There is something utterly wholesome, noble and heartening about hearing Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno speak about his government’s intentional initiative of clearing the backlog of monies owed retired civil servants in his state. As a retired civil servant myself, one cannot speak enough about how important it is for one who has spent his entire adult life working for an organisation or entity, to retire into what is supposed to be the sunset of his years, and have his entitlements paid as at when due.
No one walks into retirement with excitement, except for the hope and expectation that he would be rewarded, according to the clearly stated terms of his employment. Indeed, there is nothing entirely endearing about leaving what one has become familiar with, except to leave with a sense of fulfilment, integrity, honour, self-worth and, yes, reward. Where does an old man go who has no money, duly earned, in his pocket?
At 60, or after 35 years of service, a man’s active years are often behind him. His capacity to earn income or revenue diminishes. His health diminishes. His vitality diminishes. The health and vitality of his spouse diminish. The needs of his children and extended family rise. He becomes compelled to spend money on drugs and other health stabilising products and activities to continue to live and live well (enough). And at no better time does he fall back on his earnings, as well as his gratuity and pension, than in the years when he is wholly dependent on those resources.
And so, it came with a mixture of great elation and sad surprise to hear that Eno inherited the stunning sum of over N110 billion as backlog of unpaid gratuities, dating back to 2012. Since 2012! That is over 13 years, in the life of two administrations in Akwa Ibom State. In two years since he took over on 29 May 2023, from Mr. Udom Emmanuel, who was governor for eight years and never bothered to pay retired civil servants their due, Eno has paid to date over N75 billion, constituted as gratuities running from 2012, up to March 2021.
According to the governor, in November, he also released “an additional N1.3 billion to further reduce the backlog. ‘By next year, we will continue to reduce the backlog until everything is cleared’, he assured.
There is something to be said about this achievement, not just as a retiree, but as a human being who gave his best years to service: it is an uncommon display of remarkable compassion and conscience for someone in government in Nigeria, where doing the right thing at the right time is as rare as hoisting the country’s flag on its highest mountain, talk less of the moon. Eno deserves everyone’s commendation, as governor and as human being. And his governance style deserves commendation as well by all.
What he is doing, paying inherited backlog of gratuities, and paying those for civil servants retiring under his watch, is the kind of legacy that makes a man a hero among his people, and beyond. And it reflects, perhaps too, on how he is governing his state, my adopted state. He is paying attention to building the state and the people, to improving the state’s physical and social infrastructures, to boosting agriculture and the traditional livelihoods of the people so they can share in the state’s prosperity, to boosting statewide peace, to boosting tourism and, among others, to offering the people an opportunity to become better, all round. And that too deserves our commendation, whether we are from Akwa Ibom State, or adopted sons like me.
On my recent visit, I played a game of scrabble with a good friend, who retired in 2018. We got talking about his new business, of buying and selling. He declined that I mention his name, but he worked as a teacher under the Akwa Ibom State Secondary Education Board and left on grade level 16/9. He was not a lowly civil servant by any shred of description. But I remember how he suffered, because, as he recalls, ‘life after retirement was very difficult. The economy was slow and it was difficult to pay house rent, bills for drugs and school fees were not paid on time. The little things I did to earn income also suffered’.
Today, he has a thriving business. He buys and sells vegetable oil in plastic containers of 20 and 25 litres, as well as Dangote salt in bags. His wholesale business caters to retailers and he is able to take care of himself, his family and his needs again. He, as well as his family, is in a better place and he has become healthier and more hopeful of those sunset years. He muses that this has only become possible because he is a beneficiary of the Eno “gift”, paid eight months ago.
He says: ‘Our governor, Pastor Umo Eno, is a God send. He has the fear of God in him. Previous administrations refused to pay these monies, but Umo Eno has wiped tears off our eyes’.
He is not alone. He mentions two friends who are among a large population of beneficiaries of Umo Eno’s compassionate leadership. One, he says, opened a beer parlour in Eket, on Afaha Uqua Road, while the other owns a pure water factory in Ikot Ekpene. And both are doing well, their lives and purpose restored by this special gift. And you can tell that my friend is glowing in his praise of the governor.
Yet, Umo Eno himself speaks about his achievements with an unhurried calmness, an understated self-appraisal. He speaks as though what he is doing in the state is not really that remarkable. He speaks about them, particularly paying gratuities, not in a boastful manner, but as a reminder that compassion and kindness in governance, good responsive governance, and doing what is right by the people, for the people, is a precious currency after all. In his inimitable poem, Psalm of Life, American poet, Henry Longfellow, speaks of engraving one’s feet in the sands of time with what one does. Perhaps he was speaking about Eno’s remarkable intervention in the lives of his people.
Sometimes too, I think Eno, pastor and governor, uses his podium as both government lectern and pastoral pulpit, where attending to the needs of the people is both a physical and spiritual calling, intertwined with addressing the most urgent service and call of a government that is of the people, by the people and for the people. Nothing could be more rewarding. Nothing more deserving of commendation.
Note: I beat him in our game of scrabble. But he believes that he has won in life, thanks to Umo Eno.
Amu-Nnadi, poet and journalist, retired in 2022 from the Niger Delta Development Commission. He can be reached via email on chio_amunnadi@yahoo.co.uk
