By Udo Silas
Do not bother. The name may not ring a bell. This is not a tribute to Emmanuel Ikoh. It is not politics. God forbid. Emmanuel Ikoh is dead. It cannot be politics. God forbid. It is a sad verse written in prosaic. A dirge if you care, sang in the factual, devoid of pun or malice.
Emmanuel Ikoh is dead. He died last week from health conditions that could have been managed. Ikoh was married with four children. He was from Uruan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. He worshipped at the Winners Chapel. He was a Personal Assistant to former Governor Godswill Akpabio on Public affairs.
I had not spoken to him, in the aftermath of our disengagement from service in 2015. That was until about three months ago when my colleague, Nsikan Udofia alerted me from England on the sad state of Ikoh’s health. He implored me to speak to Ikoh and find out what we could do to save his life.
I had immediately put a call through to Ikoh. His voice sounded strong, but the cadence belied his anxiety. He said he had tried to reach out to ‘government’ on his health and inquired if there was any hope that we, he, could get his severance package to treat his health. I quickly brought him up to speed on our travails but was quick to outline alternatives that we could pursue. He said he didn’t have any money. He had spent the little he had on his health. He was not asking for money to eat he said. All he wanted was to stay alive.
I set off reaching out to some friends for help. The process was on. But before help could come, Ikoh died. I was away to Lagos for a friend’s mother’s burial, when once again, Nsikan Udofia sent me a three worded text message; Ikoh is dead. I was alone in my room. In the quietude of my space I heard my voice speak out of me. I had uttered a loud “Oh no! Involuntarily. The gloom overcame me. My eyes were open in a deep gaze of sightlessness. As I stared into the nothingness of the walls right in front of me, my eyes began to water. I drifted uncontrollably to our last conversation. That was when the tears came.
I was crying for Ikoh as much as I was moaning my culpability. I failed him. Did I do enough? Could I have done more? What else would I have done? I was a leader that failed her shepherd. The guilt racked me.
Cannot remember how I slept. But morning came. I boarded my flight back to Uyo. On arrival, I gave a friend a ride to De castle Hotel, situated in the Ewet Housing estate of Uyo. As my vehicle taxied off, my eyes beheld a large poster of Udom Emmanuel on a building opposite the hotel. That was when the campaign slogan leapt out at me. #OnlyGod it said, as loud as the colors and image of its adornment.
Don’t get me wrong. Udom’s #OnlyGod slogan did not kill Ikoh. It couldn’t have. It sure stirred immediate questions in my mind. What exactly is the responsibility of words to the person we are? What is the relationship of our words to our deeds as leaders? Could Ikoh’s ‘paltry’ severance of N3.5 million have made a difference between his life and his death?
Well, we may never know. But this is what we do know. Please permit me to say it for the umpteenth time. Udom Emmanuel DID COLLECT HIS OWN SEVERANCE PAY WHEN HE RESIGNED HIS OFFICE AS SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT TO CONTEST FOR THE GUBERNATORIAL SEAT. INDEED, ALL APPOINTED OFFICERS AT THE TIME, INCLUDING COMMISSIONERS, SPECIAL ADVISERS ET AL, WHO RESIGNED TO CONTEST ONE OFFICE OR THE OTHER, COLLECTED THEIR SEVERANCE ALLOWANCES.
Emmanuel Ikoh is dead. His death must become the microcosm of the Akwa Ibom public servant. He is your brother, your nephew, your cousin, your uncle and your father. He is our children. The public servant is left to the vagaries of nature’s billows while the leader struts in arrogant gait of mundane spirituality. It is as John Maxwell says, “… you can love people without leading them, but you cannot lead people without loving them”
That is the dubiety of Udom’s #OnlyGod slogan. If indeed Udom knows God, I urge his conscience to ask him how much he has wasted in the aftermath of the uncommon defection. I ask him to rationalize why his heart is so hardened.
So quite clearly Udom’s #OnlyGod slogan is not a slogan borne out of love for the Akwa Ibom people. It is not a slogan borne out of service either in the present or the future. It is not a slogan borne out of intent on what a second term holds for Akwa Ibom people.
It is a slogan borne out of pain. It is a slogan borne out of hope lost. When hope disappears men resort to God. It is a slogan that is both spontaneous and without rigorous thought. It is a slogan borne of fear, of a man left adrift to rampaging tides. God becomes his only mantra. It is a slogan borne out of circumstances beyond control, of pious afterthought to carnage and meanness. It is a slogan that attempts to hoodwink personal ambition as collective aspiration, using the Godhead.
Even as pedestrians in the art of political advertising, Udom’s #OnlyGod slogan fails the critical test of contrast. It is just what it is, an ecclesiastical ego trip that lends ambiguity to its interpretations. It speaks no benefit to Akwa Ibom people. God is not the exclusive preserve of Udom. The God of Ikoh is also the God of Udom. He is a God of Justice. He is not a respecter of men or positions. It is He, #OnlyGod that gives, it is #OnlyGod that takes back what he has given. If he used ‘Baal’ yesterday, he can use ‘Baal’ tomorrow.
I would have asked God almighty, the God that Udom Emmanuel worships, the God that Udom Emmanuel Deaconizes, the God that Udom Emmanuel wants to build a worship center for, to make Emmanuel Ikoh, Udom’s albatross. But I would not. Who am I? It is #OnlyGod that fights His battles.
Rest in peace Emma…till we meet again.
*Udo Silas, a top journalist, writes from Uyo
