All was set that afternoon for the swearing-in of his newly appointed Secretary to the State Government, Enobong Uwah, ‘the champion of Uyo politics and scion of the famous Uwah dynasty, which Governor Eno, a pastor and entrepreneur had chosen as the engine room of his nascent administration. Straight from the security entrance, where he gained access to the Banquet Hall, the governor nicknamed as the Golden Governor, walked quickly across the front row of the hall, pumping hands, hugging friends and waving endlessly with a permanent smile playing on his lips; just as he was accustomed to, during his long tortuous campaign stump across the 31 LGAs of the oil-rich state. He was the cynosure of all eyes, exuding confidence and feeling at home before a crowd that idolised him and had stood by him against all odds for 14 months of political consultations and rigorous campaigns.
Preliminaries are done with. The new SSG is sworn in. Next, the governor read his prepared speech, extolling the virtues and track record of the SSG. “You are coming into office at the time our state is on the cusp of greatness, and as the engine room of government, you are expected to deploy your organisational and people’s skills in managing our vast bureaucracy, which thankfully, is undergoing e-governance processes…This is the golden era of our state, and we have zero-tolerance for weak links in our engine of operations. I am confident of the choice we have made in you. Go there, get the job done, for our state and for our people and afterwards, come the Happy Hours…,” the hall erupted again with another thunderous ovation.
But perhaps the best line of the governor’s speech was not in the written address. It was extempore and off-the-cuff. “I intend to run this business of government with a private sector mindset…and usher Akwa Ibom fully into a golden era” And many believe the Golden Governor has what it takes to accomplish the task, goals, and mission he has set for himself. One strong believer in him is his accomplished predecessor, former Governor Udom Emmanuel, who with Obong Attah, another former governor and modern father of Akwa Ibom State, headhunted Eno for the office and role he is occupying today. Said Emmanuel publicly on the day he inaugurated the PDP Governorship Campaign Council in Uyo: “The man that is coming after me (Umo Eno) is a 100 times better than me.” For an accomplished governor like Emmanuel, who has broken records of good governance in recent time, to say that about Eno means the state is truly poised for a golden era.
Evidentially, Akwa Ibom has since the end of military rule in 1999, produced the best possible crop of leaders in Nigeria, from Obong Attah till now. Many, very often agree that Governor Emmanuel has surpassed them all. It would appear the full story of Governor Emmanuel has not yet been fully told. One thing that is certain and settled in the minds of Akwa Ibom people is that one of the greatest achievements of former Governor Godswill Akpabio was headhunting Emmanuel to raise the bar of good governance and make Akwa Ibom a model state in Nigeria. By the time Emmanuel concluded his eight years in office last week, the poser on many lips was not what did Emmanuel do with our money but where did he get the money in these hard times to accomplish so much! This is the same shoe that Governor Eno has stepped into. He is literally speaking in the shoes of a giant, as his predecessor had diligently and quietly brought Akwa Ibom State to the “cusp of greatness” to quote Eno himself in his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023.
The good news is that in his first week in office, Governor Eno has shone and shown signs of greatness. The child of a lion, as an Akwa Ibom adage says, dare not resemble a goat. Not surprising, Governor Eno swung into action immediately after his oath of office. First, he saw off his predecessor to his country home in Awa Iman, Onna LGA, before he made brief stops to thank his community people of Ikot Ekpene Udo, and pay homages to the No.1 traditional ruler of Akwa Ibom State, Nteyin Solomon Etuk, who is also the paramount ruler of Nsit Ubium, the Oku Ibom Ibibio and the President General of the Akwa Ibom Traditional Rulers Council. That same night, on his first day in office, he wound up in the company of his wife, Patience, and the deputy governor, Senator Akon Eyakenyi, at the inaugural State Banquet which lasted till the early hours of May 30, 2023.
Later that same day, May 30, 2023, Governor Eno announced his first five appointments in a statement by Dr. Nathaniel Akpadiaha, the Permanent Secretary in Government House. They included Prince Enobong Uwah, as SSG, Ekerete Udo, Chief Press Secretary, Anietie Usen, Senior Special Assistant, Otobong Edem Idiong, Chief of Protocol and Dr. (Mrs) Uduakobong Inam, Economic Adviser.
The next day, May 31, 2023, was hectic for the new governor as top government officials, old and new, took turns to meet and brief him, inside his expansive and stately new office, considered as one of the most beautiful governor’s offices in Nigeria. The new governor is a workaholic. The earliest he leaves the office is 10pm. Even at 10pm, May 31, he left the office with some of his aides to visit Obong Ekpo, the former Peoples Democratic Party state chairman, current national ex-officio, member of the party and member-elect of the House of Representatives, who lost his wife, after a protracted illness. He spent nearly an hour with the bereaved family and as a pastor, knew the exact words of comfort and consolation for Obong Ekpo, who was one of the pillars of his electoral victory. “In everything God wants us to thank Him and everything means everything…”
Perhaps, one of the best of Governor Eno’s first seven days was June 1, 2023. It was just his fourth day as governor and he was learning fast and gaining a firmer grip of the ship of state. First, he did what no other governor has done in the state. He drove a short distance from his office in the company with Senator Eyaknyi, his deputy, to visit the Press Centre, where the CPS and SSA, M&P hold sway. It was his way of demonstrating the respect and importance he attaches to the media. Next was his most important assignment for the day.
