A GOLDEN ERA BECKONS
Akanji Odunaike writes Governor Umo Eno is set to make a difference in governance
There is a Yoruba proverb that goes, “Omi yi iay’ a mon ee san gb’onen ee”, meaning, the water that one is destined to drink will never flow past one. Put differently, whatever one is destined to become or achieve in life must come to pass. I have been an avid follower of the development of Akwa Ibom State since the days of Obong Victor Attah. I speak as a Yoruba man. If what I hear about Pastor Umo Eno is true then Akwa Ibom State is on the verge of becoming the face of the dawn of a new Nigeria. The Governor is a new and fresh voice emerging from Nigeria’s richest oil state. Observers say he is on the brink of rewriting Nigeria’s history from the Southernmost tip of the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean. I have a sister-in-law in Akwa Ibom State. She was a staunch supporter and founding member of one of the opposition parties in the State but she told me last November that a chance encounter with Umo Eno on one of his campaign trails completely transformed her. She described it as an epiphany that informed her new political direction in the State. Right now, my sister-in-law is one of his dedicated supporters. She keeps talking to me about the man’s humility and modesty. So I began to get interested in Umo Eno after Idongesit’s political conversion.
A very interesting drama is unfolding at the Governorship tribunal seating in Uyo. The opposition has suffered a major setback as the allegation of certificate forgery and university expulsion levelled against the Governor has been torn to shreds. The petitioners tendered a 2005 list before the tribunal purportedly showing that Umo Eno had been expelled from the University of Uyo for certificate forgery. But immediately the list was tendered in evidence, a brochure of the 2004 convocation from the same university surfaced online. The brochure has gone viral and has completely exposed the putrefied falsehood. There is now incontrovertible evidence that Eno was a student in the 1998-2004 set of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, University of Uyo. And that he graduated in 2004. The brochure also revealed his younger sister Eno, Inemesit Bassey was in the same set and her name appears just above his name on the brochure. The list also revealed the names of some current politicians. But these are not the only names, there are hundreds of former students in this list. But here is where it gets even more bizarre and convoluted for those sympathetic to the petitioner’s case. They claim Umo Eno was expelled in 2005 but the brochure that has just surfaced indicates Umo Eno graduated in 2004. The question people are asking is, how could someone expelled in 2005, graduate a year earlier in 2004? How did they come to the conclusion of certificate forgery and university expulsion? Please note that the allegation of forgery levelled against Umo Eno is the same case that a another Governorship aspirant brought before the Supreme Court in appeal number SC/CV/172/2023. It was also the same case that the Governorship aspirant brought before the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, and lost. The Supreme Court dismissed the allegations and held that Umo Eno was duly nominated by his Party, the PDP on May 25, 2022 and that he was eminently qualified for the elections. The highest court of the land acquitted Umo Eno on 23rd February 2023.
In Nigeria, the principle of Double Jeopardy gains statutory power from the provision of section 36(9) and (10) of the 1999 constitution. Double Jeopardy is also extended into civil matters, it is referred to as Res Judicata. The principle presupposes that where a competent court has determined an issue and entered judgment, neither of the parties will have the liberty to bring the matter again to court. The principle is predicated on the fact that there must be an end to litigation. Again, with regard to Umo Eno’s case, a WAEC Senior Assistant Registrar, Noble Ihejirika, submitted a confirmation of Umo Eno’s WAEC results of 1981 and 1983 to the Court. He as a representative of WAEC declared Umo Eno’s certificate as authentic and genuine. This is at the crux of the allegation of certificate forgery. And the question is, how does he intend to overturn WAEC’s own authentication?
A very cultured gentleman with a creative eye for human capital development, entrepreneurship and tourism Umo Eno has gone through these crucibles of lies but says he holds no malice. Perhaps it is time people took Umo Eno’s hand of fellowship and not shackle themselves to Professor Ayandele’s atomistic prophecy. A golden age beckons and Nigeria’s richest region is about to fulfil the dream of its progenitors. Truly Nigeria’s Land of Promise has found a servant leader.
Dr Odunaike writes from Lagos State
