By Alkali Dan Tsoho
Sometime in 2013, a gentleman bank employee with background of a certified chartered accountant and Deacon in a church, United Evangelical Church or (Qua Iboe Church, QIC) was appointed into the office of Secretary to the Government of Akwa Ibom State.
His arrival was heralded. The quest by the State Government to implement the policy of 31 industrial transformation projects for the state’s 31 local government areas was realisable. The excitement was palpable; his title of deacon made it more reassuring.
Soon in 2014, he was drafted into the appointer’s succession race. Though surrounded by a bunch of near political neophytes, nicknamed “Non-Teaching Staff” he succeeded where many failed, he got the coveted trophy and became Governor of the state of Akwa Abasi Ibom on the bill of the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) called Divine Mandate.
His inauguration drew great expectation from the church going communities. Many a Pentecostal leader trooped in, and the euphoria was drowned in a cacophony of spiritual advisers.
Read also: When You Get To That Top, Return My Sword To Me – Clergyman Tells Udom
A rift ensued with his benefactor and predecessor, who thought at the time his best bet was a Trojan horse that promised him a higher position in the echelon of the Federal Republic, but alas would remember the personal prophecy he had received from the revered American Prophet, Bishop Bill Hamon of Christian International Ministries, a premier prophetic ministry for over 40 years.
In 2016, the Bishop Bill Hamon had visited Uyo, Akwa Ibom State at the invitation of Archbishop Cletus Bassey. Chief Godswill Akpabio, then Minority Leader in the Senate visited him at the Ibom Resort Hotels and Golf Resort, Uyo where he received a personal prophecy on things that were to come or would befall him. Against the prophetic counsel, he jumped boat to his waterloo. The events of 2018/2019 are still fresh in memories.
Udom Gabriel Emmanuel entered the second term election with the theme Only GOD for he thought like David having to confront Goliath did say The God that saw me through when the lion and a bear came to eat my sheep would bring me victory. The elections were held in March 2019 and truly victory came from God.
In Thanksgiving, he traveled to Accra, Ghana in October 2019 and was guest at Action Chapel International, a church pastored by revered Archbishop Nicholas Duncan Williams, the only Christian leader from Africa that was present at the inaugural prayer session for President of the USA, Donald Trump in January 2017.
Governor Udom Emmanuel arrived at Accra in the last day of a three-day International Prophetic Conference that featured a great member of the International Coalition of Apostles and Prophets, Apostle Chuck Pierce of Glory of Zion Ministries, Texas, USA. This Chuck Pierce together with Pastor Dutch Sheets of Spring Harvest Fellowship, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA conducted the 50 State Prayer Tour in the USA that heralded the failure of Bill Clinton ‘s VP, Mr. AL Gore and promoted the success of George H. W. Bush in the 2000 Presidential election in the USA. Their activities have since been published in a book entitled Releasing the Prophetic Destiny of a Nation in 2005.
As the slogan for Udom Gabriel Emmanuel’s re-election Only GOD echoed and reverberated in the sanctuary, so did prophecy arose out of the mouths of the prophets that prospect for higher office laid in the horizon and was coming to Governor Udom Emmanuel. A symbolic sword was given Udom Emmanuel by Archbishop Duncan Williams with a caveat that he returns it to Duncan Williams on attainment of the prophecy. This seemed the kind of admonition by Apostle Paul of biblical times to Timothy in I Timothy 1:17.
It is to be noted that in his book, Prophets and Personal Prophecy Bishop Bill Hamon wrote, “That personal prophecy has three major characteristics: it is always conditional, partial and progressive.” Propelled or spurred by the hallowed events at the sanctuary in Action Chapel International, Accra in October 2019, Udom Emmanuel set out to bring it to reality but his first step forward was at the funeral service for his late father, Teacher Nkanang in 2021. He drew nearly all of Nigeria’s elites to the sleepy community in Awa Iman. They came in their droves and it was a grand event. But it is said that the only job you start from the top is in “grave digging.”
Buoyed by the grandeur of the funeral activities for his late father, he encouraged himself into the quest for real national limelight and threw his hat into the ring for the PDP presidential candidate race. He fraternised with many; he almost had the “Adullam cave” support. He was supposed to be heading to Hebron.
But to what extent he remembered the Holy Book’s saying in Hosea 12:13, “And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved”. Ezra 6:14 says, And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, Proverbs 20:18,“Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.
Unlike David, he missed the Egyptian lad in the field following the burning of Ziklag (1 Sam 30:11-13). The PDP presidential primaries has come and gone. Winner is known, contenders are known as well as pretenders. Will Udom G. Emmanuel return the symbolic sword of war to Duncan Williams or will he attempt to learn from the scriptures in 2 Kings 13:14-19.
Udom could have been a probable nominee for running mate to Abubakar Atiku, the presidential candidate, but for his failure to see the signs. As in Psalms 74:9, saying We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet : neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
Just like King Saul who affirmed in 1 Samuel 15:24, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice, Udom Emmanuel could not extricate his mindset from the threat of the Southern leaders that no southerner should support a Northern candidate, he missed his chance to ascend to Hebron when he had opportunity at the Velodrome to turn in his delegates to the obvious potential winner.
Tsoho is Northern youth activist
