By Chief (Mrs) Janet Amba
With profound respect to our revered Traditional Rulers, religious and political leaders, my dear women and vibrant youths as well as my esteemed leaders of thoughts.
I wish to express my deepest gratitude to God almighty who has imbued in every man and woman, particularly those from Oro great passion and drive to serve humanity at various levels, most especially oro nation at this point in the annal of our history as a vibrant ethnic nationality blessed with human and natural resources to the glory of our God.
It is indeed a great privilege and honour to be entrusted with the leadership of Oron Union, the oldest sociocultural organization in akwa ibom State as the first female President General.
I must admit with all sense of responsibility that enormous tasks are ahead in this historic era for me and members of my team who worked relentlessly to step in at this point in time with a view to providing the much needed transformational leadership and give a near perfect cultural, social and moral compass to Oro for other sister organizations to emulate.
I would like to profoundly appreciate my fellow brothers and sister who equally made themselves available to the services of Oro nation in the just concluded election.
It could be recalled that during the course of our campaigns, I did not quite agree with many of the things they may have done or said, I profoundly believe they showed absolute resilience, tenacity and extraordinary commitment towards the repositioning, reconstruction and rebuilding of Oro enyin.
And it will make a very huge impact if we can all work together to save Oro from all forms of marginalization and revive our spirit of Afang ki.
As the first female President General of Oron Union since its formation in 1925, I am not in doubt that the expectations of my people are enormous.
My emergence as your President General is a victory that will ultimately usher in structural reforms, reconciliation, neutrality from partisan politics and a very clear mandate to work tirelessly for Oro people.
Since my active involvement in Oron Union's activities well over a decade ago, I have come very close to the dark realities of life like hunger, starvation, unemployment, near political and infrastructural exclusion my people are confronted with daily. Your yearnings and aspirations over the years have deeply touched me as a caring wife and mother.
I have also carried out a very comprehensive study of our people's needs, wants and desires during the course of my campaign.
I have learnt from mistakes of those who have occupied this position before me as well as their remarkable achievements and footprints.
And i want to assure you, my people that I and members of my team shall relentlessly focus on issues that will bring unity, peace, growth and rapid development to our land.
Under my leadership, we shall set mechinary in motion to reconcile all the different units and factions that exist in our esteemed institutions; top among them being the highly revered Ahta Oro stool, the Council of Traditional Rulers, Essu Nlap Oro, Nlap Isong Akpakib Oro, etc.
We shall equally restructure ORO THINK TANK to enable it fulfill the purposes it was established.
I wish to remind my people that Oro Ukpabang is bigger than any single individual and there is no need for it to be fragmented due to selfish desires of few individuals or any form of politics.
Oron Union shall constructively engage all the five Local Government Areas in oro nation Government of Akwa Ibom State,Federal Government, the multi National Oil Corporations operating in oro, NDDC as well as prominent sons and daughters from our stock both at home and in the diaspora on the need to arrest youth unemployment,under employment and restiveness in our land.
Under my leadership, oro voice will be heard loudly in the event that oro is further exposed to uneven allocation of our common wealth, inequity in political appointments, Civil and public service employment, admissions into tertiary institutions for qualified candidates of oro extraction, scholarship schemes, recruitments into various military and paramilitary organizations, infrastructure and other life- touching projects.
We are conscious of the fact that Oro's quest for a more political inclusion in our State as the third largest ethnic group can not be overemphasised or ignored. In this regard we shall consult very widely and work in synergy with other ethnic nationalities such as Ibibio, Annang , and others in order to entrench all- inclusive, more robust vibrant, united, prosperous and peaceful State in line with the ideals of our founding fathers.
Akwa Ibom State where equity, justice, fairness and equality of all ethnic groups are upheld as its Article of faith is possible through mutual respect and the need to give every ethnic group a sense of belonging. Therefore, we shall vigorously pursue those essential ingredients that will make us to actualize our desired goals.
We shall draw attention of various levels of government to numerous abandoned projects across Oro nation; prominent among which are: Oron Museum, Ibaka Deep Seaport, passage of University of Maritime Studies oron Bill, numerous roads, dilapidated public buildings, etc.
And we shall request for more economically viable projects as the demands increase.
My revered Royal fathers, political stalwarts, captains of industries, brothers and sister join me so as to give oro a fresh in every area we can possibly think of.
Let us forget about the past misgivings about the leadership of oron union and forge a new frontier for the growth and develop oro the best way unimaginable.
Let this epoch be for unity and new chapter for our people.
Oro enyin, join hands with me for the good of our present and generations yet unborn.
Happy New Year to you all, my people.
Yak abazi odiong ovid Oro!
Chief (Mrs) Janet Amba
President General
oron Union
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