Again, APC gov candidate says Tinubu will make Akwa Ibom look like Lagos

The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom State, Akanimo Udofia, has again said his party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, will transform Akwa Ibom, and make the South-south state look just like Lagos State.

Mr Tinubu, from 1999 to 2007, was the governor of Lagos, which is Nigeria’s commercial capital, and widely regarded as the most viable among the country’s 36 states.

His campaign is claiming he is responsible for the development and progress in the South-west state and has been using that as one of their selling points to market Mr Tinubu to the electorate.

“Is there anybody here who doesn’t know Lagos? How many of una wan go Lagos?” the APC governorship candidate, Mr Udofia, said at the APC presidential rally in Uyo on Monday shortly after he received the APC flag.

“Our incoming president, the greatest Jagaban of our time, is coming to replicate the modern Lagos in Akwa Ibom State,” he added.

Mr Udofia made a similar remark in November last year at a rally in Uyo.

“One man, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, developed his state to such a level that it is a country of its own. There’s nothing you don’t have in Lagos State,” Mr Udofia said in the rally which was meant to push up support for Mr Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima.

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Mr Udofia said in the November rally that no state in Nigeria has progressed more than Lagos.

“He (Tinubu) planned the state and put a lasting economic programme, and that is why till today Lagos is progressing and progressing.”

Mr Udofia asked the crowd at the rally, “You know how Lagos is?”

“Yes!” they chorused.

“You want Akwa Ibom to look like Lagos?”

“Yes!”

“Who go do-am for you?”

“Jagaban!” the crowd chorus.

“The only person that loves Akwa Ibom… The only presidential candidate that can deliver for Akwa Ibom is the Jagaban of Africa,” Mr Udofia said.

‘Retrogressive, not progressive’

Several people who reacted on social media to Mr Udofia’s previous remark said apart from tall buildings and many business opportunities, Lagos is filthy and chaotic. They said Akwa Ibom is a cleaner state, orderly, and peaceful.

“Uyo is cleaner than Lagos! Uyo also has a world-class stadium. Uyo boasts of modern expressways, and carriages and bereft of filth and traffic bedlam that is notoriously Lagos characteristics. Making Uyo like Lagos is retrogressive and not progressive,” said a Twitter user, @bonchihe, on the micro-blogging site.

PREMIUM TIMES contacted the APC spokesperson in Akwa Ibom, Otoabasi Udo, and asked for his response to people’s reaction to Mr Udofia’s remark.

“He is not talking about physical cleanliness of the state, he is talking about the economic masterplan that has been beautifully executed and Lagos State is still standing on that economic masterplan and it is recording giant achievements from that masterplan,” he said.

PREMIUM TIMES asked Mr Udo why the people in Akwa Ibom should trust Mr Tinubu on this.

“We should believe him because it is a matter of having the love for us and the will to do it. Is there nothing we don’t have here that can make Akwa Ibom even more prosperous? It needs the political will from a loving president,” he said.

The Monday rally, held at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, was attended by a large crowd.

Among the dignitaries in attendance were the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, Director-General of the campaign council and Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong; Cross Rivers State Governor Ben Ayade, the APC Deputy National Chairman, (South), Emma Enekwu, former Minister of Niger Delta and former governor of the state, Godswill Akpabio; current Minister of Niger Delta, Umana Okon Umana, former Minister of Petroleum, Don Etiebet, former EFCC Chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, and the APC National Woman Leader, Beta Edu.