Umo Eno: Beyond the togas of Mr Compassion, humanitarian governor

It was America’s 36th president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, who said: “A compassionate government keeps faith with the trust of the people and cherishes the future of their children. Through compassion for the plight of one individual, government fulfills its purpose as the servant of all the people.”

In the last 11 months or thereabouts that Umo Bassey Eno, scion of a policeman, successful businessman, and Founder of the All Nations Christian Ministry, Eket, has been in the saddle as governor of Akwa Ibom State, he has manifested certain character traits that present him in a peculiar hue.

As he turns 60 today, April 24, 2024, a condensed appraisal of his strides thus far, and a look at what he may be remembered for, and the long road ahead would not be out of place.

First, there is a conscious attempt by him to constantly break protocols and do the unusual once he is overcome by melancholy. His near unorthodox ways constitute a logistical challenge to his minders, who are battling to come to terms with his modus operandi. But it appears that the governor has chosen his path already.

Avuncular and charismatic, Governor Eno, nicknamed The Golden Governor by his admirers has also appropriately tagged his time as the state’s helmsman as “The Golden Era.”

Thus far, his conduct, actions, and inaction have continued to show the soft side of a grassroots politician, and man in power, who is committed to uplifting 7.2 million Akwa Ibom people and setting them free from the jaws of needless poverty and backwardness.

But beyond introducing a refreshingly different perspective to governance with his soft-heartedness, his sensitive antennae appear to pick up touchy human interest situations promptly, a character trait that many political leaders lack. In activating his, he is well in the process carving for himself, a deserved silhouette of Mr. Compassion.

During Eno’s electioneering, he initiated the habit of stopping suddenly to interact with street traders, whom he once described as his “real friends” having practiced that trade as a youngster. Interestingly, this spontaneous exercise has somehow become a trademark of his 11-month-old government.

A short chronicle of these scenarios will do.

On Friday, June 16, 2023, Eno was en route to his Hilltop Mansion office (upon his arrival from Abuja) when he ordered his convoy to veer off track. He interacted briefly with traders in a rural fruit market in Ekpene Ukim, Uruan Local Council, bought a few items, and parted with enveloped cash gifts.

As Governor Eno made to leave, he sighted an ongoing funeral service where a 53-year-old Effiong Okon Ekpo, was being interred alongside his 43-year-old wife, Martha.

Pronto, he dashed in, shared in their grief, consoled the bereaved, gave out a condolence purse to the family’s representative, and headed off grief-stricken over a young couple’s untimely demise.

It was not long before roadside fruit traders in Itreto, Nsit Ubium Local Council, also had Eno grace their “business premises” with his presence. The “Barracks Boy” interacted with teens from his ‘primary constituency’ while inspecting facilities around the Government House. Both the Itreto fruit sellers and police children from Metro Road Police Barracks, in Uyo got their instant largesse from their governor.

The ARISE Compassionate Homes where 400 houses are to be built in 368 wards of the 31 local councils, and handed over to the extremely poor, especially widows and their children, is also an intentional step of reaching the vulnerable and the neediest in the state.

Two former National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, Miss Arit Anam, and Abigail Edith Frederick attracted “Mr. Compassion’s attention. While Miss Anam from Cross River State attracted a home for her parents for sparing no expense in training her while being quartered in a thatched house, the passage of 24-year-old Miss Frederick, a Nollywood makeup artist who lost her life in a boat mishap, in Delta State as he headed for a movie location, saw the governor offer automatic employment to the deceased sister and also directed the renovation of the family house.

A string of other such encounters between the governor and the have-nots, the sick, and the bereaved are well documented.
Without word-mincing, despite the vast human and natural endowments that the state is blessed with, its industrious, hardworking, vibrant, and predominantly young people have not had the best of life, nor do they have the basic things of life that they desire.

So, beyond Eno burnishing his humanitarian credentials through his passion for the job, compassion for the people, as well as and overwhelming desire to comfort the afflicted among them, there are weightier state matters that will make or mar the #Golden Era, as well as define Eno’s time at the Hilltop Mansion.

Therefore, while paying attention to the needs of the most vulnerable and neediest members of society, paying even greater attention to factors that would birth a new order, or at best facilitate sustainable development, prosperity is a sine qua non for a modern society.

Martha, Effiong’s wife, who died on January 8, 2023, after complaining of stomachache for a few days would not have died if the state had made basic healthcare for her type affordable. Her inconsolable husband would not have also dropped dead seven weeks after his wife’s passage, and their only child, Uduakobong, would not have become an orphan within eight weeks. Eno, therefore would do a lot of good if he fixes the challenged health sector, which in itself is gasping for oxygen.

