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Tag: #Agba Jalingo

  • N500m Stabilization Fund: The Lie From Abuja And The Silence From Calabar BY AGBA JALINGO

    N500m Stabilization Fund: The Lie From Abuja And The Silence From Calabar BY AGBA JALINGO

     

    Barely forty days to the end of former Cross River Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke’s administration, in a petition dated April 16, 2015, Cross River lawyer and former presidential aide, Okoi Obono Obla, petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, to investigate the expenditure of allocations to the 18 local governments in Cross River State from the federation account, under Imoke’s watch.

    The petitioner, Obono Obla, amongst other demands, asked the EFCC to investigate the expenditure of the sum of N15 Billion by Governor Liyel Imoke approved by the Federal Government of Nigeria to ameliorate the economic losses suffered by Cross River State as a result of the judgment of the Supreme Court that led to the loss of 76 Oil Wells to Akwa Ibom State by Cross River State and the transfer of the sovereignty of Bakassi Peninsula to the Republic of Cameroon.

    And to also investigate the expenditure of a monthly augmentation of N500m (Five Hundred Million Naira) from the Stabilization Fund paid to the Cross River State Government in 2013 by the Federal Government of Nigeria for two years at the first instance.

    Obla’s request was sequel to information disclosed in a leaked letter dated April 12, 2014 which the RMAFC sent to Imoke, requesting to visit the State to monitor and evaluate what the Bakassi intervention fund had achieved. The letter also disclosed that a lump sum of fifteen billion naira was released from the Stabilization Fund by RMAFC, to the Cross River State government, plus five hundred million naira monthly augmentation for two years, amounting to 6 billion naira, which was also paid in bulk in June 2013. In addition to another N400million Naira every month. (The letter is attached here.)

    Then in May 2017, a former Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Aliyu Mohammed, during a visit to the State to see Governor Ayade, said as part of efforts to assuage the pains caused by the loss of Bakassi, about N38billion has been paid as special allocation to the State by the Federal Government over a period of 11 years, as compensation.

    CrossRiverWatch has been tracking this development since 2012. So when the incumbent Chairman of RMAFC, Mr. A.M. Shehu, mentioned $500million, it conflicted with all I have heard previously about this matter and created doubts in my mind. While it is clear that A.M. Shehu, told a lie about the currency they send to Cross River State and replaced Naira with Dollars, it is even more worrisome that Calabar is silent on the whereabouts of the money. Calabar is more anxious to tell us it wasn’t Dollars but reluctant to tell us what the Naira they accept they have been collecting has been utilized on.

    After joining their political party, Obono Obla, abandoned the petitions he wrote against Governor Imoke and the press statement from Governor Ayade’s office on Friday, though conceded that they get N500m every month, still didn’t not tell the public what exactly the money has been used for. That exactly should be our bone of contention. It is our right to know and we need to know and we actually need to know NOW!

    Meanwhile, I was abruptly corrected yesterday during an interview with a relevant source. A top source in RMAFC, who pleaded anonymity, told yours sincerely that, contrary to what people are saying, the Bakassi augmentation fund is meant for the entire Cross River State and not one LGA alone.

    The source said: “Before Cross River lost the Bakassi oil wells to Akwa Ibom, money for the 76 oil wells was not sent to Bakassi LGA alone. It was part of the Cross River State share from FAAC for the development of all the LGAs. Bakassi LGA has its own share from the center like the other 17 LGAs. The augmentation is to serve the same purpose that the oil revenue was serving and I am sure the revenue was not used in Bakassi alone. It is for the whole of Cross River State to augment her allocation for the lose of revenue following the ceding of Bakassi to Cameroon. I need you to correct that impression out there please.”

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Now That We Have Seen Governor Ayade’s Last Budget… BY AGBA JALINGO

    Now That We Have Seen Governor Ayade’s Last Budget… BY AGBA JALINGO

     

    Yesterday Governor Ayade presented his 2023 budget proposal to the State House of Assembly, and as usual, he gave the N330Billion proposal, which is his last budget in office, another buzz name: Budget of Quantum Infinitum.”

