The Lumine News

Category: Opinion

  • UNICAL 1st Registry Day And Lecture: Sen Jarigbe Has Proven To Be An Exceptional Breed Of The Twenty First Century Politician BY PAUL EKAJI

    UNICAL 1st Registry Day And Lecture: Sen Jarigbe Has Proven To Be An Exceptional Breed Of The Twenty First Century Politician BY PAUL EKAJI

    REMINISCING ON THE FIRST REGISTRY LECTURE IN UNICAL AND THE “APPEAL COURT SENATOR” QUILL

    While searching for a document in my shelf this morning, I came across this brochure, of the first Registry lecture of the University of Calabar.

    Saddened by the fact that months after the lecture, the entire public Universities have been under lock and key, no thanks to the APC government, I still took time to peruse through my jots on that day.

    It was a very rich academic feast, with members of the gown and town in attendance. The Unical International Conference Center was filled to capacity as everyone struggled to take a comfortable position for a good listening.

    The topic; Ethnicity, Education and Politics: A Triple SWOT Analysis and the National Question, as well as the guest speaker; the Very Distinguished Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, are two things that picked my interest.

    First, the topic was and still remains a burning issue in our polity.
    Secondly, I wondered how an active and serving Senator could do justice to this burning issue. But you know what? the Senator did it! it was an indepth research with workable solutions and recommendations.

    Some of the salient points raised by the Distinguished Senator are;

    1. Politics should be the overall concern of the Citizens

    2. If politics is inescapable, so are the consequences

    3. The Nigeria government has not done enough in applying the benefits of education to reposition her citizens

    4. The very aim of education is not only for acquisition of certificate, but for societal development.

    Personally, I admire politicians who display high intellectualism in academic discourse. They are just a few of them in Nigeria and Jari proved to be one. He displayed mastery of the topic, with a calm, consistent and unequivocal panache.

    Sen. Jarigbe has proven to be an exceptional breed of the twenty first century politicians who not only concern himself with politics for politics sake but carries in him a demonstrable passion for service to humanity. He keeps an eagle eye on every aspect of human welfare, be it education, health, infrastructure, recreation, agriculture, empowerment, etc.

    One of the major qualities of a good leader, is the ability to INITIATE, EXECUTE, MAINTAIN AND SUSTAIN development. Unlike the other who engages in “camouflage projects” with very analog digital concept, Jarigbe has maintained the tempo in development from when he was in the House of Reps to the Senate despite the distractions.
    Like David, he is a man after God’s own heart.

    In summary, beyond collecting undeserved awards and accolades, our politicians must demonstrate intellectualism with evidence-base representation. They must apply their ideas in solving societal problems. This should form the basis for any political aspiration, and this is what Jarigbe represents.

    If being an “appeal court Senator” is to bring the desired development to the people, please give me more!

  • The Choice Before Cross River People Is A Simple One BY DOMINIC KIDZU

    The Choice Before Cross River People Is A Simple One BY DOMINIC KIDZU

     

    There is really no difficulty in making the supreme choice come 2023 for the people of Cross River State as it will be indeed for the people of Nigeria, because the issues are not complicated in the least, and the choices are etched in simple bold print. It will be the choice between crass failure, criminal negligence and pathological telling of lies to the people and a broad new canvass of opportunity to try someone new, someone vibrant and credible. It will be a choice between the impunity, the audacity and the recklessness of the current administration and the broad promise of a serious alternative that will be forthright and respect systems, conventions and propriety while working for the good of the people. It is going to be refreshing to listen to the Governor or his aides speak and to believe what one hears in a way that has been impossible for over seven years now.

    As Senator Sandy Onoh cryptically hinted in Saint Charles Catholic parish, Obudu, the day after he received the cross of Saint Gregory the great; “We are not going to tell lies to our people when we get into government. We shall be honest with our people. We shall promise what we can do and shall not promise what we cannot do. The simple reason that you are in government is not sufficient for you to become a liar to your fellow citizens who put you in office “.

