WHAT IF UMO ENO DIDN’T COME TO POWER?
The cries of Nigerians over current hardship have heightened, raising deep anxiety as the rich have joined the chorus. The hard times are not a mere rhetoric but palpable, screeching across the land like an harmattan haze. It is no longer funny, especially as households grapple with daily uncontrollable rise in cost of household items, including food stuffs, rents, school fees, with hike in transportation fares now becoming a permanent basis for traders to continue to raise cost of daily consumables.
Living today is harrowing, as savings made previously for raining days have been eaten up by galloping inflation, compounded by poor or unavailable social amenities like power supply, even as power companies like PHED have continued to oppress poor consumers with huge bills for power they didn’t consume at all.
As the wind of hard times blows, pouring burning economic pressures on the citizens, our leaders seem to have lost the energy in balancing the sail of the ship of the nation. For Akwa Ibom State, the citizens have continued to pour encomiums on their Governor, Pastor Umo Eno, for the humanness of his administration, doling out on daily basis, solace for the poor, lifting the downtrodden and providing succour for the wounded not to bleed to death.
While this harsh economic climate continues to inflict pain on Nigerians of all strata, except the political elite who have unbridled access to humongous public funds, an important sector of the nation’s development trajectory which nearly bled to death are:
The Clergymen, Churches
Now when I say clergymen, the picture which comes to mind is the cassock cladding top ecclesiastical brass of the Catholic or the protestant genres. Certainly not so! I’m referring to the struggling mass of independent pastors and church founders, whose economies have suffered worst hit.
Before the advent of this crippling economic hardship, worsened by President Bola Tinubu’s economic policies that didn’t blink a second in considering the poorest poor when it abruptly removed fuel subsidy at assumption of power nearly two years ago, small churches were already on the brink of economic collapse. For more than a decade now, the tithe hawks -those well-placed pastors, atheists, humanists and agnostics attacking tithe payment by congregants, have left these independent pastors whose main economic stay have been tithes, seed sowings and offerings, porous and susceptible to harsh economic erosion, as members response to giving in whatever forms tanked.
A survey reports have indicated that small churches have lost more than half their members to confusion in messaging on tithes and other doctrinal debates. While the number of tithe payers have dropped significantly, church attendance too has dropped, exposing small church pastors and founders to financial difficulties, as they face increase in rents, public scrutiny and dwindling attendance.
There is also a reverse in trends, before now congregants willingly give to their pastors and church growth but nowadays, more and more congregants don’t yearn for God’s word but pockets of their pastors.
A survey shows that to keep their members, churches now pay increased attention to the welfare. Small churches, which contribute significantly to sustaining revival echoes of the seventies and upbeat evangelization of individuals and communities, are at the verge of closing down, due largely to inability to fund rents, maintenance and welfare of members.
Governor Umo Eno’s Response To Pastors’ Pain
Being a visionary leader and a practicing pastor, he felt the pains of the harsh economic climate churches and pastors are exposed to and the potential damage to the kingdom development, unless something was done quickly.
During one of the meetings with Church leaders during his campaigns, he had promised to establish Christian Leadership Advisory Council, an umbrella body of church elders and leaders. The advisory body was to serve as a rallying point for pastors and governance. Not many actually took him seriously, given the proclivity of political leaders to make lofty promises, without energy to work it out.
But on March 7 last year, Pastor Umo Eno, PhD made good his pledge, as he inaugurated almost a hundred man body known as Akwa Ibom State Christian Leadership Advisory Council (AKSCLAC), with Most Rev’d Dr Joseph Effiong Ekuwem, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Calabar Eclesiastical Province of the Catholic Church, as its Chairman.
This body whose membership is drawn across all denominations has since been functioning as a nest of hope for Christian leaders and churches in Akwa Ibom State; helping in no small measures to cushion the economic and social welfare of pastors, churches and the less-privileged.
It has bridged the gaps between the political leadership and the church, as it has become a pivot for the government multi-pronged welfare packages to reach a broad spectrum of persons, especially the poor, the sick, the hungry and the homeless members of the church to have hope.
Aside embarking on visitation to disadvantaged people homes and rehabilitation centers for the mentally handicapped persons, to share the compassion and live of Pastor Umo Eno Ph.D to the inmates, the body is a link between the elderly and welfare programmes of this administration.
