Umo Eno: From relegation to a potential champion
About a year ago, if the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Lands and Water Resources, Pastor Umo Eno was to be likened to a football team in the English Premier League, one would have rightly assumed him to an unknown team struggling at the bottom of the table, battling relegation without the resources to sign on top players during the transfer window or to engage the services of a renowned coach only to emerge from no where to qualify for the finals and eventually lifting the trophy to become the Champion.
Every political drama must have a climax and the suspense over who will be unveiled as Governor Udom Emmanuel’s preferred successor came to an end on Sunday, January 30, 2022. From the onset, no one could tell which direction the pendulum would swing to with the array of eminently qualified aspirants that threw their heart into the ring.
There was Rt Hon Onofiok Luke, smart, intelligent, youthful, and articulate. There was Senator Bassey Albert, OBA, handsome, experienced, politically savvy. There was Mr Akan Okon, cool, meticulous and a team player. There was Mr Akan Udofia, visionary, enterprising, exposed and entrepreneural. There was Senator Effiong Bob, educated, experienced and exposed. There was Dr Iniobong Essien, easy going and intelligent. And there was Udom Inoyo. The czar of the oil and gas industry with vast wealth of experience and contact, among others.
But in the end, Pastor Umo Eno, a man whose ambition was previously dismissed with biting but engaging sarcasm, became the favourite, and ever since then, he has become an object of curiosity, and, indeed controversy to both his friends and critics. The choice of Umo Eno may not have been an easy one for Governor Udom Emmanuel. But it was a political master stroke on his part, combining sound judgement with political dexterity and calculated to reap maximum political dividends without ruffling or upsetting the apple cart.
Those who underrated Umo Eno misread the cultural anthropology and elementary political history of Akwa Ibom. That the Governor made Umo Eno his pick surprised many because of a truth, no one gave Umo Eno a chance. But he it was among the sons of Jesse, maybe because of his spartan discipline, moral inspiration in line with the Dakadda philosophy and ideological fidelity to the Completion Agenda that stood him out. An underrated Umo Eno has thus emerged.
The decision of the Governor and of the stakeholders to settle for Umo Eno, unsurprisingly, has not sat well with many. This is to be expected. To some it was a dream come true. Yet to some, it was a bad dream they are still battling to wake up from. As expected, some were happy, some were sad, some furious, while some developed an attitude of righteous resignation, the sort in which you mix rage with acceptance. And yet, to some, it was a moment hope collided with hatred. Why him? Why not me? They asked.
While beauty may lodge in the eye of the beholder, truth does not necessarily reside in popularly-held opinion. Shadow and substance are not the same thing and the Governor perhaps knew best why he settled for a man who was written off by many. In settling for Umo Eno, the Governor perhaps, who knew that Akwa Ibom cannot afford a successor who will handle the demands of the office with “dangerous unpredictability’, had to choose between irreversible progress and utter ruination of the state because of a truth, in uncertain times, we cannot afford uncertain leadership.
Emotions aside, we must start to face the conditions and problems on the ground in Akwa Ibom State as they are, not as we hope or wish them to be. More than ever Akwa Ibom is at a delicate crossroads and any miscalculation or error on the succession agenda can make or mar the state, as well as consolidate or undermine her future.
Love him or hate him, Governor Udom Emmanuel displayed a mixture of courage, judgement and intellect in the choice of Umo Eno and as many of his vision and policies that are always greeted with criticism at inception, the glory of his vision is always appreciated when its manifestation becomes visible.
No leader can come to that same kind of conclusion Udom reached with the attendant risk, if he does not have the depth of education necessary to acquire a robust intellect. And without a robust intellect, which of course is much more than just acquiring degrees, he cannot have the judgement necessary to make the right call. And without judgement, it is impossible to have the right kind of courage to stake one’s reputation and succession plan on one throw of the dice.
We must understand the Governor’s possible anxiety against handing over to someone who cannot grasp with the intricacies of modern governance, continuity and futuristic vision which will be synonymous to the aeronautical equivalent of flying blind.
Umo Eno on his part is coming into governance having had the opportunity to define politics in terms of the values that shaped his life and upbringing. And from the time he became Commissioner for Lands and Water Resources, up to when he mounted the podium as the preferred successor, he has had the advantage to have paused to define his politics, what he intends to do with the power he seeks, and what sort of Akwa Ibom he hopes to mould out of the present mix.
Umo Eno no doubt has the advantage to scientifically and methodically confront the many economic challenges we face especially on job creation and will appreciate better Governor Emmanuel’s economic template which entails the consciousness that security is not attained by force of arms but by the calmative influence of industrial revolution and economic prosperity which he must take it up from there and expand the horizon, because in the final analysis, our development as a state rest with us.
Come 2023, Akwa Ibom needs a Governor who will base his approach to governance and development on empirical facts and not on subjective theory. Here is where Umo Eno towers above his co-contestants in view of his background as an employer of labour.
He will give the state’s productive sector drive, purpose and vitality with his vast private sector experience, that way, we will put the vast army of idle people and material assets to work. This will in turn safeguard our internal security because a prosperous people is no longer a danger into itself. That way, we safeguard both our democracy and investments in the state as a productive workforce and a strong middle-class are the best guarantors of democracy than any military can ever be.
Umo Eno is coming from a background that understands that wealth is not for consumption alone but to empower the society for more wealth. If he did it with Royalty, then he can deploy such expertise to our tourism sector to compete with oil and gas as major income generating revenue and other sectors of our economy.
Going forward, there is need for reconcilation, consensus building, some sort of give and take (call it power sharing arrangement and you won’t be totally wrong) as other aspirants must see themselves accommodated in the Akwa Ibom of the Umo Eno era. In all, with Umo Eno, something good and something new is about to happen in Akwa Ibom. Let’s embrace this good tidings with joy, hope and faith of a better Akwa Ibom.
Peace to our Fatherland!
