AS FEJIRO LAUNCHES FRESH MEDIA ATTACK AGAINST MR UDOM EMMANUEL
By Essien Ekefre Ndueso, PhD
The truth is that Mr Fejiro Oliver has just commenced the time table of his paymasters ahead of the 2027 General Elections. Why the sudden resort to media attacks and condemnation of the programmes of Governor Umo Eno and the attack on former Governor UDOM Emmanuel ? Reasons are not far fetched.
Having known that Fejiro is a specialist in cyber bullying and blackmail, one does not need to question his resort to the ignoble trade at the beginning of a new year. Of course, holidays are over, schools have resumed and fees have to be paid. Every worker looks up to their workplace. So Tega Oghenero masking as Fejiro Oliver, has gone back to his source of income – cyber bullying. For him, a Governor who has donated 10 million naira to a non indigene, built houses for the less privileged including, a non indigene in Cross River State, should be willing to part with some quid cash to quell his insatiable appetite for quick money.
Having diagnosed Fejiro’s ailment (unemployment and poverty), the next thing would have been to recommend him in the Akwa Ibom State youth employment portal, but then, he will obviously not have such job offer in my State.
Amusingly, since resumption in my duty post at Government House on Wednesday, I had been inundated with calls on allegations by Fejiro that I was airborne to Abuja with ‘heavy’ cash to the the Inspector General of Police to stop him from petitioning my immediate past boss, Mr Udom Emmanuel, very laughable.
If my journeys to Abuja translate to a meeting with the nation’s police boss, it therefore means with the number of times I have been going to Abuja, then my rank in the police by now would have carried many stars, horses and eagles. But the truth is that neither have I gone to Abuja, nor contemplated doing so anytime soon. The writer is just churning out baseless rumours so that people could arrest him and save him from family responsibilities that he might have been unable to shoulder due to the poor condition of his business.
Choosing Mr Udom Emmanuel as his next target is as curious as it is suspicious, and begs the question, why one would need to stop any unconventional method to halt the baseless and spurious allegations against a man who wrote such interesting paragraphs of the new chapter of the book of Akwa Ibom State during his stewardship between 2015 and 2023.
In any case, does the habitual petition monger not know where the EFCC office is located? Why then the resort to the social media trial as if EFCC office is located there?
No one is stopping Fejiro from petitioning Mr Udom Emmanuel to the EFCC, however, in petitioning Mr Udom Emmanuel, Fejiro should remember to tell the EFCC that in the whole world, the former governor of the State made Akwa Ibom State the only sub-national to own a functional, viable and thriving commercial airline, Ibom Air. The EFCC will love to read that.
Perhaps the mistake Mr Udom Emmanuel made was that he kept his promise of leaving office and not making any attempt to impose himself on the government of his successor.
The EFCC knows by now that Mr Udom Emmanuel steered the development of the State remarkably between 2015 and 2023, a period that witnessed two major economic meltdowns, including a global health emergency that lasted more than a year. Yet he refused to allow room for any excuse, by giving Akwa Ibom State the most enduring infrastructure, including the highest number of roads, mostly dual carriage ways, the longest bridge ever built by a state government in the South South region, the Etebi – Enwang Road Bridge in Mbo, measuring 1.15km as well as the longest flyover, measuring 1km at Ikot Oku Ikono in Uyo.
Mr Emmanuel also constructed the longest stretch of dual carriageway of 23.4km Etinan – Eket Road with three bridges, the 29. 5km Etinan – Ndon Eyo Road with two cable bridges and equally delivered the dual carriage Uyo – Ikot Ekpene Road commissioned by the then Senate President, Ahmed Lawan.
Perhaps EFCC will also love to read that Udom Emmanuel also constructed the nearly completed 20km dualised Uyo – Etinan Road, and the dualised Eket – Ibeno road with four bridges measuring 19.5km. He went on to build interstate roads such as Ikpe Ikot Nkon – Arochukwu Road with two bridges, the Nto Edino, Obot Akara – Ekwerazu, Road with two bridges (both roads linking the State with Abia State at different flanks). There was no local government in Akwa Ibom without a major road project in that tenure and EFCC should be made to read that, with an embellishment that the first Ten Lane, 10 kilometer expressway in South South Nigeria was also constructed in Akwa Ibom during that period.
No matter how hasty Mr Fejiro is to copy the EFCC, let him remember to add that that same Mr Udom Emmanuel whom he vainly seeks to blackmail established the largest Free Trade Zone in the South South in Akwa Ibom State. Or has he forgotten that the former governor’s proactive and foresighted initiatives made Akwa Ibom State a reference point in medical tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 13 fully furnished model secondary healthcare facilities (General Hospitals) and a pandemic referral centre and modular laboratory at Ituk Mbang?
Very importantly, Mr Fejiro should not forget to remember that the peace currently being enjoyed by Akwa Ibom State was instituted by Mr Udom Emmanuel who came to power when insecurity crept into some parts of the State such as Etim Ekpo and Ukanafun, while politically motivated assassinations and kidnappings which shut down several churches and schools, had since been exterminated. Youths were availed the opportunity of two additional standard stadia in the State, the Uyo Township Stadium which came with an Olympic size swimming pool, and the Eket Stadium. During his watch the State’s soccer team won the national professional league title and two federation trophies.
Meanwhile, what is the offence of the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno? Fejiro says the governor should not have appreciated the Nigerian who showed excellence in English language, is he not ashamed to say that in this modern world? Is he such an ethnic biggot to say that a girl whose prayer God answered through Governor Eno, should have been ignored because she is not from Akwa Ibom State?
This is the same man who used to write books of lamentations that the governor is not a giver. Today, he is condemning an act of kindness and patriotism from the same governor? There is more to it than meets the eye.
The reason Mr Fejiro and his co-conspirators are weeping is that they are running out of time as 2027 draws closer. Their woes? Uptill now, they do not have nor know who will be decorated as the Governorship contender to challenge Pastor Umo Eno. But how is Governor Umo Eno to be blamed for that?
That is the result of the good leadership of Governor Umo Eno, collaborating with Akwa Ibom people across Party divides, supporting all and ensuring that everyone has a stake in the Akwa Ibom project.
Mr Fejiro Oliver has failed to deliver on both his mandate and that of his sponsors.
Essien Ndueso is the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Research and Documentation.
#StopBlackmailingUdomEmmanuel
