By Yusuf Mohammed
It isn’t often that the body of Christ produces men who would be at the helm of affairs in Nigeria. Over the years, men of God have stayed aloof as far as running for political office is concerned. But not His Excellency, Pastor Umo Bassey Eno, who knows that good people need to be in the system to make the changes they desire.
‘Good’ is not the adjective that readily comes to mind when we think about politicians in Nigeria. Self-serving and incompetent are words best ascribed to the average politician here — but good? Not so much.
The conventional wisdom dictates that as far as elected officials are concerned, a good man is hard to find. As humorist Kin Hubbard once said, “We’d all love to vote for the best man, but he’s never a candidate.”
Speaking of ‘good,’ unlike his counterparts in other states who are starting from what is almost akin to ground zero, based on the shoddy governance by their predecessors, Eno has a solid foundation to build on. Those before him, from Godswill Akpabio to Udom Emmanuel, have left indelible marks on Akwa Ibom State.
And Umo Eno in his first 100 days in office has shown that he is also burning with the zeal to leave his own unprecedented marks on the state.
Below are some of his achievements gathered from reliable sources by The Columnist NG:
1. Established an agency with the sole responsibility to drive rural development, improve the quality of life of rural dwellers, stimulate economic activities and stem rural-to urban migration, the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP).
2. Flagged-off critical roads in all the three senatorial districts. The first to be flagged off, a little over two months ago, the internal roads in Urua Akpan Andem, has been commissioned and delivered on schedule, by HENSEK Integrated Services.
3. Acquired over 50 thousand hectares of land in all the 31 local government areas, to ensure food security and to get the people involved in agro-allied enterprises.
4. Recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the world renowned Songhai Farms to start a model farm in the State, Hundreds of people have already been sent for training so they could form the nucleus of the skilled workers to drive this exercise.
5. Steadily paid gratuities to local government, primary school teachers and state workers. Three billion Naira has so far been released for this exercise.
6. Commenced an initial five-month payment of Leave Grants in the Main Service. This exercise started last month, and the first phase will end in December.
7. Constructing model primary schools and primary healthcare facilities across the three senatorial districts and work is ongoing at a fast pace at the location of the first of these model primary schools, the Christ the King School, (CKS) on Wellington Bassey Way, Uyo.
8. Education remains free and compulsory at primary and secondary school levels. And as part of the palliatives, the state government is rolling out, based on the initial 2 billion Naira received from the Federal Government, in form of loan and rice, the state government intends to support parents with school uniforms, shoes and the payment of bursary to students in tertiary instructions after proper verifications. His commitment to the payment of WAEC fees, is irrevocable and he has already done so, since he assumed office.
9. Distribution of additional bags of rice to each of the 2,272 gazetted villages; cash transfers to 53,000 workers in the State for three months, levy-free Fridays for transporters and traders for three months
10. Created a full-fledged new ministry – the Ministry of Internal security, headed by a retired general of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Koko Essien.
Having hit the ground running as he promised, let’s delve into a brief look at who Umo Eno was before he became the ‘’numero uno’’ of Akwa Ibom State in order for readers to get a clear picture of the springboard behind his current trajectory.
Pastor Eno, the founder of All Nations Christian Ministry International, was born on 24 April 1964, in his hometown, Ikot Ekpene Udo in Nsit-Ubium Local Government Area of the state.
A few years later, he departed for Lagos where he attended Local Authority primary school and got his first school leaving certificate. He returned to Akwa Ibom to attend St. Francis secondary school in Eket, and subsequently got back to Lagos to complete his secondary education at Victory High School in Ikeja
He later obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Uyo and then a Master’s degree in the same field.
After his education, he was employed to work in Union bank for some years before moving to Bertola Machine Tools Nigeria Limited and then to Norman Holdings Limited, where he became the general manager. Later, he set up Royalty groups, which belongs to him.
In 2021, under the then governor, Udom Emmanuel, Eno was appointed Commissioner for Lands and Water Resources in the state. He resigned from this position to run for the governorship race in 2023. The rest is history.
Yusuf Mohammed is the editor of The Columnist NG
Email: yusufcolumnist@gmail.com
