Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State was among those who were recently given national awards by President Goodluck Jonathan. In this interview with selected journalists, the governor speaks on the award, what it means to him and the Akwa Ibom people, and sundry issues. Abiodun Awolaja brings the excerpts.Congratulations on your recent award of the Commander of the Order of the Niger, CON. As a recipient, can you share your views on this award'I thank President Goodluck Jonathan for finding me worthy of this honour. I also thank those who recommended me for this award. I was happy to be decorated by Mr President with the award of the Commander of the Order of the Niger. For me, it is really a honour to be recongnised.Above all, I thank the good people of Akwa Ibom State for giving me the opportunity to showcase my potentials and be their servant. I dedicate the honour to the state and the people who wanted a positive change in their lives. I dedicate this award to those who desired that their circumstances and situation should change.I am grateful for the people of the state for believing in me to lead them to the Promised Land. And I promise to continue to provide the dividends of democracy which the people truly deserve.Your leadership has attracted a lot of honours and you have dedicated all of them to Akwa Ibom people. Why Akwa Ibom people'It is one thing to desire good leadership, it is another thing for you to be prepared for the sacrifices in terms of work and commitment towards having a good, qualitative leadership.There is a good reason to dedicate these awards to my people. The Akwa Ibom people yearned for good leadership and worked hard to achieve it. The 2007 gubernatorial election could have gone to any other aspirant or candidate. But because the people wanted a show piece, because they wanted a governance with style that would integrate Akwa Ibom with Nigeria, that was why I was nominated by my party and eventually, I was elected as the governor of the state.Therefore, for them to choose me above other aspirants really meant that they believed in me. And they not only believed in me, they have continued to support me in the course of building the state. That is why I will always thank and be grateful to the people. Surely, I dedicate all the awards and honours to them, because they truly deserve it.The event of the national honors award of this year featured more Akwa Ibom people than that of any other year. What can you say about this'For me, this is good news. I actually see more awards coming for Akwa Ibom people. I believe strongly that every Akwa Ibom person is worthy of the award and every single follower of the uncommon leadership that we have provided is as worthy of the award as we are. I pray that more Akwa Ibom State children will get the award after me.We were about six or seven in number this time around and I hope next time, we will be ten because Akwa Ibom State people are one of the most honest in the whole. The Akwa Ibom people have integrity and even in those days, especially in the 60s, it was a well-known fact in our country. That was why Nigerians entrusted their homes and housekeeping to Akwa Ibom people in the past. But we have moved from housekeeping to nation-building and, therefore, this progressive gesture should attract more national awards at the national level in the future.We have brought back the age-old honesty, dedication to duty, the hard work. These are the qualities that our ancestors were associated with. That is what the national honour signifies and we are happy that our state had appropriate representation. Indeed, I am happy and I congratulate all the awardees.The Ibom Golf Course has won the Golf Resort of Distinction Award and has been rated as the best golf course in Africa and the only truly international golf course in West Africa by the Golfweek, the leading golf magazine in the world. What can you say about this award' I thank the Golfweek and the golf world for the recognition of Le-meridein Hotel and the Golf Resort as the best golf resort in Africa. There is no doubt that it is the best golf resort in Africa. We have indeed worked very hard to make it so.You can't put something on nothing and expect it to stand. It is in the character of our administration to set and maintain impressive standard in all our endeavours. We are not involved in half measures, we go the whole way to make it the best.It is one thing to initiate a project and yet another thing to sustain it. What we have done in the last four and a half years is that, yes, we inherited Le-meridien Golf Resort and the hotel from the last administration; we did not only finish the project, but we finished it in style.How were you able to sustain the quality of the golf resort, when the conventional thing is for government projects to suffer from neglect'We were able to partner with the world renowned International Management Group (IMG) to come and manage it and keep it at a sustainable level to meet international standard. It is because we have been able to maintain that international level that this award is coming today. If we had left it in a tardy fashion, the way we found it, if there was no re-grassing and no maintenance, we would neither have had this award nor would it have been adjudged the best golf course in Africa.So this award goes to the Akwa Ibom person who believes in cleanliness, the Akwa Ibom person who believes in hard work, dedication and diligence. It is an award for sustainability; it is an award for continuity, it is an award for completion of all ongoing projects that we met on ground.Therefore, my hope is that I won't leave many projects on ground when I am going, but whoever comes after me, even it it is just a small football field, I would advise that the individual should complete it like I did to projects I found on assumption to office.There is no doubt that continuity brings sustenability. And sustenability invariably brings progress and development. Once more, I appreciate the people of Akwa Ibom for setting this pace.
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