Reviewer: Bola BOLAWOLE
AUTHORS: MOSHOOD ADEMOLA FAYEMIWO, Ph.D. MARGIE MARIE NEAL, Ed.D With Solomon Okpo, Rahman Kolawole Oladele & Pius Nsikan
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The personality that this biography deals with is the sitting governor of Akwa Ibom state of Nigeria, Pastor Umo Bassey Eno; and it chronicles his birth and trajectory up to his present position as governor.
The biography, which starts with an “INTRODUCTION” written by the authors, is divided into 12 chapters, with a “PREFACE” written by Akpan Ekong Sampson, Ph.D., the APC senator representing Akwa Ibom South senatorial district in the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and Chairman, Senate Committee on Solid Minerals.
He is also Chairman, Akwa Ibom National Assembly Caucus. Scriptures and the wisdom of our elders in Africa often correlate, and one needs not wonder which precedes the other. Wisdom is universal, and so also is the concept of God.
Compare Matthew 10:36, which says that “a man’s enemies are the members of his own household” with the saying of Ibibio elders, as recounted in this biography by Senator Akpan Ekong Sampson, that “trouble often begins from home”! May our home be free from trouble in Jesus’s mighty name!
The first words
Of course, the very “FIRST WORDS” spoken in this biography were those of my principal, the former governor of Akwa Ibom state, His Excellency Udom Gabriel Emmanuel, the mentor/godfather of the incumbent governor (if we are to use the typical Nigerian parlance). Titled “I brought Pastor Umo Bassey Eno to continue our DAKKADA philosophy),
Gov. Udom described his successor as “a highly-respected person”, with “enormous capacity”, who is an “epitome of humility,” blessed with the common touch”, is “a compelling story”, “God- fearing”, and “a successful entrepreneur who has employed our people (and has) lifted thousands from poverty to prosperity.”
As his Director, Media and Publicity/Presidential spokesperson when he contested for the presidential flag of the PDP in 2022, I can tell that Gov. Udom is not just a man of few words; he also picks those words carefully. So, we need to take careful notice of every word he employs to describe Gov. Umo Bassey Eno. They are not vain words, even as Gov. Udom ended his “FIRST WORDS” with “I will never use God’s name in vain!”
HRH Eteidung Udousoro Johnson
“Before I became the traditional ruler of Ikot Ekpene Udo, I had no means of transportation and was always riding on an Okada like the rest of the villagers, but one day Pastor Eno saw me and said, how can I be having a fleet of cars in my garage and my traditional ruler would be riding on an Okada like a common man. It’s an abomination! The next thing he did was to buy me a blue Nissan Primera in 2017, even before he became governor.”— His Royal Highness Eteidung Udousoro Johnson Usoro, the king of Ikot Ekpene Udo,
The heart of the book
The 12 chapters of this biography are: Ancestral life in Ikot Ekpene Udo; Here comes the “Lagos Boy;” Settling down to marital life; The years of good beginnings – Entrepreneurial experiments; At the helms of the Royalty Group; Divine providence – Calling, Ministry, and the politics of prophecy; From international politics to the domestic politics of nations; From domestic politics to local politics of Akwa Ibom; In the driver’s seat – Emergence as governor; Steering Akwa Ibom state in the right direction – The ARISE agenda; What the future holds in stock – Leadership, Legacy, and open questions; and Troves of allegations and scandals.
Gov. Umo Bassey Uno hails from Ikot Ekpene Udo, but was not born there. He was born in Enugu, the famous coal city of the Nigerian colonial days, known worldwide for the coal miners riot of 1949, in which scores of locals agitating for better living conditions were mowed down by the British colonial power.
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“Every December 26 is our Village Day here at Ikot Ekpene Udo, and we all gathered to take stock of our advancement because all our projects here were through self-help. Ever before he became governor, Pastor Eno was always the chairman of all our fundraising efforts. He would arrive from Lagos with money, although other prominent sons and daughters would contribute, but the governor, as we used to call him for nearly 30 years, was always the highest donor”—- A Community Leader in Ikot Ekpene Udo.
