What is Governor Umo Eno’s Legacy Project?

In Akwa Ibom these days, the most popular question at political gatherings is what, exactly, will Governor Umo Eno be remembered for? After two years in office, his administration has built many things: roads, compassion homes, and tracking committees. But there is no clear legacy that bears his name.

Governor Eno, a pastor-turned-politician, has lately seemed more absorbed in politics than policy. His effort to steady both the PDP and APC in Akwa Ibom has stirred confusion even among his allies. Cleric Nyeneime Andy, once YPP chairman, recently told him bluntly on Facebook: “You cannot control two parties at the same time.” The warning sounded less like prophecy, more like frustration.

The charge is simple: Eno inherited power on a borrowed structure and is now trying to build his own. Since defecting to the APC, he has struggled to keep both camps calm while dismissing boards, reorganising ministries, and tightening political control. His aides hail him as a unifier; his critics see a man rearranging chairs on the deck of indecision.

Meanwhile, his supporters insist the ARISE Project, his administration’s signature monitoring scheme, is proof of progress. It tracks roads, schools, health centres, even “compassion homes” for people experiencing poverty. Officials call it transparency; sceptics call it paperwork with a PR budget. Unlike Udom Emmanuel’s Ibom Air or even the controversial Akwa Ibom Worship Centre, nothing in the ARISE folder yet defines a generation.

This absence is striking in a state accustomed to spectacle. Udom gave the people an airline; Godswill Akpabio gave them flyovers and a stadium. Eno, so far, gives them committees, compassionate grants, and photo-ops.

Maybe the governor is waiting for the perfect project. This is optimism. Bare-faced facts imply that politics might have consumed the space where purpose should be.

Governance, like faith, rewards evidence. And in Akwa Ibom, where even gratitude needs structure, a legacy cannot be declared by loyalty. It must be built—brick, policy, and vision at a time.