    And now at last the chicken are coming home to roost because there is a whirlwind of political consciousness and rebirth that is demanding restitution for the years of plundering and a new start for the stricken Cross River State, despoiled and raped by the present leadership that does not seem to understand when enough is enough. As Mahatma Gandhi put it “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” If only they know when to stop and think and begin to repair. We the people must rescue ourselves by taking sides with our dear state, since brinkmanship has fallen flat on its face. As accordingto Martin Luther King Jnr, “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.” Ala General Yakubu Gowon, to kick APC out of Cross River State is a job that must be done!

    The APC is in a glass jar and we can now all see what it contains. The indices at last have vindicated the PDP because facts and figures don’t lie. A vote for the APC in Cross River is a validation of failure as our new standard of measurement. A vote for APC is a vote for the continuation of the years of famine, for the rule of the artful dodgers and crafty contrivers.

    A vote for people who believe Oscar Wilde’s joke that ” any man who lives within his means suffers from a painful lack of imagination.” There shall be no more salaries because the banks will shut their doors against them. Already business activities have grinded to a halt. There shall be weeping and knashing of teeth and this land shall be left desolate.

    Unfortunately, Sweetprince, the party’s governorship candidate, is just a sacrificial lamb whose role will be to wash the putrefaction of his sponsors with hyssop and leave his followers holding the can. We all have a responsibility to save Sweetprince, (God bless his kind heart) from himself and the bagage
    men pulling him by the tither. Because they will make a mess of him. They will dent his image. They will destroy his reputation. They will place the rot of eight years squarely upon his head and continue to ask for more. They will make his name a byword, even amongst his kith and kin. And he shall not be able to utter one word contrariwise in his own defence.

    The descent to infamy shall be swift. And, alas, in the end Sweetprince will become Bitterprince and things will fall apart, and the centre will nolonger hold, because he can only be a puppet on the leash of the master godfathers who cannot be satisfied or surpassed. And then ofcourse, a cow will not give birth to a goat. The old Sweetprince shall depart poste haste, leaving behind a grotesque reincarnation of gorgon medusa, a scary king in the service of his earthly gods who have chained him to the floor in advance. And this fallen house, to borrow the words of Karl Maier, shall finally crumble into nothingness.

  • Concession of Cross River State Factories: Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again BY UMEZULIKE DESMOND-CRUZ

    Concession of Cross River State Factories: Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again BY UMEZULIKE DESMOND-CRUZ

     

    In his book, Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again, the legendary Playwright, Olawale Gladstone Emmanuel Rotimi, best known as Ola Rotimi, satirizes the immorality, dubiousness and double-dealing predominant in the Politics of Nigeria.

    Major Rahman Taslim Lekoja-Brown, a retired army officer left his successful cocoa business to join partisan Politics. He did so, not because he loves to serve the people but because of what he has to gain: Money and Fame. He married his eldest brother’s wife and also married another woman, Liza, who was an American Catholic nurse. But when he joined partisan politics, in order to win more votes, especially from the women, Lejoka-Brown married yet another woman, Sikira, the daughter of the president of the Market women union.

    Like Lejoka-Brown, our own husband of Cross River State, sees Politics as the only means of survival after leaving his businesses in Delta State to join partisan Politics. In other to achieve his aim, he entered into a holy matrimony with the people of the Northern Senatorial District. In his 4years of marriage to the North, he pamperized, mesmerized and romanticized the people of the Northern Senatorial District, that every maiden in Cross River State, saw him as the Prince charming and Mr. Right that Cross River State desired.

    We ran after him and accepted his marriage proposal. 7years afterwards, our husband went mad. He has taken away everything that we once held sacred. He has stripped us of our beauty and denied us the joy of a blissful matrimony. He sold our heritage and took away our pride. He invaded our rainforest in Boki, Etung, Obubra, Akamkpa and Ikom and buried our economic trees.

    He promised us heaven, but delivered hell. 7years afterwards, our husband has gone mad again. This time around, our husband has surreptitiously concessed our factories to a faceless entity without our consent. In his defense, he claimed he conducted a referendum yet none of his wives (Constituents) can attest to when and where this referendum was conducted. We heard he concessioned 38 State factories, yet we saw no advertisment on any print or electronic media, nor did we participate in the concession process.