    For the records, let’s see the budgets from year 2016, since Governor Ayade took over:

    2016, Budget of Deep Vision – N350Billion.

    2017, Budget of Infinite Transposition – N707Billion.

    2018, Budget of Kinetic Crystallization – N1.30Trillion.

    2019, Budget of Quabalistic Densification – N1.43Trillion.

    2020, Budget of Olympotic Meristemasis – N1.10Trillion.

    2021, Budget of Blush and Bliss – N277Billion.

    2022, Budget of Conjugated Agglutination – N355Billion.

    2023, Budget of Quantum Infinitum – N330Billion.

    That’s a cumulative Total Eight Year Budget of: ( *Five Trillion, Eight Hundred And Forty Nine Billion Naira)*

    Budgets are proposals not birds in hand. But these proposals are meant to be measured by realistic frameworks and based on concrete projections and not only wishful thinking. Close to Six Trillion Naira has been budgeted in eight years. I am till this date, still mounting pressure on my brother, the governor of our State, Senator Ben Ayade and waiting for the commencement of functionality and market presence of products from his 38 industries. It will be to the delight of all of us, including yours sincerely.

    In 213 days time, we will have a new governor and most of those factories he built are not functioning yet. There is no guarantee that they will function and get their products to the market after his tenure. That model has not worked in our State since 1999. I don’t want to be fed with the periodic optics when the governor visits those places. I just want to see those products hit the market and folks earning genuine income from there and I think that is the desire of most Cross Riverians and trust me, I will be out there drumming it, once that happens.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • As University Students Return To Class… BY AGBA JALINGO

    As University Students Return To Class… BY AGBA JALINGO

     

    There is one alarm button I won’t stop to press mainly because of the consequences of it’s imminent explosion. The piling numbers of thousands of graduating students without any skill or ability to solve any problem is something that we must not stop to talk about. While several of our country’s most disciplined pioneers and high performers scored so high only with high school education, many are churned out of tertiary schools today and rather than arriving with problem solving skills, they are becoming the problems that society is grappling to solve.

    Carpenters, plumbers, vulcanizers, painters, tailors and others who trained informally are toiling within the excruciating economy to offer their services daily and keep up their families, yet a greater majority of graduates are just finishing their NYSC or MSc program, and returning home to begin a second childhood or returning to the same artisans they call illiterate, to learn a trade and then return home again.

    Most of those returning from our ivory towers today can only recite their textbooks and authorities in their field of study. They cannot solve any practical problem including the ones related to their course of study. Ask even some of the most brilliant graduates that simple question, “Now you have graduated or you have a Master’s degree, what can you do, what value are you bringing or what problem do you think you can solve for our organization? A great lot will begin to stutter and face down or they start reeling out their CV as if that’s what you asked for.

    That elevator pitch promptness to summarize your own abilities and strength is stunted. And this situation is worsened by their superiority complex and ingrained sense of entitlement conferred on them by the certificate. They feel they are entitled to a job merely because they have graduated not because they have any problem solving skill. They prefer that a person who can solve a problem, but did not graduate be kicked out in preference for them who graduated even if they cannot solve any problem.

    A combination of several factors has created this bizarre picture, many of which the Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU and the government are tussling over. After eight months hiatus, the classes have reopened without the resolution of the issues that resulted to their closure. That means another closure is only a matter of time. And this circuitous rigmarole will continue unabated to the detriment of students and the future of our country.

    The students themselves must now re-invent the meaning and content of student activism and unionism and demonstrate the organizational depth to reclaim their campuses in words and deeds. NANS and it’s affiliates must return to history and study what motivated their predecessors like Segun Okeowo, Lanre Arogundade, Olusegun Mayeigun, Omoyele Sowore, Malachy Ugwumadu, Olasupo Ojo, Bamidele Aturu etc.

