Between the last week of September and first week of October, the Man in the News in Akwa Ibom was Umo Eno, the state’s commissioner for Lands and Water, who is also a founder and pastor of All Nations Christian Ministry International. Owing to the significance of September 23, the date the state was born, and October 1, the date Nigeria got Independence from the British colonialists, the period under consideration is always jam-packed with festivities by the state government. It would be noted in history that in 2021, a commissioner stole the show from a governor.
The brilliant entrepreneur-turned politician became the Man of the Moment not because of any monumental or miraculous making in neither his political or pastoral ministries, but through a one-day personal event held on September 25. The event was a three-fold appreciation to God on what the commissioner, whose surname means gift, considered special gift from God: the death of his mother a year ago, 35 years of being in marriage and appointment into the Akwa Ibom State Executive Council. Announcing the event on his Facebook wall, the State government’s spokesman, Ini Emeobong, who is always at his rhetorical best, aptly dubbed it “a three-in-one thanksgiving.”
The state government showed Eno exceptional favour by deploying the paraphernalia of the state government to the event. In a state where social, political, cultural, religious and economic activities enjoy tumultuous treat only on being tied to the government, all roads in Akwa Ibom were leading to the rural community of Ikot Ekpene Udo in Nsit Ubium local government area. Good enough, unlike some other last Saturdays of every month, the state government had earlier announced “no restriction of movements”.
If the thanksgiving was about pipe borne water running in, at least urban areas in the state, an amenity so many people born about 30 years ago in the state do not know of, since I could not afford a chartered flight, I would have boarded a night bus to Uyo, not with intention to become a governor thereafter, but to witness such a jinx-breaking record.
Following the state government’s conspicuous identity, every other thing felled into places: the primary school venue of the event was given scenery of pomp; the attendance, which was made up of almost all government functionaries and the clergy, had a picture of panoply; men were at apogee of their panache; with scintillating couture, women coloured the event with a fitting pageantry; and chauffeured with bullet-proof vehicle, an ordinarily humbled Eno exuded power and opulence. Indeed, royalty, which is a name of one of the business outfits of the commissioner, was really the character of the ceremony.
A few years ago, when he was not a commissioner and his mother, Eka Eno, was still alive, he had his 50th birthday celebration and it was just a single thanksgiving with no political flamboyancy. Her mother’s death last year and his political appointment January this year, coupled with his marriage of 35 years ago, necessitated the triple thanksgiving. On many fronts, the three-in-one thanksgiving is curious and it is hard for any sensible person to fail to subject the event to inquisitiveness.
Boosting the morale of a disturbed Eno over criticism trailing him in recent time, Governor Udom Emmanuel, with personal experience, had inspiring words for his commissioner. The governor, who was a Special Guest of Honour at the event is quoted in Vanguard newspaper to have admonished the commissioner that “As long as you are in the position of leadership, you must be blackmailed, misunderstood, misquoted and misconstrued.’’
Granted that Eno has been “blackmailed, misunderstood, misquoted and misconstrued”, almost everything surrounding the event should move the admonisher, the thanks-giver and all those involved in packaging the thanksgiving project not to go far but to urgently subject themselves for thorough self-perusal as to why meanings other their intended meanings are imputed to their conducts. They ought to know that while they are enjoying the thrills and booms, there is no way such uncommon thanksgiving would escape taunting by some public-spirited persons.
Does being in public office deprive one from embarking on a personal thanksgiving, even a thousand-in-one thanksgiving in any matter under the sun? Certainly, the answer is no. After all, the flesh of private life is not cut off from a person occupying public office. However, keeping certain personal undertakings at bay while serving the public is a burden that must be borne by a public servant in order to justify confidence repose in him and satisfy public interest.
The fifth schedule of Nigeria’s Constitution, which dwells on “code of conduct for public officers”, stipulates that “A public officer shall not put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicts with his duties and responsibilities.” If the supremacy of power lies with the people as it ought to be in democracy, it behooves the governor and the commissioner to explain with facts to the people of Akwa Ibom that they did not abuse public office in more than a way in the course of the private event.
Worshipping God, which includes act of thanksgiving, as exemplified by Jesus as well as first century Christians, has the hallmark of truth and spirit, which entails selflessness, modesty, piety and solemnity. But the triple thanksgiving, well attended by the who’s who in the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), was laced with false-intent, sensationalism, pharisaism and self-glorification.
Juxtaposing the three things the thanksgiving was anchored on with the responsibility of rendering service to Akwa Ibom people through the state’s Ministry of Lands and Water, it is not hard to quickly arrive that, important as they were to Eno, they were trivial things that ought not to be given public limelight. Trivial things are for toddlers, and that is not unbecoming because given their ages, size and power of reasoning, there is correlation. Using public offices to give triumphalism to trivialities is not only act of infantilism but represents the height of abuse of public trust and smacks of insensibility and a ride on the peoples’ intelligence.
Notwithstanding that there are certain symbols of infrastructural renaissance, in recent years governance in Akwa Ibom has been fraught with frivolities on many fronts. Tracing from the build-up to the return to the current democracy, it is retardation in that those that promoted Victor Attah’s governorship reign were driven by the conviction that the architect has what it takes in terms of character and capacity to bring maturity to bear in the governance of the state. While this article is not concerned on whether the architect had lived up to that billings or not, the point being stressed here is that the struggle for the betterment of the society has no finishing line but remains a continuum. So, where are the voices of the Etiebets? Where is Attah?
All hands of those desirous of good governance must be on deck because if the triumphalism of trivialities is allowed to thrive it offers a bleak future for Akwa Ibom. Where is the civil society community in Akwa Ibom, including the news media? Where are likes of learned and vocal Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Assam Assam?
Ekanem sent this piece from Lagos through nsikak4media@gmail.com