    Nevertheless, like Liza, who returned from America to discover that she was not the only woman in Lejoka-Brown’s life, and as expected from a typical western Catholic Woman, led a women liberation Movement that finally led to the booting out of Lejoka-Brown out of the National Liberation Party, we the wives of Cross River State, shall in 2023, reclaim our land and divorce our now-estranged husband. Revolution is coming!!!

    We urge our husband to forgo his ill-fated ambition of returning to his first marriage, Northern Senatorial District, and save himself the unnecessary stress of contesting for the Senate, given the reality of the electoral act and the recent judgement of the Federal High Court sitting in Ebonyi State. We urge him to save himself some dignity, lest he faces the same fate that befell his friend from Yala, Dr Steve Odey.

  • Oyadama-Nko Crisis: Former Presidential Aide, Obono-Obla Calls For The Suspension of Obubra And Yakurr Council Chairmen

    Oyadama-Nko Crisis: Former Presidential Aide, Obono-Obla Calls For The Suspension of Obubra And Yakurr Council Chairmen

    The former Presidential Aide to Muhammadu Buhari, Chief Obono-Obla has called on Governor Ben Ayade to invoke the power vested on him by the Cross River State Local Government Law to direct the suspension from of office the Chairmen of Obubra and Yakurr local government councils following the renewed communual crisis between Oyadama in Obubra local government, and Nko in Yakurr local government area.

    Obono-Obla took to his verified Facebook page to make the call “I call on the Governor of Cross River State to immediately invoke the power vested in him by the Cross River State Local government Law to direct the suspension from office of the Chairmen of Obubra and Yakurr local government councils.

    This call has become imperative following the breakdown of law and order arising from the inter-communal violence that has wreaked part of Obubra and Yakurr local government areas of Cross River State.

    The violence in these two communities has led to deaths and wanton destruction of property.
    Nko has been under unrelenting attacks from soldiers posted there to maintain the peace.
    Indeed Nko has been completely deserted and turned into a ghost town, and the population is internally displaced.

    I urge the Governor of the Cross River State Law to invoke section 11 of the Cross River State Local government Law and direct the suspension of these chairmen.
    The law empowers the Governor to direct the suspensions of the Chairman of a local government council that suffers a breakdown of law and order.

    Indeed there has been such a breakdown of law and order in Onyedama (Obubra local government area ) and Nko(Yakurr local government area )for the past week.

    “The suspension will send a clear and firm signal to the Chairmen of local government councils in the State to sit down and work and stem inter-communal violence that is a recurring decimal in some parts of the State.”

  • As It Stands Now, APC Is Fractured Beyond Redemption; Let Us See How The Annoited Aspirants Will Deliver The Party In Cross River State – Obla

    As It Stands Now, APC Is Fractured Beyond Redemption; Let Us See How The Annoited Aspirants Will Deliver The Party In Cross River State – Obla

    A frontline senatorial aspirant of the All Progressive Congress APC, and founding member who served as Secretary of the merger committee of the party, Chief Okoi Obono Obla Esq, has stated that the APC in Cross River State is fractured beyond redemption due to the imposition of candidates during the selection process.

    Chief Obla reacted to the just concluded APC primaries election held at Ikom Local Government Area, the central senatorial headquarters, on his Facebook page.

    The statement in full “The APC Senatorial Congress for the nomination of the candidate of the Central senatorial district of Cross River State held in Ikom on 28 May 2022, was a charade.

    T”election was marred by voting buying perpetuated by desperate aspirants in front of security agents.

    A” except the anointed one) did not know who would be the electors at the election until they got to the polling station.
    It was not surprising that altered and doctored delegate lists by the powers that be to support the “anointed aspirant“.
    Some of us know before voting that the election would be a sham.

    “Every politically informed person was aware that a particular aspirant was the favorite of the powers that be. The brandishing of the name of one particular as the favored one weeks before the election amounts to intimidation.

