Efio-Ita Nyok|18 November 2015|7:35am
With almost 6 months into his administration, Governor Ayade of Cross River State has been infamously reputed to be the most undemocratic governor(MUG) of contemporary Nigeria.
This ignoble reputation is not unconnected to an observable trend relating to his style of undoing critics of his public policy approach -a style which has been deemed to be largely undemocratic, autocratic, dictatorial and unpopular.
Precisely, Ayade through his Special Assistant (SA) -Media, Mr. Ita, Personal Assistant (PA) -Social Media, Mr. Asikong and Personal Assistant (PA) -Media, Mr. Solomon has allegedly employed the services of unscrupulous elements in the information communication technology world, to be paid for by CRS tax payers' money, to compromise the social media accounts/platforms of popular critics of the present state administration.
Notable among these critics are but not limited to:
*Okoi Obono-Obla, a legal luminary and human right activist who single handedly compelled Ayade to 'budgetise' his much-hyped signature projects;
*Ifere Paul, a Nigerian born but China based Environmental Activist and Public Policy Analyst who initially raised objections to the grey arrears of Ayade's so-called signature projects amongst others;
*Joseph Odok, a legal practitioner and university don who has evolved himself into being a preeminently dreaded whistle blower against Ayade's administration;
*Princewill Odidi, a development consultant based in Atlanta, USA who is noted for soft, candid and constructive criticism of Ayade and political trends in Nigeria at large;
*Obasesam Okoi, a Canada based intellectual who has observed the misgivings of Governor Ayade's policies, and
*Efio-Ita Nyok, a blogger and the Editor of negroidhaven.com (Negroid Haven) who is noted for courageously publishing very critical theses against Cross River political class especially under Ben Ayade, it was Nyok who nicknamed these fine eggheads of critics as 'Cross River State Coven of Critics (Critcraft)'; and the list continues.
Interestingly enough, these critics through their critical wares have proved to be effective in their criticism of the misgivings of the present state administration. Their criticism give direction to a glaringly directionless and policyless administration of the Cross River State. However, instead of applaud them for their selfless service to the state and country at large, the state government has allegedly embarked on a drunken orgy of compromising their social media accounts like Facebook, e-mails, Twitter, Whatsapp, and even electronic devices via which their critical stance are articulated. The most recent is the compromising of the Facebook account of Efio-Ita Nyok about two weeks ago and that of Joseph Odok about less than five hours ago. That of Ifere Paul was seriously compromised about two months or so ago, and that of Princewill Odidi was also affected recently.
While some have doubted the veracity of the sentiments raised above, the facts still remains that we cannot altogether divest the culpability in these charge ultimately from the governor's table. He is aware of these critics and has been been quite disappointed at the failure of his media aides to match the wits of these critical eggheads. In fact, it has been gossiped that the governor paid the sum of N20 million to hack into their accounts.
More worrisome is the fact that the present administration was known for peddling the mantra: 'politics with ethics' during the campaigns and electioneering period. Where is the ethics in the postelection era? This publication and present author is laying the culpability of the bugging of the social media accounts of critics of the present political class on the laps of the governor and his media aides especially the SA (Media). Albeit, if the governor thinks otherwise, he should come out clean and dislodge this allegation.
On a parting note, I wish to state emphatically that the best approach by Governor Ayade in addressing the challenge of his critics is to sack Ita, Asikong and Solomon from their present job if he really believes in the clause: 'politics with ethics'. These dudes are doing him great disservice. They may have good online chaps during the campaigns but they are less better than your critics in the aftermath of the elections. You stand the risk of not been reelected and your party been discredited and going unpopular by 2019 and beyond. A stitch in time saves nine.
Efio-Ita Nyok
Is a Blogger & the Editor of negroidhaven.com
Great man my comrade in the struggle.