"CURSED STADIUM": PROPAGANDA AGAINST UDOM TAKEN TOO FAR

By Don Archibong

Recently, the media Space has been saturated with unintelligible, unimaginable and condemnable insinuations, shamelessly championed by the opposition in Akwa Ibom State, that the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, christened the Nest of Champions, is under a curse.

These pathetic losers have added another laughable item in their litany of cheap propaganda, after the unfortunate Nations Cup Qualifier, in which the Super Eagles of  Nigeria lost 0-2, to the Bafana Bafana of South Africa, at the Stadium.


For the records, it is important to note that winning a football match is propelled by many factors, chief among them, the preparedness of the team. From a careful analysis, it is glaring that the visiting South African Team were more organised, daring and determined to win, in contrast to the Super Eagles who in their abysmal performance were outplayed, sluggish, and outclassed, a precise explanation that the better team (South Africa) won the match.

To further prove that the painful loss to the South African Team had no connection with the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Akwa United has, few weeks after the encounter, recorded two successive resounding victories for the home side, dumping the, 'cursed stadium' insinuation in the trash can. Or was the "curse" only for Nigeria's Super Eagle's? Has the Super Eagles never won at the said stadium? And who "cursed" the Stadium? This are queries that the purveyors of discord and falsehood must answer.

That said. It is however sad and worrisome seeing persons from within, engage in what could be rightly described as "pull me down syndrome". One cannot but wonder what the unpatriotic, lie spinning elements stand to gain, propagating hideous claims about the Stadium, even with the knowledge that it portends negative tendencies of fuelling the relocation of subsequent international matches away from Uyo.

The matches brought to Uyo should ordinarily offer an amazing window of opportunity to showcase the rich tourism credentials that can undeniably enhance the diversification of the State's economy from an oil dependent one into other lucrative sectors like tourism, but the opposition would rather play politics with such a strategic deal by using it to intensify their antics at the expense of Akwa Ibom people.

The Super Eagles matches played in Uyo have the capacity of boosting the economic activities in the State and providing many direct and indirect jobs for our people.

While some people are directly engaged in the prearrangement for the arrival of the teams and other activities involving the matches,  others have ventured into other services like sales of tickets, branded Jerseys, national hand flags and mufflers.

Those in the transportation sector, including Tricycle operatorsequally make more money, as more passengers throng into the State. Same goes for the food vendors, bars, hoteliers, hawkers, supermarkets, petrol stations and many other countless indirect beneficiaries.

It is obvious that the people peddling this falsehood are enemies of the State who , in their bid to cover up their lies they have ruthlessly dished out to people outside the State, would stop at nothing to rubbish the landmark projects of the PDP led government that has earned Akwa Ibom a pride of place in the committee of States in Nigeria.

But unfortunately for them, it has been established that Godswill Akpabio Stadium is the best Stadium in Nigeria today.

What Akwa Ibomites and indeed, Nigerians should know is that the opposition in the State is afraid that matches played in Uyo will constantly project the amazing scenery and investment potentials of the State, while beaming searchlights to uncover their deceits.

With the matches still played in Uyo, tourists would have confirmed, first hand, that the free and compulsory education they claimed is extinct is ongoing. How else will they continue to hold unsuspecting people to ransom, with their sordid claims  that the AKEES Toothpick and Pencil Factory is nonexistent? How would they lie to the world that Tomatoe Revolution and Akwa Prime Hatchery are only projects on paper?

How else will they now sustain their vicious cycle of deceits that the Ibom Specialist Hospital, with the best medical facilities in Nigeria and fully operational had long been shut down or hide the massive work on the second runway in Ibom Airport?

Fortunately, the cheap, ragtag lies severally replicated in their vicious tales to blackmail the purposeful leadership of Gov. Udom Emmanuel in the State have come to nought. The lofty policies and cynosure of projects have spoken glowingly about his achievements so far.

The strategic transformational touch on medical facilities; infrastructural intervention in Cornelia Corneli College (CCC) and over 300 hundred schools in the State; the over 700km massive road projects either completed or ongoing; the free medical services for children ages 0 - 5 years, pregnant women and the aged; the free and compulsory education to Secondary School level and payment of WAEC fees for final Secondary School Students and many other project are there for all to see.

Also, there is the significant push in the industrialisation drive that has earned Akwa Ibom the best and every investors destination of choice in Nigeria only second to Lagos.

These and many more laudable projects their antics and deceits cannot dislodge are the reasons Akwa Ibom people are proud to identify with the promise keeping Gov. Udom Emmanuel and the PDP.

These hate mongers, liars, cynicists, sceptics,  propagandists, Mudslingers and blackmailers in the guise of opposition should bury their heads in shame