•Lauds Tinubu, Progressive Governors over developmental strides

By Bisi Ezekiel

Akwa State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno, has commended the nomination screening exercise of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2027 general elections.

Eno, who was at the venue of screening for APC Governorship aspirants in Abuja on Saturday (May 9), described the screening exercise as smooth and credible. He interacted with journalists after the exercise.

He lauded the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) for transparency of the exercise which he said will strengthened the confidence of the governors and party members generally in the APC leadership.

“Perfect, and I think it’s a normal procedure. I’m satisfied. Again, I thank the National Working Committee, the chairman and all members of the National Working Committee.

“It brings synergy between the sitting governors and the National Working Committee. It shows growth. No sitting governor is in sync with the National Working Committee,” he said.

According to him, the interaction with party leaders reflected unity and cohesion within the APC family.

“This exercise consolidates that. It makes you meet all of them, and it shows there is a flow between us as progressives. So, I’m satisfied,” he added.

The governor expressed confidence that the APC will win the 2027 election at the Federal and state level considering the visible development strides by APC administration of President Bola Tinubu and the Progressive Governors across states of the nation.

According to him, President Tinubu has placed Nigeria on the path of recovery and stability, considering the level of challenges across spheres of national life before the advent of his administration in 2023.

"Across the nation, you’ve seen the work that the President is doing, and we are all part of it. We’re working from our various states. Of course, it builds up from the sub-national to the national.

"You can see stabilisation of the dollar. Apart from the Iran-American war that is now also affecting some of the achievements, which is not only Nigeria anyway, you can truly say there is progress.

“I feel Nigerians know that this President needs to come back to consolidate on the work that he has started,” he added.

Despite acknowledging perennial socio - economic and security challenges confronting Nigerians, he maintained that

the Tinubu administration will surmount the challenges if given a second chance in office.

“Things are difficult, we must admit, but we also must admit that it’s improving from where this President took over. There is a pathway.”

He expressed confidence that Nigerians would support Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027 to enable him to consolidate on ongoing reforms and development programmes.

However, Gov. Eno commended governors in APC controlled states for completing the efforts of the President in delivering five fends of democracy and election promises.

“There is no progressive governor today that you cannot verify on the ground what we are doing. And then at the national level, the President has given us as governors lots of support,” he stated.

On his own second-term ambition in Akwa Ibom State, the governor said his administration would focus on consolidating projects already initiated under his ARISE Agenda.

After stalling the screening hurdles, he said the people of Akwa Ibom will return him for a second term while promising that he will not relent on the path of progress and development.

“Second term, God willing, we need to tidy up all the work we’ve done. We are running under the ARISE Agenda, so we are now moving to ARISE Agenda 2.0.

"We’ll be finishing up some of the work we’ve done and positioning our state properly for tourism, which is an alternative to oil.

“We need to consolidate, improve our internally generated revenue and continue to put our people on the path of growth and success,” he said.