By Substance Udo-Nature
Could Barr. Onofiok Luke be leaning on the same frame of mind with Steve Maraboli? In his book, "Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience", Steve says: "I want to live my life in such a way that when I get out of bed in the morning, the devil says, 'aw shit, he's up!'"
Those envious and mischievously strategizing on circumventing the dreams, consistent rise and wide recognition of the Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Onofiok Akpan Luke, still may have a million more holes to dig in Fool's Paradise.
Barely two weeks ago, an important event came and went without glitz and fanfare. That was because of the character in the centre. But the lingering significance of that event to distinctive record of public service and the distinguished personality of attraction of that day cannot quietly be swept under the thick carpet of history.
Perhaps because of these restless and reckless campaigns, not many may have heard about that great honour done him by a great organization. The event in question was the additional feather of distinction on the over-feathered cap of the Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly as “Best Speaker of the Year” amongst Speakers of Houses of Assembly in Nigeria by the Daily Independent Newspaper. That was barely two weeks ago on Saturday, January 12, 2019.
Daily Independent, a powerhouse in Nigeria’s expansive media space, the organizers of that award, an annual event that recognizes and celebrates distinctive individual performance in critical sectors including leadership, indicated that the exceptional Speaker, Hon. Luke the People’s Speaker, was honoured for his bravery, innovativeness and outstanding performance in legislative matters as first amongst equals in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly and, by virtue of the said award, the best on the ranking of Speakers of Houses of Assembly across the country.
By extrapolation, Luke’s spectacular record of achievement that merited the award could be collapsed under the following subheads - Open and transparent legislature, innovative and populist initiative, legislative/civic engagements, legislative representative agenda, political stability, and stakeholders’ inclusiveness.
Others include infrastructural development, capacity building, personal leadership acumen, robust diplomacy with other arms of government, and public trust in the House of Assembly.
Although he is doing that for which the electorate had had confidence in freely giving him the ticket as a tested two-term parliamentarian, caring nothing about awards, it was no surprise that out of 36 Speakers in different Houses of Assembly who all were under assessment within the period, Barr, Onofiok Luke clinched the most outstanding award in legislative leadership. History is silent and timid to say when an Akwa Ibom Speaker ever won this award.
Accessible evidence shows that Onofiok Akpan Luke, as this single-parent son of Ubium was ordinarily known a few years ago, has come a relatively short distance in life and public service. But the pedestal he stands tall today, measuring up with Irokos and giants, is generally adjudged a rarity in his age bracket and generation, at least in this our clime of youth parasitism and virulent timidity.
But before chronic dreamers and opportunists who knew Luke just yesterday hurriedly conclude that he must be a star dropped from outer space to outshine his contemporaries, it is necessary to state that his has been an unfolding episode of trail some beginning and fast-pace ascendancy on the staircase to limelight, propelled by Providence, personal vision and rocky determination in the face of devastating misfortunes.
Onofiok Luke’s life, as I have come to know, is a pastoral story of a young man who although having had cogent reasons to have given up in the circumstances of his tender tears rather chose to partner with God and motivational motherhood as he stepped into the arena with raw optimism and iron faith in possibilities beclouded memories of his father's death at sunrise.
Within a circus of time, the credentials of this once rustic and agrarian orphan-child progressively lifted him higher and faster from obscurity to red-carpet glitterati that many usually think is the exclusive right of royalties and born aristocrats.
It does not appear that Onofiok Akpan Luke, today’s celebrated –and sometimes dreaded – two-term Member and Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly whom many may forever hate to love was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. I doubt if he even had a wooden spoon, to start with.
Yet, through time and events, he daringly followed a footpath that incidentally opened into a superhighway of loftiness. The fact that Onofiok has been able to secure his tender dreams in his heart in spite of the many valleys and rivers along the way makes him one of the favoured beneficiaries of a popular quote by the First Lady of the United States of the 2nd World War period, Eleanor Roosevelt: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”.
Luke has a peculiar way of stepping into the arena without momentum, but rapidly gathering stimulus that comes with sparks and irresistible novelties.
Even if we may pretend to forget his referential exploits as pioneer Speaker of the Nigerian Youth Parliament (NYP) just after his infamous university days' travails, or the precociousness that endeared him to successive principalities at the Hilltop Mansion since 2007, his service record in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly both as a Member and Speaker cannot be forgotten even by a chronic victim of dementia.
By the time he walked into the peripheral sublimeness of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly in 2011 not a few must have taken him for a greenhorn. But Luke had his plans and plots, which was to make a difference that shall alter existing records.
And he has shattered records, emerging triumphant from all battles big and small, facing elephants and ants with equal measure. How and why he emerged the Speaker just at the time Akwa Ibom people needed such a Speaker may only fully be told in a 72-hour documentary by Hollywood film directors.
Defending Democracy with his blood and sweat from the hands of those determined to strangulate it for their selfish ends, Barr. Onofiok Luke brought both magic and finesse into the mandate and management of the affairs of the 6th Assembly, propounding bills and inventing initiatives that alerted the watching world of his arrival.
There are concerns that had Akwa Ibom not had such a Speaker made of steel in the unfolding and prevailing circumstances, it can only be imagined where the State would have been in the propagandistic manipulations of the present.
In spite of our incurable cynicism, the Daily Independent Newspapers' award appositely speaks volumes. That is do because in a genetically mercantilist economy like ours, awards, especially when it comes from the media community, sometimes raise dust upon motives.
Like chieftaincy titles which oftentimes are peddled in palaces and hawked around in trays in village markets for the highest bidder, or designed as a booby-trap for the ingratiation of desperate and ambitious politicians, media awards also have their weaknesses. However, when evidence overwhelms the symbolism, an award, like Luke's, becomes tonic to the recipient and a challenge to the mediocrity.
Luke was not given the award because of the amiable contours of his face or because his name is more seductive than the Rose flower, but because of his outstanding performance in an Assembly that was once stereotyped as “rubber stamp”. He came with a wire brush that obliterated such derogatory stigma.
I learnt the award extravaganza was held in Lagos the Centre of Excellence. But I only have cause to wonder if that was why the people’s Speaker never bothered to shake my hand with at least a packet of Chivita and peanut on his return to Uyo to give me a token feel of what happened at Eko Hotels and Suites on the award night.
When someone of excellence receives award of excellence in the centre of excellence from an organization that stands for excellence, the excellence becomes extraordinaire. So we can now address Rt. Hon. Onofiok Luke, as Speaker par excellence.
I now better understand why Jalaluddin Rumi could say: "Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart". Luke knows his work and does his work with peculiar superlativeness.
Congratulations to you the People's Speaker!
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