I try to stay away from politicking – that act of engaging in the process of leadership selection through electioneering process. I am in politics though, the aspect ingrained in our genes as political animals. One of the many reasons for choosing to stay out of politicking is the inherent attitudinal malfunctioning of politicians that produce dirty intrigues and manipulations – a cesspool of falsehood and ludicrous blackmail, subterfuge, perfidy, and mind wrenching “murder” of human souls to supplant fellow men for personal gains. It is an incredulous talent which endowment is given to only men of asinine complexions even though I know that exceptions exist in every society.
We live in a funny socio-political ecosystem where what is normal elsewhere is strange in our clime. So, when we find someone behaving sane, we think it is absurd. That is why many are asking if His Excellency, Pastor Umo Eno, the soft-talking Governor of Akwa Ibom State, is a politician? Yes, he is, but not the regular type. Rather, he is a refined brand. He is a business man who “strayed” into politics by divine providence. According to Steve Forbes, Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine, “your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business”. Akwa Ibom people made a good investment in Umo Eno. He is a repository of good spirit in his management of the State’s socio-political and economic systems.
He is an alloy of God’s fine creation with a can-do spirit led by an inner light. Students of chemistry understand how resilient an alloy could be. To the Akwa Ibom project, he wears the armor that could be relied upon to inject a new culture and novel thinking that would re-create the State politically and developmentally. His emergence in Akwa Ibom State’s leadership arena is not by accident; it is not a Freudian slip but a well-ordered epochal gift to plant a new political culture predicated on love, humaneness, compassion, unity and a programmed heart to steer the people out of vendetta, divisiveness and the traditional dog-eat-dog political culture we have inadvertently become so used to.
Pastor Umo Eno’s governance philosophy, methods, and styles seek a society where human and material resources intermix in proportionate doses to produce a community where the human element is respected and given a chance to live whether he be rich or not so rich. Government efforts at development are superficial if the outcomes are not seen in the positive changes in the quality of life of the people. In other words, for development to achieve sustainability, it must rest on the right substrate where peace, love and respect for the human person abounds on the one hand, and generate results that change both the physical form of man and influence a positive mindset on the other hand. It is a settled axiom that the primary purpose of economics (read, development) is improvement of the socio-economic well-being of the people. That is why, in the 1970s, the United States introduced socio-economic impact assessment studies to measure the effect of development in its communities in order to close identified gaps and deepen development. The key issues here are: the right environment where peace and harmony reign and improvement in the quality of life of the people.
It is within this context that I think it expedient to attempt an understanding of the philosophy that forms the foundation that Pastor Umo Eno’s first year leadership in office has revealed. There is obviously a paradigm shift in the way the Governor manages the somewhat complex social system in Akwa Ibom State. The grim gubernatorial fight of 2007 brought in its wake a measure of distrust and rancor which was allowed to fester and take root. It threatened to shake the foundation of statehood which was conceived as a unifying force and a counterpoise against external invasion of our ethnic enclave, particularly given our experience in the former Eastern Region.
A group of people who are indeed bound together and defined by a common ancestry began to drift towards dismemberment, singing discordant tunes and creating gargantuan images of little, and normal, misunderstandings to accelerate their climb to new political heights at the time. An otherwise compact community bound by the same culture and aspirations degenerated into ethnic enclaves and dangerous quasi linguistic cleavages carved by disingenuous politicians to create fiefdoms for themselves. With the rotation of leadership across the senatorial districts, leaders from all divides prepared their guns waiting to revenge one another over issues which, well husbanded, would have been nipped in the bud. Blackmail flooded and poisoned the social system, Violence took the reins in an otherwise very peaceful society, threatening to erode the gains that were already becoming obvious and an envy of others. This wreaked havoc on the social fabric and affected the highly priced unity we so much cherished as the greatest asset handed down by our forerunners. It was only a matter of time for it to implode evaporate our gains of several years.
