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By Anietie Usen
The Banquet Hall of the Government House was jampacked, perhaps as never before. Aides of the Governor who were standing and huddling in clusters seemed to be more in number than those who found a seat in the hall. For many, this meeting summoned by the Governor with all his political appointees took them by surprise.
A mild tension and foreboding hover over the air against the backdrop of two aides whose appointments were suddenly terminated the previous day. Many appointees wondered and waited with baited breath for the Governor who soon flew in from Abuja, straight from the airport ito the meeting hall.
Wednesday, November 19, 2025, bore all the marks of ‘A Day of The Long Knives’. But when the Governor stepped into the Banquet Hall, he looked relaxed, beaming with smiles and waving to those he couldn’t reach for handshakes, a stark contrast to his pensive appointees.
In a jivvy, the band struck both the National and State anthems, followed by a short prayer for God’s wisdom over the gathering. It would seem God answered the prayer as the State Chairman of the APC, Stephen Ntukekpo, set the tone of the unusual meeting and got the ball rolling with a brief rousing speech, that simultaneously lightened the mood of the appointees and celebrated the accomplishments of the Governor.
“When you look around this hall, you can see competence, capacity, intelligence and loyalty. That is because we are all a reflection of the quality and virtue of our Governor”, Ntukekpo said to the applause of the overcrowded hall.
Next on the microphone was the man many see as one of the right hand men of the Governor. He was the Director General of Umo Eno Campaigns in the last governorship election and has been tipped by the Governor himself to occupy the same role in the re-election campaign of the Governor. Assam Assam, SAN, the former Nigerian Ambassador to Russia, spoke firmly on the indivisibility of loyalty, directing his message pointedly to all appointees of Governor Eno and those elected under the leadership of Governor Eno.
It is either you are loyal to this Administration or disloyal. There is no half way about it. Loyalty is indivisible. Ninety-nine percent of loyalty is disloyalty. Going forward, what I expect is total commitment to the Governor as the people this Governor appointed to serve his Administration”, Assam said without mincing word, practically drawing a line on the sand for those who were perhaps still sulking about the Governor’s departure from the PDP to APC.
The next speaker was a man who many see as the emblem of loyalty. He started his political career as an aide to a Senator, became a Council Chairman, Special Adviser to the Governor, Commissioner in the State Cabinet and currently a Senator in the National Assembly. First, Senator Ekong Sampson expressed surprise at the large number of Aides appointed by the Governor. The number was 873
in all. “This is the largest number of Governor’s Aides that I have ever seen in this country”, Sampson said. He was not the only one surprised by the large number of appointees by Governor Eno. But turning attention to the Governor, seated by his left hand, Sampson said: “We are all your marketers. We are united behind you. In the National Assembly, we have no Abuja front or Uyo front. We are all a united front, committed to working for you in the next six years. On behalf of the Akwa Ibom law makers in Abuja, led by the Senate President, we are for Umo Eno hundred percent”, he said. He earned a well deserved applause.
The State lawmakers in the House of Assembly were soon to add their weight behind their national counterparts. In his remarks, Rt. Hon. Udeme Otong, the Speaker of Akwa Ibom House of Assembly recalled that Governor Eno had several months ago told appointees who would not fully accompany him to the APC to quit.
“As for 31 of us in the State House of Assembly, except two, our loyalty goes to our Governor. Your Excellency, the House is your House. We are solidly behind you because you have done excellently well as a Governor”, the Speaker said.
It was solidarity galore, all the way. Speaking on behalf of the Chairmen of LGAs, Dr. Uwemedimo Udo, the Chairman of Uyo LGA, who is also the State Chairman of ALGON told the Governor:, “Your destiny is tied to our destiny. Our continued stay in this government is tied to your success. We have nowhere else to go”.
“There is no way we can abandon you because this is the first time in the history of our State that virtually every nook and cranny of Akwa Ibom has been positively impacted by a Governor in just two years” Isantim Kenneth Okon said on behalf of the Honorary Special Advisers to the Governor.
