Authored by Ufok Ibekwe
As the passing of the Akwa Ibom State PDP chairman, Hon Udo Ekpenyong was announced on Tuesday 19th January, 2021, shock waves reverberated everywhere because nobody saw it coming giving the fact that the man was a strong compact man with a healthy lifestyle. The entire Akwa Ibom State and the PDP family have been thrown into deep mourning. The actual cause of his death is merely speculative, but ONLY GOD knows.
Hon Udo Ekpenyong was a political Iroko and governor Udom’s strong right-hand man. Unfortunately, and sadly, that strong right hand has been chopped off at this critical time it was most needed.
The sudden demise of Hon Ekpenyong and the grief occasioned by it syncs with what William Shakespeare wrote in his play Julius Caesar that “When beggars die there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.” In Akwa Ibom currently, comets are being seen whiles the heavens blaze at the death of a noble Prince.
Late Hon Udo was a great Man just as Thomas Carlyle the Scottish Statesman put it “No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men”. He was an impactful leader and a purpose driven person not given to frivolities. His political career which spanned well over three decades took him to various positions such as Local government chairman, Special Adviser under governor Obong Victor Attah, PDP national ex-officio member, Commissioner for Local Government and chieftaincy Affairs and finally the Akwa Ibom PDP State chairman before his demise.
Although Hon Ekpenyong was in his sixties before his death, his period on earth was a testimony to Henry Longfellow’s words that “Lives of great men all remind us that we can make our lives sublime, and departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time.”
The above words of Longfellow go to prove that the value of a man’s life is not in its duration, but in its donation. You are not important because of how long you live, but how effective you live
Late Hon Udo Ekpenyong was an effective donor to our world
There goes an iroko
And whence cometh another?
Sleep well BIG BROTHER CHAIMAN
