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Tag: #Agba Jalingo

  • Is This How Governor Ayade Will Leave Us? BY AGBA JALINGO

    IS THIS HOW GOVERNOR AYADE WILL LEAVE US?

    In 79 days time from now, Governor Ayade will share the grace from office. He will stop being our governor. In case you don’t understand; he will hand over to a new governor and become former governor. But the actual grace sharing begins after the primaries of the political parties which must hold and be completed within the next five months. Even before and after then, politicking takes over everything. Governance grinds to a total halt.

    But I have been thinking and picking my teeth and wondering that, like play, like play, is this how Governor Ayade will just leave us?

    1. Without a superhighway, an evacuation corridor where we will drive from Calabar to Obudu with a glass of water on the trunk of the car and the glass will not shake?

    2. Without turning Bakassi to Lugano?

    3. Without resettling the Bakassi IDPs?

    4. Without, a deep sea port in Bakassi?

    5. Without Ikom Chocolates in the stores?

    6. Without poles, piles and pylons in even Bedwell market in Calabar?

    7. Without even a face towel from garment factory in any shop on Marian road in Calabar?

    8. Without a rice city churning out highly improved “Calas 77” seeds to the rest of Nigeria to generate N70billion annually for Cross River and decouple the State from federal allocation?

    9. Without a trademark roofing sheet or tile from Yala roofing tile factory, in the market?

    10. Without Bekwara groundnut oil in the market?

    11. Without Obubra cassava processing factory starch in the stores?

    12. Without thousands of Cross Riverians on the Ayadecare insurance scheme?

    13. Without a functional passenger and cargo airport in Obudu?

    14. Without registering an airline or getting an AOC?

    15. With a chicken processing factory that functions only during the Yuletide?

    16. Without a cotton farm in Yala to feed the garment factory?

    17. With brown roofs in Calabar without changing every roof to blue roof?

    18. Without a spaghetti fly over?

    19. With a depleted green forest and murderous wood barons?

    20. Without a bag of Ogoja rice in the market from a bubbling rice mill in Ogoja?

    21. With a nearly decapitated civil service?

    22. With children driven away from primary schools for illegal levies?

    23. Without Ayadecare Specialist Hospitals in the three senatorial districts?

    24. Without Centricot, Northicot and Calas Vegas?

    25. Without a petrocross vessel to rake in revenue for our State?

    26. Without a vessel to ship merchandize from Cross River to the world?

    27. Without a revolutionary robotic and artificial intelligence innovation?

    28. Without flying essential drugs to remote areas in Cross River with drones?

    29. Without a functional 23 megawatts electricity generating plant in Calabar or 26 megawatts in Tinapa?

    30. Without building two megawatts electricity generating plants in each of the 18 Local Government Areas of the State, through Industrial Project Services (IPS) from South Africa?

    31. Without a single drug manufactured from CalaPharm?

    32. Without a functional toothpick factory in Ekori?

    33. Without a functional Cross River microfinance bank?

    34. Without a banana processing farm in Odukpani?

    These were just some of our governor’s promises amongst others. Once the cameras roll in front of him, the promises begin to cascade like the springs of Obudu Ranch. He promised a bag full and has achieved little. Scattered all over our State today are monuments of infantile passion about industrialization without direction, that will serve as mementos of the trappings of a governor who knew how to talk but could not do.

    Governor Ayade remains a shining and fantastic example of how passion alone and ideas do not translate to delivery. He is an epitome of a plan-less leader and a reflection of what a disaster plan-lessness and impulse leadership can wreck.

    If you rely on optics and oratory, Ayade will win Nigeria’s best governor any day. But the reality on the ground is not far from me. It is within my grasp, because I am involved.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • If I Put My Candidate In Power, I Am Covered? BY AGBA JALINGO

    If I Put My Candidate In Power, I Am Covered?

    This feeling has broken the hearts of several former governors. A litany of them who used their enormous power of incumbency to install successors in the hope that their tracks will be covered, have only had to bite their fingers down the line and face the embarrassing repudiation of such prior commitments, once there is a change of guard.