    “The potentate makes sure that you must have his endorsement before you can aspire to become a candidate.

    “Aspirants that did not have the endorsement of the potentate, had sorts of obstacles thrown along their paths.

    I”was the target from day one.
    The powers that be were at a crossroads on what to do with me and therefore devised crude and inferior methods to edge me out.
    The APC has completed deviated from the philosophy of its founding fathers.

    “Let us see how the anointed aspirants will deliver the Party in the Cross River State. As it stands the Party, is fractured beyond redemption”.

  • Gershom Bassey And His Epileptic Media Strategy: The Last Kick Of A Dying Horse

    Gershom Bassey And His Epileptic Media Strategy: The Last Kick Of A Dying Horse

     

    We in the Caterpillar Movement Campaign Organisation have overtime, consciously refrained from joining issues with contenders and their barking dogs because we consider it unnecessary to mudsling when we’re confident of victory. This is why we have repeatedly paid deaf ears to distracting noises from people that are pained by the massive goodwill and support enjoyed by our capacity and competent principal. Our attention has once again been drawn to an unfortunate vituperation and vitriolic against the esteemed personality of Distinguished Senator Professor Sandy Ojang Onor and his highly cerebral media team as well as undaunted teeming supporters, authored by a team of spineless and faceless hirelings and given to their hapless hatchet man, Prince Zebis to append his name. But like Al-Capone posited in the book–Mafia Manager, “He who answers for another, pays the Bills.”

    First, we commend the spineless writers of the junk article full of the need to impress rather than communicate, for acknowledging the intellectual prowess of the Caterpillar Media Team and the fact that the Caterpillar Media by all standards, surpass the motley of intellectually debased entities parading as Gershom Bassey’s media team, both in content, style and audience. This is as a result of the consistency we have built since the senatorial journey of our Principal in 2018 when those parading today as Media aides to Senator Gershom Bassey were still wallowing in absolute obscurity.

    As a team, we commiserate and deeply sympathize with the helpless Prince Zebis for being used by a coarse conglomerate of intellectually lazy adults squeezed into Senator Gershom Bassey’s hurriedly put together Media Team whose usefulness starts and ends with copying, pasting and sharing of propaganda, mendacious and senseless vituperation against Senator Sandy Ojang Onor and sharing of blur Selfie Pictures taken by their Principal in the Red Chambers, where he ought to be concentrating on the serious business of legislation. For us, we understand that you cannot beat a child mercilessly and still deny him the privilege of shedding tears–so we understand their songs of Lamentation.

    It is without a doubt that, the gubernatorial ambition of Senator Sandy Ojang Onor has shaken off Political docility and entitlement mentality in the Politics of our dear state. It has not only decimated the zoning argument, it has also given it a befitting funeral. Therefore, the fear of the embattled Consensus candidate of the All Progressives Congress by Senator Gershom Bassey is rather a function of his incompetence than it is of fact, and we cannot help him out of his self inflicted dilemma even as he expects the People’s Democratic Party to throw the governorship ticket on his laps when even as a two term Senator in his Senatorial District, he was sufficiently and overwhelmingly rejected by his people and the leadership for an Arthur Jarvis that has neither been a Councilor, Chairman nor State or National Assembly member. This goes to show how unpopular Senator Gershom Bassey is.

    His recent strategy is not unconnected to the decision of the PDP National, officially proclaiming that there would be no zoning for its Presidency, he fears the implication of this on State governorship. Gershom Bassey and his co-travellers should therefore stop parading their fear of healthy competition and obvious geo-ethnic biases through the facade of a non-existent zoning formula and meet us in the field. More worrisome is the fact that Gershom Bassey and his infantile media handlers that circulated news of them sweeping all the ad-hoc delegates in the just concluded ward congresses, are today crying foul and looking for a soft landing. So, where are the phantom ad-hoc delegates they claimed to have bountifully harvested? Isn’t it crystal clear that Gershom Bassey and his team are obviously suffering from “Atychiphobia” an intense fear of failure.

