The “Sins” of Udom Emmanuel, By Ibanga Isine

Udom Emmanuel .... Can he survive the storms?

Swimming is one of the healthiest sports that anybody can do. But definitely; not in open ocean. It is better to find a swimming pool or stay close to coast when one wants to swim.

The former Secretary to the Government of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel, might know how to swim but he is currently swimming in very dangerous waters.

I haven’t met him but I learnt he is from Onna Local Government Area. Although he is said to have grown up in the village, I bet he might not have learnt how to swim while growing up in Awa Iman, a village located a few kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean.

With a father who was a teacher, I don’t think he was allowed the luxury of going close to any body of water that is bigger than an average stream. Teachers, in those days, were respected and equally feared within and outside the family circles because of their healthy knack for discipline, hard work and integrity. So even when he had his primary education in the village, his parents could not have allowed him socialise well enough to join the village kids to a swimming contest in the ocean where there are hundreds of deadly creatures, including fire coral, lionfish, sea snakes, stingrays, tiger sharks, great white sharks, stonefish, blue-ringed octopus, crocodiles and jellyfish. That was one of the sins of his father, “Teacher” Gabriel Emmanuel Nkenang. And the sins of parents can only be visited on their children even to the fourth generation.

Since his father would not have him join the village goons to learn petty thievery and maybe, pick-pocketing when he was a young boy, Udom joined the Sunday school class and was said to have become a Sunday school teacher in the local Quo Iboe Church.

He might have been flogged many times for not keeping strict family codes and made to work the farms so he could imbibe the high worth of dignity of labour. These inflexible experiences later became assets as he traversed the country and foreign lands in search of knowledge and a career path.

After a fruitful pursuit of knowledge and a promising career in Zenith Bank, one of the top-notch financial institutions in the continent, the Awa Iman man became “mad”.

Before you crucify me for saying Udom Emmanuel is 'mad', please look at his career path. Here is a Chartered Accountant, an  Associate of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management, a former Audit Manager at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, a pioneer Manager of Diamond Bank Plc, Lagos Central branch, a former Chief Financial Officer with Zenith Bank Plc, former Group Head, Income Optimisation, Financial Control & Strategic Planning Department at Zenith Bank Plc, former Head, Telecommunications Sector, Income Optimisation and Financial & Strategic Planning Group of Zenith Bank Plc,  and former Executive Director, Member of Executive Committee and Member of Board, Risk Management Committee of Zenith Bank Plc. Here is a man with the potential to become the Chief Executive Officer of Zenith Bank Plc.

Udom left a very rewarding and enviable banking career just before his colleague, and former CEO of Zenith Bank Plc, Godwin Emefiele, left the bank too. While Udom headed back to Uyo to become the Secretary to the State Government in Akwa Ibom, Mr. Emefiele left to become the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. Maybe, Udom could have stepped into Mr. Emefiele’s office at Zenith Bank when the Delta State-born banker was appointed CBN governor. Who knows?

While Emefiele is now sitting atop the nation’s apex bank, my brother, like a man summoned by ancestral spirits to report for sacrifice at the village shrine, was already slapping inside the murky political waters in the state of “Uncommon Transformation.” Many Nigerians including yours sincerely; consider his relocation to Uyo as a corporeal sin.

 Perhaps, he could have been forgiven if he had restricted himself to serving as SSG under Governor Godswill Akpabio, who has been tipped as the most powerful governor in Nigeria. (Please don’t say I told you). For those who don’t know, I have felt the power of Mr. Akpabio in a lot of ways, but this is not the time to tell the story of how the immense power of the LION of Akwa Ibom State has affected my life in more than tangential ways.

In an impudent plot by Mr. Akpabio to produce a successor, a feat which is “uncommon” in Akwa Ibom political narrative, Udom again went berserk. He offered his head as a willing item for the sacrifice.

Ordinarily, no Akwa Ibom politician has anything personal against the astute banker who they initially thought had come to serve “simply” as SSG, after Mr. Akpabio unceremoniously “dispatched” his friend and ally, Umana Okon Umana from the same office.

