By Emmanuel Uffot
The four – day retreat convened by Governor Umo Eno in Lagos to come up with a roadmap for the implementation of his ARISE Agenda ended with the resolve of the Governor to hit the ground running on his agenda to develop the rural communities which is one of the pillars of the agenda.
The Governor who reportedly participated in all the sessions of the summit appreciated the facilitators for their inputs reiterated his government’s commitment towards realising the goal of the ARISE Agenda which is to transform the state from a civil service state to an industrial hub for investors.
On this score, Governor Eno announced that 31 projects are going to be executed in 31 local government areas under his administration’s ‘ one project per local government drive’, which he revealed earlier last month as a roadmap to develop the rural areas.
In other to facilitate this, he gave a marching order to members of the executive councils under MDAs and appointees to ensure adherence to the timelines attached to each of the projects as they stand to be assessed by those indices.
At the retreat which has as its theme ‘ ARISE Agenda: Mapping the future ‘ , all the ministries, departments and agencies under MDAs and other units of government critical to the ARISE Agenda made presentations underscoring the needs, execution timelines, resources required and sustainability plan on projects under their watch.
The resource persons at the retreat which included the immediate past Governor Mr Udom Emmanuel who was Guest of Honour facilitated knowledge sharing during sessions whereby the economic outlook of both the nation and the state were analysed and targets set for Pastor Umo Eno’s administration.
After diligent brain storming, the facilitators and participants agreed that going by the focus and blueprint laid on the table by government, the will be in a position to meet the general economic target growth of three percent above the NDP ( National Domestic Product). This they stressed will serve as the platform to increase internally generated revenue, public- private- partnership and adoption of innovative infrastructure funding alternatives.
The retreat held at Eko Hotel, Lagos was coordinated by Mrs Mfon Usoro, a renowned maritime practitioner and wife to foremost legal luminary Barrister Paul Usoro ( SAN). She did this in partnership with Financial Derivatives Company Limited.
Among the key resource persons at the retreat were Mr Bismarck Rewane, Professor Oluwole Ajai, Mrs Obehi Aire Okafor, Dr Emmanuel Ekuwem immediate past Secretary to the State Government, Dr Clement Ignanugo and Anhad Narula.
Also in attendance at the instance of the state government were, Chairman Akwa Ibom State Internal Revenue Service, some Permanent Secretaries, select aides of the Governor, The state NUJ leadership, state chairmen of NLC and Trade Union Congress among others.
The Commissioner for Information and Strategy Mr Ini Ememobong is confident that the initiatives and roadmap emanating from the retreat would have positive impact on the state by ushering in a new era of progress and prosperity.
He was just re- echoing the position of the governor that with the successful deliberation of the implementation roadmap of the ARISE Agenda, the anchronym for Agricultural Revolution, Rural Development, Infrastructural Maintenance/ Advancement, Security Management and Educational Advancement his government is ‘ good to go’.
It could be recalled that shortly after his inauguration, Governor Eno had convene a dialogue on ARISE Agenda which brought experts on several sectors to discuss the way forward and offer suggestions on how to go about it.
According to the Governor, the latest retreat was to digest and analyse the output from the dialogue and usher a roadmap that will guide the ministries, departments and agencies that would serve as the vehicles.
Although the list of the 31 projects to be executed in the 31 local government areas at one per local government was not made public as at the time of this report, but we gathered the chairmen and stakeholders of respected local government were expected to send to government their desired projects which they did.
Under the arrangement of the ‘ One project per local government council initiative’ which government says is to create employment, reinvigorate the economy and increase cash flow within rural communities, the projects are to be awarded to indigenous contractors from the respective local councils who in turn are to recruit the locals from those council areas to work there.
