“We are at the point where market women sit on top of garbage to sell fish”, Sandy Onor maintains!
Venatius Ikem, Cross River State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has charged members of the party’s State Campaign Council, to get to the hinterlands of the state in a bid to aggressively canvass support from the electorate for the success of the party in next year’s elections.
Inaugurating the council in Calabar, the state capital, Ikem told members of the respective committees that, they were formally charged with the responsibility of coordinating all the energies required to win elections. “The essence of this exercise is to indeed sincerely show that across the state we have leaders, men and women, who are committed and indefatigable in their commitment to ensure victory for us in the next three months. We want to win our elections, we handover that responsibility to you. Feel free to recommend to us what you study, what you hear, what you listen to and what is discussed in the field as you move on from this moment onward”, he insisted.
The chairman also advised them “to encourage others, involve them, don’t shut your doors on people who are relevant because they are not members of the committee, embrace them and work with them.”
Former governor of Cross River, Donald Duke, will lead the 1080- man Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, state campaign council, even as the immediate past deputy governor, Efiok Cobham will serve as the Director General of the campaign organization in the state.
PDP governorship candidate, Sandy Onor, present at the occasion, came clear that, “there is no body here who will genuinely work for this party who will be disrespected and who will not by the grace of God be rewarded. You will be rewarded by what you will do for your community and by what by the grace of God, we will be able to do for you.”
The governorship candidate disclosed that his administration will see to putting Cross River State first before any other. “We will put Cross River first. Anyone who is not ready to put Cross River first will not be in our government, if you by mistake get into government, we will take you out because governance is serious business.”
Lamenting the present state of Cross River, Onor said, “all processes have been abused and debased, nothing is regular, everything is irregular, Cross River is rolling on a slippery verge, one more push it is gone. It has gotten to the point where market women sit on top of garbage to sell fish, even as a new culture is being foisted on the people through an army of food eaters, a people who will not like to sacrifice.”
On his part, the Chairman of the Campaign Council, former state governor, Donald Duke, assured that though the task is daunting enough, his team will deliver. “It is nice to have your brother or sister or clansman in good positions but never promote people beyond their capacity because all of us will suffer for it. When you promote people beyond their size or capacity, they won’t perform and you end up shortchanging the entire state,” Duke argued.
Continuing, he insisted that, “we have gone so low. You blare siren from morning to night, is that governance? Why not blare the siren on success, why not blare the siren on cleanliness, development and quality education? There once was a state, indeed a paradise which today is lost and we have to regain that state, hence all hands must be on deck.”
He further thanked the party and people of the state for providing his team the platform “to lead the onslaught to regain and reclaim Cross River.” Reasoning that governance in the state has gone off target, the former governor affirmed that “we have to get it right and I am glad there is a Sandy. I can vouch for this man because I know who he is, I know his pedigree and his track records.”
Duke further assured that “we must deliver, it is not the victory of the party, it is the victory of we and the restoration of all.”