    While we have excellent examples of Deputy Governors in Nigeria who maintained their comportment and cool until the end of the tenures of their principals, we cannot say the same thing with most successors who were foisted on the people by out going governors. Like the perpetual crow of the rooster, their day of rancour is only a few miles down the road.

    Let me begin from Lagos, where Fashola was planted by Tinubu. The relationship later became so bitter that it was the generality of Lagosians that rose to Fashola’s defense and kept him in power. Though fences were later mended, what happened between the duo is a lesson in successor politics. What also later happened to Fashola’s successor, Governor Ambode, is public knowledge.

    When Orji Uzor Kalu planted his former bone man, Theordore Orji in Abia, he thought he had it all settled. It wasn’t up to six month before Theordore went for the jugular of his former boss. We know how it ended.

    The story of Ganduje and Kwankwaso also quickly comes to mind. How one was like eczema on the other’s skin. So close were they that some persons even swore they will never suffer a broken lid. The moment the guards changed, things also changed for the worse and till date, the lid between them is still broken.

    Ahmed Sani Yerima of Kebbi, worked so hard to plant Mahmuda Aliyu Shinkafi, as his successor. After taking over, his former man-friday, Shinkafi tormented Yerima so much that he worked double to ensure Shinkafi didn’t return for second term.

    Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom is having his own fair share of the successor politics lessons from Emmanuel Udom. Akpabio personally brought Udom and nursed him into Governorship. That relationship has completely soured.

    Or is it Aregbesola of Osun State? He even fought with Asiwaju, his political benefactor in order to plant Oyetola. It wasn’t up to the first hundred days in office before the war between the two began. I’m not sure it’s over yet.

    Go to Edo State and also verify from Oshiomhole what he has seen in the hands of Obaseki. If you don’t have access to Oshio, please ask Google and see Obaseki’s side of the story and you will understand.

    Ibrahim Dankwambo, of Gombe who was practically installed by Senator Danjuma Goje, fell out with his benefactor barely months after taking over power. The duo at a point couldn’t see face to face.

    A former governor of Borno State, Ali-Modu Sheriff, had a major disagreement with his anointed successor Kashim Shettima, who is now the VP-elect and at a point, the former governor couldn’t even enter the State.

    Attahiru Bafarawa of Sokoto State who also handed over to his anointed successor, Wamakko, had to drag his successor to court only a few months later after accusations of corruption between the two started flying here and there.

    Peter Obi left office confident that he did a good job by planting an anointed successor, Willie Obiano, whom Obi personally brought from the banking sector to make Governor. How did it end with the two of them?

    Between Sam Egwu of Ebonyi and his successor, Martin Elechi, the story wasn’t different, as well as between Isah Yuguda of Bauchi and his successor.

    While in Nasarawa State, former Governor, Tanko Al-Makura, had to set up a panel to probe his predecessor, Senator Abdullahi Adamu.

    Even when a father, who was former Governor planted his own son as Governor, in Kwara State, it wasn’t long before the two Sarakis fought to a finish and father frustrated the son from winning a second term.

    Back home in Cross River, we know what happened between Duke and Imoke. We also are fully aware of what is ongoing between Imoke and his anointed successor, Ayade. And with this trajectory, we can also predict with exactitude, what will happen between Ayade and whoever he will hand over to, whether that person be his anointed successor, Prince Otu or his old friend, Sandy Onor.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Propositions For Cross River NASS Members To The 10th NASS (IV)… BY AGBA JALINGO

    Propositions For Cross River NASS Members To The 10th NASS (IV)…

    Opportunity Statement

    It is on record that in the past 10 years, over N1.5trillion has been appropriated for constituency projects in Nigeria, yet the impact of such huge spending on the lives and welfare of ordinary Nigerians can hardly be seen. Peeved by the ugly development, the ICPC in May 2020, declared that it would prosecute recalcitrant legislators, who are gifted to diverting funds meant for constituency projects.

    The Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, said in an interview that the Commission, in its bid to look at the kind of corruption that affects ordinary people, would investigate the execution of constituency projects.