    The students must coalesce and invent an ingenious method of compelling the government and the teachers and every stakeholder in the education sector to declare an emergency, sit down in the real sense of sitting down and negotiate a return of their campuses to learning centers instead of killing fields, scam theatres and hook up arenas, that they have become.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Dear Thief, Kindly Steal With A Human Face BY AGBA JALINGO

    Dear Thief, Kindly Steal With A Human Face BY AGBA JALINGO

     

    Regardless of how scary it may sound, it is axiomatic that life was longer when it was slower, and as life gets faster with technological leaps, life will continue to get shorter. I don’t know the calendar or the lunar cycle that was in place at the time, but we are told in the Bible for instance that one Methuselah lived for 969 years. Clearly that was a time when there was no knowledge of life beyond the precincts of where people found themselves.

    There were no roads. No transportation other than foot. No telephone. No internet. No satellites. No letter writing or post office. Nothing that has today given our lives a juicy turn existed then. Life was slow, so life was longer. As life got faster, when man began to impact on his environment to improve the quality of his life, and make it faster by building roads, airports, telephones, internet and the likes, life has consequently become shorter on the calendar and shall continue to, as long as it gets faster.

    But whether this life gets shorter or longer, the bottom line is that life will eventually come to an end here one of these days. And no matter the length of time God allots to each one of us here, how much money do we really need to survive for that time and even stockpile for our generations, if we must?

    It is a very important question that we need to ruminate on because our inability to interrogate this reality has led us to seeing some of the most humongous stealing in the history of politicking and public sector assignments in world’s history. Mindless stealing that when the figures are broken down, you conclude that those who do these things are not humans like the rest of us.

    No matter how much money you amass, if you spend 1million everyday from the day you are born non-stop, and live for 100years, you will only have spent thirty-six billion five hundred million. And if you spend 5million everyday from the day you are born non-stop, and live for 100years, you will spend: One hundred and eighty-two billion five hundred million Naira.

    Yet with all those bogus calculations, we only need a tiny percentage of that money to live comfortably here because we can’t start spending from the day we are born till the day we die for so many reasons and how many of us will even get to 100 years?

    So when you hear that public officials are stealing and sharing hundreds of billions of Naira from public coffers, the first question that comes to mind is, “what do they need all these numbers for? How long are you going to stay here? Why deny others the chance to taste a good life? That biggest mansion you are excited about buying or building, even your children will not sleep inside unless the ones that fail and are unable to build theirs.

    In taking it home, let me assume that there are not many people in this country who spend 5million daily nor desire to. For tens of millions of Nigerians, their desire is to have a system that can work and secure their daily bread for them. There is no man in Nigeria today that needs money to the tune of the embarrassing and mind boggling figures we read they are pilfering from government at all levels. None!

    It is sheer wickedness and a debilitating mental condition for our public officials to continue to neglect public needs and steal monies they really don’t need. The simmering anguish in the country is almost bursting. It is trite that stealing public money in Nigeria has been democratized and corruption now has a tribe amongst us, but when that endemic compulsive desire to steal has come over you and you must steal, please kindly steal with a human face.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Obudu, Has Your Suffering Ended? BY AGBA JALINGO

    Obudu, Has Your Suffering Ended? BY AGBA JALINGO

     

    June 22, 2015, Ben Ayade, the Obudu born Professor, Senator representing Cross River North at the time and governorship flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the 2015 general election in Cross River State, declared an end to the sufferings of Obudu people to the delight of an ecstatic crowd that gathered at the Chief J.A. Agba memorial stadium in Obudu.

    Filled with satisfaction over the manner, disposition and the massive turn out of his people to welcome him, he could not control his excitement as he announced the end of perils in Obudu. In his words ” Kugbudu, Kingie Kimen Kimbe ” which means, “Obudu, your suffering has ended”. It’s exactly 7 years and 52 days after that day and the question on my lips this morning is: “Has the suffering of Obudu people ended?

    Since he took over as Governor, Ayade has nursed some very ambitious projects for Obudu, his home town. Principally, these projects include: The British/Canadian School, the Obudu International Airport, the Obudu German Specialist Hospital, the Obudu Independent Power Project and the Mini Super Highway which is supposed to criss cross the five LGAs of Northern Cross River. No doubt these are the most touted projects of the governor in Obudu. But let us examine them one after the other.

