Impeccable political sources who have elected to remain anonymous because of the sensitive nature of this issue have however informed www.calitown.com that the seeming intractable political ‘war’ between Cross River State governor, Ben Ayade and the senator representing Cross River North Senatorial District, Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, was caused by the governor’s wrong thinking as well as wrong political moves, several months before trenches were dug.
“The governor, still in the PDP then, had summoned Jarigbe to a meeting in Calabar. A humble Jarigbe drove by road to Calabar from Abuja for the meeting with the governor but was instead directed to go have a meeting with Frank Ayade, the governor’s brother, who had brazenly assumed not only the role of a co-governor but that of a sole spiritual head too. Jarigbe took all of this in and reached out in humility to Frank who had been asked by Ayade to handle the issue of Party Excos across the State.”
When Jarigbe reached out to Frank as directed by the governor, we gather that Frank asked Jarigbe to nominate just an inconsequential Ex Officio member for his Nkum Irede ward and that was all. “So for Jarigbe’s Nkum Irede ward, without any consideration that Jarigbe is a House of Representatives member, Frank who was not elected and is not even from the ward, had nominated a ward Chairman, Secretary and all other positions. Jarigbe was not even consulted and it was so bad that an elected House of Reps member did not and was not even to know who his Ward Chairman would be, it was that bad”, we were told.
Continuing, “Jarigbe, thinking what was wrong could be fixed, reached out to the governor over the phone and bared his mind. How did the governor respond? As he took minutes to bare his mind out, Ayade responded by sarcastically laughing at the issues Jarigbe raised and then went further to drop a bomb, telling Jarigbe that he should not think of running for House of Reps in 2023 as he, Ayade, was going to return to the Senate. He even told him that he was grooming someone to take over the House of Reps seat. He thought he was speaking to his son when he further told Jarigbe that he was going to be patronising him with contracts when he gets to the Senate. In essence, the man had effectively contrived in his head that Jarigbe must be prematurely retired from politics and would serve as his errand boy, executing non-existent contracts for Ayade and taking pittance..haba naaa. If you carefully look at what Ayade was proposing for Jarigbe, you will see that the intentions were to cripple this young man and leave him out in the cold. Was there a reason for this kind of devilish plan against Jarigbe?”
Pressed further, the source told us that, “Stephen Odey from Yala was the man being groomed to take over the House of Reps position from Jarigbe; Ayade told him so and then, God showed he was no man. Rose Oko went to be with the Lord and the political dynamics changed. If anyone was in doubt that Ayade had not in his mind primed it that he was going back to the Senate, why did he viciously support Stephen Odey to go to the Senate? Look, it was because Odey had obediently agreed to hold fort for his master, who would then take over after his tenure as governor expires. It was going to be Ayade all the way until Jarigbe and the people showed the man that God is no man.”
“See, major stakeholders in the PDP, including NASS members, threw their weight and support behind Jarigbe’s senatorial quest because the governor shows them very little or no respect; he is inclined to treat them like his employees and garnishes it all with an overblown self esteem. Where he should seek wise counsel, he shows limited personal knowledge. Where he should be humane and sensitive, he demonstrates arrogance that unites people against him. Where he should accept defeat and learn, he defecates there and makes a pile of his problems…we can go on and on.”
Our source closes by insisting that, “what our people need now is purposeful leadership and not the kind of harakiri that the Ayade administration has become synonymous with. The people we elect in must be challenged to push governance way above the bar. Someone like Jarigbe has followership that is driven by the fact that he is accessible and humane; what he is doing is unprecedented in governance and he should be encouraged to do more rather than try to exclude him from governance, something that has clearly not worked.’