    On the claim that our Principal, Distinguished Senator Prof Sandy Ojang Onor controls only Etung Local Government Area and lacks the capacity to win in other Local Government Areas. We are tempted to ask, between Senator Sandy Onor who according to Gershom Bassey’s minions controls Etung Local Government Area and Gershom Bassey who had only one vote in a consensus meeting that took place in his own backyard–Calabar South, and was mercilessly beaten by his constituents at Transcorp Hotels in 2018 for poor performance, who is more qualified to be our Party’s flag bearer?

    A team like theirs, popular only for its gutter politics should bear it in mind that we are very prepared to throw rocks when they throw sands and still beat them silly in the field and we are not joking about it.

    Caterpillar Movement Media

  • Beyond 2023: Why The Next Governor Must Be Able To Raise The Dead BY UMEZULIKE DESMOND-CRUZ

    Beyond 2023: Why The Next Governor Must Be Able To Raise The Dead BY UMEZULIKE DESMOND-CRUZ

     

    Beyond the rhetorics and Political razzmatazz, Cross River State needs a Governor who can possibly raise the dead. By this I mean, one who can do the near impossible to salvage what is left of us as a state. One who can take what is left of us as an insolvent state and transform it to something beautiful. To be more specific and particular, we need a miracle worker as our next Governor. And this is why I view it as absolutely denigrating and insulting to our collective sensibility as a people, reducing the Governorship position of our dear state to a mere parochial and fraternity sentiment, where a group of persons are hell-bent on mortgaging our state and our collective patrimony just to pursue the lifetime ambition of a man who sees the Governorship position as his birthright, under the guise of zoning— for Christ sake, we have grown pass such cabalistic approach in our politics as a state. This is time for real business.

    So, it is in consideration of this immutable fact that I have painstakingly followed the activities of all the Gubernatorial aspirants in the mainstream Political Parties in our state. And I can attest that, while the forecast for the 2023 election is still beclouded by a lot of uncertainties, especially in the APC–as to who gets what, how, when and from where– the Peoples Democratic Party appears to be more resolute in their approach to choosing a Gubernatorial flagbearer. And speaking realistically and statistically, except God decides otherwise– which is not foreseeable, as the voice and choice of the people is predominantly the voice of God– Distinguished Senator Prof Sandy Ojang Onor will emerge as the flagbearer of PDP– the indices and favourabilty factors are glaring as there are reproducible. Little wonder a few other aspirants, sensing imminent defeat, have resorted to infantile propaganda against the candidacy of Sandy Onor. There seem to be a new found phobia, in the camp of some PDP aspirants, called SANDYPHOBIA (The Fear of Sandy Onor’s candidacy). So, while we wait for the Governor to choose between his long-time friend, Chief Barr Chris Agara and his adopted Political godson, Asuquo Ekpeyong Jnr, as APC Candidate, we must condition our mind to ask the right questions and choose the best candidate between Distinguished Senator Prof Sandy Onor and any other person from the APC.

    We must begin to look beyond party affiliation, clannish inclination, tribal and Senatorial sentiment and elect a Governor who can bring back our Glory days. As a state with the 2nd lowest Allocation from Federal Government and high debt profile, coupled with a comatose economic and commercial activity, with businesses and SMEs closing up and leaving the state in droves, we need a Governor that can revive our Agricultural and Tourism potential, a governor with the Political will to fight insecurity. A Governor who understands the plight of the masses, one with enough experience of how the Local Government level functions. We don’t need another digital Governor that will give us digital Superhighway, Spaghetti Flyover, Deep Seaports and Industries only on the pages of Newspapers and Billboards conspicuously hanging in the streets of Abuja and Calabar. We need a Governor that can give us only the basic things–Security, Good Roads, Health, Education, etc–, revive our economy and take adequate care of our Civil servants and retirees. That is the Miracle—working Governor we all deserve in 2023, and I am optimistic that we can collective achieve this, if we jettison political sentiment and put Cross River State first.

    God bless Cross River State!!