    1. The British/Canadian School: Most of the buildings have been completed. But nothing is going on there. The governor says he wants to turn it to a university campus contrary to the original concept of a basic and high school. It is practical to say he will leave office without any activity in that place. But it will be a thing of great joy for me, even if it’s the primary school that can start functioning first, like the one inside the Teachers Training Institute in Biase, so we can at least remember that he built us a school. For now, there is no school in that place yet. Just some structures.

    2. The Obudu International Airport: Governor Ayade said publicly that if he doesn’t complete it, we should carry our sacred “bizu” leaves and banish him from Obudu. That’s what will happen because since the terminal building of the airport collapsed, not much is going on there. Our governor simply doesn’t have the money or the time to finish any kind of port now, not to even talk of an airport. He has only 289 days left. Airports aren’t built in days. He has only set a recipe for communal crisis as homeless land owners are already returning to reclaim portions of the now bushy site, which may snowball into crisis.

    3. The Obudu German Specialist Hospital: The buildings have also been erected and beautifully painted like a sepulchre. Even the fence is so beautiful from the road that when you see it, you will wonder what is happening inside. But verily verily, nothing is going on inside and I don’t know when empty buildings started bearing the name, hospital. We all know what a hospital is and what happens inside. There is nothing like a German hospital in Obudu yet. I am not lying. It is the truth. What we have there is some painted structures and a few equipment supplied and abandoned by Cocharis. The only public hospital in Obudu till today is the Sacred Heart Hospital along hospital road, built by the Catholic mission. If we eventually have a new hospital in Obudu, whether you call it German or Nigerian hospital, I will not hesitate to tell you.

    4. Obudu Independent Power Project: Our governor trumpeted this as one of his flagship projects in Obudu. He went and purchased two diesel powered generators and brought them to power an entire LGA, in the 21st century. A small diesel generator used to power a BTS consumes about 18,000 liters of fuel per year. CO2 emission from one liter of diesel fuel is 2.68kg. Meaning one generator emits 46.5 metric tons of CO2 annually. With those large LPFO powered generators, it is a massive environmental risk that should have been put into consideration by a Governor who is an environmentalist. Yet, the last time those generators came on was in 2019 when Ayade’s niece, Memshima was getting married. The power project has since been abandoned and the generators are parked somewhere along Ranch road.

    5. Mini Super Highway: I don’t need to talk much here. I just shared a video of the road with you yesterday. A road still under construction is been washed off by the rains. A road without drainages. A road so terribly done that it cannot even stand till the completion of the project. The road that failed before Ayade deceived us that he is fixing it, lasted for over 30 years. Even the job that Ayade’s construction company, Leophina Construction, got from the Federal Ministry of Works to do total rehabilitation and resurfacing of the highway from Obudu to Wula in Boki, the Governor and his brother Franko, collected the money, managed to grind the road up to Akorsie in Obanliku, abandoned the project and pocketed the money. Today, you can’t go to Obudu through Boki. We have to pass through Ogoja which is a longer route.

    I am from Obudu. I wish above all things that Obudu is developed and prospers. I won’t be deceived by anyone. Not at this my age. I will not join those who want to perpetually lie to our people to say what isn’t verifiable. If all these projects take off, I will tell you so. If governor Ayade leaves office today, there is nothing, absolutely nothing in Obudu, that we will point to that he did for his people other than these meaningless food on the table titles that will evaporate on his exit. It is rodents and reptiles that will leave in those empty buildings.

    Don’t lie to me. Complete these projects. Get them working and let us indeed know that even if you were unable to end our suffering in Obudu like you promised in June 2015, at least you were able to reduce the suffering.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Dear Prince Otu, Don’t Start From Where We Are Leaving BY AGBA JALINGO

    Dear Prince Otu, Don’t Start From Where We Are Leaving BY AGBA JALINGO

     

    We are leaving somewhere. Like, departing from a place of discomfort to another destination. That should happen in exactly 291 days. It is important for all of us to make sure we remind whoever will take over the reins of power from Governor Ayade, whether it is the ruling or the opposition party, that we are reading their lips and preparing their marking scheme.