The Dean of Personal Aides of the Governor, Essien Ndueso, spoke in the same vein. Yet it was the Managing Director of Hensek Integrated Services, who went a step further to throw some light on the approach to governance that has made Governor Eno a huge success. “You started unusually with a bottom-up approach. You attended to people in the lower rung of the society first. You built homes for widows and the aged in villages never reached by government. You made impact in every LGA with good roads, model schools and model hospitals. You empowered and built capacities of unemployed youths to own and drive SMEs in the State. Now you have arrived in the urban areas to make a difference…Even your worst critic would admit that you are exceptional. Your Excellency, you will be our Governor till 2031”. The applause was resounding because he spoke the truth like other speakers.
But perhaps the biggest surprise awaiting this animated crowd was the Audiovisual presentation of the list of all political appointees from all 31 LGAs, broken down in ranks and their LGAs of origin, together with how the monthly salaries of appointees translate into Naira and Kobo for each LGA.
The lion share of appointees hailed from Nsit Ubium (51), Uyo (43), Onna (42), Eket (42), Essien Udim (33), Ika (32) and Oruk Anam (32) LGAs. The hall rumbled quietly and carefully at the number of appointees from Nsit Ubium, the home LGA of the Governor.
At this point the Governor reached for his microphone. “Nsit Ubium, you have been saying that I have done nothing for you! Have you seen the list of your appointees”?, the Governor said on a lighter note. Everyone laughed about the remark. But the real import of the graphic presentation was to show, with facts, figures and transparency that no LGA in the State has been shortchanged or left out in terms of political appointments.
With the presentation over, it was time for the long-awaited speech by the Governor. He started calmly by pointing at the chaotic crisis and the public fight-to-finish on display in the PDP headquarters in Abuja, the previous day. It was clear to all that Governor Eno was sufficiently foresighted when he left the crisis riddled PDP about six months ago, amidst uproar and accusations of betrayal of the platform that railroaded him to power.
Today, Governor Eno, in a sober reflection of that event that sent shock waves across the political landscape in Nigeria, felt some sense of justifiable vindication. “When you see the events of yesterday in Wadata House, I wonder which side of the divide I would have been. I wonder how many tons of tear gas I would have inhaled. And I wonder the kind of embarrassment I would have been opened to…You see, leaders are people who see what others may not see, and take the bold, proactive steps to avert avoidable crises”, he began.
A humble but very clearheaded and decisive man, he barely stopped short of boasting and thumping his chest. “I’m not celebrating myself, but I thank God who gave me that boldness to act in time and save the ship of our State from sinking”he said.
It was a journey of collective reflection, which he effortlessly escorted the audience with him. “Sometimes you look back and say where did you get that boldness from? It could only have been God… Is it now that we would have started looking for where to go? Certainly we would have made a mockery of ourselves…” he continued
“So we have come here this evening to appeal to all of us to put sentiments aside. Let us reason together…We have here in this hall 783 Aides approved and appointed by me that we are paying N709 million every month. It shows that this government, outside the civil service and those of us who won elections, is putting food directly in 783 mouths. If you multiply this by at least 10 dependents of Aides, we are saying that we’ve put food in about 7,800 mouths every month in 31 LGAs”.
Then the Governor went ahead to draw attention to other accomplishments of his Administration. “In two and a half years, there is no local government area in this State that does not have a project, not one. We have tried to let things go round…to be fair to all. You all can go to your LGAs and certainly point to at least one road, one school, one hospital or something the State government has done under this Governor …And so we believe that we, together with all of us here, can present a scorecard that we all should be proud of…
The applause was almost non-stop, because he was stating the facts and saying the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
But the Governor interjected by turning attention to the benefits of joining the APC. Some of them were too sensitive to be written about for now, but sufficiently and generationally significant enough to deserve stronger alignment with the APC-led federal government.
But they were other benefits that are already in the public purview.
The Federal Housing Authority, FHA, two weeks ago, launched the first Renewed Hope Estate in Nigeria and FHA chose Akwa Ibom to kick-start that multi billion Naira project. The Akwa Ibom State University, AKSU, recently and suddenly got accreditation to start a law faculty. “What just happened”, said the Governor, “takes a lot of relationship building and relationship management, to get those things into our State. I say this to say that we cannot continue to sit down in an opposition political party because there are too many things we cannot do for ourselves. Too many things”.
Now the pastor in the Governor took over the meeting. He was about to hammer home the real raison d’etre why he summoned this crucial meeting. “Can you read the Bible for me? Read Mark 3:14 for me”. The Scripture was beamed instantly on two massive digital screens that everyone could read from any distance in the sprawling Banquet Hall. ‘Mark 3.14 KJV: And he ordained twelve, that they should be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach’.