    While informing Buhari of this ugly development during a visit in 2020, Prof. Owasanoye told the President that: “Sir, we discovered that some agencies of government are favourites for the embedding of constituency projects irrespective of their core mandate and capacity of these agencies to deliver or supervise projects. Most notorious in this regard are the Border Communities Development Agency, and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria.

    “Duplication of contracts with the same description, narrative, amount, location awarded by the same MDA to bring the amount allocated within approval threshold of the executing agency, or to expend allocation to sponsor of the constituency project.

    “Many of the contracts were inflated yet poorly executed. Substandard items were used against specifications in the Bill of Engineering Measurements and Evaluation thus diminishing the value of the projects to the intended beneficiaries. Many projects were also not built to specification.”

    He also pointed out that: “Empowerment and capacity building projects are very popular, but are highly prone to abuse and very difficult to track. We find that almost 50 percent of budgetary allocation to zonal intervention projects goes to these opaque activities. Empowerment items are sometimes stashed away by sponsors and not distributed till the next budget cycle while in some cases, the same items are re-budgeted and duplicated.

    “Many community members believe that sponsors pay for projects from their funds, rather than from public treasury. Thus they are beholden to the sponsor rather than claim their rights.”

    Propositions

    1. Instead of stuffing a few notes into envelopes and distributing on camera to constituents as constituency bursary intervention, why not commit such funds into starting properly managed Educational Trust Funds, open to public donations and scrutiny? This isn’t difficult. It begins with a meeting of your team of professionals and a team from the State Scholarship Board.

    2. There is an urgent need for the amendment of the Federal Scholarship law to allow sub-national scholarship boards to explore and expand their funds net and accountability feedbacks, with a view to broadening their scope of intervention. Someone has to draft that amendment.

    3. Instead of waiting for phone calls from desperate sick constituents asking for help for emergency medical bills, why not collaborate amongst the members going to the 10th NASS from Cross River State, to kick-start a subsidized health insurance scheme for vulnerable members of our communities? A pilot scheme can begin with an HMO and a hundred subscribers from each Federal Constituency and Senatorial District, mostly women of child bearing age, and expand the net there-upon. This will grow to cover other constituents over time.

    4. Instead of giving handouts to people to pay rents, can we begin to consider a legislative framework for alternative and affordable mass housing options and models for our communities? Things like, fire proof, affordable, prefabricated settlements that will solve the housing problem on a sustainable and incremental basis?

    5. Can we also begin to consider legislation that will support the building of hi-tech functional innovation and entrepreneurship clubs and centers and clubs, in our constituencies and ensure they function efficiently by challenging them to produce implementable products on realistic timelines?

    These are actually things that require discipline to do, and they tarry before maturation, and politicians generally believe that such things don’t help them to win the next election. Yet in the long run, it is the mushrooming of these structures that will solve society’s problems on a sustainable basis.

    The only person I know who ever commanded his followers to cast their burdens on him and meant what he said was, Jesus the Christ. But he was not voted into power. The people we vote cannot solve our problems by themselves. They solve them through systems and structures. Without building systems, there is little they can do on their own. That’s why they haven’t been able to solve any of our problems because they keep trying to do it through personal bank alerts and their back pockets. But they are actually meant to midwife the building of structures, systems and processes that will perpetually solve our problems, even when they leave office.

    And today, they have so pauperized us that we no longer know the difference between service and charity. But may God give us understanding to discern the difference and be able make our leaders serve us accountably.

    …. _To be continued_ …..

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Propositions For Cross River NASS Members To The 10th NASS (III)… BY AGBA JALINGO

    Propositions For Cross River NASS Members To The 10th NASS (III)…

    Opportunity Statement

    The Obudu Dam Resort, (Not the Ranch), is a multi purpose facility that provides recreational as well as the essential commodity, water to communities around its environs.

    Located in Ukwel-Obudu, (my mother’s village), less than 10 kilometers from the Obudu central bus terminal, the dam was destroyed by flood back in 2005 according to Patriot Abohson Sunday, who works at the resort.

    “Since then, people only visit the dam during festivities like Valentine’s day and may be Christmas” he says.

