Much of the significant critical issues in the Cross River State 2019 governorship contest would most likely be centred on the pedigrees of the contestants. The issue of which party each candidate represents does not really count for much. This is more so as it is glaring that a precedent had already been set in the quality of materials the State has indubitably thrown up as governors since the beginning of the current political dispensation in 1999. Two personalities who have governed the agrarian state since then, Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke, represent a bold testimony to the emerging trend of enthroning young and brilliant people at the apogee of political leadership across the world. Talking about young, good-looking, brilliant and adequately educated people in leadership positions in government?
There is no doubt that brains and looks appear to be the unassailable clinchers these days as far as elections are concerned. In fact, the advanced democracies of the world discovered this mystery at the dusk of the twentieth century. In the United States of America, for instance, brains and looks did earn the Democratic Party a rare two-term spell under the youthful personage of the ever-voluble, hand-pumping and telegenic Oxford-trained lawyer, Bill Clinton. Even in Great Britain, the electorate, in May 1997, demonstrated a certain unabashed bias for yapper, dapper looks with all the histrionic gestures and dramatic turns of phrases, when they elected Tony Blair of the New Labour, another Oxford-trained lawyer, then 43, as Prime Minister. He was the youngest in 187 years.
Consequently, the dourness of the British political landscape was dramatically but pleasurably transformed. To be candid, Blair did not only puncture, he also destroyed the veneer of cerebral vacuity and humourlessness his predecessor, John Major, who had unrepentantly imposed on the British public all through his dull and fearful reign. The all-rounded cerebral assiduity and political dazzles of Bill Clinton on the American political scene during his two-term presidency is well-known to all and sundry. Also, Barack Obama’s audacious political savvy as the first Black American President of the United States, was a pointer to what age and brain can do in modern political leadership. It is against this sparkling backdrop that many Cross River State professionals and intellectuals now see the emergence of Senator John Owan Enoh as the All Progressives Congress candidate for the Cross River 2019 governorship diadem as an act of providence. Given his brilliant pedigree and age-bracket, it is not a surprise that the gallantry displayed by the ebullient and hardworking senator has marked him out as the Beautiful Bride in the 2019 governorship debacle.
Coming from the effeteness of a polity cast rather in a fossilised mould, the wily young man has assiduously and tenaciously worked his way around his mission since joining politics from the university where he was a lecturer. Debonair, urbane, calm, calculative and compositely brilliant, Owan Enoh is one politician whose political philosophy is the uplift of the human personality. The patriotism, zeal and commitment he has brought to bear in the discharge of his legislative duties stem from his background as a university lecturer. Through hard work, unflinching commitment to scholarship and an unwavering investment in the development of the human capital, Owan Enoh has become what literary experts call “a representative personality” and the tribune of his generation.
To be candid, he had already established himself as a denizen committed to the advancement of mankind and the frontiers of human civilization before venturing into partisan politics. When he vacated the academic community to seek for a seat in the Cross River State House of Assembly in 1997 under the political transition of the late head of state, General Sani Abacha, he won a landslide to represent his constituency. This experiment was truncated by the sudden death of General Abacha. In the 1999 transition, husbanded by General Abdulsallami Abubakar, Owan Enoh, again, coasted to victory on the platform of the All Peoples Party, APP, to represent his people in the State House of Assembly. Although a minority member of the House, but as a measure of his impressive work ethic and outstanding contributions at committee level and debates on the floor of the assembly, he was soon to establish a solid reputation as a clear thinker and endeared himself to the majority party, the People’s Democratic Party which wooed him over to its fold due to his superlative performance.
After four years in the State House of Assembly, the PDP, in recognition of his sterling leadership qualities, gave him a ticket to the House of Representatives to represent Obubra/Etung Federal Constituency. There, he became a beacon of hope and one of the respected voices. As chairman of a standing Committee during his first tenure, his erudition, unassailable contributions to debates at plenary and overall devotion to all his assignments, made him shine forth in solitary starlike splendour. When he won again in 2007, he was soon to be appointed chairman of the House Committee on Finance where his innate ability burst forth to national acclaim. His genius was to manifest when, as Chairman of the House Committee on Finace, he led in the investigation that uncovered a whopping sum of $3.2trillion spent by government ministries, agencies and corporations without appropriation, amongst others.
In 2015, he moved to the Senate of the Federal Republic still on the platform of the PDP to represent Cross River Central Senatorial District. As they say that a gold fish has no hiding place, he was also appointed chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance where his conscientious leadership has succeeded in, at least, gagging the perennial budgetary waywardness and deficits which have cast a gloomy outlook on our economy and hampered efforts critical to our collective economic growth.
Sen. John Owan Enoh’s bid to govern Cross River State is driven by his implacable desire to extricate the state from the cumulative maze of socio-economic and political factors threatening to drive the state into permanent extinction. He is on a rescue mission to save our state from total collapse. It is lamentable and highly regrettable that a state which in 2013 was declared the best governed state by the United Nations Development Progreamme, UNDP, Africa, has plummeted to the nadir since the past three and a half years due to inept leadership. When I read through the bio data of those who are aspiring to become governor of my dear state, I could not help wondering at the tenacity with which Owan Enoh has pushed himself and employed his gifts to make the most of his talent. In the eyes of the world, Owan Enoh may not qualify for the company of geniuses. He may just at best be in the league of men of moderate means. But what makes him the beautiful bride amongst the lot is the way he seems to coast along on the wings of his simple faith.
First, he believes that something ought to be done to alleviate the pains of the suffering masses of his state. Then, he sets about doing it. As a dove in government, too often, he would draw the scorning guffaws of the hawks and skeptical onlookers until he achieves the ultimate and goes about without guile. He is hardly schooled in the duplicitous saloons of Nigerian politics. But the 52 year old sociologist remains the quintessential unknown with the Midas touch who achieves the impossible. His grasp of issues and his insights are simply astounding. If the insights he proffers are penetrating, his quest for excellence is unrelenting. But it is his vision and determination to provide comfort for humanity that has made many people feel safe with him. With Senator John Owan Enoh, the people of Cross River State might not bother searching any longer for any other political icon as far as the 2019 governorship contest is concerned. He is the irresistible bride.
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