    Prince Otu, the APC guber candidate was on a thank-you tour of Cross River North recently. I think they had a good time going round without any major incident of violence or chaos. That is very commendable. Two things however have been sticking out like the sore toes of an elephantiasis infected feet. Among the events that took place in the North, Otu’s supporters have been particular about two. The spraying of money from an open roof car in Bekwarra for people to pick from the ground and Otu’s promise to revamp Okuku Market in Yala LGA, if he becomes our next governor.

    While Otu supporters called what happened in Abuochiche junction the triumphal arrival of Prince Otu, to a tumultuous welcome, what I saw was people throwing Naira notes from the open roof of a speeding vehicle and luring poor villagers to scramble for a pick among bikes that could have hit anyone. Let me be very clear that in Nigerian politics and during campaign seasons, it is not only Prince Otu or his supporters that will be caught in this. Having said that, that cannot be a standard we will accept or tolerate in our State.

    First, Prince Otu was a member of the National Assembly that passed the CBN Act which criminalizes the denigration of Naira notes in the manner we saw in Bekwarra. In a place where laws work, all those caught on video spraying or trampling on those notes should be facing a magistrate by now. Secondly, it smacks of taking our people for granted because of their poverty, anytime someone who says they want to go and lead us and alleviate our poverty, come around and begin to throw Naira notes to the ground for peoples’ fathers, mothers, aunties and youths to trample on themselves and pick and fight over after the convoys are far gone.

    The toe, knee and elbow injuries they sustain in the running and falling, the risk of being knocked down by a rushing vehicle, are all part of the wickedness infested by such despicable show of shame. These are not sights that should be celebrated. Our people are not dogs and food should not be thrown to them on the ground. Dogs too don’t eat from the ground any longer. Even Ayade is putting the food on the table. He is not throwing it on the ground.

    Prince Otu was also quoted as saying: “I spent most of my school days in the North, and during that time, people come from all over the country to buy at the Okuku market. I will revive that market and make sure that happens again in my time.” Now, this is where I want to caution that we cannot continue from where we are leaving. Stop the bogus promises and stop them now please. We are tired of these bogus gargantuan and olympotic promises. Do what the laws says.

    We need to tell Prince Otu early enough that, if by any chance he becomes our governor, rather than bother about fixing Okuku market, he should promise Cross Riverians that, he will not touch or pilfer LGA funds like all his predecessors have been doing and will allow the LGAs to work and function as enshrined in our Constitution. If he does that, Okuku market will function as he desires without his intervention. Historically, markets have always been out of the purview of governors even from colonial administration. Communities and local chiefs have always had a way to manage their market places peacefully until big government began to unfairly interfere.

    Let us also remind Prince Otu again that, sub(e) of the Fourth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, clearly vests the establishment, maintenance and regulation of slaughter houses, slaughter slabs, *markets* , motor parks and public conveniences on LGAs and not on Governors. It is the refusal of the governors to do what the law says that is killing markets like the one in Okuku and several others across the State. I am very sure that even that time Otu spent in the North like he said, the Okuku market he says was doing well and bringing people from across the country was developed and run by the LGA not the State government.

    We shall continue to standby and gather together what those who want to lead us are promising us on their way to power and keep the promises as their marking scheme. This will serve as a good reminder and a wealthy library for the social contract.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Are You Running For National Assembly Election From Cross River? Let Me Have Your Attention Please BY AGBA JALINGO

    Are You Running For National Assembly Election From Cross River? Let Me Have Your Attention Please BY AGBA JALINGO

     

    Six years ago, just after taking office, Governor Ayade made a very strong case for the abundant mineral resources in our State in a visit by the Minister of Solid Minerals to Peregrino House in Calabar and shortly after, the Cross River State Ministry of Solid Minerals obtained exploration licences for mineral resources from the federal government. The licences include quarry lease for granite, exploration licence for limestone, clay and shale as well as reconnaissance permit.

