BEING A THE REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY UDOM EMMANUEL, GOVERNOR, AKWA IBOM
STATE ON THE OCCASION OF THE LAUNCHING OF THE STATE SYMBOLS, FLAG AND CREED
SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 – BANQUET HALL, GOVERNMENT HOUSE, UYO
PROTOCOL
- We are gathered here today, to perform a very important task as part of the events marking our State’s 33 Anniversary: The launching of our State’s Symbols and Creed.
- Let me start first by thanking all those who painstakingly, took part in this creative exercise which eventually gave us the outcome of which we are gathered here to launch. To those wonderful and talented Akwaibomites who sent in entries – I am informed, there were over 900 of them, we thank you for the passion and faith you have shown in your dear State. To Raphael Edem, who was tasked primarily with the responsibility of coordinating this process, I say well done!
- To the Panel of 12 experts drawn from the various arms of the creative arts, such as graphics and designs, we thank you for an exceptional job you had performed. And to those, whose entries were selected as winners and others who were not picked, you are all winners and have engraved your names in the pantheon of great Akwa Ibomites. We salute your creative outputs.
- Permit me to especially thank the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, led by the hardworking Speaker, The Rt. Hon. Aniekan Bassey for speedily and expeditiously passing these Symbols and Creed into law. You are what cooperation between the three Arms of Government should represent and I thank you all.
- The launching of these Symbols and Creed may have been long overdue but as they say, better late than never! Most societies are defined by a set of values and ethos or the defining elements of their common identity and aspirations. These, may find expressions through language, customs, traditions, religion and other forms of commonalities. Pupils are taught in primary schools, and secondary and tertiary students are made to internalize these defining ideals. These values are what underpin and undergird their psychological schematics.
- The Americans have what they call American Exceptionalism, which in the main means that God favoured the United States of America by giving them a sub-Continent of a thoroughly unique and innovative people, united under God, destined for greatness and blessed with in-born leadership qualities. God, they reason, went further to ensure that the nation was protected on the East Coast by the Atlantic Ocean and on the West Coast by the Pacific Ocean, thus forming an impregnable fortress.
- Every American, therefore, must consider his or herself lucky to have been admitted as a citizen or resident of God’s own country. The result of the internalization of these values has seen the American nation towering over all other nations in every endeavour of the human spirit.
- Here, in our State, our Dakkada Creed, in the main reflects the distillation of our unique identity and a call to taking ownership of our destiny and for us to live out the true essence of God’s plans for us.
- The launching of the State’s Symbols and Creed therefore is the crystallization of all that we are as a people, all that we represent and what should shape us going forward. This is a land of great and God-fearing people, industrious, hospitable, creative, innovative, peaceful, and blessed with good food, great weather and lush vegetation. We have all we need to succeed; all that remains is for us to apply these gifts to be what we hope to be.
- And therefore, as we launch these State’s Symbols and Creed, it is my hope that a new Akwa Ibom identity would be unfurled; an identity of love and unity without the pervading impulse to pull down ourselves or leaders, an identity of unbridled pride in our State and a rejection of the pull to de-market our State purely for political gains; a new identity coloured by our ingrained nature as a people who are driven by the communal instinct which demands that we see ourselves as our brother’s and sister’s keepers; a new identity of our continued honesty and sterling character shaped by the acute understating of the concept of right and wrong and above all, a new identity of our unshakeable faith in God, through whom everything is possible and more.
- May these Symbols and Creed liberate us from all the ancient animosities we have entertained against one another and rather open up a new vista of love, togetherness and enduing brotherhood across the length and breathe of this wonderful blessed land of ours.
- It is well with Akwa Abasi Ibom State, it is well with Nigeria, it is well with us all! Happy 33 Anniversary to us all! Akwa Ibom edakeda, ami mme dakanda
