PASTOR UMO ENO’S ROYALTY HOTELS PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN FORMER GOVERNOR ATTAH’S RESOURCE CONTROL STRUGGLE

” When the then Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Victor Attah conceived the idea of hosting The World Mayor Conference in Akwa Ibom State, the real challenge was where to hold the conference and lodge the world mayors.

Uyo then was completely different from Uyo now. The hospitality industry in the town was practically dead. There were no quality hotels. What existed were old, decrepit and starless hotels which had long lost their glory. Even the State Government-owned Metro Hotel, the best hotel in town then, was in a very bad state.

The sorry state of affairs in the industry indubitably informed Attah’s decision later in 2001 to build a five-star hotel at Nwaniba, in the outskirts of Uyo.

In sharp contrast to the situation in the bad old days, there are numerous quality hotels scattered across Uyo now.

ROYALTY HOTELS TO THE RESCUE

In the whole of Akwa Ibom State then, there was only one hotel that could pass for a one-star hotel – ROYALTY HOTELS owned by PASTOR UMO ENO. But it was located in Eket, the oil town, where it catered mostly to the needs of Mobil and its workers, especially expatriates.

With no alternative in the state capital, the State Government chose to hold the conference and lodge the mayors there.

Ukpong recalls: “I inspected all the hotels in Uyo and Eket. None was up to the standard of Royalty. Royalty was clearly ahead of them. Royalty was better than all the hotels in Uyo and Eket. I chose Royalty. I did it on merit. We took a lot of things into consideration.

”All but two of the events of the week-long conference, some of which this writer attended, held at Royalty Hotels. The opening ceremony was held at Ibom Hall in Uyo and there was a day devoted for inspection of oil spill sites in Ibeno. The rest of the events, mostly lectures and discussions, took place at the hotel.

If there was no Royalty then, the only option would have been to lodge the mayors in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, where there were good hotels, and transport them daily to Akwa Ibom State for the conference. Apart from the long distance, it would have negated the essence of the conference which was to draw attention to Akwa Ibom and attract international attention to the resource control struggle.

Attah was delighted with the success of the conference in which he participated throughout. And so impressed was he with the role and quality of the hotel that he lodged there with his late wife, Allison, on the night preceding the closing of the conference.

That night, Eno, the “Governor” of Royalty Hotels, appreciated his guests. He hosted his “co-Governor” (Attah), wife, the mayors and their entourage to a cocktail party.

“He gave us a cocktail in appreciation,” Ukpong recollects. “He said that was his contribution to the conference. Attah was very impressed with Royalty.”

In turn, an appreciative Attah later appointed Eno to chair the state hotels’ board.

So former Governor Attah’s presentation of Pastor Umo Eno may be his own way of recognising a seasoned hotelier who was there for him and the state in one of the defining moments of the resource control struggle.

Tom

Move Media Team