On the heels of Gov. Ben Ayade’s recent decision to appoint 35 Special Advisers into his government, Cross River State Labour Party chairman, Austine Ibok is alarmed that the governor has decided to tow this part considering the dire financial situation of the state.
On the line from Abuja, Ibok told www.calitown.com he thinks “Ayade’s decision to use appointments as a settlement tool will in the long run throw up a generation of Cross Riverians without the capacity to function without political patronage”. He adds that, “added to the 18 Personal Assistants I hear he has, the Special Assistants and Commissioners that he has penciled down, it is looking likely that our state will be paying too much for so little. I hope you remember the adage, too many cooks spoil the pudding”.
Particularly, Ibok picked in holes in Ayade’s appointment of Jude Ngaji as the State Security Adviser, stating clearly that, “politics cannot be brought to bear on such a sensitive position unless we are failure driven. Ngaji has not the security capacity for this job and my party is of the very plain opinion that he will excessively fail as SSA, it is the bitter truth and before people call me and my party all sorts of names, let us all do Ngaji a background check to see if he is a round peg in a round hole. Because we have no axe to grind with Ngaji, we demand that the governor looks for some other appointment for him instead of disastrously leaving him to function as SSA”.
Again, Ibok maintains that “if all of the governor’s band of appointees can be paid their salaries and entitlements throughout
Ayade’s tenure, it will be an indictment of Liyel Imoke’s administration, “considering that our financial fortunes as a state have not improved and the same financial excuses are still with us.”
The Labour Party chairman was emphatic when he insisted, “I will want to see Ayade offer Cross Riverians explanations for such phantom projects like the N2.4bn Calabar Media City, N6.4bn Calabar Specialist Hospital, which were used by his predecessor, Liyel Imoke and his co-travellers to clean out the coffers of our state. It is expedient that he says something because it doesn’t look like these questions can be left unanswered”.
On a final note, Ibok wants “Cross Riverians to be patient with the
plans Gov. Ayade has put forward for the state. They appear sound and well thought out, even show a capacity to turn our collective fortunes around and we are in the first instance convinced that if Ayade stays true to the course he will have boldly etch his name in the sands of time”.
The Cross River Geographic Information Agency, CRGIA, has all the solutions to your land needs in CRS…Don’t patronise touts, visit them now! Call 08035238992, 08037258415
Jude Ngaji is a seasoned administrator who will succeed as SSA. All he needs is support from security experts.