    The Federal Government on Wednesday 14th August 2012, at a meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan, approved the contract sum of N1.165 billion for the rehabilitation of the dam.

    Briefing State House correspondents after that particular FEC meeting, former Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Stella Ochekpe, (currently in jail for corruption), accompanied by her former Information counterpart, Labaran Maku, lamented that the dam, which has a storage capacity of 1.25 million cubic meters, had been in an awful state, thereby affecting regional urban water supply in some communities in the area.

    She said a memo was raised and submitted to the Council to enable the government of Cross River State embark on its regional urban water supply project, which will cover four communities: Obudu, Ogoja, Ikom, and Calabar.

    She further revealed that, “The Cross River State government has, since 2005, gotten an International Development Association (IDA) loan to develop the regional water scheme that will meet the needs of these communities in Cross River. But because of the state of Obudu Dam, it has been impossible for that project to commence. The contract was awarded at the cost of N1.165 billion.”

    The contract for the rehabilitation was awarded to Consolidated Construction Limited, CCL. In another development, the World Bank in collaboration with the Ministry of Water Resources and the Cross River State Water Board Limited, CRSWBL contracted Lilleker Brothers Limited, LBL to construct a water treatment plant, with the second phase being the construction of reticulation channels to benefiting neighboring communities.

    When completed, the dam was expected to facilitate the irrigation of about 100 hectares of agricultural land, boost fisheries and promote tourism in the northern part of the State. Details of the contract were headlined across the country and hopes were again high that life will return to the dam in no time, though some stakeholders had cautioned residents not to be too optimistic.

    True to the caution, the contract sum was misappropriated. But the good news is that, some of the thieves, former Minister of Water Resources, Sarah Ochekpe, Evans Leo, Sunday Jitong and Raymond Dabo, are in jail, after the EFCC secured their conviction.

    *Propositions*

    1. Immediate fact finding and on-the-spot visit to the Obudu Dam site by a powerful delegation led by the Senator for Northern Cross River, Jarigbe Agom and the House of Reps Member-Elect, Peter Akpanke, and other colleagues.

    2. Immediate fact finding visit to the Federal Ministry of Water Resources.

    3. Produce a public report on the current state of facilities at the dam, the state of the IDA loan, the whereabout of the FG contract money, and what is currently required to revamp the Dam.

    4. Present same to the relevant oversight committees of the NASS and lobby for urgent attention, including headlining same in the same manner the news of the contract award made headlines.

    5. Lobby the relevant committees of NASS to make adequate appropriation in the next cycle for commencement of work at the Dam.

    This effort should be led by Senator Jarigbe Agom, Peter Akpanke and all their colleagues from Cross River, going to the 10th NASS.

    Content from CrossRiverWatch/Jonathan Ugbal.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Propositions For Cross River NASS Members To The 10th NASS (II)… BY AGBA JALINGO

    Propositions For Cross River NASS Members To The 10th NASS (II)…

    Opportunity Statement

    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. The project was also targeted at the production of biogas, organic waste, and feeds for aquatic culture in the State as well as create thousands of jobs and livelihoods.

    Since the ground breaking was done, the project has remained stalled. This writer reliably gathered that funds that were released for the project never made it out of Abuja and the answers to where the funds ended can best be obtained by our 10th Assembly NASS Members as part of their duties.

    Propositions

    1. As part of their oversight functions, the NASS committees both in the Red and Green chambers, that have individual or over lapping oversight roles over the Ministry of Science and Technology needs to be engaged immediately.

    2. Direct consultation and fact finding meetings to the Ministry of Science and Technology, should also be prioritized.

    3. If funding for the project wasn’t adequate, what can be done and done on time too, to ensure that the next NASS appropriation makes adequate supplement for the project?

    4. Was there anything that was supposed to be done by our own State government; failure of which is stalling the project and how can that be resolved?

    5. Having been grounded since 2017, fresh vigorous effort is required to bring it back to the front burner. Who needs to be lobbied or impressed or reminded of what they failed to do?

    This effort should be championed by Senator-Elect, Asuquo Ekpenyong Jr. at the Senate and Hon Bassey Akiba at the HoR, supported by all NASS Members from Cross River State to the 10th NASS.

