A GOVERNOR AND HIS FRIENDS

Umo Eno, Akwa Ibom governor, is a gentleman in the service of the poor, writes A N I E T I E   U S E N

️As the convoy of the governor took off in a frenzy along the smooth, beautiful road from the Victor Attah International Airport, Uyo, my phone rang. The governor himself, the cynosure of attention, was on the line.

“Your Excellency Sir”, I answered in a hurry.

“Please Sir, kindly go back to that bereaved family where we just stopped briefly. Find out for me how the young children are coping with the double burial of their mother and father on the same day. Please give me a feedback as soon as possible”, the governor said with a depressed tone. “Okay Sir, consider it done, Your Excellency”, I replied, surprised and overwhelmed by his deep sense of melancholy.

“Slow down, slow down and drop off the convoy”, I ordered Abednego, my driver, as Austin my personal aide on the front seat, wondered aloud what could be the matter. “Take the next U-turn and let’s go back to the funeral venue where the governor just left”, I said.

Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State, a known servant leader with the common touch had just returned from the Council of States meeting, chaired by President Bola Tinubu, in Abuja. In his company, in the State-owned GulfStream Executive jet was the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, his deputy and other dignitaries. The governor was heading back to his office with his deputy who came to receive him, when he spotted a rural fruit market by the highway in Ekpene Ukim, Uruan LGA,  a village in the precinct of the Airport. A dozen or so village women were selling fresh and roasted corn as well as assorted fruits harvested from their small nearby farms. The governor ordered the convoy to stop. Quickly he alighted from his Lexus LX 600 series, walked to the surprised women, chatted with them, laughed, bought some corn from each makeshift table, paid more than the value of what he bought before he gave out token money packed in envelopes to the jubilant women who besieged him to cheer and pour their love on him.

These struggling village women had never met a governor up-close before. Their joy knew no boundaries. It was clear this governor had made their day, as they jumped, screamed and turned ecstatic, some with their newborn babies in their hands and backs. As the governor stepped back to his car to leave, he noticed an ongoing funeral service next door to the street market. A husband and his wife, Effiong Okon Ekpo, 53, and his wife, Martha, 43, were being buried. He walked up to the compound to console the bereaved family. He gave out a condolence purse in a white bulging envelope to a young man identified as the representative of the bereaved family. In a minute or two, he returned to his car looking sad and downcast by the sight of a relatively young couple buried on the same day.

Martha, the deceased woman being buried together with her husband, was one of the women selling roasted corn by the sidewalk of the highway. She had complained of stomach ache a few days before she died on January 8, 2023. Effiong, her husband, a local farmer, was inconsolable after the sudden death of his beloved wife. One of the main effects of poverty in Nigeria is poor health. This is reflected in Nigeria’s high infant mortality and low life expectancy. Poor people in Nigeria face several health issues that lead to sudden deaths as they lack money and access to basic health care . A sickness that N5,000 would cure often results in death in many poor homes and villages.

Neighbours say Effiong, the deceased man, was lonely and hardly himself any longer after the death of Martha, his beloved wife. Feeding became a challenge. In any case, his appetite for food was hardly there any longer, even when his only child, Uduakobong, visited often with her husband to prepare food for Effiong. On February 28, 2023, about seven weeks after his wife died, Effiong decided to go pluck some Afang leaves in the nearby family farm for the preparation of Afang soup by the daughter. He was found dead in the farm, with the Afang leaves tightly stuck to his hands.

Orphaned and left alone was their only child, Uduakong, 26, a dressmaker in Uyo. “My mother was nearly everything to me and to my father. She was not only my mother but my closest friend. Some people thought she was my sister because we looked alike so much, as she gave birth to me when she was a teenager” Uduakobong said.  Narrating the circumstance of her death she said her mother complained of stomachache. “We thought maybe it was ulcer pains since she sometimes ate late or once a day… Within one week the pains became too much for her and by the time I arrived the hospital with her, the doctor said she was already dead”, Uduakobong said, as she battled unsuccessfully to hold back her tears.

To make matters worse, Uduakobong’s father followed suit in a matter of weeks. “I was with my father the day before he died. There was no sign of any serious illness. He had gradually recovered from the shock of my mother’s demise. I normally come in from Uyo (15 minutes drive away)  to cook for him. I was supposed to cook soup for him the next day and he went to the family farm to pluck some Afang leaves…That is where my father was found dead in the farm…I was devastated…It took the grace of God for me to overcome the pains of losing my wonderful parents within a few weeks…I couldn’t bear it…My father used to help my mother to roast corn by the roadside… I loved them so much and they were very proud of me as their only child…We did not even have the money to bury them and had to take a loan…But God honoured my parents and brought the State governor and all the big men and women in Akwa Ibom State to the burial without any invitation…The envelope the governor gave us was big enough to pay back some debts…This is a miracle from the God of The Apostolic Church, where my parents worshipped faithfully…That same God will never fail nor forsake Governor Umo Eno. Where have you heard that type of miracle before…”, Uduakobong said, with her jobless husband, David, a graduate of Business Administration who championed the burial, by her side.