Before now, politicians were the only conduit between the government and the people. Consequently, welfare programmes of government were only channeled to either party loyalists or those in the circle of influence of these politicians. But today, it is a different news; welfare packages under ARISE Agenda have reached the unreached people.
Reaching the Vulnerable With The Welfare Packages
From the onset of this administration, the Governor had quickly identified with the poor by regularly stopping by street traders to dole out business support monies to them. That instantly ignited passion and massive approvals from the public. Those early gestures have morphed into the compassionate policies of the administration, touching lives of the elderly, youths and the generality of Akwa Ibomites.
Through Akwa Ibom State Christian Leadership Advisory Council (AKSCLAC), pastors now have opportunities to reach out to the elderly among their flocks and in their communities, and enroll them in the programmes, such as the ARISE Compassionate home programme, in which Governor Umo Eno is targeting the homeless elderly and building comfortable homes for them, with a business start up grants, to enable beneficiaries start business.
The first batch of the programme is building and handing over the houses to each beneficiary across all wards in the State. There’s also monthly medical and financial support to the elderly across the State, something that has never happened before. AKSCLAC members are mandated to recommend the poor senior citizens from the age of 65 and enrol them in the programme. The process is simple, and the response has been massive, rejuvenating hope and enthusiasm in the lives of the elderly.
These same ignored people have had opportunities to attend free medical treatment at the Government house, have a moment of fun, and go home smiling with some food items, while their bank accounts are equally credited with 50,000 naira stipends.
And this happens monthly, relieving thousands of Akwa Ibom households of the burden of harsh economic climate of the country.
Benefiting also from the generous welfare packages of Pastor Umo Eno are youths and unemployed graduates, who now receive 50,000 monthly stipends to help start a micro business and solve some immediate financial issues. Youths across boards, irrespective of political divide, are being supported under this programme. Unlike the elderly packages that AKSCLAC members make recommendations of persons in their communities and churches, the youths are required to upload their details through the State employment portal, over 60, 000 youths are to benefit from this programme. Meanwhile, 1, 200 youths have passed through Ibom LED leadership and entrepreneurship programme, and have received a total of N400million in grants for business startups, while 200 youths are already undergoing skills acquisition training, which will also be supported with startups finance and business facilities.
AKSCLAC members themselves are not left out, as they enjoy directly the largesse of the administration on monthly basis as appointees of the Governor, besides other numerous welfare packages from the Governor. Additionally, the Governor is building elderly people care centre in the state for effective care and medical support for the elderly.
It has been the vision of the late first lady to ensure the elderly are well catered for, by building a care centre for them. To make good the vision of the departed first lady, the care centre for the elderly will be completed within the medical corridor of the state. The Governor said: “What this Government has done is to be intentional about inclusivity, be it party lines or across age line, be it children, youths, men, women or the elders, we will bring everyone together and give them their space. That’s what I believe we are doing and we will continue to do that.”
Furthermore, the Governor has determined to visit churches across the state, where he also directly gives support for infrastructural development and welfare of ministers. From observation, Pastor Umo Eno, since assumption of office, has visited churches more regularly than any previous governor of the State. And this, the Governor has deliberately planned to enable him reach out to people and offer some reliefs.
And with current wind of harsh economic climate blowing, one wonders how these brackets of people would cope with life if Pastor Umo Eno didn’t come to power.
Like the biblical Joseph, God has strategically brought Pastor Umo Eno, Ph.D to power at the time like this to preserve lives of the vulnerable in our communities, the pastors and the church of God. “If Joseph had not come to power, the roots of the nation of Israel would have died during a famine, which would have prevented Jesus from coming. Joseph is considered a foreshadowing figure of Christ in the Old Testament. During a period of plenty in Egypt, Joseph gathered grain in warehouses, which made him the savior of the world during the following famine.”
Pastor Umo Eno has been most prudent in utilization of the State’s resources for the good of the citizenry and has refused to borrow. How many lives would have been wasted, how many churches would have closed down, consequent upon the economic hardship the church and the vulnerable grapple with if Pastor Umo Eno didn’t come to power?
