March 13, (THEWILL) – The Coordinator of the National Media for Maintain Peace Movement (MPM), Anietie Usen, speaks on his appointment as Director of Campaign for Akwa Ibom State Governorship Aspirant, Pastor Umo Eno, in this interview with UDEME UTIP in Uyo. Excerpts:
What would you say about Pastor Umo Eno, who is seen as the preferred successor to the incumbent Governor Udom Emmanuel?
The man I represent is very marketable. Maintain Peace Movement, as you know, is a noble administrative tool to ensure that Akwa Ibom State remains as peaceful and serene as we all know it to be. I don’t think there is any important attribute that can be given to the state other than its sense of serenity and peace that you find whenever you’re here.
I arrived from Abuja yesterday. It was so toxic over there. Nobody could get fuel to move around. The transport fare from the airport to town, which used to be between N3,000 and N5,000 was N15, 000. The queues are endless everywhere, but immediately I entered Uyo I started feeling at home again. There is not one of my friends that accompanied me to Akwa Ibom who did not say: “Ha Anietie, I wish I lived here.”
We are all witnesses to the fact that we are a very peaceful and pleasant people. If there is anything that Governor Udom Emmanuel has succeeded in sustaining, I think it is the people’s character as very peaceful and pleasant.
MPM was founded against the backdrop of tension in the state and a bit of insecurity, which was quite unlike Akwa Ibom. We had a little bit of kidnapping and some other challenging situations. If I were the the governor, I would have done what Udom did by looking for a machinery to maintain and sustain the peace that we are all enjoy in this state. It is our character and we won’t apologise to anyone for that. We are gentlemen here in Akwa Ibom State. That is the rationale for MPM.
Note that peace is a wonderful brand all over the world. Today we are talking about Ukraine and Russia, but men like Martin Luther King Junior, Mahatma Gandhi and Desmond Tutu became global brands because of peace. So we are very proud in Akwa Ibom to campaigning for peace so that the necessary environment can be created for the kind of progress that we want to make as a people.
We want to be known as a peaceful people and that is the justification for Maintain Peace Movement. I count myself lucky to represent a man like Pastor Umo Eno. Most people know that I’m a little bit of a loud Christian. I don’t hide my Christian credentials at all. If you go to my Facebook wall, you will see that there is no day I don’t post a scripture. So to be requested to stand in for a pastor is something of joy to me.
I confess to you that as Christians, we have been praying for a time like this, when the Bible says that nobles and our Governors will come from our midst. And so it is so natural for me. I had a group called Liberty Network. It was a group for Christians in politics. This is our chance so to speak to see that Umo Eno is a man of dignity and integrity, a man of depth and insight, who is not only devoted to the Christian way of life, but also deeply involved in entrepreneurship and that thrills me.
This is a man who came to Akwa Ibom in 1997 from Lagos of all places. He resigned from the company he was working with because he had undertaken a sponsored feasibility study to diversify the economy of the company. He presented it to the board of the company and it was rejected. He tendered his resignation letter. He was happy. He took the feasibility study and implemented it in the hospitality industry. It is on record that since 1997 when he started the Royalty Group, the company has grown in leaps and bounds.
Imagine that someone who lived in Lagos all his life and speaks Yoruba like a Yoruba man could come to establish a company in Akwa Ibom and he has been consistent and persistent in building the business. Now, with six subsidiaries working for companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron, etc, it shows that he is also capable of introducing a dimension to administration and governance that is not yet in Akwa Ibom State.
Some politicians in Akwa Ibom see Eno as a political neophyte, just coming from nowhere to steal the show by becoming the preferred candidate of Governor Emmanuel. How do you intend to disabuse the voters of this notion?
The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. The Bible says so. It says even professors are very poor. In some translations it says that what matters is being at the right place at the right time. The Bible also says that it is not he that runneth, nor he that willeth, it is the Lord that showeth mercy. Realistically speaking, this is not new in most states of the federation. I believe that when God would have put something in your file one day, one way or the other, you will pull it out and you will be. It says whatsoever the Lord doeth shall be forever, it says nothing can be added to it and nothing can be taken from it. It says the Lord doeth it so that men will fear before him. Those kinds of things happen. How would Barrack Obama become the President of America and fulfill the prophecy of Martin Luther King: that a man should not be judged by the colour of his skin, but by the content of his character.
Let me tell you the truth, I have sat as Chief Executive of big organisations, at least one of it is in Akwa Ibom State. I was General Manager, CEO of Akwa Ibom Newspaper Corporation. I was 32 or 33 years-old at the time. I was Sole Administrator and nobody could hinder me. In the leadership capacity, even in the family, you always know who is who and of course, a leader is expected to do that. Jesus knew the capacity of his disciples. It would be entirely difficult for the governor to sit and know the capacities of his people and fail to do the needful. If you were the governor, you would do the same thing. Probably this person is better placed to continue. The issue of sustainability and policy summersault.
You speaks so well of Umo Eno and his ideas, but in Akwa Ibom, since the days of Obong Akpan Isemin; all our governors have been coming from the private sector. Yet this has not translated into the industrialisation or flourishing of SMEs in the state. How will you convince Akwa Ibom people that Umo Eno will be different?
It depends on the dimension that you are coming from. You know that all of them came from different dimensions. I won’t go into details, so I don’t step on toes but this is a practicing entrepreneur. You know him and you see him. His hotel in Ewet Housing Estate is one of the best and probably the most expensive. Apart from the five star hotel, he has similar projects all around the state, in Eket and beyond also. That shows that he is a practical person. He has a watermaking company. He has been doing it and that is what he has been doing all his life.
He is different from someone like me who will come out and say “I am from the private sector. We know those things in generics terms. He talks so much about connecting the doors he really understands it. To make the level of impact he has made in this state and to have all those people in his employ with monthly salary bill of over N26m, it is not an easy thing and there are others who succeed in doing it and there are others who only mouth it.
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