By Peter Agi
Nigeria has a habit of sacking its pilots mid-flight because it is “someone else’s turn to fly.” We call it zoning. We call it equity.
In Cross River North, some are already whispering that 2027 should rotate away from Ogoja/Yala to Obudu/Obanliku. That whisper ignores the only question that matters in a republic: What has the man done with the office, and what dies if he leaves?
By that metric — the metric of merit — Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe is not just eligible to return. His return is imperative. To remove him for geography would be to choose map over man, sentiment over service, and rotation over results.
The doctrine of meritocracy is not a luxury, it is a survival strategy. Legislative districts are not chieftaincy stools. They are not to be passed around like kola. They are levers of federal allocation, oversight, and lawmaking. When you rotate a seat compulsorily, three things happen:
1. Experience evaporates. It takes four years to learn the budget codes, eight years to master committee politics, and 12 years to rewrite the rules for your people. A first-term senator is learning names. A third-term senator is moving dams.
2. Incentives invert. If you are guaranteed one term, your goal is not development. It is recovery. You don’t plant trees. You harvest contracts.
3. Districts fracture. Cross River North has five LGAs and 54 wards. When every LGA believes it is “owed” the seat, roads stop at LGA borders. The senator spends four years campaigning for his replacement instead of governing.
Meritocracy ends that. It says: The seat belongs to the district, and the district keeps the man who serves it best. If that man is from Ibil, Ogoja, so be it. If the next matchless performer is from Obudu, so be it. Geography must serve results, not replace them.
THE EVIDENCE: A MATCHLESS RECORD BY INDEPENDENT VERDICT
Jarigbe’s years in the National Assembly — House of Reps and now Senate — have been audited by more than his media team. In 2024, the Civil Society Groups for Good Governance (CSGGG), an alliance of over 180 CSOs, conducted an independent assessment of his “legislative and constituency activities” across Ogoja, Yala, Bekwarra, Obudu and Obanliku. Their conclusion: his interventions produced “measurable and widespread benefits”.
What does “measurable” mean?
1. Legislation with teeth, not headlines.
He sponsored the Federal Medical Centre Ogoja Establishment Bill 2023, now at Third Reading; the Federal University of Agriculture, Ogoja Bill, which has passed Second Reading; and amendments to the Police Act and Nigerian Content Development Act. These are not motions to “urge.” They are institution-building bills that outlive elections. FMC Ogoja alone changes healthcare access for a district of 2m+ people.
2. Over 200 projects in 54 wards — and they are not phantom.
His office records, verified by CSGGG and The Sun Nigeria, show 200+ executed projects and 8 ongoing across all 5 LGAs. That is not “one per LGA.” That is every ward touched.
3. Education: classrooms before cameras.
Completed 6-classroom blocks at St. Patrick’s Primary School Ibil, St. Pius Nkpakna, Mbube West Secondary School, Community Primary School Inyie-Ukan Gakem, Onwu Secondary Grammar School Yahe, and more. CSGGG confirms “construction, renovation, and furnishing of classrooms, staff rooms, and modern toilets in numerous primary and secondary schools”.
4. Infrastructure: Roads and bridges where they were footpaths.
Boki Road and Ibil Road have seen “significant improvements”. Bridges at Ukpagada in Ogoja and Amukwong in Obudu “have further eased movement”. Ongoing works include Ibil–Abakpa, Busangfong, and Yahe–Ukelle routes. These are not constituency signposts, they are federal-grade connectors.
5. Water, light, health — the trinity of rural life.
Over 180 solar-powered and motorised boreholes installed. 500KVA transformers energizing “multiple wards”. Solar streetlights “illuminating towns, markets, and major roads”. Health centres that “lacked basic equipment such as thermometers and glucometers now have these essential medical supplies”. 1,000 constituents enrolled in JariCare Health Insurance Scheme, with 500 already sponsored for one-year coverage.
6. Human capital that compounds.
PTDF and NDDC scholarships sending “young people… studying in the UK and Europe”. Tractors, fertilizers, and hand tillers for farmers. Aquaculture and data management training for youths. Vocational trainees, lecturers, and students equipped with laptops; motorcycles and tricycles for youths and traditional rulers; cash grants for businesswomen.
