By Clifford Ndujihe, Politics Editor

WHEN Deacon Udom Emmanuel, 56, assumed the mantle of leadership as the fourth civilian governor of Akwa Ibom State, on May 29, 2015, he began on a very promising note. The expectations were high, and he did not disappoint. He put forward a five-point agenda with which he re-tooled key sectors of the economy to engender growth and development of Akwa Ibom and Akwa Ibomites.

Without doubt, the agenda — wealth creation; economic and political inclusion; poverty alleviation; infrastructure consolidation and expansion; and job creation have helped Governor Udom Emmanuel’s enviable objective of “keeping Akwa Ibom in peace and prosperity.”

Udom, a chartered accountant, banker, and former Secretary to the State Government, SSG, came prepared for the job. In more than seven years, he has kept Akwa Ibom afloat through massive investments in agriculture, healthcare, education, industrialization, and infrastructure.

Apart from renovating and re-equipping the Ikono, Etinan, and Ituk-Mbang general hospitals and providing free medical services to children below the age of five, pregnant women, and the elderly, Governor Udom has ensured free and compulsory basic education in public schools, and paid N600 million in WAEC and NABTEB fees of Akwa Ibom indigenes in public secondary schools annually. Udom’s transformational leadership in Akwa Ibom has made the state the envy of many states, as he has directed the state’s economy towards self-sustainability in a country where the survival of states is determined by federal allocations.

Udom’s investment in the aviation industry defeated naysayers, turned out to be a commercial success, and renewed hope in the ability of states to generate wealth. Established in 2019, Ibom Air has grown in size and operations to dominate the nation’s airspace, with 99.8 per cent schedule reliability and 96 per cent on-time performance. According to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Ibom Air had the second-highest number of domestic flights in 2021, and the best overall on-time performance for that year.

Apart from boosting the state’s internally generated revenue, IGR, Ibom Air has created jobs, carried two million passengers as of December 2022, and is now one of the major airlines in the country. In a system where public enterprises are drowned by corruption, nepotism, and mismanagement, Ibom Air has emerged as a huge success. This is traceable to the ingenuity and vision with which Governor Udom Emmanuel has served his people since 2015.

A workaholic, Udom applied the bold idea that birthed Ibom Air in the industrialization of Akwa Ibom. As it is, Akwa Ibom State has become a new model for leadership with the establishment of several industries, such as a syringe factory, metering company, flour mill company, coconut virgin oil refinery, plywood manufacturing company, power substation, rice mills, and cassava processing mills.

Udom’s desire to reinvent Akwa Ibom and make it attractive not only to the investment community but also to the common man has led to the construction of several roads and bridges. Under Udom’s watch, Akwa Ibom has consistently raised the performance bar in key areas, which attests to his ability to think outside the box – a rare quality in the leadership of state governments in Nigeria. These and many more earned Governor Udom Emmanuel the prestigious award of Vanguard’s Governor of the Year 2022 for visionary leadership.

Born on July 11, 1966, into the family of Ete Gabriel Emmanuel Nkanang, a native of Awa Iman in Onna Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Udom had his primary education in the same community. For secondary education, he attended the Secondary Commercial School, Ikot Akpan Ishiet, Onna LGA, where he obtained his West African Examination Council’s Certificate, WAEC. Thereafter, Udom Emmanuel went to the School of Arts and Science, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, where he received his Advanced Certificate of Basic Studies, CBS, and a Higher School Certificate, HSC, and transferred to the University of Lagos, where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, in 1988. He also attended the Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD, France. He is a chartered accountant, a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management, and an associate of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria.

He trained with Price Waterhouse Coopers, and later served as an audit manager before joining Diamond Bank. In 1996, he left Diamond Bank for Zenith Bank and served as chief financial officer; head of income optimization, financial control, and strategic planning department, general manager, and executive director. With over 17 years of financial services experience, in July 2013, Emmanuel was appointed SSG of the state and was elected governor on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in 2015. He sought a re-election and was handed another mandate with a landslide victory in 2029.