Come Wednesday, April 24, 2024, Pastor Umo Bassey Eno, the Governor and the leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Akwa Ibom State, shall turn 60 Years of age. 60 years on earth is worth celebrating with the rolling out of sticks and drums, the setting up of parties, the deployment of advertised goodwill messages in newspapers, the cutting of cakes and all-night grooves. But will Pastor Eno have any of these? No, he says!
Pst. Umo Eno is a man blessed by God, with the capacity to single-handedly make his 60th birthday as loud as possible if he so wishes, by sending men of the Fourth Estate of the Realm to amplify it across the leaps and bounds of the country. Again, this is not the way he wants his big day celebrated. Governor Umo Eno does not see the sense in spending millions of Naira to book the pages of newspapers in outright celebration of his nativity.
Consequently, he has directed everyone, through a special press release by his Chief Press Secretary on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, to celebrate his birthday with orphans and the vulnerable as that would, in turn, become his best birthday gifts. As captured in that press release, the Governor said: “The best birthday gifts you may give me would be a visit to the orphanages, and homes of the vulnerable with food items or any other items that may make their lives more meaningful. You should take pictures with them and give them good cheers, then forward the pictures to me. These pictures would be made Birthday Album and would be better appreciated by me, than newspaper advertorials.”
Considering the above directives, in my own opinion, if the politicians, successful businessmen/women and corporate organisations would be magnanimous enough to convert the money for Cows and newspaper advertorials to feeding the poor and the vulnerable in our State, those in that category would have a field day and the 24th day of April will eventually become their birthday.
Pastor Eno, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, is a great man. True greatness is not demonstrated by the wealth one can acquire in life, but by the wealth one can share with the neediest and the vulnerable in society. Judging from the Governor’s intervention and life-touching programmes since his assumption of office on May 29, 2023, you will agree with this writer that Governor Umo Eno was sent to Akwa Ibom State to raise the poor, by giving them renewed hope for living, in tandem with his Arise Agenda, the blueprint and compass of the golden era administration, tilted heavily towards rural development and by extension, development of rural dwellers.
If I may ask, where else in Nigeria have you heard of the establishment of a Bulk Purchase Agency’, an agency set aside solely for the distribution of free staple food items to the vulnerable, if not here in Akwa Ibom State, courtesy of the man of compassion, the people’s Governor, the friend of the poor and vulnerable, the award-winning Governor of Akwa Ibom State, who won two National awards successively within one week, both as the best Tourism Governor and the best Social Media compliance Governor in Nigeria respectively.
In case you don’t know, Pastor Eno is a social media guru-he sees and reads content from the social media space irrespective of the demands of his office. Pastor Eno is a Governor that listens to the yearnings of his people, a Governor who came prepared to serve his people, not one with unlimited excuses for non-performance and ineptitude in governance.
In my last article, I described the Governor as the Senior Advocate of the ‘Neediest’. (SAN). Of course, he is.
At 60, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State is no doubt a great success story. To be able to appreciate this writer’s argument, you would need to reflect on the circumstances of his birth. This is a man who has fought with poverty and won the battle resoundingly. Any time the Governor refers to the poor, he often says, I come from that stock. Sometimes, it is better to look for someone who has seen it all to be the leader of the people. This is because we have basically, two kinds of people in life. The rich and the poor. It takes someone who has witnessed both sides of the coin in that respect to understand the problem of the people in both categories.
More so, some persons do not understand what is means to be hungry from birth, due to their background of affluence. So, when you say you are hungry, to them you are speaking in ‘French’ language. If care is not taken, you can receive the beatings of your life, in place of food. Then, you learn how to keep your mouth shut when next a big man is talking. It is that bad. Do you blame them? No. Something is lacking intrinsically as there is no connections or chemistry in that regard.
Pastor Eno’s achievements in governance as regards humility and his compassionate nature brought to governance, is indeed a lesson in leadership. Nigerians have been presented with a model of who a Governor or any important public office holder should look like. If this humble lesson is learnt, Nigeria will indeed be a better place for us all.
On behalf of my family, I wish the Governor a very happy birthday in advance.
Arise, that same God.
Pst. Solomon Essiet, a Seasoned Chartered administrator, writes from Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area, Raffia City.
