Tuesday, the 15th of April was not April fools’ day – a day marked with practical jokes and hoaxes.
But, many Akwa Ibom people and Nigerians would have taken it as an April Fools’ tale, if the story of the governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno and Nigeria’s minister for works, Engr. David Umahi, was dropped on the 1st of April.
That day, and to the chagrin of many, it was, when many were made to realize the relationship between the two men, dating back so many years, as both worked together at Norman Holdings Limited, Lagos.
This realization got more interesting and amazing when the governor disclosed his role during the minister’s wedding, where he was the Chairman. Only then, did all who were present at the April 15th flag-off date for the construction of the 65km Akwa Ibom section of the 750km Lagos to Calabar coastal highway, realised why the minister began his speech on the occasion by saying, “to me, this is home coming”.
Gov Eno, who represented President Bola Tinubu on the occasion, was full of praises to the President for the project, given the importance of the project to the socio-economic life of Nigerians.
With much expression of gratitude to the President, the Governor could not hold back the excitement of having his bosom friend, being the minister in charge of the project, as he went on to excite the crowd at the occasion by narrating how he jumped a hurdle to perform his role as Chairman at the minister’s wedding.
Beaming with smiles, the Governor told the crowd, how he managed to attend Umahi’s wedding, which coincided with the expected delivery date, EDD, of his wife’s pregnancy for their third child.
As tough as the coincidence may have been, resulting in having to make a decision wether to stay back with his wife at the hospital to witness, as he always does, the delivery of his child, or leave to attend his friend’s wedding, where he was meant to be the Chairman; the tensed situation, however, was eventually cracked.
The Governor, looking at the crowd, with a glow of respect and emotion on his face – apparently in reminiscence of his wife’s understanding and cooperation, then dropped his wife’s words of approval, as she said to him: “… it’s for Dave, you can go. By the time you return, you will come and see your child”. And that was how the governor jetted off to his colleague and friend, David Umahi’s wedding. And true to his wife’s words, the Governor returned from the chairing of Umahi’s wedding, to carry the third biological product of his own long standing marriage – baby Ebenezer!
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