Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno has revealed that the ongoing Exco Retreat is aimed at positioning the state as an economic power house beyond oil.
Speaking during his welcome address at the event attended by members of the State Executive Committee, Delivery Advisors, Heads of Departments and critical stakeholders, Governor Eno noted that the projects already outlined were prioritized to deliver on the ARISE Agenda.
He noted that the retreat currently taking place in Lagos, is meant to further distill the culture of deliverables and deepen respect for boundaries as his administration works to relentlessly drive its vision of economic growth and wellbeing, peace and prosperity for the people of the State.
Governor Eno said he expects that paricipants would be fully reinvigorated, equipped, refreshed and challenged for the tasks ahead.
“We have assembled a great team of speakers drawn from diverse backgrounds and I know we are going to have a great and exciting time.
“Though this is essentially an EXCO Retreat, we have, however, brought in all our Delivery Team
Members and stakeholders, to reinforce our commitment in ensuring timely delivery of our projects.
“We were here, last in 2023, shortly after our inauguration, where we had distilled the foundational principles of the ARISE Agenda with the then EXCO members.
“It’s good to note that a number of the members of the last EXCO have been reappointed and thus are deeply conversant with our culture of deliverables.
The Governor who appreciated resource persons, particularly the facilitators from Tony Blair Institute, for accepting to share their knowledge and expertise.
He reminded the new Executive Council members, that “the fact that you are here, means you completely understand our propelling impulse which essentially is that we are running against time.”
He maintained that time was of essence, “given the number of very audacious projects, are determined to execute and complete within the next two years of our first term.”
Emphasizing the need for teamwork and unity, Governor Eno maintained that if he were to suggest a theme for the retreat, it would be “Teaming for Greater Success”, and called for synergy, collaboration, loyalty and commitment to recording results.
Pastor Eno spoke glowingly about his ARISE agenda, saying that it has been articulated and translated into implementable layers, maintaining that having “taken acute and deep ownership of the vision”, the exco members are the agents to relentlessly drive the vision to completion.
He reminded everyone that Akwa Ibom people will not tolerate excuses, hence his decision to appoint a renowned technocrat as his Chief Delivery Adviser and Executive Assistant.
Governor Eno used the forum to again clarify that the State Delivery Advisors have their responsibilities clearly spelt out, which is to supervise some of the major projects billed for completion within the next 24 months.
“They have the institutional memory and knowledge of these projects, and we have simply asked them to complete what they had started and deliver them to specifications and on time.
“The Honourable Commissioners have new projects that we are initiating and are expected to follow-through on those projects to completion”, he said.
The retreat, expected to last four days had on the first day Tuulia Pitkanem, a Senior Adviser from the Tony Blair Institute, and a former Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister of Finland, who spoke on ways of translating the Governor’s Address into Policy Interventions, as well as the need for priorotization of projects and programmes..
Others who spoke on Day One, include Mr. Emem Bob who spoke on the Budget Presentation and Fiscal Outlook, as well as Government Communication and Reputation Management presented by Mr Aniekan Umanah.
