By Ekerette Udoh

With a little over three weeks to the gubernatorial election nationwide, the PDP candidate in Akwa Ibom State, Udom Gabriel Emmanuel, is set to win the race in a landslide. Apart from Akwa Ibom being a decidedly PDP state, Emmanuel’s message of hope, industrialization, human capacity development, job creation, a call for unity, and a gale of endorsements across all the three senatorial zones and numerous socio-political organizations and a campaign message based on issues, devoid of character assassination, vile rhetoric or morally objectionable approach has struck a chord among the electorate, making his victory all but a fait-accompli.

The resonance of Udom’s message with voters is felt everywhere and even those who had previously hedged their bets or sat on the fence have all joined the bandwagon of hope and continuity. “I must confess to you that initially, I was not sold on the Udom’s brand, my main reason being that I had my sympathies for the opposition party, APC. But having listened to Udom on numerous media outings, his stump speeches at rallies, his blueprint for development of the state, his fresh ideas, his inviting and gentle demeanor, his call for unity and oneness, his background as a technocrat and an astute manager of resources and having compared those with what the opposition has promised, which is all but empty and vile propaganda, I had no choice but to pledge my support for Udom even though I am a card-carrying member of the opposition party.

Udom Emmanuel

And there are thousands of others who have quietly jumped on the Udom’s bandwagon”, Chief Ukpong, a businessman, had told me during an event in Oron on Thursday where youths of an area hitherto considered the bastion of the opposition had come out en-mass to endorse Emmanuel and repudiated the opposition for selling obsolete ideas.

A major reason the people of Akwa Ibom have settled for Udom as their next governor is the manner he has carried out his campaign. He has repeatedly told his supporters and campaign team not to indulge in name-calling or market sleaze. He has always maintained that his represents a campaign of ideas and values embedded in democratic ethos. “I have an agenda that will continue to deepen and sustain the development of the state and I want to campaign on those planks. That is why I have thrown an open challenge to the opposition to come and debate me, so the good people of Akwa Ibom can spot the difference, draw distinctions and make informed decision as to which platform will serve them better.

We are prepared and ready to hit the ground running and to work for the betterment of the good people of Akwa Ibom state. We want to sustain uncommon transformation predicated on the plank of sustainable development. We want to conserve the development of today, expand and increase opportunities, develop our human capacity and attract investments and industries so as to create jobs for our people. We want to improve tourism especially along our coastlines. If you travel to places like Cancun in Mexico, Nassau or Paradise Island in The Bahamas, Ochio-Rois in Jamaica, you will discover that the revenue those resorts generate and the employment opportunities created are huge. We can replicate same along our shorelines, and this would create employment and further market our state to the international community”, Udom has repeatedly asserted, and these are the issues that have made him the prohibitive front -runner to win the April 11 gubernatorial election handily.

At an endorsement ceremony on Thursday, in Uyo, organized by the Uyo Senatorial District Leaders Forum (USDLF), the PDP standard bearer, surrounded by major political stakeholders in Uyo, the sense of unity was again on full display as major leaders of the district pledged their political fidelity to Emmanuel.

As Americans would say, the big ‘mo’ or momentum and the tail wind is on Emmanuel’s side and it is safe to say that the people have been seized by the message of Unity, Development, Onward Movement (UDOM) that is presently blowing across the length and crannies of the state.