  • 2023: APC Delegates Should Seek Victory First Before Cash: BVAS Will Be Used BY JUSTIN OBONGHA

    2023: APC Delegates Should Seek Victory First Before Cash: BVAS Will Be Used BY JUSTIN OBONGHA

     

    Glorious greetings from God Most High and Happy Sunday to All Progressives Congress members and our dear DELEGATES. We are edging closer to our party’s primaries and I think it’s imperative we get to understand better, how the general elections especially Governorship in Cross River State may look like.

    As we begin to assemble delegates and entreat for support for our different aspirants, please do well to always let them know a few things that should guides their decision, thoughts and choice. Do well to tell them that, if they supports and eventually vote a wrong aspirant, our party will fail woefully in the GENERAL ELECTIONS.

    Tell the delegates that no bad candidate can win elections even by rigging. There’s a new technic that makes it impossible for rigging. It’s called BVAS. Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) is a device that replaced the smart card reader, which was used in 2015, with the dual capacity for fingerprint and facial authentication. BVAS is a technology solution based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and is only as good as both the age of the data and the training that the algorithms receive.

    The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, is designed to inject technological impetus into our electoral system which makes it almost impossible to rig elections and had further reduced the power of incumbency.

    BVAS is designed to give our electoral system credibility and given the voters hope that their votes will begin to matter. As a DELEGATES, we should be careful with who we VOTE as CANDIDATE.

    2023 Governorship elections will be keenly contested. Our only advantage, will be fully dependent on the charisma, and likeliness of our candidate and not even the cash some aspirants are banking on.

    Electoral corruption, cutting corners in the electoral process, snatching ballot boxes and ballot papers would never easily be done in 2023 elections. The by-election in Ogoja, Yala and Akpabuyo LGAs should be like a litmus test and the results I think wasn’t to our party’s favor. If not for the NAME, JUDE NGAJI, APC would have failed woefully.

    So, let me say it very clearly that the BVAS as a form and mode of accreditation has come to stay, and the Commission isn’t ready to compromise it standard. And jettisoning of results will not be possible anymore. If the party gives ticket to someone whose victory will be dependent on rigging, or money, then we should be prepare for the worst.

    Secondly, tell the DELEGATES that the strength of the opposition, is almost the as the same both in popularity, cash and otherwise. And the personalities PDP are parading as aspirants can’t be easily defeated except the APC present a candidate who is loved and extremely outstanding in popularity and likeliness.

    We all know that Cross River State has for more than 20 years been ruled by the PDP and our people are deeply drunk with the name. So APC needs a candidate that is as old as PDP and more popular than the PDP as a party. Anything less, will be catastrophic to our victory.

    Aspirants will come with money; some 200k, 300k, 500k and others may tempt you with even a million naira as a DELEGATES just to vote him to become CANDIDATE of our GREAT party, but be guided with the fact that the general elections has changed and we won’t enjoy the power of incumbency and therefore, we cannot rig elections.

    Be it your brother, friend, master, boss, father or whatever relationship you share with any of the aspirants, be true to yourself, to them and to the party. Out collective interest as a party, is to win elections and continue to be the RULING party in the State.

    This is my wise counsel to the DELEGATES and PARTY members.

    Justin Obongha.

  • Cross River 2023: In Search Of Mr Integrity As Tag Team Partner BY JERRY EKPO

    Cross River 2023: In Search Of Mr Integrity As Tag Team Partner BY JERRY EKPO

     

    The die is cast. 2023, another year of political transition is here with us. Cross River, like most states in Nigeria, is bracing up for a fresh governorship election and contenders for the two topmost political positions in the state are not in short supply.

    A candidate shall definitely emerge in the All Progressives Congress,  APC. But what is also critical, is who will play the deputising role for the governor?

    For the sake of argument, they are those who have been parroting the claim that as a party now in power in the state, it has not won a major election, except for the recently conducted senatorial by-election in the Northern Senatorial District of the state. However, before then, the APC won Abi-Yakurr federal seat as an opposition.

