If Eno had inquired into the background of Aqua, he would have realised he was up against a 69-year-old veteran fighter who has spent the last forty-five years living in Russia and the United States, US, after he was forced out of Nigeria by the Murtala-Obasanjo military regime. Back in 1978, Prof was the pioneer President of the University of Calabar Students Union and one of the four core student leaders who organised the mass people’s revolt against military rule
THE International Press Institute IPI Nigeria, part of a global network of editors, journalists and media executives, on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, blacklisted three serving Nigerian leaders. It found Governor Umo Bassey Eno of Akwa Ibom, his Niger State counterpart, Umaru Bago and, the Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, guilty of suppressing press freedom across the country.
Eno had on May 24, 2025, expelled Channels Television’s Christopher Mufat and Kufe Ipe from the Akwa Ibom Government House for allegedly revealing remarks made by him. Seven months later, he refused to lift the ban.
IPI Nigeria President, Musikilu Mojeed, therefore declared: “For refusing to reverse his administration’s repressive action and for perpetuating a climate hostile to journalists, Governor Umo Eno is hereby listed in the Book of Accountability.”
Rather than reflect, Eno, like a man in quicksand, digging deeper, went into overdrive. Mr. Anietie Usen, his Media Senior Special Assistant, accused the victims of “ethical misconduct” He described the withdrawal of accreditation from the TV crew as routine, as they “without doubt violated the rules of the game”
Assuming, without conceding that the crew were guilty, did Eno have to take the law into his hands? Why did he not report the journalists to their professional organisations or the institutional Nigerian Press Council, NPC, whose core duties include upholding high professional and ethical standards and investigating complaints about the conduct of journalists and media organisations? What gives Eno the arrogance that he can constitute himself as a law court and find Nigerians guilty?
The Eno spokesman added: “The curious aspect of this issue is that it was not the reporter who filed the embargoed story but his cameraman.” Assuming this were true, how is that the business of the Governor? Who told Eno that a television cameraman cannot be a journalist or, professionally, cannot file a news story? Who told him that the Editors at Channels Television were unaware that the story was filed by their cameraman? In any case, since Eno was aware that it was not the reporter who filed the story, why also expel him? Vicarious liability?
Eno, with his Commissioner for Information, Aniekan Umanah, tried to be diversionary and hit below the belt. They claimed, without providing any proof, that the Premium Times newspapers, whose Editor-in-Chief is Mr Mojeed, have an “antagonistic disposition” towards his government.
The highly intolerant Governor Eno, founder of a Pentecostal church, had also, on November 30, 2025, banned masquerades, which are part of the traditional religion and culture of the people. He claimed that some criminals disguised as masquerades. But rather than go after the criminals, he criminalised the religion and culture, claiming he wants a crime-free Christmas festival. So, he bans an African traditional festival for a Christian festival. His actions are as illogical as banning Christmas or Easter festivals because some people commit crimes under the guise of marking them.
Eno has gone as far as illegally using the Commissioner of Police Baba Azare to clamp down on Akwa Ibom masquerades, disrespecting and dehumanising them and parading them before the media as criminals.
In contrast, neighbouring Cross Rivers State is encouraging masquerades to showcase African tradition as part of its famous Calabar Carnival. Responsible and responsive states like Lagos are also doing the same. In fact, in the case of the latter, lots of efforts are being put into celebrating the Eyo masquerade Festival this December.
Governor Eno, who had climbed into the State House on the back of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP and has now taken refuge in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, disrespectfully, ordered all commissioners and political appointees to report to the APC.
However, the imperial Eno did not realise he was overreaching himself when he took on Offiong Offiong Aqua, the respected New York University Professor of Facio-Maxillary Surgery. If Eno had inquired into the background of Aqua, he would have realised he was up against a 69-year-old veteran fighter who has spent the last forty-five years living in Russia and the United States, US, after he was forced out of Nigeria by the Murtala-Obasanjo military regime. Back in 1978, Prof was the pioneer President of the University of Calabar Students Union and one of the four core student leaders who organised the mass people’s revolt against military rule. When the revolt was brutally suppressed, he was detained for months without trial and eventually fled the country without a passport.
As an Akwa Ibom elder living in the US, he has watched the scarce resources of the state annually wasted on jamborees in the name of attending the Akwa Ibom State Association of Nigeria, USA Inc, AKISAN convention. He had agonised over the sometimes hundreds of state officials who fly annually to the US under full state sponsorship for the jamboree. So this year, when he got information that Eno was going to lead over 100 delegates from Nigeria to the August 10, 2025, Convention, he decided to stop it.
In a podcast, he complained against the delegates: “They will fly business class, they will sleep in four-star hotels, they will collect estacode in dollars that will triple what a teacher earns in one year in Akwa Ibom.”
He added: “ Akwa Ibom is crying and those in power are flying; people are dying, and their leaders are dining.”
Aqua called on the US to check visa abuse by denying such a huge number of delegates a visa or entry and help “stop ego tourism” He added: “Governor Umo Eno himself should stay home, lead from the trenches, fix Uyo, before flying.”
Governor Eno was enraged. He described Aqua’s podcast as: “a distasteful diatribe (and) his remarks reflect opportunism, bitterness, and a complete lack of constructive engagement” Eno announced that he would not be attending the convention in person and that only a “lean five-person delegation” would represent the state. This, he said, is in line with: “the administration’s commitment to prudence, responsibility, and focused governance.”
But Aqua laughed off the governor’s response, preferring to toast to: “Umo Eno, for his staying in Uyo and, strategic backpedal.” He joked that the official statement from the state government could not even spell his name, Offiong Aqua, correctly but rather referred to him throughout as Offiong Akwa, adding: “Let the Governor learn how to spell”
He said his podcast would truly have been disasteful to the government because it was built on facts.
He concluded: “We have saved the state (Akwa Ibom) millions of dollars… Nigerians, do to your own governors, what we have done to Governor Eno.”
In Professor Aqua, Governor Eno met a serious challenger, a veteran who will neither step back nor back away.
- Lakemfa writes from Abuja