    That deft move by Governor Ayade was and still remains a huge milestone because the Mineral Resources Act 2007 vests the total control and appropriation of mineral resources on the federal government, yet the Land Use Act says the Governor holds the land in trust for his people. Getting the mining licenses was therefore a massive opening for our State to directly participate in the exploration of our natural endowment. Governor Ayade immediately admitted afterwards that financing was the next challenge and called for patience. He said the next step was the sourcing and provision of financing for exploration in his bid to diversify the State economy.

    The Governor pushed again and in February 2021, the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development announced that an artisanal and small scale mineral processing cluster will be established in Cross River State and will be completed within six months. The Minister of State, Uche Ogar, disclosed this in Calabar while he was receiving title documents for a five-hectare land donated by the Cross River State government in Yala LGA for the project.

    The choice of Cross River State for the siting of the cluster project for barite value chain development was predicated on the fact that the state is endowed with large commercial deposits of the mineral. Barite deposit occurrences in Cross River State are mainly around Obubra through to Yala Local Government Area which informed the siting of the cluster project in Yala. Under the project, the Federal Government intended to embark on infrastructural development within the cluster area such as a barite processing plant, mining equipment leasing bay, training center, warehouse, office complex amongst other amenities.

    The National Bureau of Statistics aggregate production of mineral products in Nigeria peaked at 89.48 million tonnes in 2021 with Ogun, Kogi, and Cross River States recording the highest output. Breakdown of State profile analysis showed Ogun recorded the highest production in 2021 with 32.04 million tons, followed by Kogi with 18.40 million tonnes and Cross River with 11.64 million tonnes.

    Till date, that project is in the limbo. It has been overtaken by politicking and nothing is been heard about it.

    The second project was announced in February 2017. The Federal Ministry of Science and Technology and Cross River State launched a waste-to-wealth program in Calabar. The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, laid the foundation for a plant to process waste-to-wealth at the Idundu Industrial Layout in Calabar and said the Calabar site was the pilot project. Governor Ayade noted on the occasion that the project would help in the production of biogas, organic waste and feeds for aquatic culture in the State.

    These are two well thought-out but pending or stagnated or siphoned federal projects designated for our State already. Whoever is going or returning to the National Assembly from the State should get a small team to take pens and papers and ask these questions:

    1. How can the Mineral Resources Act 2007 be amended to give States increased stake and access to their mineral resources? This will lead to the drafting of an amended bill that member.

    2. What is my strategy for engaging with lawmakers from Ogun, Kogi and other mineral resources rich States to achieve this goal based on shared interest? This collaboration based on shared interest across several States will create the robust and necessary initial buy-in for the amended bill.

    3. What is the oversight intervention required to push through with the federal ministry of mines and minerals to make sure that the mineral processing cluster that was to be established in six months in Yala returns immediately? Who did what and who did not do what and what was left to be done on the part of our State or FG? Who is in the NASS committee that oversights the ministry of mineral resources or any other relevant committee that needs to be engaged and lobbied to ensure every bottle neck is cleared for the return of the project? This may lead to increased appropriation to the ministry to fast track the project. This will reveal the reasons why the project was stalled and also provide an opportunity for effective oversight function.

    4. Question 3 is applicable to the waste-to-wealth program of the Ministry of Science and Technology. Same questions need to be asked with adequate follow up.

    I cannot over emphasize the impact that these two projects and their value chain will unleash in the State economy and job creation if executed. But like most things associated with our Governor, he starts on a very promising note and then blows the expectations away in no time. Indeed, Governor Ayade may be like former Super Eagles player, Pius Ikedia who skillfully dribbles everyone with mastery until he enters the 18 yard box and wastes the ball without scoring; it is now time for others on the pitch with him to assist him knock these loose balls into the net. This will not stop anyone from buying the usual okada and wrappers for distribution back home. It will only improve the quality of representation that the State will be getting from the next set of National Assembly members. I am only making suggestions since I am not running any election.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Embracing The Reality Of Dwindled Popularity BY AGBA JALINGO

    Embracing The Reality Of Dwindled Popularity BY AGBA JALINGO

     

    At the thanksgiving mass in honor of Justice Emmanuel Agim, on his elevation to the Supreme Court, at the St. Patrick Catholic Church in Calabar yesterday, Governor Ayade, after launching the 2022 harvest theme and donating N25m, reportedly told the Bishop, John Ayah, who came from Uyo to Calabar that, “Before you depart for your station from Calabar, I will whisper to you.” A euphemism for “I will send money to you.”