The ascent of Senator Akpabio up the ladder of the National Assembly leadership, itself a great achievement, set an imaginary battle line of representative groups each quietly spoiling for a fight which eruption would have become obvious in the lead up to the 2027 electioneering campaigns. Trust politicians and merchants of destruction, many had primed their war arsenals ready to stoke greater fire as time wore on. Merchants of acrimony were waiting to make gains out of it, not minding the long-term effect on generations yet unborn. This was the budding scenario His Excellency saw. It was also what His Excellency Senator Godswill Akpabio equally highlighted when he advised the Governor not to “inherit enemies”. One needed to visit beer parlors and happy hour joints to cut the thick air of these cracks which were fast developing into gaping holes in the minds and tendencies of followers. This was the political gun powder that was going to explode and rake terrible tsunami in the State. It would not matter to any of the protagonists that the gains of several years of building a unique State was going to be lost in an inferno of naked self-adulation. Neither would it bother if all of us were swallowed in the deluge of infantile madness that most of those who bought into this evil never spared a second thought on the outcomes.
But, a big but, Governor Umo Eno saw a different vision. He saw peace while the crisis was at infancy and developed a simple somewhat innocuous style and method to diffuse it without firing a shot. The real powerful man is one who does not use his power until, and unless, it is unavoidable. The graves of many warlords are covered by weeds. Great leaders build; they do not destroy. It is our hope that previous hardliners and politicians who were smarting to make gains out of that expected division will see the beauty in the emerging scenario and tie into the social re-engineering process and stop the fanning of quasi ethnic embers to gain vantage positions in politics. The clear credit goes to Pastor Umo Eno and Chief Godswill Akpabio both of who saw beyond the veil and decided that we are too few, too endowed and envied by others to give the devil a chance. In my opinion, this is the greatest success His Excellency has recorded in his first year in office. I eavesdropped a comment from a group of friends from one of such divides asked rhetorically if they will be any need to struggle for governorship in the build up to 2027? Simply put, the Governor has built an enviable bridge across competing parties long before the campaign bell sounds.
Pastor Umo Eno conceives development from a peaceful and orderly perspective. He believes that a people should have a common vision and share similar ideals if development must percolate the system seamlessly. He believes that we are too few at the center and that we must make good use of whoever we have there to work as a great team to fast track our development efforts. The Pastor Governor is an active member of the body of Christ and whose greatest message to the world is love across all humanity. That is why he would not brook a divide and rule mentality. Of what value is development in a community that is crises-ridden? One may ask. His most important responsibility is to align, or more appropriately, the re-align the social forces in the State to foster socio-political harmony. Roads, hospitals, schools among other many life changing projects he has embarked upon are good, and he is accelerating their development at break neck speed so much so that one is wondering if all the bits he has done so far are just within a year. Others are wondering what he will do in the coming years. I told one friend recently: “don’t you know the man is coming from a different segment of the private sector?”
Let us follow the good examples of the Governor and the Senate President to grow a society that is tightly united. Where conflict exist, let the fear of God guide our hearts and help us to achieve peace at all times and with all people. It is far cheaper, and better, than war. A friend of mine in the US asked: “if we fight ourselves in that small place, what shall we do if faced with external aggression?”
To the political class, there is the need to learn something from Pastor Umo Eno’s leadership style. One is that we can make more progress as a unified team. The other is that the essence of leadership is to give the greatest good to the greater majority of the people; not the use of divide and rule tactics to becloud and distract from core development issues that affect our existence as a people.
Welcome to a new era where Pastor Umo Eno is saying sheath your sword and let us grow together. Yak iba nte abek ifia owo mi sikana ibung, according to the Ibibio proverb; for together, we make an impregnable bundle. Opportunities should not elude us merely because of pride, prejudices and arrogance. Everybody, or every component unit of the State, should sing the same tune, because development lies in wait for a society that has evolved a common ethos, a common philosophy and a common vision. This is what propels the State of Israel and helps them to win all wars and achieve mind blowing scientific feats that could sound like fiction in the ears of those who may not know the history of that small but intellectually massive Jewish State. That represents a model of Pastor Umo Eno’s simple but lucid development paradigm.
Mr. Owoh, a resident of Uyo, is a Researcher by vocation, an Author, and an Enterprise-wide Management Consultant.
