Looking Back At Governor Umo Eno’s Awards And the Ones He Could Not Win

Looking Back At Governor Umo Eno’s Awards And the Ones He Could Not Win

By Clement Warrie

Governor Umo Eno’s award for Excellence in Sustainable Development and Community Empowerment is by my estimation, the most prestigious honors his government has received since taking power in just over two years.

Bestowed by the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Excellence Awards in Public Service (NEAPS) is a high-profile national honor for the governor’s impact in rural development, agriculture, security, and public service productivity in Akwa Ibom State.

The award was not unexpected, especially to me. Over the past 30 months, the governor’s achievements have attracted a slew of laurels, not from low galleries but reputable, high-end institutions, top media houses, international bodies, government institutions and prominent business organizations.

For instance, in July 2024, the Nigerian American Chambers of Commerce bestowed on him the Distinguished Public Service and Transformational Leadership Award. This was preceded by multiple Governor Of The Year awards from Thisday newspaper, Leadership, Telegraph, ARISE TV and many others.

As mentioned earlier, NEAPS’s award did not come as a surprise. This was clear to me two months prior, precisely when the list of beneficiaries for various multi-level grants and business support initiatives landed on my desk, complete with their phone numbers and locations.

The grant beneficiaries ranged from N5 million, N1 million, to N500,000 for farmers, with a combined total of 798 people drawn from rural communities. The list also includes traders’ grants of N1 million, N450,000, and N250,000, with total beneficiaries amounting to 1,318 persons.

Through the IBOM-LED program, 1,097 individuals received both training and equipment support totaling N750,000. Separately, the DASAC program provided skills training to 274 individuals, while 231 painters also received specialized training. Additionally, a total of 29,618 youths benefited from soft grants of N50,000 each. This is apart from the provision of N50,000 for over 30,000 CBT applicants.

Upon compiling the dataset and arriving at the big figure, instead of basking in the governor’s evident accomplishment, something shifted.
It started with a casual curiosity. How do I match faces to this sea of names? Beyond the spreadsheet, what were the beneficiaries doing with the Governor’s grants? How had the assistance and support improved their lives and their families’?

It wasn’t long, before the curiosity hardened into a resolve. A resolve to embark on a journey to connect with at least 1,000 recipients of the grant. This was clearly ambitious—and I might add, audacious mission to undertake.

I was cautiously excited.

The mission was to simply capture the human stories behind the data and evaluate impact.
For over a month, my team and I, with logistics support from Anietie Usen, SSA to the Governor on Media and Publicity visited the rural communities, from Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District to Eket and Uyo respectively.

While I fell short of the initial 1,000-persons goal—way short actually—we nonetheless were able to reach a fair number of rural entrepreneurs, evaluate their performance, share in their simple joys, and unlearn a disappointing bias in the process.

To be sure, I approached this project with some trepidation. From previous experience working with an NGO, I had learned that grant beneficiaries often abhor the monitoring and evaluation team. This time, however, the reality was completely different. The beneficiaries were warm, welcoming, and in many instances, even insisted on giving us gifts of fruit. They also spoke warmly about the governor.

“My golden governor has changed my story today”. Said Mokomabasi Abasi Emmanuel, a cheerful mother of three and a shop owner in Abak who sells soap, salt, canned foods, bags sachet water, garri, beans, rice, drinks and other foodstuffs. “My shop was like a skeleton, I would not lie. I had a little of everything, but not enough of anything until I received the grant of N350,000”

Similarly, in Eket, Ntiense Emmanuel, a fashion designer, expressed gratitude to the governor for his N750,000 IBOM-LED grant. “This is the first time in Akwa Ibom that I am seeing a governor who is reaching out to the business of the downtrodden. May God bless him abundantly,”

In Ntit Oton, Nsit Ubium, the story was the same. Deborah Effiong, a provisions shop owner, smiled warmly at the camera and thanked the governor profusely for the grant. “My dream was to turn my shop into a mini-supermarket, and my brother-governor has made this possible for me,”

Governor Umo Eno is my church—and I do not mind that my assertion is open to provocative interpretations—I follow his development gospel with the devotion of a zealot. The five pillars of the ARISE Agenda and its eighteen focal points are more or less my daily scripture. I go deeper. I forage through his speeches for omission, evasion and subtext, an Achilles heel.

In the end, the forensics paid off. And I found something—something oddly curious. I found that there may be an award or two that may elude this governor throughout his time in office. Not because he has failed in his social contract with the Akwa Ibom people, but because he isn’t built for certain things.

As the year ends and a new one dawns in a few days, one thing is increasingly certain: Governor Umo Eno won’t be winning any “Failed Projects Awards.” The reasons are obvious. Apart from the projects he initiated, which are proceeding at breakneck speed, he’s also busy ridding the state of every abandoned project that hitherto littered our landscape like tombstones.

Neither will he win the “Empty Rhetoric Award.” To be clear, this category is reserved for nitpicking naysayers and social media vuvuzelas. From all indications, he’s also unlikely to be crowned with a “Master of Blame-Shifting” certificate; he’s too hard at work to stop and point fingers. His trophy trove won’t bear the plaque for “Master of Disunity” either, for he’s a pacifier and a unifier—a pastor-governor, leading the Akwa Ibom Ministry of Unity and Reconciliation.