It is the same tempo of prayers by Udualobong that Governor Eno has attracted from various poor and rural people that he has suddenly and unexpectedly touch their lives and make the difference. A little over a week ago, it was a similar story, when he brought his convoy to a halt at a roadside fruit market in Itreto, Nsit Ubium LGA. And just last week, he gave a pleasant surprise to the children of policemen along the Metro Road Police Barracks in Uyo. The police barracks is separated from the sprawling Government House, by a thick welded wire fencing.

The governor was going around in the company of some aides to inspect facilities on the grounds of the Government House, when he spotted some police children playing across the fence, constructed by Julius Berger. Dressed in a black T-shirt and blue jeans, he waved at the children, smiling. Then he abandoned his aides and walked towards the children, with his security guards running after him. Perhaps scared by the security guards, the children began to run away. “Come, come, come back“, the governor called out to the children. One after another, the children returned and stood face to face with the governor across the wired fence. They were not sure how to greet the governor. While some said “Good afternoon Sir” with broad smiles on their faces, others mumbled good something else in awe, with blended knees.

 “How are you [all]” the governor asked 

“We are fine” the children chorused

“How’s Daddy and Mummy” the governor asked

“They are fine” the children chorused

“You are all police children?” the governor asked

“Yesssss” the children chorused

“I am a police child too…and I grew up in the barracks like you”, the governor said, adding “I want you to take your studies very seriously, so that one day you will also become a governor, a senator, a president, a doctor, a lawyer. Ok?”

“Yes Sir”, they chorused again

“Don’t let anyone deceive you that a police child cannot do well. You are what God says you will be”, the governor said as the evangelist in him took over. Then he presented a gift of a white envelope to the children and watched as they raced away excitedly to break the news of meeting the governor to their parents and the entire barracks, just as the Itreto and Ekpene Ukim women have done ever since.

And I sat down with the governor in his king size office, last Friday after I returned from the Ekpene Ukim bereaved family and asked him in between his busy workload:

“Your Excellency, I remember that you began this idea of stopping suddenly on the road to attend to impoverished people during your campaign bus tour of the State. Why do you do the spontaneous things that is fast becoming a trademark of your government”

“[Smiling] Sir, you see, those street traders I am attracted to are my real friends…They are not lazy people but struggling and hardworking people and I need to connect with them and appreciate their labour for their families…”. 

According to him: “This governor had gone through what the street traders are going through now. I was once a street trader like them and I can empathise with them…Some of those women are feeding and training their children, even in high institutions, from that street trading. Sadly, most of them, if not all, hardly benefit from any structured government stipend or assistance …Government should be able to think outside the box and device innovative methods to assist these impoverished but hardworking women, who go from farm to market and back the farm every day, just to eke a living. Let us all begin to show love to these tireless and heroic women who are often the bread winners in many homes”, he said.

“So more spontaneous stops should be expected, Sir”, I asked.

His answer pointedly reminded me that Akwa Ibom had elected a governor and a pastor rolled into one man: “Everywhere Jesus went, He was doing good…so will I”,  he said smiling.

As for Uduakobong, an only child who buried her two parents the same day on Friday, June 16, 2023, good news certainly awaits her from the governor. “She will never walk alone,” the governor said.

Usen is a Senior Special Assistant on Media to the Governor

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EDITORS, OWERRI AND REMEMBRANCES OF ‘NKWOBI’

Editors converge on Owerri, the Imo State Capital, to elect new officers for the Guild, writes Tunde Olusunle

Owerri the capital of Imo State which prides itself as the “Heartland of the South East” of Nigeria, was taken up by the cream of the Nigerian media from Thursday June 15 to Saturday June 17, 2023. It was the second time in eight months that the topmost professional deck of the media will be guests of the state. Whereas the November 2022 event was the traditional annual converge of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, (NGE), the more recent event was the Biennial Convention of the body. It holds every two years to produce new leadership for the Guild. This year’s edition was simultaneously deployed for the reappraisal of issues critical to popular governance. The event therefore had as its theme: “Post 2023 Election: Promoting Professionalism for Enhancement of Democracy and Good Governance.” Hope Uzodinma, Governor of the state, was chief host.

