Oro agitation: SSG, Ekuwem tasks stakeholders, youths on diplomacy
The Secretary to Akwa Ibom State Government, Dr Emmanuel Ekuwem, has asked the people of Oro, the third largest ethnic Nationality in the state to employ diplomacy and dialogue in Oro agitation for recognition as oil and gas producing community as well as other issues bothering them.
Ekuwem, who said that Oro people were not known for violence, advised the people, especially the youth to maintain decorum and peace no matter the level of provocation in the course of Oro agitation.
The SSG, himself an indigene of Oro, gave the advice on Tuesday, when the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of Oron Union, the apex socio-cultural organisation in Oro Nation, led by its President-General, Bishop Etim Ante visited him in his office at Government House, Uyo.
The SSG’s disposition was expressed about 24 hours after the Paramount Ruler of Udung Uko, Odidem Bassey Etim Edet expressed support for the quest for the creation of Obolo State and Calabar State which some Oro sons and daughters have been agitating, but Dr Ekuwem insisted there is need for caution.
A statement from the Press Unit SSG’s office on Tuesday, 28th October, 2020, quoted Dr Ekuwem as saying:
“Mr PG, His Excellency, the Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel is emotionally and truthfully attached to the request of Oro people seeking recognition as oil and gas producing communities. The Governor, by nature is an honest person. Just be calm and go about your request in a very polite and diplomatic way. In life,what you do, when you do it,where you do it and how you do it matter.
“If you’re not able to have the combinations of all that when you want to do things, you will be failing because you may want to do what is good, but in a wrong place and way.You can get somebody infuriated because of the way you put things across to the person,” Ekuwem stated
The SSG,who holds the chieftaincy title of Akpaha-Oro (the pillar of Oro) while calling on Oro social media users to exercise restraint, said that he had recently observed that some of them, especially the youth have been using social media platforms to make ‘unguarded, inciting, very offensive, non-fact finding, insensitive and emotional outburst’ public statements and also use it to insult elders in the name of Oro agitation., a practice he said must be urgently reversed.
He, therefore, called on Oron Union to strive for change of mindset, values system and character among Oro youths as well as help to reduce all ethnically-charged rhetoric by her sons and daughters while articulating Oro agitation..
“When you’re angry,write ye not, when you calm down you can put your fingers on the keypad.You don’t pull down what you have,” SSG advised.
Ekuwem, who is also a member of the technical committee for the realisation of Ibom Deep Seaport Project (IDSP), briefed the union on the steps the Emmanuel administration has taken so far towards the actualisation of the seaport such as engagement of the host communities of Oro and Ibeno and stressed the need for his kinsmen to always cross check information before going to social media space.
The foremost telecommunications expert insisted that Oro Union should think inwards and create opportunities for Oro men and women to acquire competent skills to earn a living, so as to reduce dependence on others for survival.
While thanking the union for the visit, he assured them that their requests would be communicated to the governor for consideration and necessary action.
The state chief scribe told the union that Oro should be thankful to the governor for the appointments of many of her indigenes into various government positions and urged them to reciprocate the kind gesture of the governor by continually supporting his administration.
He pledged his continued support to the union and condemned in strong terms the killings of motor Cyclists and the forceful taking over of motorcycles in Oro by ‘miscreants and evil people.’
Earlier in his remarks, the President-General, Oron Union, Bishop Etim Ante said the essence of their solidarity visit was to seek for greater collaboration between the Union and the State Government with the aims of attracting more dividends of democracy to Oro people in particular and Akwa Ibom State in general.
Ante thanked Governor Emmanuel for the appointment of one of their illustrious sons, Dr Ekuwem as SSG, saying:
“The strategic appointment has given hope and sense of belonging to the Oro people and has also brought succour to the people of the area and beyond” and prayed for God’s wisdom on the SSG to work in absolute loyalty to the government of Akwa Ibom State.
The Oron Union President-General said, “It is pertinent to remind you (SSG) of the position paper submitted to the governor on the recognition of Oro Nation as oil and gas producing community which was already approved by the federal government. We have quality ideas with the authority in this regard.
“This is one of the major reasons that Oro people are not comfortable with the state government which implementation would have long happened during the administration of Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio. It will be a thing of joy for us as a people for our governor to restore the years the locust and canker worms have eaten.”
While appreciating Governor Emmanuel for the appointment of one of the vibrant youth leaders of Oro, Barr Omen Bassey to serve in the Judicial Panel of Inquiry on police brutality, Bishop Ante appealed for the governor to continue to accommodate the interest of Oro people in the scheme of things, noting that this would go a long way to assuage ‘the feelings on issues of injustice orchestrated against Oro people by successive Administrations in Akwa Ibom State.”
He informed the SSG that the ENDSARS protest, hijacked by some hoodlums in Uyo in which government and private properties as well as lives were destroyed was seriously checkmated in Oro Nation with no violence recorded through the intervention of the Union and few others who rose to the occasion.
