24 February 2018
Within the past few weeks we have been lambasted with series of praise singing and showers of acumen on our governor Prof Benedict Ayade in the name of endorsement, in as much as this activity and show of support (whether real or fake) is coming from loyalist of the governor this does not in anyway translate to the readiness of Cross Riverians to send Prof Ayade back to Diamond Hill come 2019, Ayade's endorsement is clearly an affair of/for his loyalist, however the governor has to realise that he will need more than endorsements and party jamboree to get him reelected.
There are basic things he needed to fix or needs to fix to get him the votes of Cross Riverians like, completing the Ebo/Wanikande road(in Yala LGA), yala-obudu highway, Obudu road and series of other road projects across the states, provide portable drinking water to Calabar, Ikom, Ogoja and Obubra residents as the water board installed pipes are just there for fancy in most of these LGAs and also make portable water available across the state.
He needs to step up and improve the education standard of the state by building and renovating existing class room and laboratory blocks in public schools across the state as Cross River has since dropped drastically in the pecking order of public schools ranking in the country due to the quality and standard of her public schools.
The state has so far under Ayade's watched transformed from a tourist state to what I can't place my hand on as the governor brought in his own policy and vision of transforming the state into an industrial hub as tourist are no longer flooding the state due to the irreparable state of all the tourist sites, such as the multimillion and highly indebted Tinapa Resort, Obudu Mountain Resort, and even the Marina Resort, some of the God given tourist attractions have been neglected overtime like the Agbokim waterfalls etc.
Worthy of note also is the increasing closure of businesses due to the state government's high taxation policies and increase in insecurity as it is hard for a week to pass by without the state recording a serious criminal activity such as cult clash, armed robbery, kidnap and communal clash which is opposed to the worldwide reputation that Cross Riverians and Cross River at large gained for itself.
The list of expectations from Cross Riverians is endless and the Government of the day needs to sit up or else the jamboree of endorsement will remain a mere party activity as we Cross Riverians are yearning for a government that is responsive and not a government that is beautiful on TV, Newspapers,Billboards and magazines.
We all don't belong to one political party and the activity of one political party should not be generalized to be the mind of Cross Riverians as we don't operate a one party system and forever have options to choose from.
Daniel Riwo
Is a Social Commentator & co-founder Voice of Yala
