POLITICS: 9 Unassailable Reasons Why PDP Should Be Voted Out of Power In Cross River State!

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By Joseph Odok|10 April 2015|6:20am

Yesterday, Thursday 8 April 2015 was the last day for governorship and House of Assembly campaigns in Nigeria, and for us in Cross River state, we must learn to vote right and not along party lines/sentiment.

Since 1999, the state has been a PDP state (from federal, state and local government) yet nothing to show for it.
My disappointment is that if the state is PDP and we have PDP President, PDP Senators, PDP House Reps, PDP Governor, PDP House of Assembly members, PDP LGA Chairmen and all the ministers representing the state are all PDP members, then the state should not have been neglected to this level.

Below are 9 incontrovertible reasons why the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) should be voted out of power in Cross River :
1. Loss of 72 Oil Wells: Akwa Ibom and Cross River state are both PDP states with a PDP president as their party leader, yet the president, he could not call the two sister states to settle their differences, knowing that if all the Oil wells should go to one state, the other state will be suffering a huge financial burden.

2. CRUTECH Strike: The only state owned university has been on strike since the beginning of this year if not late last year and no hope of reopening soon.

3. Huge Debt Burden: As reported by By Anietie Akpan, Calabar on March 22, 2015 in Guardian Newspaper, ‘Amidst financial uncertainty, Cross River State Government is said to be wobbling in huge internal debt profile of over N403 billion and external debt of about $100 million’ the implication of this huge debts burden on Cross River is very enormous, meaning schools will continue to be bad, hospital without drugs and other medical kits, workers salaries will continue to be delayed, places with pipe borne water will not be having steady water flow etc.

4. None-functioning of TINAPA: The multimillion naira TINAPA project is rusting away with any clear plans of utilising it, while the overhead is still covered by the state annual budget.

5. Wasteful Expenditure (American International Hospital and New International Conference Centre). Despite the desire by the state to improve health care services in the state,
Despite the desire by the citizens for improvement in the health care services , the PDP government have continue to embark on wasteful expenditure in the name of PPP for the construction of multimillion American International Hospital and the New International Conference centre, I think is was a wasteful venture when the state government would have converted some building in TINAPA and make them functional and serve the same purpose.

6. Bad Roads: We have witnessed in other states where the PDP legislators and government are working together to attract federal government interest to their state in terms of road construction, yet in Cross River the reverse is the case. It very shameful that the PDP government for 16 years couldn’t talk to the PDP appointed Minister of Works at the federal level to fix the following federal roads; Ogoja Ikom Road, Ikom- Obubra road, Obubra- Calabar Road, Calabar-Itu Road, Calabar Ikang road and Calabar Ekang Road. Even the PDP governorship candidate could not utilise an agency like FERMA to fix or repair the every busy Ogoja – Calabar road.

7. Huge Tax Burden: Today small businesses in the state are suffering because of the indiscriminate tax demand on them, yet most of those business are struggling to make profit caused by poor patronage and high cost of powering business with generators.

8. Waste Collection: Calabar which was noted for its cleanliness and green nature has suddenly turned to some of the cities in Nigeria, as solid waste are no longer evacuated due to some reason best known to the PDP government.

9. NO more ALL PDP House of Assembly:
The House of Assembly has been in the pocket of the executives, if not why were they approving huge loans that they knew the state does not have money to pay back.

So now we need –
– A House of Assembly that will not be cowed by the Executive.
– A House of Assembly that will be the embodiment of integrity and not one susceptible to compromising the interest of the people of the State for selfish reasons.
– A House of Assembly that members would not be engrossed with looking for crumbs to enrich themselves from the Executive Branch of government at the expense of their constitutional responsibilities, to the detriment of the People of the State.
Cross Riverians reflect on this and use the remaining hours to ensure that we are not box into the same corner (cage) that we have always been in the last 16 years.