“Jesus here” said the Governor, “is appointing His own Aides and the reason was that ‘they should be with Him’. The reason for appointing my aides is that they have to be with me. There is nobody who will appoint an Aide in this world that will not expect that Aide to be with him.
“So any aide that is working against the person who appointed him is already working against the Scripture. And so because the aide is working against the Scripture, the person can’t succeed. It’s not possible.
“Jesus appointed 12 Aides, that they should first be with Him and then second that He might send them out to help Him and to stand with Him in good times and in difficult times…because even Jesus couldn’t do the work alone…So I came this evening to beg you my Aides to help me as the aides of Jesus helped him and the message of Jesus lives with us till this day” the Governor said.
What the Governor did not say but was not missed out in the minds of his Aides was that the Aide who did not help but betrayed Jesus ultimately destroyed himself.
Instead, Governor Eno switched his attention immediately from the spiritual to temporal. He requested for a quote often attributed to Herbert Hoover, 31st American President, but originally traced to American author and philosopher, Elbert Hubbard. The quote was similarly beamed of the same massive screen for all to see and read:
“If you work for a man, in heaven’s name work for him. Speak well of him. Stand by the institution he represents. Remember, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness. If you must growl, condemn, and eternally find fault, resign your position. And when you are outside, damn him to your heart’s content. But as long as you are part of the institution, do not condemn it. If you do, the first sky wind that comes along will blow you away and probably you will never know why”.
Said the Governor: “I didn’t write that quote but it is simple and clear enough for everyone here in this hall to understand… It means that if you work for me… If I have favoured you by appointing you out of 7.9 million Akwa Ibom people to a political position, in heaven’s name, work for me. Just simply stay true to the institution I represent, work with me, go where I go. And if you feel you cannot work with me and go where I go… you are free to take a walk. That doesn’t make you my enemy. That makes you a respectable person with dignity and integrity… So I take this chance to appeal to all of you, to have a change of heart…because nobody will put an enemy under his roof and go to sleep. Nobody will do that”.
For clarity, he repeated his statement in a different way. “What I’m saying is that, this is an APC government in Akwa Ibom State. As long as you earn salaries from this APC government, you must be loyal to this party. And if we find out that you are not loyal, we will ask you to leave… I don’t care who is involved. There is a time that you have to stand up for something”.
The man was blunt and forthright. At no point did the Governor pull his punches nor apply kid gloves. But it was also a carrot and stick approach on display.
“I believe that everyone in this hall can make us succeed…So please, let us go back and get ready for hard work and victory and the reward that comes after victory. If you don’t believe in this project, be very bold, be a man and walk away. But to think that you will be a chameleon here is not possible. You can’t. So I came to appeal to you… join us, please. I beg you, in the name of God, join us. Let us walk together. Let us stay together. Let us promote this party and let us stand by the President of this country and our brother, the Senate President, who is the No. 3 man the country “, he said.
It was a very compelling and persuasive speech, with raw facts and indisputable data. He was roundly applauded. The buy-in was overwhelming. The Governor, in just one hour of unforgettable speech had successfully fine-tuned the engines of his government and his new party and both were revving to get the job done.
It was clear that those who were sitting on the fence, in neutral gear, ‘a little to the left and a little to the right’, were converted, poised and raring to stand by their boss,who had shown so much leadership in every ramification. “There is no way all of us in this hall, from all local government areas and all wards will sincerely determine to contest elections in our various local governments areas, wards and units, and anyone else will defeat us. It’s not possible… And I know by the grace of God and with our support, Pastor Umo Eno will have a smooth re-election”, Anietie Ubeh, the Governor’s Personal Assistant in charge of Etinan Urban 5 Ward, said.
But it was Frank Archibong, the ebullient Commissioner for Local Government and Dean of Commissioners, who accurately summarised the mood of the 873 aides of the Governor: “Your Excellency, your second term will go down in history as the easiest re-election election in this State… We own the winning formula and your re-election is a done deal”, Archibong said. Marching orders issued! Marching orders fully executed!! The line in the sand was drawn. No more sitting on the fence for Aides of Governor Eno.
