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Follow Emmanuel Ekon, both in his personal life and on the campaign trail...
The following issues are near and dear to Emmanuel's heart...His reason for running for office. By voting for him in 2011, you can be rest assured that Emmanuel will represent you on these issues at the Federal House of Representatives:
Forging partnerships
As a people, we need to build on the achievements of the Akpabio administration in building bridges across ethnic divides in the state. More than ever before in our state, we are beginning to realize that we share common attributes that should unite rather than divide us. I have therefore set a task for myself to ensure that our constituency does not miss out in this ongoing crusade. I will work towards making sure our constituency is not balkanized for the sheer political interests of a few self-seeking individuals. I will help build relationships among villages, clans and council areas and, make the traditional institution and youth organizations instruments of confliction resolution in the bid to prevent all forms of communal crises. Ultimately, a peaceful environment will help us create a good partnership between our constituency and state or federal agencies in our overall quest to get back our youths to work. As your representative, I will work towards burying age-long animosities, bickering and unwarranted rivalries that have sought to define Abak Federal constituency as a polarized political bloc. I believe that we can work across board to harness our strengths, and close those gaps that have combined to deprive us of state and federal presence over the years; and I will be that catalysts that we need to put our constituency at a great competitive edge.
Empowering localities
As a participant in politics for years, I have come to realize how often people misinterpret the issue of empowering our localities in a democracy. Empowerment, as many have come to understand it, is all about sharing money among the youths. Many have even raised the stakes in this adventure to placate supporters through donating motorcycles to selected youths for use as means of commercial transportation. In our quest to empower our communities, I will deviate from this accepted but unworkable practice. In one direction, our empowerment programmes would be geared towards ensuring that our communities live the best of lives they could afford. As a result, I will work to promote initiatives by our communities aimed at providing basic infrastructure such as electricity, potable water and other facilities that would help increase the comfort level of folks living in the countryside. In achieving this, I intend to promote the establishment of development associations at the clan level so as to ensure mutual coexistence. At another level, our empowerment initiative will seek to identify talents in communities that could benefit from educational training, especially skilled-based programmes, and source for support from either government or private individuals that will enable them achieve set goals. That's why I will work towards ensuring the massive enrolment of our children in schools, and seek the cooperation of state agencies to get such schools well-equipped.
Job creation
I've spent almost all my life in recent years thinking about how to create jobs that could help re-direct our constituency youths from criminal activities. And I have realized that such initiative could be realized by encouraging the growth of small-scale initiatives. I remember how I started my business with just a van in a corner in my home as an office before we grew to purchase almost a dozen of such vans, servicing office locations across two states. I'm perhaps the only one in this race that could boost of such experience. I believe in the productive abilities of our constituency youths. But I know that we have not yet created the atmosphere that will enable them realize their full potentials. My modest successes in life could be attributed to the fact that I was lucky to find myself in an environment where varied platforms are created to enable the realization of individual talents. As your representative, my biggest priority will be to replicate such platforms; to create opportunities where our youths can rise again. In the quest to get our youths engaged in productive ventures, I will go beyond the traditional scramble to place our school leavers in civil service jobs to setting up programmes that would enable them acquire rare skills that are not commonly found in our environment. God-willing, and with your support, we should able to send some of our skilled youths abroad through a collaborative efforts with state and sponsoring agencies to acquire those skills that will have a ripple effects in creating more opportunities for economic growth.
Dialogue
Essentially, government is a dialogue between the rulers and ruled. But we all know that our democracy is devoid of this single ingredient. This is not only an unfortunate pitfall but, an essential element in the lack of trust for leadership. It's a factor that accounts for the disenchantment with leadership in our part of the world. In electing me into office, I promise not to shut my doors against you; I promise not to be the sort of leader that will only fly past you in dark, tinted chauffeur-driven posh cars. I will always come to meet with you in a town hall event; I will listen, and consult with you always. I will always be in touch with the realities in our grassroots, and try to incorporate such collective experiences into my decision-making process. As such, when it will be time for constituency project, you will not just read about the sums allocated to us on the pages of newspapers, I will sit down with your leaders and decide on what is best for us. I will not just run an open government; I will provide a framework where there will be sustainable dialogue on all fronts. I will endeavour to create a platform where the three units in our constituency will not feel aggrieved but, will all experience the impact of governance.
Peace and security
In recent times, our constituency has been unfortunately branded as part of the axis of evil where kidnapping of innocent persons for ransom has become a mere routine. Security operatives constantly speak about our constituency in terms of being a safe haven for holding victims of such criminal acts. Travelling through Abak-Etim Ekpo-Ika has become a very dreadful experience for many, and is likely to remain so for a very long time if we are not vigilant and resolute in fighting these criminal gangs. I sympathize with the victims of these heinous acts. But as your representative, and politician with no history of involvement in violence or links to clandestine groups, we will join hands in fighting these miscreants to a standstill. Our approach in fighting this reign of terror will nonetheless be anchored in our belief that security operatives cannot successfully arrest this ugly trend without cooperation from our traditional institutions. That's why I will encourage the setting up of community vigilantes with the sole responsibility of acting as informants to security agencies involved in the fighting of these robbery gangs masquerading as kidnappers.