This Is Not The Time To Keep Quiet!

In my native Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State, the traditional common law privileges that should protect my people from political abuse and ideological handcuffing have been surreptitiously taken away by the political leadership of the PDP. While a few ill-equipped spin masters may be inclined to say the opposite, proof of what I am talking about was the ire of the fire that ‘erupted’ in the LGA when a select group of party men reeled out a long list of ugly dos that trail the party’s leadership at that level. What those party men said cannot be seen as an aimless blather; but the cocky silence of the man at the centre of this storm,Hon. Bassey Eko Ewa, is the most alarming part of what is presently playing out in Yakurr.

At the Ekokol Hotel, Ugep, venue of the PDP meeting moderated by Bassey Ibor, one time member of thr Cross River State House of Assembly, Hon. Bassey Ewa was accused of carrying only to himself and family members, the political largesse that accrue to Yakurr. In doing so, he is said to have tactfully brow beaten many absolutely qualified Yakurr sons and daughter into a queue that is strapped to a tree, guaranteeing that no movement is made unless he un straps a fellow. Those who have refused to be strapped, are either physically or verbally assaulted and pauperized to serve as a deterrent to others who may want to muster courage and air out their displeasure. We are not about to see a rapidly disappearing assumption because even those of us who are not in the PDP are aware that the party’s leadership in Yakurr has painfully forced down the political throat of the LGA, personal embarrassment for public entertainment.

My sympathy for the internal dust being raised in Yakurr’s PDP is non-existent, my sympathy however is for the staggering army of men who follow Hon. Bassey Ewa around, calling him “LEADER” and laying false claims to political strength that has never been there. I also have sympathy for the other group of men who assured of two nights in cheap Abuja hotels, abandon family responsibilities, hop on buses and arrive just in time to savour the wasted thighs of paid female escorts. On their way back, they chat about Abuja’s flyovers, her posh cars and display only infantile gusto throughout and yet these men are not younger than fifty.

Those in PDP who are pointing hateful fingers at Bassey Ewa have their reasons and they have so said. It is however becoming obvious with his silence that Bassey Ewa is not contesting what HIS PEOPLE are saying and may not be interested in offering explanations for perceived and reprehensible political indiscretions; it is the way he is or has been left to be. He is confident that when groups begin to ask questions, bags of rice, cups of salt and pitiable naira wads will answer to the people or how else do you explain the recent gathering of young men in Ugep and how the sharing of Hon. Bassey Ewa’s N400, 000 (four hundred thousand naira) nearly tore them apart. Pitiable as this situation is, not many of our young men and women seem to realise that the man owes us explanations for the issues raised and we must all be united in asking the man who represents us in the House of Representatives to say something.