{"id":166629,"date":"2025-06-12T21:29:36","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T20:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/defection-im-chasing-elephant-not-barking-dog"},"modified":"2025-06-12T22:44:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T21:44:05","slug":"defection-im-chasing-elephant-not-barking-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/defection-im-chasing-elephant-not-barking-dog","title":{"rendered":"Defection: I&#8217;m Chasing Elephant Not Barking Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno, has defended his recent defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), comparing his political decision to a man chasing an elephant who refuses to be distracted by the barking of dogs along the path.<\/p>\n<p>He stated this in Uyo on Wednesday after returning from France, where he attended the United Nations Ocean Conference.<\/p>\n<p>The governor stated that his decision to join the APC was driven by the best interests of the Akwa Ibom people and aimed at strategically positioning the state for greater development.<\/p>\n<p>He dismissed criticism of his defection, particularly from those he described as non-indigenes who, according to him, interfere in matters that do not concern them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor those who think we don\u2019t have a choice, I have exercised my right. It is within our constitutional right to freely associate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s remain focused because when you are pursuing an elephant, you don\u2019t let a dog stop you on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reaffirming his authority and responsibility as the sitting governor, Eno said: \u201cThis is Akwa Ibom\u2019s matter. I am the one in the driver\u2019s seat today. I know the road without traffic jams, without potholes. That\u2019s why I\u2019ve chosen to take Akwa Ibom on an expressway of development.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He vowed to keep guiding the state toward peace, unity, and progress, guided by his faith and a sense of divine purpose.<\/p>\n<p>Also speaking, Obong Stephen Ntukekpo, the state chairman of the APC, praised Eno\u2019s leadership, urging citizens to look beyond criticisms and support the governor\u2019s efforts to attract more federal benefits to Akwa Ibom.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGovernor Eno is the right leader for this time. Rather than engage in vain criticisms, let\u2019s support him to bring more dividends of democracy from the federal level to our people,\u201d Ntukekpo said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno, has defended his recent defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), comparing his political decision to a man chasing an elephant who refuses to be distracted by the barking of dogs along the path. He stated this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":166628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[1620,9136,254],"class_list":["post-166629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-defection","tag-eno","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Defection: I&#039;m Chasing Elephant Not Barking Dog - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno, has defended his recent defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PD ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/defection-im-chasing-elephant-not-barking-dog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defection: I&#039;m Chasing Elephant Not Barking Dog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno, has defended his recent defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PD ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/defection-im-chasing-elephant-not-barking-dog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-12T20:29:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-12T21:44:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/sm_1749752101.67006.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"930\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/defection-im-chasing-elephant-not-barking-dog#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/defection-im-chasing-elephant-not-barking-dog\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Defection: I&#8217;m Chasing Elephant Not Barking Dog\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-12T20:29:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-12T21:44:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/defection-im-chasing-elephant-not-barking-dog\"},\"wordCount\":334,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/defection-im-chasing-elephant-not-barking-dog#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/sm_1749752101.67006.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"defection\",\"Eno\",\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/defection-im-chasing-elephant-not-barking-dog#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/defection-im-chasing-elephant-not-barking-dog\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/defection-im-chasing-elephant-not-barking-dog\",\"name\":\"Defection: I'm Chasing Elephant Not Barking Dog - 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