The Man – Senator Ita Enang, LL.D
He stands today, as the only Nigerian yet on record to have gone through all legislative cadre in all tiers of Government: From the cradle to the highest – Scribe of Students Parliament, Councilor in the Legislative Council at the Local Government level (Itu L.G.A. Akwa Ibom), Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly at the State level (Akwa Ibom State), House of Representatives at the Federal level contested and won 4 times consecutively but served 3 terms of 12 consecutive years from the 1999 – 2011. He was elected Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 2011- 2015.
At the University of Calabar, Senator Ita Solomon James Enang was politically active, and was elected as the Deputy Secretary of the Students’ Union Government, and concurrently, scribe of the Students Parliament.
He graduated in 1984, and proceeded to the Nigerian Law School immediately. He was called to Bar in 1985 and thereby enrolled as Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
He served the mandatory N.Y.S.C. at the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, Alausa, Ikeja after which he started his active litigation and Advocacy in the Law Firm of Sheriff Chambers from 1987 till 1988. In 1988, he started his own Law Firm; Messrs ITA ENANG ASSOCIATES (Ibom Chambers), upon the creation of Akwa Ibom State.
In 1987, Ita Enang contested and won election as a Councilor into the Legislative Council of Itu Local Government Area and served from 1988 – 1989. Upon dissolution, he returned to his Legal Practice and continued his human rights advocacy and political activism, resisting the military administrations at the time, which earned him several arrests, detentions and other forms of torture and deprivations.
In 1992, he was elected into the pioneer Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly to represent Ibiono Ibom State Constituency. He served until November 17, 1993. He served until the Gen. Abacha’s tsunami of November 17, 1993 truncated and swept off all democratic structures and commenced an almost endless transition to democracy.
Upon this military intervention, the lawyer went back to his Legal Practice.
Throughout his 16-year sojourn in the National Assembly, he chaired the Rules and Business Committee; another national record.
Senator Ita Enang is currently the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs after a successful tenure as presidential Liaison to the National Assembly – Senate and an index of the APC, Akwa-Ibom State.
He was the Director-General of APC Campaigns for the Presidential, Gubernatorial, National Assembly and State House of Assembly 2019 Elections.
He is a lawyer of good standing having been called to the Nigerian Bar in I985. He has managed all the crises in, between and concerning the Executive and the National Assembly and indeed other arms of Government.
Presently, Senator Ita Enang serves as Secretary of the Presidential Implementation Committee on Autonomy of the State Legislature and State Judiciary. He is the driving force behind the Presidential Committee having originated the Memo to Mr. President that gave birth to it. Therefore, to his eternal credit are the Executive Order 10 and the Memorandum of Action signed between representatives of Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSON), Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PSAN), the Governors’ Forum, Speakers Forum, effectively laying the framework for the implementation of Financial Autonomy for State Judiciary and Legislature.
And in 2015, Senator Ita Enang was conferred with Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree (LL.D.) by the University of Uyo in recognition of his strides in legislative practice through law making.
Senator Ita Enang is happily married to Dr. (Mrs.) Rosemary Ita Enang, a directing staff in the Federal Public Service and are blessed with 4 Children, namely; (Mrs.) Imaobong Udom, Nee Barr. Imaobong Ita Enang, Charles Ita Enang, Engr. (Miss) Roses Ita Enang and Barr. Solomon Ita Enang.
He is an Alumni of the University of Calabar-1984, Member, Nigeria Institute of Management, Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary Club International, Fellow, Institute of Chattered Conciliators and Mediators, an Alumni of the Public Law Centre of the Tulane Law School, Louisiana, USA-2006, Alumni of the School of Management, London, Alumni of the International Law Institute, Washington DC-2010, Alumni of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA, among others.
