Unknown to several Cross Riverians who have openly indicated interest to run for elective positions at the local council level in the state, elections into those positions will not hold this year, contrary to the believe earlier that the elections will hold as announced in a timetable presented by Michael Ushie, Chairman, Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission, CROSIEC, a little while ago.
Over the weekend, a competent political source in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, informed www.calitown.com that local council elections in the state will hold next year, after the national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. “The elections will be conducted when we are sure that a new party chairman would have emerged. You know Ahmed Makarfi is not favourably disposed to your state governor, Ben Ayade, flourishing politically. I can for sure tell you that if Ayade conducts local council elections today, most of those he supports will fail woefully and that will be the beginning of his failure too. Since he has eyes set on a second term bid, he will need support at the local level, since that cannot be guaranteed at the moment, the elections will hold when we are sure of the political calculations that will throw up a new national chairman for our party”, the source said.
Pressed for further clarifications, the source maintained that, “you can take my words or leave them. Those who are calculating against Ayade’s second term think those of us who support him have no calculations to work on? Makarfi will go and someone who will warm up to Ayade will occupy the position and relate with us without Makarfi’s prejudices and Ayade will run for a second term and win. Until then, tell all those pursuing elective positions in the local councils to take a back seat and wait for the actualisation of His Excellency, Ben Ayade’s 2019 ambition before theirs can be pushed through. Take this home, when you sit under an iroko tree, it is the iroko that decides the amount of rain drops that reach you”, the source concluded.