After an aide of the governor appeared on an X space and listed the Primary Health Centre, Ikot Iko Ibesikpo, Ibesikpo Asutan Local Council as one of the 13 health facilities upgraded by the government, a netizen, Franklin Udeme, with the X handle, @frankamby visited the facility afterward to confirmed the veracity of the claim.

The viral 2:19 seconds video clip, which came out of that endeavour proved otherwise. Except for a few thoroughly worn-out odds and ends of a health center, that facility bore no resemblance to a health center at the time of his visit on April 9, 2024. The building was bereft of appurtenances of a medical outpost, while benches, broken chairs, and tables, shattered sanitary wares, doors, and windows completed the ugly scene.

At 60, Eno needs to take up with equal gusto and compassion, the business of public governance in one of Nigeria’s most endowed states.

He should be ready to impact countless Akwa Ibomites, well beyond the few cases of isolated acts of benevolence.

While highly placed politicians see servicing party structures as something akin to servicing the complex engines of their hybrid automobiles, it is overarchingly important for a government to prioritise uplifting the poor, before considering strengthening the strong, or else it loses legitimacy in the next round of elections.

Importantly, as a former street trader himself, Governor Eno must surely know the importance of structured government loans, stipends, and sundry monetary assistance to traders and small business owners. And with the powers possessed by the informal sector in economic regeneration. A multi-pronged approach must be adopted to unlock their potential, and engendering a business-friendly environment. Investing in infrastructure development is also ultra-important.

Akwa Ibom State is ranked third on the log of Nigeria’s richest states by Gross Domestic Product – ($19.25 billion). The state is tailing Rivers with $19.72 billion, and Lagos leads the pack with $101 billion. While presenting the 2024 budget to the House of Assembly, Eno listed widening “the industrial base of the state through rapid industrialisation and investment activities by providing an enabling environment for the private sector to thrive” as one of the goals of the budget.

Nice as this may sound to the ear, many pray and hope these among other innovative ideas don’t end up in the mortuary that political leaders bury brilliant ideas. Eno, a church founder is conversant with the uselessness of faith without work as enshrined in the Holy Bible.

With the epileptic nature of the public power supply, in the country, the dream of bolstering “rapid industrialisation and investment activities would remain a pipe dream if a fragile economic infrastructure like electricity is not fortified.

It is in this direction that the state must leverage the recently signed Electricity Act (Amendment) Bill, 2024, and take concrete steps to improve power generation and distribution using the 572MW gas-fired Ibom Power Plant.
As a long-standing entrepreneur, Eno, a former Commissioner for Lands and Water Resources knows the consequences of underestimating the transformative power of constant power supply.

A steady power supply not only boosts domestic production but also attracts Foreign Direct Investment.

The importance of a deep seaport in Akwa Ibom State that can effectively service container-bearing vessels that are southern Nigeria bound can only be imagined. This, therefore calls for concerted efforts on the part of the government to do all it takes to actualise the multi-billion naira Ibom Deep Seaport project, which has remained on the drawing board for too long.

Education, experts say is the bedrock of development. So, having in place, a robust, comprehensive, up-to-date, and fit-for-purpose education system is ultra-important. It is in this light that the N76 billion appropriated for the sector in the ongoing fiscal year is seen as inadequate, especially when states like Abia are way higher.

Knowledge impartation is a difficult and thankless assignment in our clime. It should not be. So, teachers must be venerated and duly rewarded for their labor of love under you, just as you should do everything humanly possible to end the era where Akwa Ibom children sit on bare floors in derelict classrooms to learn.

Efforts should also not be spared to remove the state from the League of States that their schools parade empty rooms as school libraries. Because many politicians are allergic to reading, they grossly underrate the power and importance of reading to scholarship. Getting schoolchildren to imbibe the culture of reading at an early age is simply a win-win situation for everyone and the society at large. Or are we also forgetting the fact that readers are leaders?

Ahead of being presented to the governor by the People Democratic Party (PDP) stakeholders, Eno’s predecessor had prophesied that he (Eno) would accomplish 200 times more than he (Emmanuel) did. The incumbent appropriately accepted the challenge when he said; “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.”

Happy birthday Governor Eno, and it is time for you to fulfill Udom Emmanuel’s prophesy 200 times and over, and make Akwa Ibom the model state that it should be in the Comity of States.
Sunday is a Lagos-based media executive. He can be reached via [email protected]