Unbelievably, former Military Governor of Cross River State, Ernest Kizito Attah, has revealed this morning that they were several times during his time as governor of the state, when he was moved to tears and actually wept at home, after visiting some parts of the state and experiencing first hand, the level of suffering in those parts.
Attah, who spoke on local radio station, HIT 95.9 FM, Calabar, revealed further that his personal encounters with these suffering communities drove him into pursuing and implementing aggressive rural development programmes because “…since I also come from a local community and understand how people suffer there, it was only normal that I sincerely work at changing the living conditions in these communities for good”, he said.
Credited largely for being one of three governors, in the history of Cross River State, to have pursued the development of credible infrastructure on a large scale, he also revealed that he pursued the construction of strategic roundabouts in Calabar metropolis to tackle traffic congestion that was gradually building, just like he dualized IBB Way and Mary Slessor Avenue and opened up several roads within Calabar to better open up the city and give in a befitting facelift.
On why he left the military shortly after he served as military governor of the state, he replied that he was retired alongside several other military officers who had held political appointments and promptly travelled abroad for further studies.
Callers on the phone, expressed happiness that Attah finds time once in a while to visit the state. One caller specifically told the former governor that, “outside Esuene, yourself and Donald Duke, no other governor has impacted on this state like the three of you, please become a consultant to this state so that you can help show them how things can be done, especially now that we cannot see anything tangible that the present government is doing.”
The former military administrator governed Cross River State between December 1989 to January 1992, during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. Remember he assumed office, discovered serious financial irregularities in the sstate and promptly dissolved the entire state cabinet. He followed the dissolution with the setting of up two panels of inquiry headed by high court judges Emmanuel Effanga and Dorothy Nsa Eyamba-Idem to probe the administration of Ibim Ebenezer Princewill, his predecessor.