    So as the APC warms up for what will no doubt be its first major election for the office  of the governor come 2023, the choice of a tag team partner with the governorship candidate of the party is key, as whoever is chosen should be one with something to bring to the table.

    It is against this background that the name Anthony Odey Ochicha is a fit and proper one for deputy governor.

    Odey Ochicha has become a recurring decimal on the lips of a broad spectrum of Cross Riverians of like-mind who insist that there is an inextricable nexus between integrity and good governance.

    For the good of Cross River, recruitment and enthronement of quality leaders that will take over the baton from His Excellency, Governor Ben Ayade on May 29, 2023, is one task that must not be shirked or treated with levity,  thus John Quincy Adams’ treatise on leadership ready comes to mind here.

    In climes where good governance and service delivery are the meat of democratic ethos, Quincy’s prescription forms the fulcrum upon which the leadership selection process rests.

    According to Quincy Adams, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

    This timeless quote clinically mirrors the character traits of Anthony Odey Ochicha. It also offers a veritable barometer to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC in Cross River to hinge on while carefully sieving through the galaxy of gladiators in its fold currently angling for the two topmost political positions in the state- Governorship and Deputy Governorship.

    While zoning arrangement in Cross River APC may have technically precluded Ochicha from gunning for the number one position, even though he flew the party’s flag in the 2015 gubernatorial election,  his wealth of experience, patriotic fervour, selflessness, rock-solid integrity and unflinching loyalty to the party highly recommend him for the Deputy Governorship position.

    Cross Riverians are desirous of leaders who are well acquainted with the socio-political and economic anatomy of the state, ones that know the nitty-gritty of governance and are committed to consolidating the gains of His Excellency, Governor Ayade’s administration. Ochicha perfectly fits this bill.

    There is no doubt that if paired with whoever the APC eventually endorses as flagbearer, Ochicha will provide a robust bulwark against maladministration.

    Here is an incorruptible character,  a man who places integrity, honesty and morality above self-aggrandisement.

    A few years ago, as a senior staff of NAPIMS, a subsidiary of the NNPC, before he resigned to vie for Cross River governorship, Ochicha refused to do what most public servants would have gleefully done.

    He was supposed to travel to the US for a training program on the bill of his employers (NAPIMS)

    NAPIMS had already paid him millions of Naira upfront as travel allowance to cover his stay there. However, knowing that his mind was already made up for politics, he declined to attend the training because he wanted to attend a scheduled APC meeting in Lagos, Ochicha promptly returned the humongous travelling allowance to NAPIMS.

    As is the lurid norm in the public/civil service, Ochicha, if he had wanted, could have decided not to return the money as others that did not attend the training program oversea did but it was not in his character to swim in corruption.

    In all he does, Ochicha puts Cross River first. For him, love of the state transcends political and pecuniary benefits which was why shortly after Ayade, his main challenger in the 2015 governorship election, was declared the winner of the exercise, he wasted no time in conceding defeat and congratulating the winner.

    Of course, moving the state forward rather than dissipating energy on legal tussle or toxic opposition was paramount to him. Like the governor himself, Ochicha’s political philosophy is rooted in the principle of politics with ethics.

    A consummate party man, his fidelity and loyalty to the APC contributed to a large extent the reason the party didn’t go into extinction following the debilitating crisis that rocked it before and after its defeat in the 2019 guber election.

    Even when it became fashionable for some chieftains to switch allegiance to the then ruling party in Cross River, the PDP, Ochicha hugged the APC tightly, helping to navigate it through that perilous phase to its current position of strength as the ruling party following the entrance of Governor Ayade.

    Ochicha’s unwavering loyalty to the party was to catch the attention of President Muhammadu Buhari hence he was appointed by Mr President to serve his fatherland as Chairman of the governing Board of the Federal Polytechnic, Ile-Oluji, Ondo State.

    However, the President, knowing Ochicha’s pedigree, no doubt will be happy to see him serve Cross River as Deputy Governor.

    A native of Bekwarra local government in Northern Cross River, in the spirit of equity, fair play and natural justice, Ochicha’s Deputy Governorship will go a long in assuaging the hurt that the local government has felt over the years following its mindless marginalisation politically as well as unexplained denial of basic amenities.

