Umo Eno: God always win

By N.T.A. Efo

One of those days, during the run up to the Governorship elections which Pastor Umo Eno won to become Governor of Akwa Ibom State, I sent him a congratulatory message after he secured victory in one of the several court cases that dotted the path to his aspiration.

His reply was brief, direct, terse, and above all, significant, weighty and revealing: God Always Wins.

Pastor Umo Eno is not just a pastor, he leads a congregation- some would say he owns a church but at the All Nations Christian Ministry International, which he leads, he chose the title Undershepherd, to underscore the point that he works under a Chief Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The church celebrated its 20th anniversary recently, when Pastor Eno had become Governor, but his title has yet to change.

Such is the humility in the man who today, has been in the saddle as Governor for two years.

Beyond being a pastor, Governor Eno has a personal belief in God Almighty who created the earth and all that is in it, and rules over its affairs, and in the Lordship of his son, the saviour of mankind, Jesus Christ.

From the word go, he has always seen himself as a product of grace and the mercies of God. Why won’t he or anyone for that matter? For those who do not believe in this, a simple pointer: prostitutes get married, and in nine months have a baby while a virgin gets married and in three years has no baby; a man come out of the club drunk and drives home safely while another leaves a church service and ends up in the mortuary after an accident on the way home.

God’s ways are never, always, our ways. And no one gets whatever he has except from the Lord, no matter what strength he dissipates.

God is unexplainable. He is known by several names based on his character and attribute. He is God in the mountains as well as God in the valley.His transcendence is just as his immanence. That is why man’s place is just to praise and worship him.

But I digress.

Back to Pastor Umo Eno.On March 19, 2023, after winning the elections, he dedicated “the victory to God for the grace he has shown me; for the strength to carry on in the face of the challenges and for the inner peace to keep moving with my eyes clearly set on the ball and not to be distracted. To that same God be all the glory.”

In his inaugural address at his swearing in as Governor, God took centre stage again. From the beginning of the speech, it was God.

The opening sentence, after the nuances of protocols, read:I stand here as a product of God’s awesome grace, a testament of His enduring love, and as an instrument of blessings in His steady and dependable Hands. I therefore, dedicate this day to the Almighty God.

In the speech, God “appeared” 15 times, and, as Lord three times, and as a third-person singular pronoun, He, severally.

At some points in the speech, he quoted three Bible passages, one of which was Luke chapter 1, verses 46 to 50, to magnify God: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour, for He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.”

Two years on, the Pastor Governor is still a pastor Governor.

He has taken the worship of God to higher heights from where his predecessors left. Akwa Ibom has always been blessed by a leadership that believes in God. Obong Victor Attah introduced the concept of holding a solemn assembly and worship in the Government House chapel. Infact, there is a general belief amongst the people that for the solemn assembly held by the people under Obong Attah, there wouldn’t have been a positive solution to the onshore/offshore debacle that almost made the state non oil producing. Senator Godswill Akpabio, as Governor, carried on with the solemn assembly. His popular refrain was, always: What if we were not praying? Under Governor Udom Emmanuel, the worship of “that same God” became a part of state policy.

Under Governor Eno, two official worship services are held monthly- a Government House chapel service and a Government House monthly covenant service held at the Banquet Hall on the first day of every month, to thank God for his continued grace and mercies, and to supplicate for more of His help upon the state.

Governor Eno has brought the entire christian structure under one, setting up a Christian leaders advisory council headed by Archbishop Joseph Ekuwem of the Catholic Church. He completed the International worship centre, and appointed Pastor I.N.George of the Apostolic Church as administrator. Under him, there is no discrimination amongst christians based on doctrine. He chooses, at will, and attends worship servicesin different churches across the state. And anywhere he goes, as the Lord Jesus usually used did, he does good. The good could be renovation of a church, award of contract for the construction of a dilapidated road in the vicinity of the church, cash donations to the destitutes and the church, and several other means.

The annual Christmas carol is still on. A newly introduced Easter Service of Hymns has joined the tourism calendar of the state, the last one drawing worshippers from all political parties in the state.The Governor has equally sponsored and participated in religious campaigns, musical shows, evangelical meetings and crusades of different ministers of God and churches.For the youths to be continually mobilised to know God, serve him right and lead a morally upright life, for the benefit of the larger society, he appointed a Special Assistant on Christian Youths.

To him, the whole state has become a church with him as an Undershepherd.

As a pastor, he knows that running a church uses the same strategy as running the state. As a pastor, you are a planner, coordinating various church activities; you are resources manager, managing the financial and non financial resources of the church to achieve set objectives; you are a negotiator and mediator, settling conflicts and disagreements between members; you are a counselor, directing the affairs of members on the right path; you are a visioner, seeing ahead of every challenges besetting members, and you are a care giver, caring for the needs of members.

But he knows there is more to a pastor. He knows a pastor has a sacramental presence over the people. It happens at worship services,weddings, child dedications, funerals, ordinations, baptisms, communions and even at secular events like commissioning of a business outlet he is invited to. During such occasions, time touches eternity, the human and the sacred interact in a unique way, and the pastor, as a priest to his people, becomes an instrument, a vehicle to communicate God’s presence and blessings. Now, imagine Governor Eno as a pastor and Akwa Ibom people as members of his church. This is exactly the power of sacrament he is exuding at the moment over the people of Akwa Ibom State.

When Governor Eno says God always wins, he means it. God did not just win the battle of elections for him. He is still winning battles in governance for him.The state has enjoyed peace, unity and collaboration. There is development processes taking place simultaneously in all sectors of the economy and in all local government areas.

And he does this without a touch of sycophancy or hypocrisy. He doesn’t discriminate or harbor hate or animosity towards anyone. He doesn’t also love one group over the other. This has been his character way back.On the day he gathered the youth structure to inform them of his interest in the Governorship, there were over 10 youth groups including christian youths, female youths, entrepreneurial youths and street youths. While addressing them, he said if he was to choose the youth group to belong to, he would chose the entrepreneurial youths. Many had thought he would chose the Christian youth group.

But that is Pastor Eno. He believes in his conviction that all hands must be at work, even as we worship God, the one who enables us to grow, make progress and experience development.

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