The current Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State is Senator Dr. Akon Etim Eyakenyi. She has served since 29 May 2023 alongside Governor Umo Eno.
She is the first woman ever “elected” to the office (an earlier female deputy, Valerie Ebe, was appointed rather than elected). That distinction matters in a state that had never before chosen a woman on a joint gubernatorial ticket.
What makes her path remarkable is how steadily she climbed every rung of public service. She began as an auxiliary teacher, became a Senior Education Officer, earned a PhD in Curriculum Studies, then moved through state commissioner roles, a federal ministerial appointment (Lands, Housing and Urban Development under President Goodluck Jonathan), the chairmanship of key education boards, and a term in the Senate representing Akwa Ibom South.
Few Nigerian politicians have held executive, legislative, and educational leadership positions at local, state, and federal levels in one career.
Her story is less about sudden breakthrough and more about persistence: a teacher who kept studying, a commissioner who kept delivering, and a senator who then became the first woman the electorate itself placed in the deputy governor’s seat.
Pamela O.
Political Analyst/Columnist
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