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Governor became Governor
“Few people in this village knew him as Pastor Umo Bassey Eno, but by his nickname in this village for almost 30 years was governor. He was a genteel and jocular individual, and so before he became governor, anytime he was here, we would shout at him governor! governor, but he would reply with an infectious smile; “My brother, I am just a governor of rice and stew o at Royalty Group.” We would all laugh, but how prophetic! Today, he’s actually the governor of Akwa Ibom State!”— Prince Imaikop Udonsen, secretary, Ikot Ekpene Udo Village Association.
Ikot Ekpene Udo
The authors were quick to warn us – and that is really thoughtful of them – that Ikot Ekpene Udo is not the same as “its more prominent sister town of Ikot Ekpene – the famed ‘raffia city’ and cultural centre of the Annang ethnic group north of Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state capital”, but Ikot Ekpene Udo is “a small agrarian village characterised by communal living and a largely subsistence economy.
Nestled amid palm groves and fertile farmland, it constitutes the ancestral home of Pastor (Dr.) Umo Bassey Eno. Going through how the authors described community life and communal living in those years at Ikot Ekpene Udo, reminds one of what operated in other Nigerian societies of the same period: “The convergence of agrarian labour, familial discipline, and religious instructions” which moulded and formed the real essence of children raised in such environments.
As a Yoruba from Ondo state, I could identify myself in the picture so graphically and imaginatively as I read the history of community life and communal living in Ikot Ekpene Udo of pre-colonial and colonial days. It was essentially the same as what my own generation passed through in those days, despite the distance in mileage and difference in language, culture and traditions from agrarian Owo, in present- day Ondo state, where I was born and raised, and Ikot Ekpene Udo. Agriculture and, to some extent trading, was the mainstay of the local economy everywhere in those days. Those were the days before the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantities at Oloibiri in present-day Bayelsa state in 1956.
“The rock behind all that man has achieved, including becoming the governor of this state, was his late wife, Pastor Patience Yemisi Eno of blessed memory. She was the one who gave her husband the nickname governor which we used to call him for nearly 30 years in this village. You see, when they both arrived in Eket from Lagos to start their hotel in 1997, the man asked what his title would be, and his wife told him, just say you’re the governor and not the MD/CEO and that was how the nickname stuck. It was as if the woman prophesied about his life. It’s sad she died unexpectedly,”— An elderly woman resident at Ikot Ekpene Udo.
Gov. Umo Bassey Eno was born to a policeman-father and teacher-mother, Eka Umo Bassey Eno, “a vibrant and attractive villager”, according to the authors, who “faithfully attended the Qua Iboe Church.” The fact of life of a policeman in those days – and even up till now – of constant transfers from one location to another, accounted for why the child Umo Bassey Eno Jnr. was born in Enugu.
Little wonder, then, where the governor’s appellation of “Barracks Boy” came from! Similarly is the appellation of “Lagos Boy” that has also stuck with the governor because, not only did he spend years as a boy in Lagos, he also worked and lived there, speaking Yoruba fluently. So, the one and same person aptly deserve the appellations of “Village Boy,” “Barracks Boy,” and “Lagos Boy” and he wears each of the caps fittingly!
Destiny apart or, better still, the destiny of a child is complemented with the kind of upbringing the child receives; this is no less the case with Gov. Umo Bassey Eno.
Let’s spare some time for how the authors relayed this to us: “The household in which Umo Bassey Eno grew up in Enugu was strongly conditioned by the occupational cultures of his parents. His father, Mr. Bassey Umo Eno, rose to the rank of Chief Superintendent of Police (DSP) in the Nigerian Police Force.
“As a British-trained officer serving in a key regional capital, he operated within an institutional environment that prized hierarchy, punctuality, procedural order, and strict discipline. These professional norms filtered into domestic life:
“Accounts of the family suggest a home in which punctuality, respect for rules, and careful attention to details were routinely enforced. Such a setting exposed the young Umo to a specific model of authority – firm, structured, and rule-governed – at an early age.” And what of the mother, Deaconess Eka Bassey Umo Eno, who combined “informal teaching at a Qua Iboe elementary school in the police barracks with small-scale trading in the ‘Mammy market’
The authors have this to say: “Oral testimony from contemporaries described her as quiet, disciplined, and industrious, with a reputation for moral rectitude and diligence.
