There is a familiar biblical story about Jesus Christ feeding thousands with loaves and fish. Most accounts highlight the miracle of multiplication, but perhaps the first miracle was His ability to address five thousand men, without a microphone.
Under the ARISE Agenda praxis of Akwa Ibom State, many speak of the agricultural revolution for food sufficiency. Yet, like charity, Governor Eno’s philosophy of food sufficiency begins at home, where households are nourished through a well-thought-out initiative. After all, defeating hunger is the beginning of the miracle of agricultural transformation.
Today, Akwa Ibom State is winning the battle against hunger through both short- and long-term interventions. While the long-term plan directs citizens back to the farm, the immediate concern has been to feed hundreds of thousands of vulnerable members of the society through the Free Food Distribution Initiative, a mouth-watering expression of compassion in governance which cuts across political divides.
The third phase of Governor Umo Eno’s free food distribution programme may have ended on September 24, 2025, but for thousands of Akwa Ibom families, its impact lingers, like the aroma of a shared meal that warms both body and spirit. Launched on *March 27, 2024*, at the Itam Market, the initiative has, in just one and a half years, reached more than *616,000* households across all 31 Local Government Areas, making it one of the most far-reaching social welfare programmes in the history of the state.
Phase 3, which ran from August 20 to September 24, 2025, reached *137,992* households. Combined with Phases 1 and 2, the initiative has brought relief to over *616,000* families, reaffirming the administration’s resolve to cushion the effects of rising food costs and economic hardship.
The journey of the free food programme under the ARISE Food Security Initiative has been one of steady growth and innovation for the needy. In its earliest phase, food aid trickled through market agents to beneficiaries, coordinated through the 369 Ward Personal Assistants to the Governor. Governor Eno then refined the scheme for greater efficiency and invested in two 40-foot food trucks, which rolled into communities like moving warehouses of hope. Their arrival was often greeted with songs, ululations, and prayers of gratitude. At every local government secretariat they stopped, they left behind more than food, they left reassurance that governance can be felt at the meal table of the vulnerable .
The creation of the Akwa Ibom State Bulk Purchase Agency, backed by law, gave the initiative permanence, while the newly established Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs has coordinated its implementation with discipline and compassion. Local government chairmen, legislators, and community leaders all joined hands, turning each distribution exercise into a collective act of service.
Yet, Governor Eno has remained consistent in his message: the food distribution is only a palliative. His deeper vision is for Akwa Ibom people to return to the land, to plant, nurture, and harvest the dignity of their own sustenance. In pursuit of this, the administration continues to provide staples such as rice, beans, and garri to the hungry today, while investing in seedlings, tree crops, farms and home gardens development for tomorrow.
At the heart of this vision stands the Ibom Model Farm in Nsit Ubium, a 50-hectare holding designed after the renowned Songhai model. More than a farm, it integrates farm and non-farm assets, serving as a training ground, demonstration site, and commercial hub for modern agricultural practice. Alongside it, the ARISE Empowerment Scheme has opened doors for farmers, traders, and entrepreneurs through targeted grants and equipment support , helping them not just to grow their enterprises, but to regain confidence in their capacity to thrive.
For beneficiaries, these interventions are more than policy, they are personal. In Esit Eket, Agnes Boniface Isokobo, a person with disability, said: “The Governor has done what no one else has ever done for people like us.” In Ikot Ekpene, Friday Japhet described the distribution as “a blessing we never expected in these hard times.”
From Mbo, Grace Udo, a widow and beneficiary, recounted how the food aid restored her family’s dignity: “With prices so high, I had lost hope of ever buying rice, but this programme put food back in our home.” In Ini Local Government, Matthew Udofia added: “We thought government would forget us in remote areas, but Governor Eno proved otherwise.” And in Udung Uko, Effiong Etim called the intervention “timely and impactful.”
This is the poetry of governance, trucks that arrive not just with food but with dignity; seedlings that promise not only tomorrow’s harvest but tomorrow’s hope. While the programme has already touched more than 616,000 households, its truer measure will be seen in the self-reliant communities it builds and the renewed faith it sows in the bond between leaders and the led.
A thumbs-up, therefore, to the foot soldiers of the Governor, those who kept faith with the vision and made this compassionate endeavour possible: the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, State Bulk Purchase Agency, Ministry of Information, Ministry of Science and Digital Economy, Security Agencies, Journalists, Drivers, Loaders, and Ground Staff.
And a badge of honour to Governor Umo Eno for envisioning and sustaining this noble, compassionate crusade for the people of Akwa Ibom State. Indeed, what an irresistible delicacy, served on the golden plates of good governance.
Aniekan Umanah writes from Abak, Akwa Ibom State.