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The Governorship Candidate of the PDP and Senator representing Cross River Central Senatorial District, Senator Prof. Sandy Ojang Onor has charged business community in Cross River State to be interested in who is in charge in the affairs in the state.
He gave the charge on January 13th, 2023 at the Calabar Business & Community Initiative Town Hall Meeting with the Governorship & Deputy-Governorship Candidates of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Prof. Sandy Ojang Onor & Lady Emana-Duke Ambrose Amawhe and owners of business in Cross River State held at Nkonib Town Hall in Calabar, Cross River State.
Senator Onor while reacting to the issues raised by various associations, thanked the organizers for their thoughtfulness and averred that, “One of our greatest problem as a state is lack of courage. There’s too much complacency. People in other climes say it as it is; they are courageous. A lot of us just sit, murmur, and complain in the dark. If you do that how can you change society?.
“You ‘re businessmen. You know where it pinches you. You know that things are not right. You know that the business climate is gone. You know that the processes have been bastardized. You know that you’re holding the rough end of the stick. You know that when government is not functioning properly your businesses would not run well. So you must be interested in who is in charge of the affairs in your state.”
Earlier in his opening remarks, the Coordinator, Calabar Business Community, Ntufam Dr Francis O. Effiom described the event as an interactive forum between members of the business community and the leading candidates where input can be made, “We thought it necessary at this point that beyond the rallies by political parties, we the businessmen should be able to have an interface and interact with the candidates so that our input will matter in the policy direction of the incoming administration. That is what informed the Town Hall Meeting” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the Calabar Chamber of Commerce, Mr Ken Asim decried the unfavorable business environment in the state, inspite of the fact that the MSMEs employs over 86 percent of the labour force. He said: “Our business environment has continued to nosedive between 2014 and 2021. There have been backward slide in the business environment.”
He further lamented access to finance, markets & knowledge, multiple taxation, infrastructural decay and government policies as impediments to businesses in the state.
Also speaking on behalf of the Association of Non-Bank Micro-Finance Association, Pst Theodore Ebuta, lauded the event as first of it kind to have a governorship candidate interface with the business sector. He further lamented the lack of access to finances as he said: “Government over time have rolled out intervention funds for those in this sector and several times you have politicians used this funds for their cronies, their loyalists, their political sons and daughters and at the end of it, those in this sector which the fund was meant for end up benefitting nothing.”
On his part and speaking on behalf of the Timber Dealers Association, Chief Effiong Ewa Ebani, accused the Cross River State Forestry Commission of negligence when he said: “Today, for those of us who come from villages, we heard that timber is banned, yet our Forests are been destroyed. The Forestry Commission has failed to live up to its responsibilities.” He further pleaded with the incoming Governor to come to the aid of landlord communities and rescue the forest from extinction.
Responding, the Deputy-Governorship Candidate, Lady Emana-Duke Ambrose Amawhe decried the lack of political will by the incumbent government to implement her own policies as reasons for the dwindling small scale businesses in the state. She assured the community of favourable business environment. “The Senator Sandy Onor’s administration which I would be deputizing by God’s grace is willing and has the political will to implement policies that would be favourable to the business community in the state.” She said.
The event was well attended by Estate developers, timber dealers, Keke owners & riders, taxi owners & drivers, bus & mini bus owners & drivers, shipping & clearing agents, auto mechanics, furniture & wood workers, fashion designers, makeup artists, carpenters, spare parts & metal scraps dealers, car wash shop owners & workers, geologist & miners, graphic designers & printers, MSME Businesses and Association of Non-Bank Micro-Finance Institutions (ANMFIN), etc.
CATERPILLAR MOVEMENT MEDIA