Through her dual roles as educator and trader, Eka modeled the value of work as both livelihood and moral obligation… She exemplified the fusion of economic pragmatism and religious commitment characteristic of many lower-middle- income Christian families in mid-twentieth-century Nigeria.
It is therefore not surprising that her son would later develop what observers have described as a ‘voracious appetite for knowledge,” pursuing formal education to advanced levels while simultaneously building a career in business and, subsequently, public administration.”
The humble beginning of Gov. Umo Bassey Eno should be food for thought for parents and aspiring parents alike. The best gifts parents can give a child do not consist in the tons of money stashed in local and foreign bank accounts for them, but in the training given them – both moral and academic – and the good name and reputation they are taught to imbibe and value from their early years.
Once this is done, leave the rest to history! It is like storing treasures in heaven “where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6: 19 – 21 KJV).
Readers, book reviews are meant just to be appetizers to whet our appetites and spur us to reach out for the book itself and devour it from cover to cover. I encourage each and every one of us to please do so.
Reading this book from cover to cover, I myself have found answers to some of the questions that intrigued me. Let me just share one of them with you here.
When my principal, Gov. Udom Gabriel Emmanuel, was signing off as the impactful, record-breaking, and record-setting governor of Akwa Ibom State, I left everything I was doing in Lagos and came down to Uyo to be by his side. I was quartered and fed by my comrade and friend, Comrade Ini Ememeobong, who was the then Commissioner for Information, and for one week,
I followed Gov. Udom everywhere in this state. And then I met the in-coming governor, as he then was. As a first-timer, you cannot help but be attracted to him by his special complexion.
Of course, as we related more, his warmth and the spiritual aura radiating around him came to the fore. Like Gov. Umo Bassey Eno, who is a pastor, I am a pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God. The authors of this book convincingly explained the special grace of God upon the life of Gov. Umo Bassey Eno that gifted him his special complexion. I will be surprised if there are two of him on these shores!
Read the book and learn more about this special grace of God upon his life. If a politician is not controversial, opponents will invent and weave controversies around him or her. The topics usually revolve around family issues, certificates, money, and women. When it comes to any or a combination of these, even angels will be put to task.
This book, however, convincingly dispels the rumours and publications that threatened to damage and shoot down Gov. Umo Bassey Eno’s ARISE agenda.
Says the word of God in Isaiah 60: 1: “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of God is risen upon thee/For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee/And the gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” (KJV).
We can go on and on! If there is one thing I am taking away from reading this biography, it is that Gov. Umo Bassey Eno’s ARISE agenda is of God. In the womb of time,
God knew it, as he told his prophet in Jeremiah 1: 5: “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before you camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (KJV).
That was why Umo Bassey Eno eventually became the one that was chosen and anointed, the inside story of which you will find in this biography.
My special thanks go to my brother and comrade-at-arms during those epochal years of the June 12 struggle, Dr. Moshood Ademola Fayemiwo, and the co- author, Dr. Margie Marie Neal, for this opportunity.
I commend this work to all and sundry.
The reviewer
BOLAWOLE, holder of B.A (Hons) Ife; M.Sc. (Ibadan); Doctoral student (UNILAG); Visiting Lecturer, Trinity University, Yaba, Lagos. He was also at various times Editor, Chairman, Editorial Board, and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of PUNCH newspapers.
He was Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of THE WESTERNER newsmagazine and recipient of the Distinguished “Great Ife” Alumnus Award of the Obafemi Awolowo University (formerly University of Ife), Ile-Ife.
He was also Director Media &; Publicity, Marwa Presidential Campaign Organisation 2006; Member, Media Sub-committee of the Goodluck Jonathan Presidential Inauguration Committee, 2011.
He has been writing the ON THE LORD’S DAY column in the SUNDAY TRIBUNE newspaper since 2006 and TREASURES column in the NEW TELEGRAPH newspaper since 2016.
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