Joseph Odok|4 October 2015|4:15am
The body language of the governor of CRS, namely Professor Benedict Ayade, seems quite far from his intentions. In most of his speeches, he appears to displays a special interest in the plight of the poor and liberation of the workers.
However, recent actions of the governor rather shows a dehumanization of the dignity of the poor. Recall the gathering of a thousand of Cross River State's unemployed youths and women sequel to a pronouncement of the lifting of employment ban by the governor. After the people were made to suffer through thins and thorns, using their little income to buy sport kids and exposed to a rigorous training and exercise for employment into the green police and garment factory; nothing is heard again.
CrossRiverians and those seeking employment expected the governor to address issues that had ignited their curiosity in the Independence Speech but to their greatest dismay the governor's speech became an embarrassment to their expectations with no policy statement, focus direction or economic blueprint addressed in his speech.
Recently also, old women working in CUDA have been going through stringent verification and screening exercise in the hands of our defacto governor Frank Ayade. The exercise reduced and assaulted the Office of the Secretary to the State Governor whose four days were spent in excruciating exercise of screening a thousand of CUDA workers who are owed salaries for about 8 months. After the exercise that exposed our old mothers to sun and hazards for hours and days in the governors office, information reaching my desk from an undisclosed CUDA staff holds that only one month salary out of the eight months arrears was paid to the wailing workers.
There is also the dimension of strike. The NLC could not hid their experience under what they termed as great neglect from the governor whose interest remain focused on his convoy than the business of piloting the affairs of our failing state. Even when the governor has secured a loan of 30 billion Naira with the approval of the state legislators and 7.8 billion naira from the Special Intervention Funds of the Federal Government, the real issues of payment of arrears of salaries of CRUTECH staff, pensions, CUDA staff, and local government staff seems quite far from his interest.
More worrisome is the backing out from strict action by NULGE, and NUT. This tells a story of a governor prepared to bribe union leaders to silence the voices of poor workers.
The body language a governor apparently suggest someone who is ready to create a class of rich people who will be rich to a point of waste while oppressing the common poor. The body language shows a governor operating a long convoy while there is infrastructural decay, poor road network with increasing dead trap on our roads, poor educational facilities with fears of the failure of accreditation in the recently concluded accreditation exercise in CRUTECH, unemployment issues, backlogs of salaries and arrears, high debt profile are amongst the problems that stares us at our face.
Joseph Odok
Is a Legal Practitioner & University Don
Very unfair Mr lawyer while most people are praying for the governor for wisdom n courage to address the problems he inherented from previous government u rushed to the social media with such writing ,Do you expect the workers to resume work while the factory is still in progress,Was it Ayade that owe workers for 8 months, if there are no gosht workers in Cuda or Other establishment there should be no fear in verification God is on his side he will success is a matter of time we let,s believe this man