The outcome of the Osun State governorship election has triggered a fresh debate in Akwa Ibom State over Governor Umo Eno’s performance, with some residents and commentators questioning whether the administration has done enough with the huge resources that have accrued to the state since he assumed office.

The debate erupted almost immediately after the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Governor Ademola Adeleke the winner of Saturday’s governorship election in Osun, giving him another four-year term.

Mr Adeleke secured 511,067 votes against 444,815 scored by his closest challenger, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Oyebamiji.

Although the Osun election was not a referendum on Akwa Ibom, its timing, which is less than a year before the 2027 general elections, appears to have provided a fresh political lens through which some Akwa Ibom residents are assessing their own government.

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The election was closely watched nationally as the last major off-cycle governorship contest before 2027 and as a possible indicator of voter sentiment, political alliances and the strength of incumbent administrations.

For some Akwa Ibom commentators, Mr Adeleke’s victory has prompted the question: how much does visible performance matter to an incumbent governor seeking to retain political support, especially when voters can point to what they consider tangible results?

That question has now been directed at Mr Eno, whose administration has received at least N2.934 trillion in public resources between May 2023 and June 2026, according to PREMIUM TIMES analysis of the state’s financial records.

The question moves beyond the claim that the Eno administration has done nothing. PREMIUM TIMES has independently verified several projects completed or commissioned by the government, including roads, healthcare facilities, model schools, shelter for the less privileged and other interventions.

Rather, the central criticism is whether the scale, pace and quality of those projects match the resources available to the government, and whether citizens have sufficient information to determine what individual projects cost and how contracts were awarded.

Osun’s result becomes talking point

Within hours of Mr Adeleke’s victory, social media discussions in Akwa Ibom began shifting from the Osun result to the performance of the Eno administration.

A professor of communication at the University of Uyo, Herbert Batta, wrote on Facebook on Sunday that the Osun result offered a lesson for Akwa Ibom.

“Who says dancing does not pay? This man has danced his way back to power!” Mr Batta wrote, before questioning the extent to which Akwa Ibom had benefited from its “alignment” with the APC, the ruling party at the centre.

The Peoples Democratic Party was the ruling party in Akwa Ibom for 26 years, from the return of democratic governance in 1999, until Governor Eno defected to the APC on 6 June 2025.

Mr Batta listed several federal projects in Akwa Ibom, which he said remained stalled or progressed slowly, including sections of the East-West Road, the proposed Ibom Deep Seaport, the Aluminium Smelting Company of Nigeria at Ikot Abasi, and the Nigeria Maritime University in Oron, the Aba-Ikot Ekpene Road, the Calabar-Itu Road and the Uyo-Port Harcourt Road.

He then turned the argument towards the Eno administration.

“All Governor Umo Eno needed and still needs to do is to stupefy the people of Akwa Ibom with programmes, projects, and products in the 10 federal constituencies and three senatorial districts to the extent that the people have no choice but to vote massively for him and his party,” he wrote.

“But with what we see on the ground: the dead slow pace of contract/project delivery, the LGA-grade bungalow projects, the abandonment or non-funding of signature projects four years down the road; it appears the state simply wants to take undue advantage of federal might and return itself to power.”

The professor’s argument is that political loyalty alone may not be enough if voters believe government performance is inadequate.

The reactions in the Facebook comment section showed that the argument resonated with many residents.

A journalist, Emem Nkereuwem, wrote: “Prof, our people have been stripped of their tongues. Our hearts are heavy and bleeding within. Our frail humanity is slowly becoming the norm.”

Another commenter, Chris Essang, said the Eno administration was “very busy doing nothing”, while Courage Nda questioned why local government areas receiving substantial allocations could not adequately grade rural roads.

“The governor has to sit up. It is going to be hot. Mark my words,” Edemson Anwana wrote.

Eyo Udoh said Mr Eno was “very slow in some critical sectors, especially education.”

The Adeleke comparison

The argument critics are making moves beyond whether Akwa Ibom and Osun have identical political or economic circumstances.

Rather, the Osun election has provided a fresh example of an incumbent governor securing another term at a time when voters’ assessment of performance is becoming increasingly important in Nigeria.

Mr Adeleke’s Accord Party has insignificant political strength nationwide compared with the APC, which controls the government at the centre and 31 of Nigeria’s 36 states. Yet, the governor defeated the APC candidate by more than 66,000 votes.

For Akwa Ibom critics, that outcome has sharpened the argument that an incumbent cannot rely indefinitely on party structure, political alliances or the weakness of opposition without demonstrating visible improvements in citizens’ lives.

It is this argument that has now been imported into the debate over Mr Eno’s administration.

A separate Facebook post on Sunday by Bobby Bassey, whose profile says he is a tailor, software engineer and social media writer, asked Mr Eno’s supporters to identify “one befitting completed project” executed by the administration.

By 10 a.m. on Monday, the post had attracted 147 comments, with most of those commenting expressing dissatisfaction with the utilisation of public resources in Akwa Ibom.

“Sometimes we need to tell our leaders that we need more,” Mr Bassey wrote.

One commenter, Wisdom Enang, appealed for the rehabilitation of Tabernacle Road, an issue PREMIUM TIMES previously reported on regarding flooding and the road’s condition.