7. Leverage beyond his committee.
As Chairman, Senate Committee on Gas, he lobbied for a Rural Electrification Agency project in Anagbo “even though REA isn’t under my committee”. That is what ranking does: it turns a seat into a switchboard. A first-termer cannot call that number.
These are not claims. They are listed, geotagged, and toured by CSOs, Vanguard, The Sun, and NAN, media house. In 2024, he was named “Cross River Most Outstanding Senator of the Year” by Yala Achievers Summit & Award. The ICON of Nation Building Award 2021 and UN Global Peace and Humanitarian Award 2022 predate his Senate tenure. The pattern is consistent: performance, not propaganda.
WHY ROTATION WOULD BE SELF-SABOTAGE FOR CROSS RIVER NORTH
1. Bills die with their sponsors. FMC Ogoja at Third Reading needs a ranking voice to navigate conference committee and assent. Hand it to a freshman and it joins the pile of stillborn bills. The district loses a teaching hospital because it wanted “fairness.”
2. Federal relationships reset to zero. A senator who chairs Gas and sits on Appropriation can route projects. A new senator spends 2 years learning the lobby. In a district where 180 boreholes and 500KVA transformers came in four years, interruption is regression.
3. The 54-ward equity argument collapses on contact with facts. Jarigbe’s projects hit “every ward”. The Amukwong Bridge in Alege/Ubang, Igwo Road, Betukwel Road, and town halls are in Obudu/Obanliku. Paramount Rulers and APC Chapter Chairmen in those LGAs “commended the senator for his impactful representation” and “pledged their continued support”. When the supposed “shortchanged” wards are asking for continuity, rotation is not equity. It is amnesia.
4. The precedent it sets. If you sack a man with 200+ projects, JariCare, FMC Ogoja at Third Reading, and foreign scholarships for constituents because “it is Obudu’s turn,” you tell every future senator: “Don’t perform. Just wait for your turn.” You institutionalize mediocrity.
THE ONLY ZONING THAT MATTERS: ZONING OUT NON-PERFORMANCE.
Cross River North does not need a senator from a specific LGA. It needs a senator who treats all five LGAs as his LGA. The evidence says Jarigbe has. CSGGG’s 180-CSO review found benefits “across Ogoja, Yala, Bekwarra, Obudu, and Obanliku”. The Senator himself told NAN: “Every ward in my district has benefitted”. Vanguard reported Obudu and Obanliku stakeholders listing projects and pledging support.
So what exactly would rotation fix?
Meritocracy does not mean Ogoja rules forever. It means results rule forever. If Obudu produces a Jarigbe in 2031, Obudu should keep that Jarigbe for 16 years too. The standard is the man, not the map.
2027: KEEP THE PILOT OR CRASH THE PLANE
A district is like a patient. FMC Ogoja is surgery in progress. The University of Agriculture is in post-op. The bridges, roads, boreholes, and transformers are recovery therapy. You do not change surgeons because the nurse is from another ward.
Jarigbe told stakeholders in Obudu and Obanliku: back me “not merely on the basis of regional affiliation, but in recognition of my performance and commitment to delivering greater development”. That is the definition of meritocracy.
To the people of Cross River North: You have a rare problem in Nigerian politics — a representative whose record is audited, footprint is visible, and ambition is tied to completion. Your choice in 2027 is binary:
Option A: Return the man with 200+ projects, Third Reading on FMC Ogoja, 1,000 health-insured constituents, foreign scholarships, and 180 boreholes — and give him four more years to finish.
Option B: Sack him for zoning, watch the bills die, watch the relationships reset, and start tutorials with a freshman while your neighbours keep their ranking senators.
One option is development. The other is democracy as masochism. The Senate is not a village meeting. It is a national engineering room. You don’t rotate the engineer because it is the apprentice’s birthday. You keep the engineer until the bridge is done.
Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe has been building. The bridge is mid-river. Let him finish.
Return him, because results are the only rotation Nigeria can afford.
Agi, FCA, writes from Ijegu-Ojor, Yala LGA, Cross River State.
