Ifere Paul|9 November 2015|5:50am
The leadership comatose in Cross River State is so glaring now. The "Ayadebility" has gradually been
replaced by another concept which I will refer to "the Ayadeinability". For almost 6 months now, the policy direction of Cross River State is still
questionable, direction-less, confusing, and albeit, misplaced.
While the super heroic characteristics of the campaigns, and inauguration speeches have waned, actions which were supposed to have taken centre
stage have been shelved, and more promises are made daily. With well over 50 policy promises during the campaigns not fulfilled, Governor Ben Ayade has heaped yet over 50 post campaigns promises, without a single one of them coming to
reality nearly 6 months into his idealess and directionless administration.
What we are witnessing in Cross River State is a pompous, egoistic, masculine, and self styled
governance with policies blunders for every attempt ever made to make a policy statement, or model a
policy framework. In Cross River State, our governor has taken more
international tourist trips than the President of the country. No wonder he bought a copter to remain
airborne as a governor. This aircraft freak attitude has been the reason why most policy ideas seems
to be coming from outer space. When not airborne, he is ever cruising with a motorcade of 10 power bikes and 30 first class jeeps, blaring sirens and causing traffic. When out of the country for one of
his international tours, peace and quietness escapes Calabar as his brother, Frank Ayade take over as the "de facto governor" with more sirens. Hmm! My Calabar is now a madhouse. Is this what is happening in other States? Let's find
out.
Akwa Ibom State (PDP): Akwa Ibom State is the tourists destination of the country. Cross River State has been kicked aside even though it remained the pioneer State with tourism drive as a money earner
to the State. Governor Udom Gabriel Emmanuel came into leadership with a long track of experience as investment banker. He was ready to
hit the ground running after swearing. Within the first 100 days, Udom Emmanuel has ordered the
payment of pensioners both at Local Government and State. He also directed the payment of all
gratuities and other entitlements left unpaid since2001 till date. With the latest environmental issues such as flood and drainage blockage, Udom
Emmanuel has started the constructed of a 4.6km and 7ft wide drainage from 111 Ring Road to Obot Idim, and from Tropicana through to Obot Idim.
Governor Udom Emmanuel has not forgotten that "health is wealth." He set up an 8 man committee and directed them to understudy the steps to take to revamp the primary health care facilities in the State, he ordered the refurbishment, renovation, and replacement of broken down equipments in St. Luke
Hospital. St Luke hospital is one of the oldest hospital in the State. Built in 1937. The Akpabio administration paid less attention to existing hospitals in its healthcare drive for Akwa Ibomites.
To wade off mosquitoes and other simpler diseases carried by air, Udom Emmanuel introduced the
monthly sanitation exercise in Akwa Ibom State, and this has helped to keep Uyo and environs clean.
Governor Udom Emmanuel has also vowed to industrialize the State. The Ibaka Deep Seaport
received a boast when he set up a 10 committee to evaluate, appraise and report to government the
amount of work done, the percentage left for completion and financial implementation to drive
that to completion. Another 10 man committee was set up to understudy modalities to attract foreign
direct investment. This committee was heaped with the fact finding missions through which willing
international companies can get involved and be invited to set up manufacturing units in Akwa Ibom.
This committee reported to government all missions completed, most of this committee members were retained in government as various SAs. This has had a direct activities by international companies in leasing rubber plantations, cement manufacturing,
palm estate management, and quarry activities in the State. Many other committees are still expected
to submit their reports. E.g: the technical committee on agriculture and food sufficiency.
However, Udom Emmanuel has sent over 100 graduates skilled Akwa Ibomites to Oracle USA for training in cloud computing, website management, application packaging & development, software
engineering, etc. Over 1000 people are earmarked for this training.
Meanwhile, SAs appointment into Governor Ben Ayade Exco is either you are an internet mole or attack rats, or that you are married to either his brother or sister, and or he is married to your sister…Better still a distant relation from the other
Local Government Areas or married to either of the numerous distant cousins and nephews. In fact,
appointment is a family par excellence thing. (Love
me now and you will get an SA appointment).
Executives decisions are solo like a sole proprietor and business owner. Our Statecraft has been reduced and decided over by one Czar…Ben Ayade. His deputy is so withdrawn and reduced into a puppet in a Beijing Opera Show. In Beijing of old, only the Emperor rules. Sad that in contemporary democratic governance of our time and place, one man has turned our State into an empire. Welcome to the governance style of Emperor Ben Ayade.
Bauchi State (APC): I'm proud to tell people that Bauchi State is like a second State to me. I spent
13 of my 21 years in the north here. From Angwa Yelwa which houses the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
University, and former College of Agriculture, and the popular Bauchi Teachers College (my junior high
school and my Sarkin Yaki House. Sarkin Yaki and Galadima Houses were two of the most popular
Hostels in BTC). Standing in front of the Winti Gate leading to Kofar Fada by Nassarawa aroundabout,
childhood memories of this city floods back to me like a tornado.
