I hope I won’t have to explain my choice of title for students of literature. By this I mean those who love to read.
I have read all the permutations on the chances of the major political parties across the Country and so far none has bothered to suggest any likely upset in the political status quo of Cross River State. Maybe I didn’t read just every newspaper. Suffice it to say much of the hype about APC is just that. A mere hype.
I can be more generous. There is a likelihood of substantial improvement in the votes that APC will score certainly, which is good for our democracy. From about 68,000 votes in 2015, maybe they could double that and in civilized political climes that would be commendable performance but certainly not enough to guarantee any victory by any stretch of the imagination. The expectations of winning the Gubernatorial elections, therefore, is a figment of the imagination. A mere wishful thought.
APC support peaked long before the elections and started on a downward slide because there is no leadership in the party and those pretending to be “Leaders” in it are merely looking to butter their bread from aspirants contesting on her platform, or for those with political appointment, feather their nests.
I sympathize with Senator John Owan Enoh because he must be feeling the heat of it all and certainly having doubts about his chances as a consequence. I repeat there is no single committed member to the pursuit of electoral victory for the party. A few of them there may be a bit committed to winning their personal elections, not because of the platform.
I find it laughable that some persons who claim to be members from the north may be promising some magic at the polls. It is true that many people had been angry and upset with the governor for one reason or the other, including myself, but many are coming to terms with the fact that losing the governorship of the zone for such reasons may in the long run have adverse repercussions for the region, her people and their future long after Gov. Ben Ayade. The governor has equally shown substantial humility in attempting to address such perceived grievances where they have been brought to his attention. The fruits of such efforts are clearly evident.
In Yala Local Government where the semblance of resistance persists, the question I have asked without answers is when did some of the governor’s aides, until recently, who are leading the charge, decide that he is such a bad person? I know that they have no such conviction.
Largely, local politics in Yala on the ambition of Jude Ngaji to make “history” as a young senator, whose father was recently a senator, is responsible for the so called crisis. I am informed that the governor who had indulged Jude over the years was himself hamstrung by the national directives of the party to retain all incumbents, which is within the public dormain.
That a sophisticated people like Yala people will join this self indulgent, vaulting ambition of a young man who has many years ahead of him and lose their focus on what is at stake is appalling. And this is because “politics” in Yala has been out-sourced to miscreants, who Jude largely controls with pittance and cult patronage! I really cannot believe that in all that motley crowd of so called Jude supporters, there is hardly any body of some substance to reckon with as a leader of Yala!
I do not blame Jude at all. In politics everything available becomes a weapon. If Senator Rose Oko had bothered to think beyond her luck that Liyel Imoke for some inexplicable reasons, at least to me, decided that she was the best person to represent us from the north, either in sympathy or to compensate her for services I can never recall because Rose Oko joined PDP after Donald Duke’s second term in office when PDP had become an all comers’ affair. Today as major beneficiaries of what they didn’t sow, they have left the burden of their elections to others. Political patronage is an exclusive right of nuclear family members, leaving a local government absolutely in the hands of miscreants! I do not intend to insult the sensibilities of the good and enlightened people of Yala, many of whom I have had the opportunity to interact with and respect. I do not however understand what it is about that Jude Ngaji should be the issue in an election where they still have the opportunity to produce a senator and hold on to many “lucrative” opportunities that the governorship comes with.
Why would sophisticated people like Yala people think through the vaulting ambition of Jude and his immediate family who have appropriated most of the political opportunities that have come to Yala as a whole, just because, like a spoilt child he doesn’t like to be denied any toy he desires?
The people of the north will not allow Yala to deprive us of the opportunity to which generations before us aspired to but did not actualise until now. Many of us have more grievances against Governor Ayade and many of them much more credible. We have nevertheless resolved in the collective interest of our people to drive the proverbial fox away before we address the arrant chicken.
Power comes from God ultimately and no matter how much you “fight” if it’s not going to be it won’t be. To set your mind to bring down the house upon everyone and everything because it is not you is infra dig! I think the young professionals and budding business men I see coming up in Yala owe a duty to call some young men trying to out grow their shoes to order. In the end it will be in their enlightened self-interest as a people and community.
Happy Sunday.
