Ever since the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja affirmed the decision of the Appeal Court in Calabar, declaring Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, as the senator representing Cross River North Senatorial District, social media urchins in Cross River State have received sense. I mean, we no longer are inundated by trumpeted, poorly written posts, propagating the puerile postulations of lawyers sponsored in a hurry.
All of a sudden too, ‘children‘ hired with smart phones and data to insult people who dare to politically differ, are beginning to understand that the Bible, written long ago, came with that particular instructive verse in Matthew’s gospel, (the fourth verse of the fourth chapter): “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” The tricky complication here is simply that though most of these ‘children‘ profess manly faith in God, God is not man and His ways are not the ways of the men they serve. We however must not blame too many of these ‘children‘ because the ‘food – on – the – table’ mantra that birthed them comes with a specifically lazy and effectively saucy DNA. What will become of their activities is not for me to say here because sincerely, going forward, we cannot dwell on inanities.
But then, that judgement is not a victory, it is a LESSON and those it has favoured must resist the selfish temptation of personalizing it and taunting those not favoured. It will be foolhardy to extend the gulf of taunts when energies should be appropriately directed and expended on meeting the yearnings and aspirations of constituents, long made tattered and helpless by a me, myself and I system of governance.
The goodwill and support Jarigbe genuinely enjoyed throughout those dark days of disagreement were across political board. Those lips that appeared to blab in muffled tones, muttered prayers in his favour, against the ever visible disposition of ‘man-Lords‘, clearly out of touch with the yearnings and aspirations of a people whose backs remain painfully pinned to spiked walls.
Unless we have elected to live in self denial, the subsistence, of breathing and living, in all parts of Cross River North Senatorial District, must be the challenge that propels Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe forward. His choice of bills to pursue and projects to attract, must be people centred. He should not be encouraged to goose hunt legislation that attracts to his senatorial district, a helidrome, when an airstrip, long built in Bebi, has been abandoned for the construction of a cargo airport. Already, that cargo airport is host to a cargo of ‘jujuic‘ local injunctions by constituents who have clearly demonstrated that a cargo airport is not on their wish list.
By assessing the needs of the communities in his senatorial district, Jarigbe will gain a better understanding of the areas to serve as well as potentially develop new community partnerships, establish programme priorities, objectives, and goals. It will help him understand that even though the Obanliku people are farmers, the best farming aids he will offer them cannot be a hoe, a cutlass and a tuber of yam, miserably displayed for the cameras. He would have understood that the honey produced in Obanliku is by no iota of doubt, one of the finest. A series of well co-ordinated trainings and workshops for a broad category of interested persons from the area and beyond, will leave the people better trained in Apiculture; the art of bee keeping. They will have scientific knowledge of the nature and habit of bees, a firm grasp of how to select a suitable location for hive keeping, the catching and hiving of swarms, etc. In the end, livelihoods will be strengthened with money made from the sale of honey, through beekeeping or making and marketing honey wines or beeswax cosmetics. The whole process is not rocket science or the quabalistic densification of what can not be.
The senator must deliberately refuse to draw up for himself, a list of enemies; people who didn’t support him and those who worked with devilish precision to deny him a date with history. Their attempts and efforts are in the past and only magnified the enormity of God’s positive works in the face of negative machinations. At this point, he no more is a candidate of PDP, APC, NEPA, DSTV or whatever represents a platform; he is the senator representing the good people of CR North Senatorial District. To do otherwise will be a demonstration of failure, a poor sense of judgement and a clear lack of leadership that should umbrella his people. Those who play internecine politics and believe that everything must be theirs or nothing, must think again. They should quickly understand that people have become more united by economic hardships than political affiliation and so will readily support performance, over and above any form of distraction, especially the kind of distraction that leaves them perpetually hungry…in the midst of plenty.
Whether we agree or live in self denial, collosal sums of state and personal funds have been ploughed into this particular POLITICAL DISAGREEMENT. Begin to imagine if these funds were used to improve critically absent infrastructure in the senatorial district, it will help you aggregate what has been painfully lost. Let Jarigbe concentrate on what he can do for HIS people, whether they be for or against him because in the end, only his good works will matter.
Iwara U. Iwara is the Editorial Lead, www.calitown.com