     

    Jerry Ekpo, a chieftain of the APC, wrote in from Abuja

  • Florence Obi: Upgrading Infrastructure In UNICAL For Academic Comfort BY DOMINIC KIDZU

    Florence Obi: Upgrading Infrastructure In UNICAL For Academic Comfort BY DOMINIC KIDZU

     

    Always pragmatic in her style of administration, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Professor Florence Obi has in a little over one year in office repositioned a large number of office and studying facilities to ease the process of learning and avail more comfort for students of the institution. On assuming office as Vice Chancellor, she met a lot of infrastructure and facilities in an appalling state with dilapidated hostels, decrepit lecture halls and uncompleted examination pavilions.

    The situation was further worsened with the devastating invasion of the institution by angry youths during the END SARS protests leading to a complete stripping of hostel facilities including conduit pipes, wires, toilet shanks, basins and pipes, windows, doors, and roofs. The hostels were more like ruins in the aftermath of a fierce war and students could not be sent to live there with all good conscience. She commissioned the renovation and expansion of many of these facilities even with a zero bank balance at her inception and handed down stiff timeliness to the contractors. She has also included external works, furnishing and landscaping as separate contracts tied to the original projects.

    Arc James Ikpi, who is the Director of Physical Planning said that the ongoing projects are mostly lecture theatres and pavilions. “Pavilions 1, 2 and 3 are existing structures that had neither offices nor conveniences. Large halls that we are remodelling to increase sitting capacity. They were just halls which we have converted to storey buildings in order to increase the sitting capacity and enhance student comfort. The projects were started in October last year but are almost complete. These projects are under the TETFUND budget for 2018/2019/2020 but they were not done until we came and met them.”

    “The Vice Chancellor has told us that she doesn’t want abandoned projects that will attract variation. We started in October and many of them are already completed while the other ones are nearing completion. The team that came from Tetfund was very impressed with our work. Commissioning of the projects will be coming up soon” Engineer Ikpi said.

    I found one of the major contractors, Engineer Dominic Eguda at one of the sites and he told me that he was under immense pressure from the Vice Chancellor to deliver the job. “I have worked in about 15 institutions but I have never experienced this kind of commitment from any chief executive. We originally wrote that we will complete the projects in 36 weeks but the VC insisted that we compress the duration to 24 weeks, making us to work day and night. She comes to inspect the site twice a day. The management also; from physical planning, bursary etc, have also been very supportive”.

    The pavilions now have a sitting capacity of 4,500 students for lectures and examinations, up from 1,200. And the theatres are now fitted with suitable offices, conveniences and other ancillary facilities.

    The Director disclosed that “we are doing all this even though we inherited sanctions caused by infractions of up to N1.3 billion from the previous administration due to misapplication of funds
    which we have been refunding. As a result of this, funds for 2021 and 2022 Tetfund intervention are not available to us. We are repaying gradually. We are trying to wipe out the impression that we are the institution with the highest abandoned projects so that we can return to good standing with TETFUND”.

    When I spoke to Engr Paul Takon, who is the Deputy director of works (Electrical), he was excited about the Solar project he was supervising which is a gracious intervention from the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC. “We are lighting up the institution including security search lights especially after the criminality that has been going on. Deans of faculties are also being encouraged to also light up their faculties.”

    “Public Power supply has always been the limitation, but we are already in the second phase of Energising Education Programme which is another intervention from the Rural Electrification Agency, REA, to give universities 247 Power supply. What is proposed for the University of Calabar is a 7 megawatts solar plant which will adequately cater for the power supply needs of the university. Contractors are already bidding for the actual construction of the plant. In the next 2 – 3 months work will start effectively”.

    He said that in the meantime, the Vice Chancellor has just bought another new 1500kva generator to add to the two existing ones. The
    VC has also made sure that most faculties and departments have strong generators that can carry airconsitioners and other electricity needs, so that the absence of public power does not disrupt academic activities.