Aircraft after airplane landed on Thursday November 15, 2023 at the *Sam Mbakwe Airport,* located in Umuene Obiangwu in Ngor-Okpala local government area of the state. They mostly conveyed enthusiastic delegates to the programme, from across the country. The quality, diversity and mammoth attendance at the event, belied the dreadful profiling of Imo State in particular, and the South East. The exploits of criminal perverts masquerading as *unknown gunmen* and militias of the outlawed *Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB),* have collaborated to paint the South East of the country black in national consciousness. That very critical segment of the country has unwittingly been dubbed the axis of bone-chilling killings,  needless bloodletting, even barbaric savagery. The ride from the airport into the belly of Owerri cosmopolis was pretty smooth and uneventful. I engaged my driver in a conversation about developments in the state. The airport is a whistling ride of just about 20 minutes to Owerri and I grilled him about why that short distance cost N15,000. He attributed it to the recent removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government.

I missed the last conference of the Guild in that city, which doesn’t translate to my being a stranger to Owerri and indeed Imo State. I underwent the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps in the city between 1985 and 1986. The Owerri airport was still in gestation within the period and the singular occasion I accessed the city by air was through the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa. I concluded my trip by riding in an airport cabby which took me through *Obinze* which hosts the *32 Field Artillery Brigade,* into Owerri. My one-year stint in Imo State, left me with sweet-savouring experiences and perfumed memories, as different from worrying contemporary realities. Apart from demystifying stereotypes about subsisting post-civil war cannibalism and similar stories in our time, I met some of my best friends till date, from that NYSC year. I was quite adventurous too, never missing opportunities to visit *Oguta* and board the ferry across to *Awomama,* inhaling the soothing breeze of the lake.

Owerri had moulted considerably as I would find out on this trip, away from what it was almost 40 years ago. I had to rely on my mental compass to identify sections of the Imo State capital with which I was hitherto very familiar. We had our four-week pre-primary assignment orientation at *Alvan Ikoku College of Education* on *Amakohia Road.* I was subsequently deployed to teach “Use of English” at the *College of Technology, Nekede.* Both institutions have been taken over by the federal government and summarily rechristened. I lived at *Ikenegbu Layout, MCC Road,* something of a highbrow section of the fledgling city and frequented the *Iwuanyanwu Stadium* being a soccer aficionado. With friends, notably Tony Olofu, now an Assistant Inspector General, (AIG), I watched the games of the foremost football club in the state at the time, *Iwuanyanwu Nationale.*

That an election was in the air was evident as you stepped into the delegates’ accreditation venue of the event at the host facility,6 Rockview Hotel, Owerri. Back in time, the hotel used to be known as *Modotels* a part of a hospitality chain reportedly owned by Nigeria’s Second Republic Vice President, Alex Ekwueme, before the change of ownership and its concomitant change of name. Delegates were handed flyers marketing aspirants to the various offices, even as contenders made last ditch efforts to appeal to the convictions of prospective voters. It was instructive that the polls into leadership positions in the Guild of Editors, was being taken so seriously.

Immediate past President of the Guild, Mustapha Isah welcomed delegates to the Convention. He noted that Imo State has made history by becoming the first state to host the annual conference and the biennial convention within months of each other. He expressed the collective gratitude of the Guild to Governor Hope Uzodinma who he noted is an authentic friend of the body. Justifying the theme of the convention, Isah noted that it was auspicious to appraise the performance of the media during the recent general elections. It is equally important, he said for the media to gird its loins to hold public officers to account, vis-a-vis their electoral pledges and promises during the electioneering.

Isah highlighted the myriad of tempests plaguing the media within the context of an underperforming economy. His words: “This convention is holding at a time the media in Nigeria is facing enormous challenges. The cost of newsprint and broadcast equipment is prohibitive. The economy is underperforming making it impossible for media organisations to generate enough revenue from adverts and sales. I don’t even want to delve into the challenge posed by online media.” Isah alluded to federal government bailouts to some sectors of the economy which has not been extended to the media. He submitted that the media as a realm empowered to serve as watchdog to the establishment cannot be best of allies with the state. He enjoined the press to push back attempts at its asphyxiation and continue to perform its assigned responsibilities.