    And Bishop Ayah replied: “Kindly add the whisper to the salary of your workers and pay them, I don’t need it.” And the congregation spontaneously sprang up and gave the Bishop a standing ovation. As governor Ayade navigates his remaining 294 days in office, there is abundant chances that many more of those kinds of situations will repeat themselves. Whether in the church or village playground or even campaign grounds, he will be booed in many places publicly and with more audacity.

    Whether those who work with him tell him the truth about the reality outside the security wall around him or not, honestly speaking, a greater majority of Cross Riverians are unhappy with governor Ayade. Even on his own verified Facebook page, they aren’t sparing him there with invectives whenever he does a new post. Even his own appointees are some of his most acerbic critics then they come out to praise sing him.

    While this turn of events and trend should not be encouraged or pampered, it can also be argued that it is becoming inevitable because it is difficult to point to anything that Governor Ayade has done that is functioning effectively. The governor should rather realize now that people are tired of his big grammar and his public drama. It used to sound like music in their ears when they still thought things will change under him.

    His songs and shoki dance steps used to ‘ginger’ the crowds. The town used to be grounded and emptied into the airport when he returns from his frequent trips. Now he doesn’t get up to a dozen welcomers. He should also stop thinking that people will continue to genuflect when he mentions money in those public events. They are building their hopes on the next person already. The Governor has to search for urgent results to showcase to a frustrated population. Everytime he has a public outing henceforth, he has to find and point to what he has done that is working and stop the propaganda about he has built this and that, which have all never worked.

    Until he can show functional results no matter how minimal, he should expect more public hostility even from unexpected quarters as his days in office get thinner.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Learn, Unlearn, Relearn Everything…. BY AGBA JALINGO

    Learn, Unlearn, Relearn Everything…. BY AGBA JALINGO

     

    We learn everything we know how to do because we arrived here only with an empty disc. Not knowing how to even crawl or walk. Even the crying we arrive here with, is learnt here. It is a product of the fear that overwhelms us on arrival in a strange environment. When we arrive here, we begin to learn. We are told by those who arrived here before us billions of years ago, through their customs and traditions, their writings and arts and other forms of legacies that, this is this and that is that. We begin to accept and assimilate what we are learning into our empty disc. As our senses continue to perceive, our disc too begins to populate itself with the things we are learning. The disc is also equipped with capacity to refuse saving some files it detects to be corrupted with malware.

    But as the disc keeps filling it’s space, when there is no more space again, some of the saved files will have to be unlearneds the disc can relearn or better put, accommodate new files. In other analogy, it’s like having grown to become a student, you progress to become a teacher too someday, and grow to become a professor in what you are teaching and begin to profess. You have learned, unlearned and relearned. You become an authority because you can now propound your own prognostications arising from your own research and proven ideas.

    Today, I believe in God not because any person or any book or any philosophy told me so. Yes I was told all my life that there is God. That Christ is the only way to God. I was told about the angels and devil also, as well as heaven and hell. I have also read about the esoteric concepts of the universe and the cosmic. But as I grew up, I climaxed by doubting the existence of God.

    I challenged everything that told me earlier that there is a God and wanted to believe that there is God only if it was from my own personal conviction based on my experience in my sojourn in this world. I wasn’t asking for evidence. I was unlearning. In that course, simple things both in life and in nature, that will not even matter to you or someone else and even the big things that are unimaginable and inexplicable became part of my awe-ing experience.

    I began to relearn that there is a “something” that is remotely controlling the affairs of this green planet and the rest of the stars. That thing is greater than all things perceivable. It is my conviction now. I don’t see God through the eyes of anyone again. Not Mathew, not Mark, not Luke, not John, not Paul, not Mohammed, not Buddha, not Jesus etc. I see God through my eyes. Through the simple things that astound me. I have relearned.

