of the state to the government, having merely received feedback about the plight of our people through our request from the end of the government of Akwa Ibom State, and in other to reach an adequate communication gap between your office and the people, we request that the entire staff at the mailing office should be restructured.

Sir, Oro Nation being the third leg that completes Akwa Ibom as a State, which has been the founding principles, has been long grossly abandoned, deprived of a sense of belonging and especially, the infrastructural development over the years.

Sir, it may interest you to know that Oro Nation in its entirety has been experiencing an unconditional power shortage (Black Out) due to insufficient flow of energy(electricity) to the area for over sixteenth years now. As we believed you were told during your campaign awareness in the area. This situation has been exacerbated ever since the unexpected increase in the price of Premium Motor Spirit(PMS) heated the market, as the entire people in the area, business owners and residents were depending solely on using part of their earnings to purchase PMS to power their generators as an alternative means.

This, in just one month, has reduced drastically, the economic activities in the region as several small and medium-scale businesses are threatened. The implication of these is that there has been an enormous increase in the crime rate in the area and so many who are struggling to survive are also leaving in uncertainties due to the effect of consistent operation by these hooligans.

Your Excellency, Oro Nation requires urgent attention, the 29km Road spanning Nsit Atai, Okobo to East-West Road at Urue Offong/Oruko that was awarded 8 years ago without experiencing progress of 30% till today has been one of the major setbacks. It is indeed disheartening for the only essential thoroughfare that linked the seas food baskets of the state to other parts of the region in this country could be left as the dead trapped and treated with such a level of trivial misgiving, and for the government to show less concern about the completion of this road, despite our several requests and plead, not only bring suffering to the motorists but an indication of peeling the Oro people off from assessing the state capital, and not minding the damaging effect this has caused on the economic growth of the state.

Sir, as a Governor whom we believed has come with a genuine intention for the state, we filled it a necessity for you to begin the improvement drive of your Arise Agenda from these areas that had long been rescinded.

Your Excellency, we have carefully watched closely your activities in the past month, and we appreciate the effort you are making to ensure that Akwa Ibom is fully integrated into National discussion, irrespective of the political parties and beliefs. But we make bold to say that the appointment you have made so far from your office as the Governor does not portray inclusiveness and a sense of belonging, this has accelerated several questions about your genuine expectation and we view it as a continued intent to jeopardise the founding principle of our dear state. Sir, every ethnic nationality in the state has capable hands who can assist your administration to bring the desired results to the people and the state and the youths of the Oro Nation who were also actively involved in the process of your emergence deserve a fair share.

Based on the aforesaid and with good conscience, we request the following prayers.

1. That you should approve the immediate installation of a 132/33KVA, 2×30 MVA power substation in Oro. This is the only remedy to salvage the dilapidated flow of energy to the area for several years now. The project has always been one of the requests from the Oro people to the previous administrations and with consistent assurance without any results till today. This project, if awarded will increase food on the table of many skilled youths and it will renew the hope of the Oron residents and boost the economic activities in the area.
2. That the completion of the first and second phases of the Nsit Atai Okobo to East-West Road at Urue/Offong Oruko should be targeted to completion in other to be included among the projects that will be commissioned during your first two hundred days in the office. This project is long overdue and if completed will drastically reduce the suffering of the people utilizing the road regularly, and will stimulate the economic activities of the state, it is a non-contestable fact that Oro Nation seashore alone trades billions of naira to the state and federal IGR, therefore the economic importance of this road cannot be overemphasized.
3. That you should approve contractors and Mobilise them to side to commence work on projects that were awarded in Oro by the previous administration which received zero funding.
4. That Oro being an integral part of the state, and who has laid vast golden eggs deserves immense inclusiveness and a fair share in your golden era as the Governor. Ranging from employment, the appointment of officers into principal offices, and the training of youths on skills both within and outside the state. This will also avail youth from our end to fill a sense of belonging and by extension, prepared them for the task in the future.
5. That the position of Commissioners, Chairman and members of Statutory Boards, Special Advisers and Personal Assistants to the Governor, administered to Oro over the years are glossy below average and we request a review and possible increase from the previous numbers. Most especially, commissioners and chairmen of boards. This will portray justice, fairness and inclusiveness in your administration.
6. That it is inadequate to even conceive the impression of recycling in your led council, those who have served more than 6 years in the previous councils. Most of these people are the reason why the previous Government receives a lot of criticism, the reason being that they continue to retain a zero score record of relating with the people of their community. And most of them who are at their early 50, 60s and 70s now, had served the state since their early /or lately 30s. And for them to conceive an ambition of continuing in your led council portray greed from their ends. Sir, we have so many intelligent, informed, and innovative youth spread across various communities in the state, and there is a need to vail them the necessary opportunity in your led council in other to enable them to display their abilities, and they deserve a chance.

We also use this medium to call on you to use your good office as the Governor to address the high rate of insecurity in the state, especially at the waterways, the littoral communities and her neighbours, due to the purported attempt made by the previous administration to obnoxiously remapped the state. This action is gradually threatening the peaceful existence of oneness in the state.

This is established in good faith and as the advocates of equity, fairness, and adequate practice of democracy and good governance, we assured you our usual support and cooperation.

Comrade Edet Eyo, Mnse, Mshe
National President

Comrade Sunday Offiong National Secretary