12 February 2018
As for democratic justice, we call ourselves the paradise state, I am a Christian and Christ has told all of us that the road to heaven —if you like call it paradise, if you like call it eldorado any how you call it— the road to heaven is not smooth and it is not for shallow persons, it’s for deep thinkers and you will agree with me that in terms of thinking, in terms of visioning, Governor Ben Ayade is a deep visionary leader and you don’t castigate visionary men rather you castigate those who do not realize their visions, so we have to wait until after 8 years before we can assess him in terms of vision and to add to that, if under this depression, under this porosity of everything and resources, Prof. Ben Ayade had the kindness to spread appointment the way he has done. Meaning he wants (like he usually say) food to be available on the table of very many persons. I think that utilitarian position should be appreciated. No man is perfect, I agree, but he has been so Benthamite. From Jeremy Bentham, that is, the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. They call it Utilitarianism. That is why I said that for doing what he is doing, I think he deserves a second term, to me and to the people of southern senatorial district. —Hon. Ogbor Ogbor Odop
The Honourable Member representing Biase State Constituency in the 8th Cross River State House of Assembly, Mr Ogbor Ogbor Odop aka Rootman has borne his mind on the political endorsement of the incumbent Governor of Cross River state, Sen. Prof. Ben Ayade, for the upcoming 2019 general elections. Rootman has hinged his support for Ayade on two principles of justice which he tagged —geopolitical and democratic justices. He has said that Ayade should be assessed after the end of his second term in fitting respect for a 'deep thinker'. Excerpt :
NegroidHaven : What's your take in respect of the just concluded gale of state-wide endorsements of Governor Ben Ayade in view of 2019 General Elections?
ROOTMAN : I am fully in support of the endorsement. Biase endorses the government for second term, Biase and Akamkpa Federal Constituency endorses the governor for a second term and then the '7 Alive' made up of the 7 local governments that makes up Southern Cross River, we all endorse the governor for second term. And of course we have our reasons.
If you want me to tell you the reason, I will say that for me there’s nothing we do without considering justice, if there’s no justice in anything then that thing is actually nothing. Justice in the sense that if we ask ourselves questions we should begin to think about the stability and peace of this state.
I anchor the endorsement of Sen. Prof. Ben Ayade on two planks of justices : one, is what I call 'geopolitical justice' and the second, 'democratic justice'.
Geopolitical justice —as shown strongly in the state in this dispensation, that means, starting from 1999. The southern senatorial district enjoyed 8 clear years in a governor's hand and that was under one person in the person of His Excellency Mr. Donald Duke.
After that 'the central' enjoyed the same thing under one person, not two which is His Excellency, Liyel Imoke; I think if we have to be fair to all of us, the 'north' deserves to also serve 8 years and it should be one person and that person is Prof. Ben Ayade. That is what I call geopolitical justice.
As for democratic justice, we call ourselves the paradise state, I am a Christian and Christ has told all of us that the road to heaven —if you like call it paradise, if you like call it eldorado any how you call it— the road to heaven is not smooth and it is not for shallow persons, it’s for deep thinkers and you will agree with me that in terms of thinking, in terms of visioning, Governor Ben Ayade is a deep visionary leader and you don’t castigate visionary men rather you castigate those who do not realize their visions, so we have to wait until after 8 years before we can assess him in terms of vision and to add to that, if under this depression, under this porosity of everything and resources, Prof. Ben Ayade had the kindness to spread appointment the way he has done. Meaning he wants (like he usually say) food to be available on the table of very many persons. I think that utilitarian position should be appreciated. No man is perfect, I agree, but he has been so Benthamite. From Jeremy Bentham, that is, the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. They call it Utilitarianism. That is why I said that for doing what he is doing, I think he deserves a second term, to me and to the people of southern senatorial district.
NegroidHaven : There is this section of the society which believes for reasons best known to them that it shouldn’t be the governor but any other Cross Riverian from northern senatorial district? How do you respond to them?
ROOTMAN : First of all as democrats, we must respect every view, that is what we owe ourselves and others, but don’t forget I said that when the south went, they did that under one person, same with the central under one person, should the north now be two or three? That will kind of rock the boat and don’t forget the constitution allows the chief executive that is the governor and the president a limit of two terms. So by the time you bring in some other persons from the north, the tendency may be (you know human tendencies when you talk of ambition), when the person serves four years and the constitution allows him to go for another term we will begin to have issues in Cross River state. So I think that we should swallow our ambition and allow this young man complete his eight years.
