Hello, the forward-looking folks of Abak federal constituency. I am Emmanuel Ekon, the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) hopeful in the upcoming 2011 elections. As your trusted son, I'm vying for the Abak Federal Constituency seat, in our dear state of Akwa Ibom. That means I will be your eyes and ears in the House of Representatives in Abuja. I know my name has been circulating in political circles for some time now, and many are already asking, Who is Emmanuel Ekon?

Well, I'm a young man raised and bred in the border village of Iwukem, Etim Ekpo. All along, I have always been in the frontline for my community and race as a whole. As a result, I cherish service to humanity as a guiding philosophy. But through toils and sweats, I have cultivated a certain entrepreneurial spirit rooted in courage and hard work without which it would be difficult to affect humanity. I'm therefore a new generation politician cum entrepreneur with the world at my feet, eager to lift our comatose constituency, and connect it to the age of entrepreneurship. Finally, I'm a husband and father of three kids, dedicated to creating opportunities for our generation yet unborn.

But wait a minute, folks. Does my name ring a bell now? If not, rewind your memories to about 13 years ago when I was still a young undergraduate at the University of Uyo, majoring in Statistics. I'm sure you are all aware of the frequent skirmishes among border villages in our part of the world. And the conflict between my Iwukem community and its Azumini neighbors in Abia State is part of that inexplicable heritage of dislocations in our society. At the peak of that crisis, I found myself playing a crucial role that I have come to depict as my formative years in political leadership.

To cut a long story short, here was my community involved in an intractable land dispute. Sensing that the state government then wasn't doing enough to help us assert our authority in our God-given land, I had to lead our people in a protest march to the House of Representatives in Abuja. And we won convincingly! My testimony before the house members resulted in the renaming of the Mobile Police Station from MOPOL Base 25, Azumini to MOPOL Base 25, Iwukem. The fact was that the station was located in a piece of land donated by our community but, was regrettably, named after the Azuminis in a move that was outright politically-motivated.

There are many too, whose political skills have been honed quite unknowingly, during their involvement in students politics. I make bold to say that I share in the strength of such category of politicians. Throughout my years in the university, I was quite active in the politics of Annang ethnic nationality. I was for a time, the President, Etim Ekpo/Ika Students' Association and later, President of Presidents, Annang Students' Association.

During my recent consultations across the length and breadth of our constituency, I kept answering questions as to what took me away from the political space for so long. For those who never had the opportunity to listen to my explanation, I was not really away. I was only on vacation to an abode where I had been able to fortify my spirit in preparation to dispense the kind of service that democratic governance allows us to perform which, unfortunately has been abused by our generation. The story is that in 2001, I had moved to the United States of America, and like many in our generation, I relocated temporarily in the search for new experience to water and strengthen my life's mission-service to all. If you ask me if I have added any new meaning to my life, I would answer in the affirmative. In the past five years, I have found success in business; through hard work, discipline and courage in a milieu where all odds seems to be against your race, and have witnessed a small initiative develop into something big. That initiative which started in the industrial city of Chattanooga has put me in the ranks of small businesses employing a small number of people.\

But the bottom line is that I have been largely dissatisfied with how far I could go. Not even when I have also sponsored the visas of at least five persons to come to the United States and share in the experience of life in a developed society. And it touches on how I could well affect a large number of people, especially my constituency which I left behind. It's that ambition to expand my horizon that motivated me to promptly declare to vie for a seat as your representative in Abuja. It's an ambition that has been shaped by my experiences residing in the very citadel of democracy where we've borrowed our political culture; ambition influenced by a sudden realization that such experiences could help shape the future of our teeming youths, most of who are well endowed but lack the space to actualize their talents.

Folks, I believe we have so much work to do in order to put our constituency in the proper arena where it belongs. That's why unlike most career politicians, I won't certainly be spending all my time in Abuja, or gallivanting around the globe. In truth, my humble achievement in business is not a product of sitting behind a desk in an office alienated from my clients but, by getting out, and having a feel how they want me to serve them better. As your representative therefore, I shall traverse our communities, and hold consultations with both the people and opinion leaders on how to move our constituency forward. As I have told you, I'm passionate about empowering our youths to be self-sustaining, not by conditioning them to depend on the crumbs falling from the pockets of politicians.

In political jargon, I'm a progressive and an unwavering pragmatist in my belief of helping the less fortunate and rendering proper service to my constituency. I do not in any way, harbour this ambition because I'm looking for cheap avenues to achieve greatness or take part in the depletion of our common wealth. I have entered the ring because of my philosophy that at the very end, I will not be judged by the measure of my wealth but, by my measure of giving and simple goodness. To achieve our goal, I'm quite convinced that we have to continue in the great tradition laid by His Excellency, Chief Godswill Akpabio who has shown us how to be a consensus builder, disregard ethnic affiliations in the business of governance and get things that matter to the generality of Akwa Ibom people done without ethnic agitations or representations. That's our task!

Thank you

Emmanuel Ekon

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