By Chijioke Amu-Nnadi
It is Wednesday, December 31, 2025, the last day of the year. I am seated here in the solemn yet expansive auditorium of All Nations Christian Ministry International, Eket, Eket local government area of Akwa Ibom State. The night is rambunctious with the festivities of witnessing the year end, with the promise of a new year and all it promises. Eket is the oil and gas hub of the Akwa Ibom state and has always attracted foreign and domestic business persons, tourists and visitors. It bears the heartbeat of this state.
I am listening to the fair, tall bespectacled pastor preach. He is conducting the crossover service of the church and he speaking with the usual spirited earnestness of Pentecostalist promise and spiritual principles and prosperity. He is speaking on divine provision and he is referencing the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. And he concludes by declaring: “We prosper, not by our strength but by divine provision, because if it were by strength, truck pushers would have been the wealthiest.” He is speaking about trusting God; and trusting the process to deliver the results we seek.
The congregation is quiet, attentive, respectful and hopeful, the way Christians usually are before the immense presence of God. Or the human being, particularly the Nigerian, in the presence of a man of authority, great influence and wisdom. There is a pervasive sense of belief in what the new year brings, and in God’s capacity, using men in authority to touch and transform lives. And here is a man of God who is in authority, who offers relief and promise that is both divine and secular.
I have been here for a while now, long before his arrival, attentive too. I am immersed in the rallying festival of this service, the last in 2025. And I am also watchful, eyes scanning the faces of the worshippers, to discern between what is pure service to God, with all its naïve complexities and innocence, and what may be a play for the attention of the preacher. Because today the man speaking is not a mere pastor. He is Pastor Umo Eno, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State. And this is his church. And this is a place he affectionately calls his second home. He has almost always lived here for the past 25 years, having established his hospitality business in the city. That is , until his election as the Governor of the State in 2023.
There is something utterly remarkable about the man and the reverend gentleman; one and the same person. About finding the balance between the secular traditions of serving a people as their governor, with all their foibles, frustrations, demands and expectations, as well as their aspirations for a better life, and the divine call to serve God, with the Almighty’s expectations and gospel enshrined in the silence of His divinity and in the mortal conviction of man that He is, well, God. I watch, trying to note the weaknesses of a man and the strengths of a man of God. And I muse, how tough it must be for Pastor Umo Eno to stand on two platforms at the same time, both of which are denominated by a call to service, both of which often pull at different directions.
But there is a quiet confidence about this man, and apparently in the depth of his conviction that he can serve God and the people at the same time, and still do a splendid job of it. Indeed, the core concern of a pastor is to be the parable shepherd who knows how to lead the flock to rich pastures. And the core aspiration of a leader of a people is to ensure that he brings the rich pastures to their doorsteps.
And I reflect on the remarkable work he is doing as governor of Akwa Ibom State, a state which has opened its doors to me. On an earlier visit before Christmas, I had met someone who had sat for the state’s ICT test, hoping to be employed in its civil service. I suggested I could help her get the job. But her confessions left me both impressed and befuddled. She told me that no one can influence the process because the governor is insisting that all employment will be on merit.
She said: “The process is very strict and only the best are being shortlisted for the second round of assessments.“ Then she made a statement that caught my attention: “Even if I don’t get it I’ll know that no one who I did better than got it. I’ll just tell myself that I wasn’t good enough to be among the 4,000 people the governor wants to employ. I’ll still be satisfied, knowing that I did my best and whoever who got it was somehow better than me.” Then she added: “I’ll only try next time when there’s an opening.”
As patently unNigerian as that sounded, it was still something to be proudly patriotic and happy about. Ostensibly, and perhaps because of his pastoral calling, Pastor Umo Eno is building a culture of fairness, justice, equity and renewed hope in governance in Akwa Ibom State. He is building a society shaped in the image of the divine inheritance of Christian living, as well as in the people’s pride, and their pursuit for prosperity. And as he speaks you understand that his mission is to bequeath to Akwa Ibom a state to be infinitely proud of.
Take the Arise Palm Resort, for instance. In a short space of time, he has transformed a wasteland, which was a haven for bandits, into a place of opportunity, potential and prosperity. As I had earlier written, Pastor Umo Eno is effecting the remarkable transformation of an area where no faint-hearted man once dared to walk, with the miracle of “a deliverance, a conversion of immense proportions. The kind that transformed Saul, in his fiery combustions, to Paul, a man full of wisdom and insight, full of miracles, the kind that I stood witness…”
In many areas of his governance he is equally touching the people positively. He has cleared a backlog of pension and gratuity owed retired civil servants since 2012, running into billions of Naira, renewing hope in pensioners. He is intervening to improve infrastructures in the state, constructing thousands of kilometres of roads in all the local government areas. He is supporting the traditional livelihoods of the people by investing in mechanizing agriculture and boosting aquaculture in ways that offer the prospects for sustainable livelihoods. Project by project, community by community, he is undertaking people -centred initiatives that say something like: God has remembered the people. A prayer answered.
It is often said that the people rejoice when a good man rules. In Akwa Ibom State they are apparently becoming more hopeful too, because here a good man of God rules. And he understands the principles of prosperity and growth, both personal and statewide. In this church this night, the songs of worship of God begin to sound like a rite of thanksgiving. And the promise of a better future.