For the eight years of his predecessor, Udom Emmanuel, the first day of every month was the Government House Covenant Service. It is one of the days government officials as well as senior political stakeholders gather in the Government House Chapel by 6pm to praise God, pray, listen to sermons by guest preachers and worship God. Under Governor Emmanuel, this prayer programme was also followed by another prayer programme, known as Government House Prayer Service, held every third Saturday of the month at 8am. So, June 1, 2023 was the first Government House Covenant Service that would be presided over by the newly elected governor who is also a pastor and church founder. It was reckoned that the usual venue in the Government House Chapel would be too small for the expected crowd. The governor directed that the venue be shifted to the sprawling Banquet Hall next door. Even then hundreds could only find a standing position as the Banquet Hall was filled beyond capacity.
Taking over the microphone soon after the praise, worship, sermon and prayers, Governor Eno was at his best, both as a pastor and a politician. He began with the song MADE A WAY by Travis Green. It is a chart buster in Christendom worldwide and the congregation erupted in joy and took over the song from his mouth: “You made a way/Don’t know how, but You did it/When it looks as if we can’t win/You wrap us in Your arm and step in/ You made a way/And we’re standing here/ Only because You made a way.’’
By the time the song ended, the governor was moved enough to jokingly remind the jam-packed hall that Akwa Ibom State has got both a governor and a pastor in one person. “Now you know that God has given you two for the price of one”, he said. The crowd bursted into laughter. But that was not the highlight of the Covenant Service. The highlight was the testimony the governor shared on how God raised him from nowhere and helped him through the fiery furnace of political fire to become the governor.
“I have to thank you, thank God who has made it possible for us to be here. It looks like a dream for me…But again, that song ministered to me several times when it was as if I was breaking down…I remember one day I got so boxed up and my last daughter, Ebenezer, came to me and said ‘Daddy do you really need all of this? What are you looking for? You don’t need this. You have trained us, we don’t lack anything, we’re okay. Please, this attack is getting too much’
“So one day, I walked up to the governor and said, ‘Your Excellency, I think I want to quit, not because whatever they are saying is true but I think my family is really not ready for these insults. And the governor looked at me and said, ‘Pastor, did you take breakfast today? Let’s go and have breakfast’ And then we went on to attend a meeting and he said: ‘my option A is Umo Eno, my option B is Umo Eno, my option C and D is Umo Eno…’ That gave me some strength to continue…I know clearly that the shoe I’m stepping into is big. Don’t mind him (former Governor Udom Emmanuel) when he says I’ll accomplish 200 times more than him. It’s a prophecy and I claim it because he is Elijah and I am Elisha. But you know, the God of this new beginning will go with us. And it’s only if he goes with us, that we’ll accomplish that which God has sent us to do”, Governor Eno said.
It was at that same gathering that the governor gave Akwa Ibom people a glimpse of his soon coming appointments. He had never hidden his desire to preside over an inclusive government. But today, he granted many a deeper insight into the composition of his government. “We will work with you and with everyone else to set a new agenda for Akwa Ibom. That’s who we are. There’s really no time to say that this government has ended and this one has started. Like I keep saying to people, please don’t expect that kind of miracle that you don’t want to see the old faces again and there should be only new faces. It can’t work like that. We need the wisdom of the old to be able to navigate the new. And so you’ll see a mixed grill of the new and the old. There’s no way you can put away the old. After Solomon departed, the sons of Solomon did it, and the kingdom split. You need to put both together. You need the ideas of the old”
To call a spade a spade, he went into specifics. “I won’t leave people that were with me in the trenches; people that went to 31 LGAs with me and suffered all the hard times with me for people who have long CVs. I am saying this because I’m receiving more CVs now than the people that were with me during the campaigns. That is not to say that you’ll not see the new. But more importantly, you’ll see those that were with us in the trenches”
The next morning saw him in the home of his political grandfather, Attah, where he went to thank the respected elder statesman, for standing firmly with him, when Governor Emmanuel endorsed him as his successor on January 30, 2022. Later that evening and for the first time since he became governor, he stepped into the state-owned Executive Gulf Stream jet and flew out of the State; first to the monthly Holy Ghost Service in Redemption Camp, near Lagos, before he jetted out to Bauchi to attend the PDP Retreat for newly elected governors and national lawmakers. With the help of the State Executive jet, he was back to Uyo that same evening to the warm welcome of government officials led by Senator Eyakenyi, the deputy governor. Straight from the airport, he drove to the traditional marriage of the daughter of late Oron political stalwart, Pastor Onyong Asuquo.
On Sunday, the seventh day of his tenure, he attended his first Sunday service as governor, at the All Nation Christian Ministry International, Eket, the Church he founded 20 years ago, where he also indicated and justified his intention to look inwards for the coming Akwa Christmas Carol Festival. “This year’s Christmas Carol Festival will have a little twig. I would like us to localise our Christmas carol this year and I will tell how we are going to do it. This is because we will use that platform to promote and raise our local talents. It’s a big platform that people all over the world will come or tune in to it. We will look at churches. I want them to get ready, the big and small churches, we will invite them, let all of us come out. I would like to see creativity that is beyond hymns”, he said.
Whether in his appointments, visits or statements, the first one week of Governor Umo Eno is a pointer to a deft political move by a shrewd political actor, to quickly strengthen and consolidate his political base and assure same, as the Bible says that “the hardworking farmers should be the first to enjoy the fruit of their labour.”
Usen, a journalist, writes from Akwa Ibom State