    …. _To be continued tomorrow_ …

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Propositions For Cross River NASS Members To The 10th NASS (I) BY AGBA JALINGO

    Propositions For Cross River NASS Members To The 10th NASS (I).

    Opportunity Statement:

    Under Governor Ayade, the Cross River State Ministry of Solid Minerals, obtained exploration licenses for mineral resources from the federal government. The licenses included a quarry lease for granite, an exploration license for limestone, clay, and shale as well as a reconnaissance permit. This 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. Getting the mining licenses was therefore a massive opening for our State to directly participate in the exploration of our natural endowment.

    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. Under the project, the Federal Government was to embark on infrastructural development within the cluster area such as a barite processing plant, mining equipment leasing bay, training center, warehouse, and office complex among other amenities, that can potentially create over 10,000 direct jobs.

    *Some Oversight Suggestions:*

    1. Can the Mineral Resources Act 2007 be amended to give States increased stake and access to their mineral resources? If it can, an amended bill should be drafted immediately.

    2. What is the strategy for engaging with lawmakers from Ogun, Kogi, and other mineral resource rich States, to achieve the goal of pushing the amendment through, 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?

    4. Who did what and who did not do what and what was left to be done on the part of our State or the FG?

    5. On whose table(s) did the files stop and to which table(s) were the files meant to go next?

    6. Who is in the NASS committee which oversights the Ministry of Mineral Resources or any other relevant committee that needs to be engaged and lobbied to ensure every bottleneck is cleared for the return of the project?

    These questions may lead to increased Appropriation to the Ministry to fast-track the project, as well as reveal the reasons the project was stalled and also provide opportunity for effective oversight.

    This should be led by Senator Jarigbe Agom, at the Senate and Hon. Godwin Offiono at the HoR and supported by all other NASS Members from Cross River who are going to the 10th NASS.

    ….. _To be continued…_

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Cross River North Elections, Put The Blame Where It Is…BY AGBA JALINGO

    Cross River North Elections, Put The Blame Where It Is…

    While most people in Northern Cross River are relieved by the inability of Governor Ayade to win the Senatorial seat, some busy-bodies particularly from outside the North are whining and dwelling in obtuse dialectics about how Ayade’s appointees from his place failed him.

    Can you all please shut that narrative and shut it right away. Even after losing, there is this palpable feeling in the North that more woes should have even befallen him. Most people are like, “good riddance to bad rubbish!” People aren’t celebrating his failure in the North. They are enraged. It’s a decision they had long made; to reject him and they just wanted a violence free election so they can do that and they did. Yet they are still angry at him.

    What exactly should his appointees have done? Force people to vote a man that hasn’t done any good for them? What did Ayade himself do? For eight solid years, there is not a single FUNCTIONAL project in Cross River North and that’s the fault of Ayade’s aides?

    This man was expected to develop the place he comes from. Not to give people pittance in the name of food-on-the-table for eight years. Paying miscreants monies that civil service directors who have worked for decades don’t earn. He could have done that as a philanthropist and not bother to be Governor. He couldn’t do anything other than optics. Each time I kept writing that this governor is just snapping pictures of painted monuments and speaking big grammar, it is people from outside the North that keep saying I am exaggerating.

    But we have an enlightened voter population in Cross River North and the result of the elections is a genuine reflection of the feelings of the people. The losers can’t even allege rigging because they can’t provide evidence anywhere. They are the ones that tried to rig but were resisted.

    So people should stop begging the issue in trying to make it look like there was famine in Cross River North and if Ayade appointees had shared money on the streets for the voters, they would have retired Ayade to the Senate. That’s denigrating, demeaning and speaks very little to the educated and enlightened voters of Cross River North, who have expressed themselves in that historic election.

    If you chopped your own food-on-the table, and remained for your people and that helped to win your polling unit, kindly accept that the people of Northern Cross River weren’t waiting for such tokenism to mine their votes. They wanted development not carcasses. They got less and they bargained for more elsewhere. That fact should be accepted with due respect as the people have pleased to do. Put the blame where it is…

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen 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

     

    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

     

    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.