This State is govern by Mohammed Abdulahi Abubakar. Governor Abdulahi Abubakar quick intervention initiatives cannot be over emphasized. Three days after swearing in, Governor Abdulahi
jumped started the engine of State craftmanship with the "Quick Wind Project" which was set to take
care of the most pressing needs of the people. This initiative conception was to make sure there was a quick response efforts in water provision in the State for irrigation agriculture, drinking, and dams and lakes for cattle rearers. But the framework was widened to include environment and health.
In two days after swearing in, the governor of Bauchi visited dumpsters sites around the State
metropolis and other major towns like Azare, Dass, and Tafabewa. After his familiarization tour, the
governor transfered the responsibility of waste
evacuation to the "Bauchi State Environmental
Protection Agency" (BASEPA) and gave them a week to clear all waste dumpsters, and dumphills.
By the expiration of the timeline, the whole metropolis and other towns and their environs have been evacuated.
The government inherited a huge debt that is put at over 90 billion. But efforts to settle outstanding
salaries of 4 months was performed with ease. Pensioners and gratuity entitlements were included. No one Local Government staff is owned any outstanding salary as we talk now. A visit to the Emir of Dass, an 11kilometer drive from Bauchi
Metropolis indeed proved to be true. Dumpsters from Bauchi to Dass were all empty or half full, except for market places where I saw full
dumpsters and waste men at work. Unfortunately, the Emir was away to Tafabewa for a meeting of
traditional rulers, but information available at the council secretariat shows that not a single LGA staff
is owned salaries.
For water, the Gubi Dam power project which the governor visits consistently has been a reason of
commendation in terms of water supply. The dam also serves as a source of irrigation for agriculture
in the State. The governor also provided quick intervention in the provision of subsidies on
fertilizer. More than 10,000 people got fertilizer assistance for improved yield. Herbicides and
insecticides were also provided to farmers while also providing training on food security.
Governor Abdulahi of Bauchi State also inaugurated a committee headed by Retired Air Commodore
Ahmed Tijani to recover loots and properties belonging to government. So far, the Committee has
recovered over 20 million in cash for State government property rent in the Tamari and Gubi State Government Housing Estates. Efforts are being made to extend such recovery efforts to other
properties own by Bauchi State Government. Lands given out to members of the former administration were also recovered.
Bauchi State generates less than 5% of IGR and federal allocation to the State has been dwindling due to oil prices around the globe. Therefore, the governor is set to cut the State budget to meet recurrent and capital expenditure while also hoping that he blocks leakages, and streamline the number of appointment for commissioners.
Governor Abdulahi has recorded tremendous success in primary healthcare material distribution.
He has been on a fast tour of the State to get the ground impression of the health care institutions and amenities across the State. Different
committees have been set up and inaugurated to address the emergency situation that was called on the health sector by the governor before swearing.
In line with federal government, governor Abdulahi has partnered with the world bank to encourage the enrollment of girl child in public schools. The governor also frown at the dilapidated school facilities occasioned by 16 years of misrule in by the PDP in the State. To encourage some poor stricken families who couldn't afford food due to displacement by Boko Haram insurgency, the governor has started a feed in school for the very poor. That has had a boom in enrollment too. The governor has told world bank official that the State needs its partnership in various initiatives and programs to reduce poverty by 50% in the State. The governor pledges that despite dwindling IGR, his government will do it best to put forth it counterpart funding for UN-World Bank assisted programs.
In Calabar, Cross River State, the governor, Prof Ben Ayade has kept the UN-World Bank and other
international donor projects accounts under lock and key. MDAs can barely survive. Stationery
materials for government operations are nonexistent for the past 5 months. The governor at
one point said he doesn't care if the UN-World Bank projects moved out of the State. It was for the quick
intervention of the deputy governor who called a meeting with all international partners early last
month that saved the deplorable relationship from going worst. The financing of projects by
international partners have since been suspended. All treated files for disbursement of monies are still
pending on the governor's table. A visit by donor assisted project last week Wednesday, showed that
the situation is still the same.
The government educational policy has been tilted toward "a suit as uniform" for all teachers in the
State, instead of embarking on upgrading teaching equipment, classroom renovation, and provision of desks, table and chairs. Most of the schools visited
in the State during this article cannot be used as refugee camps in certain countries. Some have no
roofs, while other have hanging roofs waiting to cave in on the students. When rain falls, kids best
hobby will be to immediately start trapping water and sweeping floors while the teachers run back to
their staff rooms to save their books and registers from getting wet. The government haven't addressed this, yet the new director of SUBEB is
threatening teacher's salaries with suits. I wonder where Dr Stephen Odey got this red flag policy of suits from.
