By Stephen Abia, Esq.
How many former governors in Nigeria openly and honestly refer to their successors as their leader? Governors always want loyalty while in office but how many of them give same to their successors when they bow out of office? He who goes to loyalty must go with clean hands or put differently, loyalty begets loyalty. That is the beautiful story in Akwa Ibom State.
The sentiment that one cannot be a good leader without being a good follower has found expression in the relationship between the immediate past Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr Udom Emmanuel, CON, and his successor, Governor Umo Eno. Mr Emmanuel has endeared himself the more to the people through his relationship with Governor Umo Eno.
If his relationship with his successor were to be captured in a book, it would have been a bestseller and a top shelf demand. The former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr Udom Emmanuel has shown that it is possible to be a former governor and still allow your successor fully take charge of the State even when you played such a crucial role in his emergence.
He has made being a former governor almost more attractive and exciting than being in office, deploying his innate qualities of contentment, respect, humility and a huge sense of responsibility to work, thereby stabilizing the polity which has helped Governor Umo Eno to remain focused on delivering on his campaign promises to Akwa Ibom people.
Juxtaposing the reality in neighbouring states, where immediate past leaders make leaving office look like removing oxygen from a man having respiratory issues, Mr Emmanuel should pass for a good example of how past governors and leaders generally should carry themselves.
In the build-up to the election of Pastor Umo Eno as the governor of Akwa Ibom State, the then Governor Emmanuel had made screaming headlines when he said that his then would-be successor, Pastor Umo Eno will perform better than him. But Mr Udom Emmanuel was probably economical with the truth, in the patriotic sense of the word.
He knew that he was going to give Pastor Umo Eno all the needed support to succeed, and he has done exactly that instead of creating rivalry with his successor because of former-governor “fever”, a political health condition caused by greed and other viruses of insecurity, which has become an outbreak in other States.
Being a man of class, Mr Emmanuel has lived to his words that he was not seeking a third term by proxy. Despite his invaluable role in the emergence of Pastor Eno as Governor of Akwa Ibom State, the immediate past Governor has never made himself a nightmare to his successor, as this would have led to friction, he has made everyone see and know that it is his successor’s show and that the only thing he owes Governor Umo Eno is support, and as he puts it, prayers. His favourite lines, “water is sweeter when we drink from the cup, (not when being drowned in it). Being in a position of leadership is not an easy thing, so we owe our leaders nothing short of unflinching support and prayers, to succeed. So, everyday of my life, I keep praying for our Governor and leader, Pastor Umo Eno, to succeed, and that is the least we owe him.“
Mr. Udom Emmanuel has not only shown support to his successor, but he also commits himself to mobilizing others to give support to the governor, and utilizes every opportunity to preach peace in the State. In his first speech to the people of the State after leaving office, Mr Emmanuel, while declaring open an economic dialogue convoked by the new Government in July last year, announced that there can only be one leader at a time, and that God in his own wisdom has produced for Akwa Ibom, a leader in Pastor Umo Eno.
That gospel of peace and solidarity has surfaced in every fora the former governor finds himself. The most recent was at a church service at Gospel Foundation Mission, Etinan, where he urged members of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly to go a step further in their unflinching support to Governor Umo Eno through a motion for his second term in office.
With an inspiration that can only come from the pulpit, Mr Udom Emmanuel had last weekend in that church said, “I can see so many state legislators from the Leader of the House to the Chief Whip, the Deputy Chief Whip, and several others. It is even possible to move a motion…if there is any motion to be moved it should be a motion that endorses Governor Umo Eno for a second term.” The lawmakers took the message home, and waited for a convenient day where they could move such motion before Akwa Ibom people and indeed the entire world. The opportunity presented itself during the Appreciation and Empowerment Rally for Youths of Akwa Ibom State where the motion was moved, seconded and confirmed by a unanimous voice vote by the lawmakers who had worshipped with the Governor two days earlier. It sounded like a dream to think that the idea of such motion of support for a successor came from his predecessor. Mr Udom Emmanuel’s “book” on how to be a good predecessor is a thriller.
And because Mr Emmanuel has chosen to be a number one supporter of Governor Umo Eno than being a thorn on his flesh like is reported elsewhere, the former governor is loved the more by his people.
That is why they are always looking forward to seeing him visit the State, and often throng to the airport to receive him. The people are always excited to have the former governor around, continue to celebrate him as a hero, committed to championing the course of development of the State. No Governor in the history of Akwa Ibom has enjoyed such unwavering support from an immediate predecessor.
Of course, juxtaposing the gains of the peace in the State with a state of commotion caused by political tension that would have followed if Mr Udom Emmanuel did not genuinely love the State, then Akwa Ibom people cannot celebrate former Governor Udom Emmanuel enough.
It is the prevailing peace in the State, which Mr Emmanuel equally initiated and is sustained by Governor Umo Eno, that has helped the governor to record the many accomplishments of his administration in barely fifteen months in office.
The ARISE Agenda of Governor Eno is thriving because there is peace in Akwa Ibom State rather than peace of the graveyard which is often associated with political war between predecessors and successors. In a country, where headlines of hostilities between predecessors and successors over the control of power structures rend the air. “Someone cannot just come and take control of the structure I built over the years.” A typical Nigerian politician, could be quoted as saying of his successor in other states in the country.
But Mr Emmanuel who is not a typical Nigerian politician, has patriotically kept his promise, that when his time was over, he will pick his iPad and return to work as a professional that he is, and allow his successor to be fully in charge of the State. That was not mere rubric of rheotric; Mr Udom Emmanuel is a man of his word. He believes less in the elevation of greed to the detriment of the masses. Those who chanted that he wanted a third term through surrogacy have since recanted their claims.
The immediate past Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr Udom Emmanuel has set a template in predecessor/successor relationship worthy of emulation by other political gladiators in Nigeria.
