Dr. Anieti Udofia: What a way to demonstrate capacity! (1)
The Commissioner’s stellar performance captured His Excellency’s heart, a testimonial reflection of the governor’s hiring acumen, unwavering insistence on meritocracy, and freehandedness in offering opportunities to appointees irrespective of age and gender, to prove their mettle.
By Substance Udo-Nature
The recent commendation and award of the “Commissioner of the Year 2025”, on the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Dr. Anieti Udofia, by the State governor, His Excellency, Pastor Umo Eno, comes with enormous weight and sweet envy. It was the first time His Excellency would openly give pink and purple flowers to any of his commissioners and perhaps the first time in the 38-year history of the State any governor had given an insignia by that name to any commissioner.
Don’t panel-beat the argument beyond the organic logic in it: Not that there’ve not been commendation of commissioners by governors, past and past; or that other commissioners have not performed to deserve some commendation; but Governor Umo Eno has shown that, just like commissioners, commendations come in grades and different attractions. The Commissioner of the Year Award is an innovative maiden concept introduced by Gov. Umo Eno to throw up a challenge for healthy competition amongst appointees as catalyst for higher productivity and excellence in service delivery.
So, when the governor recently singled out Dr. Udofia for commendation sealed with a rare award, it was not a spur-of-the-moment sentiment but a deep-seated attestation inspired by genuine appreciation for outstanding stewardship. The governor was delighted that Dr. Udofia did not gamble with the opportunity given him to make peculiar statements. His Excellency thus agrees with Bill Bradley that, “Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better”. Or like Richard Teerlink puts it, “As a leader, your job is to create an operating environment where others can do great things. His Excellency rained the commendations and presented the award to the commissioner during an exco meeting on the crest of the 2026 Christmas Unplugged 3.0 that lasted from December 1, 2025 to January 1, 2026.
“Today, we’ll be honouring a Member of the State Executive Council, the Hon, Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Dr. Anieti Udofia, who has won the 2025 Commissioner of the Year Award. This award is in recognition and appreciation of your service, commitment, effective coordination and successful rendering of the Christmas Unplug 2025 edition. The event without a doubt significantly promoted the State’s cultural heritage as well as the cultural drive under the ARISE Agenda. It also increased the states visibility and promoted positive civic interaction amongst Akwa Ibom people”, His Excellency observed.
The commendation was seasoned with mouthwatering financial incentives – 20million naira as personal gift to the Commissioner; 100million to the organizers to wash their hands with. By and large, the largesse was a testimony to the governor’s firsthand knowledge of the thousand hurdles the commissioner had had to scale to ensure the event was not only held but was highly successful with landmarks in attendance, organization, content, commitment, allure and traction, creativity and elegance, added value and impact, and most importantly, without any scandal or mishaps.
I trust my findings in arguing that about less than a month to the commencement of the event, many crucial things may not have been in place. Yet Dr. Udofia, an addicted optimist and pragmatist, refused to be discouraged but kept focus and faith in the possibility of squeezing water out of rock. That did not surprise those who already knew this goal-driven young man. Barely two months into office, having been sworn-in on February 25, 2025, he hosted with glamour and éclat the World Heritage Day on April 19, 2025. Sooner thereafter came Davido’s earthshaking tour of the state on October 26, 2025. It must be argued that Davido’s coming to Akwa Ibom state was neither a happenchance or coincidence. On the dashboard of negotiations, pressing the right buttons of irresistible diplomacy, was Dr. Anieti Udofia to make Davido see reasons to enlist Akwa Ibom. X-raying the Davido mega event in ThisDay Newspaper, Ekemini James reported: “Beneath the spectacle was story of world class infrastructure, peace, and the growing influence of culture as a tool for economic development. The event was indeed a demonstration of how art can align with governance to shape a state’s identity and economy”.
Davido’s personal profession was sincere and highly felicitous, lending credence to Ekemini’s journalistic appraisal: “We were looking around Africa, and Akwa Ibom was top on the list. You have a standard facility, that’s why we are starting here. I am excited. This is the best of its kind”. There was no sector of the state economy that the graph of business did not record vertical rise towards the sky during Davido’s presence. Since the appointment of Dr. Udofia, Akwa Ibom has been constantly on the world map of pleasant and competitive happenings in the culture and tourism domain, with multidimensional benefits from the Law of Comparable Advantage.
On the day he took over office in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism from the former Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Grace Akpan, who was a placeholder following the last dissolution of the State Executive Council, Dr. Udofia, an academic, administrator, and politician who by this appointment would be cutting his teeth as a helmsman in bureaucracy, promised to take the ministry to greater heights by consolidating on inherited achievements, expanding the frontiers of gains, and adding superlative value to the State’s global picture as an Ambassador of the ARISE Agenda. The ministry has the mandate of planning, devising, interpreting and implementing the states blueprint for culture and tourism development.
One popular inheritance of this office Dr. Udofia would have to sustain and temporize in sync with unfolding realities was “Christmas Unplugged”. This is an annual event two of which series, 1.0 and 2.0, had been held in successive years. Whereas Christmas Unplugged as a cultural concept is a patented brainchild of Dr. Udofia’s predecessor-in-office, Sir Charles Udoh. It is historically by ancestry a creative mutation or advancement of the trademark celebration of Christmas in Akwa Ibom State. But its deeper roots could be traced to the famous “Akwa Ibom Christmas Carols Festival” that set a Guinness World Records in December 2014 for the “Largest group of carol singers” with 25,272 participants, a record-breaking event pioneered by the Godswill Akpabio Unity Choir. From the previous Christmas Carols Festival, which predominantly featured traditional Christmas carols with clerics and gospel artistes from the four corners of the world, to Christmas Unplugged, characterized by karaoke by popular musicians and a variety of traditional songs and cultural displays that all the 31 local government areas in the State have equal share of allotted days, Christmas in Akwa Ibom State has grown to become a case study in sociocultural mutation and cross-pollination of entertainment that are fast assuming immortality with fresh contents.
For the record, with Gov Umo Eno as the centrepiece and Dr. Udofia as his Man Friday, Christmas Unplugged 3.0 was an open space theater for history, drama, dance, ballad, fashion and cuisines, etc, that broadcast the sociology and cultural anthropology of the State. Conversely, against all odds, the 2025 edition was special because of a Commissioner who is a connoisseur and a governor with passion for excellence poised on diversifying the State’s economy from oil. In Dr. Udofia we therefore see an existential correlation between what a person knows and how he deploys that knowledge to tackle challenges in real situations to actualize set goals.
There is no telling that Dr. Anieti Nseowo Udofia, a university lecturer, an intellectual authority in cultural discourse, and a culture ambassador has spectacularly demonstrated his pedigree and capacity to the governor’s admiration. There is nothing this man has been involved in that has not recorded monumental success!