    I learnt all my life that Mongo Park discovered River Niger. I have unlearned and relearned that too. I learnt that the devil is black and the angels are white, I have relearned and unlearned that too. I learnt that “Ojuju Calabar” is coming and will run under the bed, I have also unlearned and relearned that too.

    In this life, there is nothing that cannot or should not be learned, unlearned and relearned. Including questioning the existence of God, your nativity, your belief systems. Question taboos, poke your fingers in the eyes of age long cliches and paradigms. Don’t swallow anything hook, line and sinker, including what you are reading now, unless it is born out of conviction based on your own experience. The truth is that heaven will not fall if you do. Even if it does fall, it won’t fall on your head alone.

    Good morning.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Bye-Bye To Governance, Welcome To Politics… BY AGBA JALINGO

    Bye-Bye To Governance, Welcome To Politics… BY AGBA JALINGO

     

    2022 has arrived with the expected political declarations to take power next year, and aspirants are all hitting the roads and combing the rusty clefts they abandoned in the last four years and oiling them for power grab. The people too are making a kill, feasting from the spoils of the quadrennial rendezvous of their cap-in-hand expectations which they must remit, every year preceding election.

    The casualty of this melodious reunion is governance. It will come to a stand still. All over the country, the table has turned. It will all be politics until the end of the 503 days remaining. Even when this moment hadn’t come, it wasn’t as if anyone was governing us. What will now change is that, even the skeletal public services that can still be accessible now, will all be diverted into how to grab power come 2023.

    In Cross River State, which is my specific interest, Governor Ayade’s tenure as far as governance is concerned, has effectively ended. It is election and handover date that are remaining. Let me be clear that even the governor does not realize what I am saying now and will not agree with me either. He will read this and laugh at me but I will explain. It will not be his will to abandon governance, if he was ever governing, but the sequence of events henceforth will so distract him that he won’t even be able to remember his regular work schedules.

    You see the same way the tussle by Governor Imoke in 2014 to plant either Legor Idagbo as governor or allow Jedy Agba have his way or find an Ayade to later replace Legor, distracted Imoke to the point where even garbage could not be evacuated from Calabar, that is how the horse trading, intrigues, and politicking in the months ahead will distract Governor Ayade. Both from the opposition PDP and from within his own party, the APC, the contending interests will ensure every of his remaining days and nights are filled with scheming over who will get what in 2023 and nothing else. While the PDP will keep him busy in the State, some of his own party members who will be opposed to his choice and will want to lobby for the governorship ticket from their national headquarters, will force him to relocate to Abuja to fight for his political future.

    Don’t also forget that the Ogoja/Yala federal constituency by-election, a very crucial win-or-mar election for the Governor, is still underway, later this year. And the worst of it all is Governor Ayade’s Presidential ambition. That is not just a major major project and final distraction from governance, it will be a primary conduit to fritter the little resources of our State by an excited governor. His exco, his legion of appointees, the entire government will collapse into that ambition. He is just waiting for the APC National Convention to hold before he joins the fray.

    All the talk about completing the airport, super highway, deep sea port, cala this and cala that, rice mill and chocolate factory and all that long list, have all gone into voice mail. He will continue to mouth them and continually refer to them in his public speeches and that’s where it will end. They will window dress them periodically to score political points like they did with calachika during the Yuletide season and when the primaries come in August or thereabout, officials will start telling you government is a continuum, so the next governor will do the needful.

    This will not only happen to Governor Ayade. Even our national and state assembly members will suffer same fate as well as the LG chairmen. They will put governance in the limbo. They will stand akimbo. Interestingly, the people won’t bother. Because the politicians are busting bundles this season. The people will think the bundles are good governance and as far as the bundles continue to rain in the various marathon political meetings that will be holding, it will suffice for the people as good governance.

    I thought it was important to let you know this. That in the remaining 503 days to May 29, 2023, it is bye bye to governance and welcome to politics. Cut your expectations if you still had any, and save yourself a heart.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.