Host Governor, Uzodinma expressed the gratitude of the state to a preeminent body like the Nigerian Guild of Editors for preferring Imo State to other options, by scheduling two major events back to back, in Imo State. Owerri, he noted is the “hospitality capital of the South East.” He commended the Guild for courageously choosing a subject of common interest to all Nigerians such as the interrogation of reportage of the last elections. Said Uzodinma: “I’m impressed that you have chosen this path of self-examination which I consider germane in our collective bid to enhance good governance and strengthen our democracy.” According to Uzodinma, “while the media has the responsibility of holding public officers to account, they should in addition encourage government through constructive criticism and well-intentioned suggestions on how things could be done differently to achieve better results.”

Uzodinma used the opportunity to showcase the successes of his administration. A booklet titled *Imo State Is Looking Up In All Sectors* which contained his address, highlights highpoints of his administration. These include prompt payment of salaries and pensions, and the prosecution of a “prosperity agenda encapsulated in a three-dimensional pursuit of reconstruction, rehabilitation and recovery” of the state.” He alluded to massive dualisation of roads in the state capital and across the three senatorial zones. Uzodinma also alluded to the ongoing dredging of Oguta Lake-Orashi River-Degema-Atlantic ocean mega project, which includes a river port. He noted that upon completion, the project will re-energise the economy of the South East.

It was dark when the day’s itinerary wound down. It was too late to begin to attempt a nighttime quest for our street-side *ugba,* *nkwobi,* *okporoko* and *angharan* joints of old. A feast of *isi-ewu* typically required “Bretton Woods stakeholder’s collaboration” between interested parties to fund, so it was an occasional indulgence. My accommodation was reserved at the *Immaculate Hotel* on the Owerri-Port Harcourt Road. I could still remember the direction of *Orlu Road* which now spots an impressive shopping centre, *Market Square,* where I picked up some analgesics. To our left on a slight elevation as we drove towards the hotel, was a monument from Nigeria’s civil war past, called *Control Post* those fiesty years. The name has stuck ever since even as the landmark is now host to *Assumpta Cathedral,* Owerri, a huge Catholic facility. *Oga’m, you be ama’ala o, di way you still sabi dis places,* my driver smiled, saluting my geographical currency.

The Owerri convention was a veritable forum for reunion amongst several generations and tendencies in the profession. An estimated 400 financial members of the Guild attended the Owerri convention. Elder statesmen at the event included Olusegun Osoba, FNGE, CON, former Managing Director of the Daily Times of Nigeria and two-time Governor of Ogun State, who was “Father of the Day.” Onyema Ugochukwu, FNGE, CON, a former Executive Director of the same organisation and pioneer Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), equally graced the event.

Canice Nwachukwu and Akarachi Amadi, both Members of the House of Representatives, honoured the convention. Tunde Awobiyi, Eluem Emeka-Izeze; *Atah Manyan of Ossomala,* Anambra State, Igwe Victor Awaogu; Baba Dantiye, mni; John Araka; Lanre Idowu; John Ndukauba; Dupe Ajayi-Gbadebo; Isaac Ighure; Gbenga Adefaye; James Akpandem; Taiwo Obe; Eniola Bello; Bayo Onanuga; Gbemiga Ogunleye; Hakeem Bello, all Fellows of the Guild, were present. There were also Funke Egbemode, (former President of the Guild and immediate past Commissioner in Osun State); Gbenga Oni-Olusola; Raheem Adedoyin, Martins Oloja; Tunde Rahman, Lanre Ogundipe, Kenneth Ugbechie and Lanre Arogundade. Steve Omanufeme, Gbenga Onayiga, Gbenga Adesina, Uju Ejeye, Jide Ajani, Angela Agoawike, Funke Atohengbe, Steve Nwosu, Gbenga Aruleba, Yemisi Fadairo, Eddy Odivwri, Soni Daniel, Tony Iyare, Kelly Elisha, equally attended the Owerri converge.

Eze Anaba, Editor of *Vanguard* daily newspaper, emerged the new President of the Guild. Husseina Bangshika of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, (FRCN), was returned as Deputy President, while Sheddy Ozoene was elected Vice President, (East); Kabir Alabi Garba, Vice President (West) and Umoru Ibrahim became Vice President (North). Iyobosa Uwugiaren was reelected General Secretary; Gabriel Akinadewo Assistant Secretary; Charles Kalu, Social/Publicity Secretary and Steve Nwosu is Treasurer. The Standing Committee Members are: Dom Isute (East); Chinedu Egere, Onuoha Ukeh, Rose Moses and Wole Sogunle, all Members of the Standing Committee for the West. Paulyn Ugbodaga and Mohammed Sanusi emerged Members of the Standing Committee for the North. The newly emplaced Eze Anaba-led national executive of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, is expected to impact the body within the next two years, before the next biennial convention.

 Olusunle, PhD, poet, journalist, scholar and author is a Member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, (NGE)