Charles Ufot mocked the administration’s frequent distribution of rice to residents, while Etiene David said Mr Eno’s predecessor, Udom Emmanuel, performed better.

“I know his (Eno’s) supporters will not like this post, but the truth must be told. I wish there were a strong opposition in the state,” Idorenyin Udoh wrote.

The repeated calls for a stronger opposition are notable because the criticism is no longer restricted to individual projects. Some of the commenters are beginning to frame the 2027 election as a contest that requires a credible alternative to the ruling political structure in Akwa Ibom.

Discontent extends to youths

The criticism also extended beyond infrastructure and service delivery to the concerns of young people seeking economic opportunities from the government.

A former youth leader in the state, Akan Etteudo, in a Facebook post on Sunday, appealed directly to Mr Eno, saying some groups of youths were becoming dissatisfied with the administration.

He called on the governor to “show love” to the youths, release inter-ministerial jobs and contracts, and send young people for training.

“Release money for your commissioner; they complain more than the youths on the streets,” he added.

The post generated further comments, with some respondents alleging that access to government opportunities and funds was also becoming a source of frustration among people within and around the administration.

Some commenters claimed that even individuals close to the government were privately complaining about poverty and a lack of opportunities in Akwa Ibom.

The reactions stand out because they suggest that the discontent being expressed online is not limited to physical infrastructure but also to unemployment and poverty.

‘Every corner of the state saturated with complaints’

Leo Umana, who served Mr Eno’s administration and his predecessor’s as a board member of the Akwa Ibom State Internal Revenue Service, said in a Facebook post on Monday morning that complaints are heard in every corner of the state.

“Every corner in the state is saturated with so many complaints. How is it on your side? The Authority should take note and action, please,” he said. Several comments on the post supported his position.

The government says there is much to show

Mr Eno’s media aide, Samuel Ayara, however, rejected the suggestion that the administration has little to show for its time in office.

“Befitting is relative. What counts as befitting for one may not be for another,” Mr Ayara wrote in response to Mr Bassey’s post on Facebook.

He listed roads, model health centres, model schools, general hospitals, the ARISE Palm Resort, aviation infrastructure, human capital development, Compassionate Homes, housing projects, public service reforms, an equipment leasing company, the state health insurance scheme, oxygen production plants, emergency ambulance services and the elderly citizens centre.

“There is much to cheer about,” he wrote.

He acknowledged that citizens could always demand more, but argued that the administration had made interventions across sectors.

His response, however, generated further criticism, with some commenters asking whether the projects cited were commensurate with the resources available to the government.

Some also questioned the functionality of some of the health facilities.

PREMIUM TIMES has previously investigated this issue and found that the construction of health facilities did not always translate into functioning healthcare services because of inadequate staffing and equipment.

Effort exists, but transparency remains a question

PREMIUM TIMES has verified that the Eno administration has completed and commissioned some projects.

These include the Ukanafun General Hospital and its access road, ARISE Compassionate Homes delivered to vulnerable residents, model primary healthcare centres, model schools and some road projects.

The administration has also continued or completed some projects inherited from the previous administration.

The government says it has undertaken road construction programmes and interventions in healthcare, education, housing, aviation and tourism.

However, PREMIUM TIMES has found that many have remained incomplete, and some have been abandoned after commencement.

The evidence, therefore, does not support a blanket claim that the administration has achieved nothing.

However, the existence of some projects does not resolve another important question central to the criticism: how much did they cost, how were the contractors selected and how much has actually been spent, and are projects and programmes implemented commensurate with the funds available?

That is an area where PREMIUM TIMES investigations have repeatedly identified gaps.

For major projects such as the ARISE Palm Resort, the N15.47 billion rehabilitation of the State House of Assembly complex and the N42.04 billion CNG bus programme, PREMIUM TIMES reported major gaps in publicly available procurement information, including contract sums, bidding records and procurement documentation.

The newspaper has also reported that detailed capital expenditure information became increasingly difficult to obtain from the state’s publicly available financial reports.

PREMIUM TIMES has also reported that under Mr Eno’s administration, Akwa Ibom state had slipped deeper into fiscal secrecy.

This makes it difficult for citizens to independently assess whether the government is getting value for money, even where the physical existence of a project is not in dispute.

N2.934 trillion raises the stakes

The debate is particularly noteworthy because of the amount of money available to the state.

PREMIUM TIMES analysis showed that Akwa Ibom received at least N2.934 trillion between May 2023 and June 2026.

The figure includes federal allocations and other inflows but excludes the state’s internally generated resources, particularly for May and June 2023.

It is against that financial backdroproproproproproprop that the latest criticism should be understood.

The timing of the debate, immediately after the Osun election, gives it an added political undertone.

In Akwa Ibom, the Saturday’s judgement passed on the performance of the Adeleke administration in Osun State is already being debated less than seven months before the next governorship election.

And for Mr Eno, the question may increasingly be less about whether his administration has projects to point to and more about whether the people believe the projects, programmes, and expenditure are sufficient for N2.934 trillion and whether the government has been sufficiently open about what it spent and how it spent it.