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Rev’d Etim Cletus
What does Akwa Ibom State want: worship or warship disinformation and propaganda against the altar of God? So many arguments have continued to trail the International Christian Worship Centre in Akwa Ibom State. The issue has produced renowned writers from within and outside the State. Anyone who wants to be hailed has to nail the project. Thus, caution has been thrown into the wind, and logic is now standing on its head.
The International Christian Worship Centre has truly exposed the poor in Akwa Ibom State. The Akwa Ibom State Government must be held responsible for this.
Yes, there might not have been anything wrong in conceiving the project. The government committed no crime by starting the project. Where the government got it wrong and earned the punches of the people is the sacrilege of completing the project, and in such a comparatively short time. How can such a gigantic project be ready in the scheduled time frame!
Most likely, those attacking the international worship centre are only aggrieved by the level of accountability and transparency associated with the project that would have had a million and one excuses to be coronated as an abandoned project. What explanation will the handlers of the project give that such an edifice was ready within record time? That is where part of the poverty comes in; poverty of integrity.
Worship Centres are built everywhere in the world across religious faiths. Part of the glory of grandeur of Dubai in United Arab Emirates is the presence of an imposing worship centre. Africans love it, Nigerians celebrate it and Akwa Ibom people love to see it. And there is no evidence that that one has caused poverty.
International Christian Worship Centre was not the first project embarked upon by the Udom Emmanuel administration. In fact it was even the last, which made it not completely ready before the end of that administration.
Before the Christian Worship Centre, industries sprung up across the State. A functional airline, Ibom Air took off into the sky. The world was bewildered that a subnational like Akwa Ibom could succeed in operating an airline when the federal government was consistent in failure in that direction. It was the talk of the town. Poverty took took to its toes. Immediately a worship was built, Akwa Ibom became immersed in poverty.
One might be tempted to conclude that before the building of the worship centre everyone in Akwa Ibom State was a millionaire but the worship centre came to impoverish them. Indeed, the centre has exposed our own kind of poverty.
That is not the kind of poverty in other climes. There is no way the 37.9 million people living in poverty in the United States of America will attribute their poverty to a worship centre.
In the United Kingdom, the 12million million people living in poverty will be increased by 300,000 in 2024 while 7.4% people in the densely populated Canada live in poverty. All of these have been forgiven, forgotten and consumed by the Akwa Ibom kind of poverty, said to have been caused by the Christian Worship Centre in Uyo.
Even when there has not been any official financial statement confirming the cost of the project, speculators have already assigned 32Billion Naira to the project; our own kind of poverty!
Is the problem with the idea of the project or its cost?
Finding of the project was diversified. Individuals, corporate bodies and government supported the project financially. The government made donations for the project like it donated to other ventures that needed the attention and intervention by the State Government.
Or could it have been that since 99.9 per cent of Akwa Ibom people are Christians, there do not deserve an altar of worship for the God who has been there for them in ages past, and who is their hope in years to come? There is certainly poverty somewhere around this.
The present administration of Governor Umo Eno has initiated several projects and programmes to tackle real poverty but attention seems to be given to imaginary and simulated poverty because there are those who want to shore up political capital with it.
The Ibom Model Farms, a proposed replica of the Songhai Farms in Port Novo, Benin Republic has begun. It is an anti-poverty project. There is the Ibom Leadership and Entrepreneurship Development, LED programme and several other initiatives for sustainable empowerment of the people through wealth creation but that seem not to catch the attention and interest of those masking erroneous poverty in Akwa Ibom State.
Governor Umo Eno is passionate about youth development and empowerment. That has necessitated his sponsorship of different batches of youths for training in various skill areas in order to function in an emerging skill driven society.
The recently launched Ibom Neighbourhood Security Watch has already taken five thousand youths of Akwa Ibom State off poverty lane.
There are ongoing investments in the aviation sector, from the International Airport Terminal Building to the Maintenance, Repairs and Overhaul, MRO services, which, when completed will create wealth for the people.
Education, the bedrock of the future is given priority attention. There is an education trust fund for students with disabilities who are studying in higher institutions. Other Akwa Ibom students have received bursary to augment their expenses in school. There is an unprecedented repositioning of primary education through building of model schools across the State. All of this are antidotes to real poverty.
Therefore, when left-winged mercenary opinion writers link the international Christian Worship Centre in Akwa Ibom State to poverty, they are taciturn with the truth.
The truth is that for being against the altar of God, they are the most hit by the web of the poverty they have painted. They are poor, they are poor in spirit and in truth.
They know the truth but they are economical with it. The truth is that the International Christian Worship Centre is for the good of Akwa Ibom State, even if it caused Akwa Ibom State a fortune to get it done, it is worth it because God has been faithful to Akwa Ibom State from one administration to the other, and that same God is standing by the present governor of the State, Pastor Umo Eno.
Which one will people prefer – an altar for the Lord or a shrine for small gods? Or will the shine create wealth and banish poverty? Certainly not in Akwa Ibom State. What God’s altar cannot achieve for Akwa Ibom State, the devil’s shrine will never do it. Akwa Ibom is in God’s hand.
The much talked about poverty from International Christian Worship Centre is merely poverty of conscience, integrity, faith and truth. Poverty is a global issue, and Akwa Ibom State Government is showing encouraging commitment to reducing and eventually eradicating poverty from the land.
A major step to achieving this is working closely with God, just like prayers will be offered all day round at the worship centre. That is the irony of the erroneous gospel of poverty sermonized by the agents of falsehood and disinformation.
Akwa Ibom State rejects their warship. Akwa Ibom State stands for worship, as epitomized by the International Worship Centre.