While Akwa Ibom State and
Bauchi State have paid pensioners, governor Ben Ayade is owing over 5 months outstanding pensions. Gratuity and other harmonization
entitlements are still being withheld despite the bailout funds remitted to the State. While Akwa Ibom and Bauchi has been cleared of
waste dumps, Cross River State waste heaps are described by one writer as the new pyramid in
Calabar that's able to attract visitors. No wonder Rihanna will be performing in the Calabar Carnival.
The lack of provision for evacuation trucks before the axing of waste evacuation contracts has put so
much pressure on CUDA which was rather not prepared for the transfer of responsibility of waste
evacuation to them. CUDA is under staffed, under equipped, and under funded. Unless, the governor will bring in the "Volvo Equipment on IoU" he talked about in early July
now, Calabar will just be showcasing it ugliness in
the "Calabar Carnival". The governor should be ready to invest another 250 million which he's going
to give to carnival bands to CUDA to deliver on the clean up of Calabar before Rihanna arrives.
Adamawa State (APC): If there's any governor that's been performing outside national limelight is the governor of Adamawa State, Governor Mohammed Jubrilla Bindow. Governor Bindow has
actually opened the windows of opportunities for his citizens more than the like of Wike, El-Rufai, and did I hear you say Ayade? Lol! Ayade is still teething. Therefore, cannot bite. This energetic governor has performed three groundbreaking ceremonies for three major road
construction projects within his first 100 days. First groundbreaking was for the construction of a road
from Labindo to Borrong. The second groundbreaking was for the construction of a road from Jabbi Labba to Borrong. The third ceremony for the groundbreaking was from Faro to Jambutu. Worth
mentioning however, is the dualization of Yola road.
Yes! I mean double carriage expressway. Or should I call it Superhighway before you believe?
As we speak now, all the roads has reached a second phase completion level with asphalt. This ever performing governor has completed the rehabilitation and renovation of three hospitals and has ordered for equipment to be distributed to the
hospitals. Meanwhile primary healthcare facilities in the rural areas are receiving a boast. Wow!!!
Governor Bindow opened out a window of housing for the poor when he launched the construction of 300 housing units at Banjabure industrial layout in order to ease and address accommodation problem. As if that's not enough, Governor Bindow has set up
a 5 billion trust fund for the IDPs due to Boko Haram insurgency. He directed that the fund should be used for the rehabilitation of internally displaced persons
in the State. Bindow, believe that the State requires 20 billion naira for complete resettlement and he will
include that on the 2016 budget.
Other efforts by Governor Bindow was the prompt attention to education through the rehabilitation of school premises in the heat of the insurgency. He has long distributed armoured vehicle to the joint patrols teams in the State to boast security.
Other efforts included giving out unoccupied lands in the city metropolis for agricultural production for fear of kidnapping of citizens in the bushes used as
farmlands before. Government also provide subsidy for fertilizer. Cross River State governor Ben Ayade has not allowed his citizens with the hype of the Superhighway groundbreaking. For him, until PMB
graces the occasion, the groundbreaking would not hold. Meanwhile his mate in Adamawa has performed three groundbreaking and numerous other projects noiselessly. For all of the noising,
governor Ayade has not done anything apart from bringing some crampy looking red Germans that
spends their time drinking and smoking away, other than going to site for the real job.
The governor of Adamawa State has developed a master plan and has already commenced the
construction of the 300 units housing. Yes! Call it new city development. He successfully did that without internet hype. Until now, Ben Ayade who enjoys a perfectly functioning and peaceful State has not done anything which his mates are doing in other States. Only blowing sirens, lifting collars, and wearing slitted tainted glasses like area boy. Potholes are all over Calabar without fixing after 5
months in government, which some States have used to construct over 150 kilometres roads and dualized an entire inter city expressway.
Lately, landslides have taken some residents by surprise as massive earth movement causing quakes took place in Calabar. Until now, no
government official has been sent there to appraise the situation. This happened while the governor of
the State is out taking one of his usual foreign tour trips. This irresponsive attitudes of the government of Cross River State is sinking us deep in a hole. While the Ayade Media Rats (AMR), employed to attack persons showing the real situation as they are in CRS, will come here to attack me, I wish to let
them know that no amount of attack from them will ever discourage me.
For me, the illusion that Ayade is performing should be shelved and truth and reality on ground be
embraced to actually cause a turnaround on Ayade
maladministrations, public misbehavior, and executive maladjustment. "Until truth is told to authority, the citizens will perpetually suffer a circus kind of leadership"
Ifere Paul
Is an Environmental Activist, Policy
Analyst, Socio-political-cum-Economic Commentator & Columnist.
