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Ordinarily, who will not like the coming together of his people to initiate ideas that will bring good to his or her place? That person must be a retard. And retards are despicable. But how do you claim to lead people in the dark?

The coterie of friends, strange bed fellows, acolytes, apparachiks, former this and former that, and even recent failures, who are now coalescing under the name of CROSS RIVER NORTHERN Coalition NORTHCCO, have not disclosed what their real goal is. But I can tell you for free that, it is all about politics and how to grab power, without telling us yet, what they intend to do with the power, which most of them have held at one time or the other, and left Cross River North in the bad shape it is today.

Manifestos come before elections. Plans come before programs and implementation. Questions come before answers are given. The vision must be written down before it can be executed. Horses go in front of the carts. What is the driving force of NORTHCCO beyond politics and power grab? Someone should dare to answer that question and allow us to interrogate their answers.

In case you don’t get me right, politics involves the processes and activities, and decisions that are made to organize and distribute power and resources in society. Politics involves interactions and competitions among individuals, groups, and institutions in order to amicably distribute power. Politics is mostly focused on the acquisition and distribution of power. Here, the elites control the levers and their intentions may not necessarily be good or pro people.

Governance on the other hand refers to the methods, processes, and mechanisms through which decisions and policies are implemented. Governance includes managing resources, monitoring the implementation of programs and laws, and ensuring justice and efficiency in the management of public affairs. Governance focuses more on how to manage and implement decisions and policies in society and includes managerial, administrative, and supervisory processes. Unlike politics, governance deals more with expertise and measures progress not by how many polling units are won but by how society is progressing, regardless of who wins.

Both concepts are however related because they both dwell on decision-making in society. Nevertheless, the real qualms, is the continued preference of our elites for politics far and above governance. The insatiable desire of people who have held several political positions and failed to help Cross River North progress, continuing to scramble for power, merely to oil their financial sinews.

Why are we avoiding the governance conversation? Why do we get bored, agitated and angry once the issue of how to govern our space comes up? Why do we flare up anytime well meaning people demand a governance agenda that is clear, achievable and time bound? I repeat that, most of those parading themselves in NORTHCCO as those who want to rescue Northern Cross River, have all held important political positions in the distant or recent past, yet Northern Cross River remains the least developed in the State. Their only projects were their beautiful mansions in their villages and their SUVs. People we should be holding responsible for our underdevelopment are gathering to deceive us that they want to salvage us, yet they don’t have a salvation program that we can see.

My joy is that there are more strange bed fellows in the NORTHCCO I saw in pictures that day in Ogoja than there are people who mean well for Northern Cross River. Many of them are only still looking for where to anchor and get some bucks. When the seeming privileges are finally shared and dusted, and they fail to get the pecuniary pecks they were anticipating, their true colors will be revealed. When infiltrators throw kites in their midst, they will poach quite a handful and set their fragile accord into turmoil. When the diverse 2027 political interests begin to tumble in, their stomachs will drive the vision of most of them who gathered there and the winds will blow the utopia away, and that will be in no time.

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.