The heavens over Eket were calm on Sunday, but inside the All Nations Church, a storm of holy anger was rising. It was not the anger of a politician seeking applause, it was the anger of a prophet who had seen the ruins of his fatherland and could no longer bear it. On that pulpit, Governor Umo Eno shed the garment of a governor and wore the mantle of Nehemiah.
Nehemiah wept for Jerusalem because its walls were broken and its gates were burnt with fire. Umo Eno wept for Akwa Ibom because for twenty-eight long years, a dream that could liberate generations has been left broken on the shores of the Atlantic. That dream is the Ibom Deep Sea Port.
For twenty-eight years, the idea has been discussed, drawn, designed, approved and re-approved. Files have piled up in Abuja. The final approval was even secured in 2020. Yet the ships have not berthed. The cranes have not lifted. The jobs have not come. Why? Because of a spirit the Governor has now chosen to confront head-on.
He named it from the pulpit. He said there are people, Akwa Ibom people, whose only industry is to stop Akwa Ibom. When investors come, they write secret petitions. They send emails.
They make calls. They whisper, “Don’t come, it will not work.” They travel to embassies and boardrooms to kill what God wants to give their own children.
And then came the declaration that shook the church. In his mother tongue, raw and unfiltered, the Governor said one man from his village used to say “IDOHO ANYONE OWO NDOMIKIET” – Nobody will tie this dream with a rope and drag it back again.
He did not speak like a diplomat. He spoke like a man ready for battle. “This time, I am ready to wear one leg of trouser with anyone who will do that.” In Akwa Ibom parlance, that is not a threat, it is a covenant of war. It means, come out, let us wrestle man-to-man over the destiny of this state.
Such courage has not been seen in a long time.
This is what makes Governor Umo Eno different. His determination is not political, it is prophetic. He is not looking for a second term project, he is looking to fulfill a generational prophecy.
A man who has built houses for the poor, who has stood with the widows, now says the sea itself must open for his people.
He dismantled the biggest lie with one sentence. He said the Ibom Deep Sea Port is not about tribe. It is not about Ibibio or Oro or Annangs . It is not about whether the water is in Ibaka or Ibeno. It is not even entirely an Akwa Ibom project. It is a South-South project. It is Nigeria’s gateway to the Gulf of Guinea.
He educated the congregation. He said look at the map. The whole maritime corridor of West Africa is waiting for a deep, modern port. Lagos is congested. Port Harcourt is limited. What the world needs is Ibom Deep Sea Port.
What the Gulf of Guinea needs is Ibom Deep Sea port . What the South-South needs to become an economic superpower is Ibom Deep Sea port .
And then he declared ownership: “This project belongs to no one.” It belongs to the fisherman whose boat will one day become a trawler. It belongs to the young graduate who will become a logistics officer. It belongs to the market woman whose goods will move from the Atlantic to the world. No Jupiter will stop him, he said.
That holy anger in Eket would have remained a Sunday sermon, but God answers a determined man with speed on 6th November 2026 ,when President Ahmed Bola Tinubu gave approval for commencement of construction.
It was a homecoming. He recalled his days as an auditor for Mobil in Eket. He was dressed in Akwa Ibom attire. And he came not just to dance, but to deliver.
At the Victor Attah International Airport, the President did what many thought would never happen. He inaugurated the new International Terminal, the Aviation Village, the Airport Hospital and aviation village,and gave full federal approval for international flights to operate from Uyo. He looked at Governor Eno and called him “a great man of conscience, commitment and vision.”
But the airport was only the appetizer. The main course was served at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium. Before a mammoth crowd of Akwa Ibom people, President Tinubu took the microphone and granted the heart desire of Nehemiah of Akwa Ibom, Governor Umo Eno.
“I heard from my friend, my governor, my pastor, on behalf of the people and leadership of Akwa Ibom, a request for Ibom’s deep-sea port. Ibom Deep-Sea Port. It’s approved,” the President declared. The stadium erupted. Twenty-eight years of petitions, sabotage, tribalism, and delay were crushed in one presidential sentence.
This is the link between courage and favour. When a man has the courage to declare in church that nobody will stop a project, God had moved the President to approved it on Friday.
Without the Governor’s determination to confront the petition writers, there would have been no presidential approval. Without Nehemiah’s anger, there would be no king’s letter.
Now the picture is clear. President Tinubu has approved two gateways in one day: the sky gateway and the sea gateway. The Victor Attah International Airport will bring the world to Akwa Ibom by air, and the Ibom Deep Sea Port will connect Akwa Ibom to the world by sea. It is the double approval that unlocks the ARISE Agenda.
What happens next? The Governor has warned: anyone who dares to stop the project will face strong contention from Government.
This is no longer a project you can write a petition against in secret. It now has Presidential Seal. To fight it is to fight the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Government of Akwa Ibom State simultaneously.
So let it be written. In Eket, a man wore the robe of Nehemiah and said, enough is enough. In Uyo, a President who promised a seaport in 2023 has fulfilled his promise in 2026.
The old man from Ikot Ekpene Udo who used to say “Idoho anyone owo ndomikiet” can now rest, because his proverb has become government policy.
The construction will soon commence. The ships are coming. The jobs are coming. The future is coming. And as for those who make a career out of stopping progress, Governor Umo Eno has left them a final message that will echo from the Atlantic to Abuja: NOBODY OWO NDOMIKIET WILL STOP IBOM DEEP SEA PORT.