Let us think deep as we should, in 1999, Cross River state never met anywhere to decide it should zone governorship to the south so as at that time, you expect all three senatorial districts. In 2007, the south had already gone, so no southerner contested only central and North, because they were the only two lefty. Why did the south decide not to contest? Because they knew they have taken their own share, it's not everything that should be written, its conventional. That is why after the central had served their eight years, it was only the Northerners and nobody came out from the south and central to contest. If at all they did, they were just pretenders and not contenders.
So the question you should ask yourself is how come in 1999, the three zones contested? How come in 2007, only two and how come in 2015 only one?
That means that even without been told, we knew that as at 1999 since we had not sat and said, let it start from the south, then everybody can contest. If for instance Chief Kanu Agabi had emerged and not Donald Duke, the tendency that northerners would not had been contesting in every election, but a southerner emerged and having completed the eight years, we knew without been told that south had had their own share. That was why in 2015, you saw it very clearly that the whole thing centered in the north. Even though when you talk about LGAs we have more in the other two senatorial districts. That should let you know that humans are very intelligent, don’t forget convention is part of law, source of law if like. So that is my take on that.
The idea geopolitical justice favours him and the idea of democratic justice also favours him. On that of democratic justice, I mentioned that he is the one who can take us to the paradise. That was why I said shallow thinkers are not needed now. In case some people will get confused let us reduce it to concrete terms.
The way he made his appointments and considering the fact that he came at the time that Nigeria was down economically and he still had that mind that kindness spreads appointments the way he did. With 3000, 5000 youths in his appointment list getting alerts every month across the state. That type of a person, it's very clear that if he were to have the type of excess funds that others had and are making noise now. He would have performed wonders.
When we access our leaders we should also look at their resources, if we don’t then we will be making a mistake. You can’t give a man an elephant and the other one a goat and you expect both of them to donate equal size of meat to the public. So, what I am saying is that he has tried. And one aspect that you can give him kudos is by being selfless, selfless in the sense of saying let as many persons as possible join me in this resource control/allocation.
Did you say that during Donald Duke’s first term, we knew where we were going to? I disagree with you
In Donald Duke's first term we were hearing of pineapples, castor oil and the rest and none of them saw the light of the day. It was in his second term we started hearing of tourism and the rest. You have to be very historical. Same thing with Sen. Liyel Imoke, don’t forget, that more like Ben, Liyel knew he was going to be governor even though he was not a God. We should be very very practical so Liyel unlike others planned, so when Liyel came, the tendency was that he started on a good footing. But even at that he was not as good as it should. It was in his second term, when he now entered the rural areas and did a lot of roads. For Ben Ayade, he came and told us clearly that all he wants to do is to decouple our economy from the federal allocation.
Now one way to do that is to think outside the box. And thinking outside the box, is the deep sea port and super high way project of and I will tell people that when a man sells a deep vision to you, it is our collective responsibility to make those vision to be realised. We should just look at the benefit of the deep sea port. When it happens, where will we be? That’s all that matters. When the other one comes, where will we be?
Sometimes you allow tomorrow to guide you, you build hope, rather than condemn it. So when some of us begin to condemn and counter it, say it’s causing problem with this super high way. I don’t think we are doing that in the interest of the state. Rather, let us corporate with him.
I am not saying we should not judge him now. What I am saying is it is better to judge a deep visionary at the end of his tenure.
But while propagating the deep visionary and one thing or the other. We have already called it deep. It will be difficult and sometimes unfair to judge it now because you won’t see the result, because there are some results you won’t see, so what we need is to ask ourselves, will the deep sea port and super highway take place?
We need to consistently and insistently let him know and all those who are working with him that we need these two things he sold to us and let us do our own aspect. And at the end of it, if he doesn’t realize it that’s when we can comfortably say Oga, why? But for now if you condemn, to me its not too right.
Until the people begin to govern the government, then we are nowhere close. Sometimes we are too aloof, we think by the government we mean one or two persons, No! Sometimes the people force government to do something. If the press is firm, if the press is constructively critical, it will spur the governor that will be better than condemning him. Saying he did not even mean what he was saying, by the time you do that, then you become a cloak in the wheel of progress.
So, the realisation of the deep sea port and super highway for instance not only depends on the government but on all of us. And the question we should ask ourselves is, Ben Ayade as a person, what does he want, resources wise or money wise?
I remember I told him at Abuja that my respect for you is not just because you are the governor but you are an intellectual, let us not forget.
As a private individual, the man discovered a formula that is helping mankind. We shouldn't forget that it's rare. I think he deserves our cooperation.
It's rare in the world to see an intellect advancing politically. I think we should cooperate with him. That had been my stand from day one.