Mr. Umana was one of those who stood resolutely by Mr. Akpabio during his downtime. And that was when the former Governor and boss, Victor Attah, would not have Mr. Akpabio to succeed him. The battle for Mr. Akpabio’s governorship ambition was hard and dry. A lot of people made huge sacrifices because they didn’t want Mr. Attah to install his son in-law as the next governor of the state.

At the end of the long drawn battle, Mr. Akpabio became the governor and the rest is known to everybody. Till date, nobody has been able to tell Akwa Ibom people what really went wrong between the governor and his former confidant, Umana Okon Umana and so when rumour started flying that Udom was tipped to replace Mr. Akpabio, diehard politicians in the state went swearing at the site of their broken pit toilets, that it was impossible.

Besides coming from the loins of a LION, who had devoured so many big and small animals in the political jungle, Mr. Udom’s other sin is that he is never a politician.

In local politics, it is a serious offence for somebody who has not cut his teeth in politics to want to become anything serious politically. I remember my two good friends Nsikak Ukim and Uko Efi who went to contest for the chairmanship and vice chairmanship, respectively, of my local government. The duo are good natured guys who believe in progressive ideals and craved for grassroots governance where human capacity development and transparent leadership are core.

They went consulting and in the process “lobbied” political leaders and stalwarts across the two clans that make up my local government area with cash and so many goats and alcoholic beverages. They campaigned hard and spent all the resources they had and even borrowed. After many days of campaigns, goat slaughtering, alcohol donation and late night meetings, the D-Day came. My buddies got a laughable number of votes for all their pains. They failed to secure the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP ticket.

My friends did not fail the primary because they were not qualified to hold the office for which they sought to occupy. They lost because the political “leaders” and “stalwarts” who decide who becomes anything did not trust them. They were not trusted because they were not considered to be politicians who could do the biddings of party elders and leaders.

In one of their campaigns, a young man stood up to challenge them. “Kusem iko mbakara ke anwa politics. Tang iko ukang nyin mbak mkpong mma di council ndiyem okuk, uduben iko mbakara umbianga mien,” the young man said, meaning, “Don’t speak English Language in a political meeting so that tomorrow when I come to the local government council to ask for money, you will not use the same language to deceive me.” That conversation aptly shows the level to which politics has degenerated to in Nigeria. My friends, just like Udom Emmanuel are professionals and they speak a lot of English which is a taboo of sorts with politicians, especially the local ones. And that is why many a politician from the state would not give the banker-turned politician the benefit of the doubt.

The Akpabio’s connection with Mr. Udom’s sudden incursion into politics has rather exacerbated his travails. The first family has been accused of sticking to a zoning formula to favour the former SSG on the one hand while destroying the zoning arrangement in his senatorial district. Mr. Akpabio has obtained the ticket to run for the Senate against the zoning formula that dictates the ticket goes to another part of his senatorial district, another sin counted against Mr. Udom Emmanuel.

But apart from these inherited sins, Mr. Emmanuel has committed no grievous personal sin to bar him from the “communion service”. Even political leaders, who disagree with Governor Akpabio for pushing him down their throats, admire Mr. Emmanuel’s courage and intimidating credentials. They believe he could be a good leader if he is not tied to the apron strings of his principal. They know he has a name and a career to protect and may not do some of the things diehard politicians are wont to do. And that again is a sin in politics.

Mr. Emmanuel must, therefore, approach the campaign for the governorship of Akwa Ibom State with tact and wisdom and should not allow the “sins” of his “father” to be visited on him and his generation. He should avoid dancing to the drumbeat of war and the skewed political mantra that has destroyed the rhythm of unity and brotherliness in the state.

He should tolerate dissent voices and with all the apparatus of state that would be thrust on his trail, allow other candidates to breathe and also go about the state seeking votes from the electorate. Mr. Emmanuel cannot afford to become your usual politician.