Government News Source|22 December 2018
Cross River Governor, Senator Ben Ayade on Wednesday inauguated the People's Democratic Party (PDP) campaign council in the state with a charge on members to win their polling units.
Ayade who expressed confidence that the party will sweep next year's general elections given the achievements recorded by his administration in the areas of human resource development and industrialization, said the inauguration of the council was a mere formality.
He however, warned against complacency. "The super abundance of every performance is always detrimental to the performer. And therefore, no matter how competent, no matter how experienced you are, you must allow yourself the luxury of inexperience and give opportunity to do more calculation and plan better," Ayade stressed.
The governor also charged the council to embark on issues-based campaign.
"This election cannot be won by money because once you use money, it becomes commercial and that is against the law. It should be won by what we have done for the State, it should be won by understanding what we have done.
"It should be won by the fact that this government lifted embargo on employment; this government created employment for over 6,000 people by the instrumentality of appointments alone; this government pays salaries promptly; pays pensions promptly; this government created opportunity to promote 33 permanent secretaries, that never happened in Cross River. This government also directed the Primary Healthcare Agency to employ 1,000 nurses; employed 1,000 primary school teachers; created opportunity for people to be given jobs which is the core essence of government; people, people, people."
Continuing, the governor insisted his administration is "about the people and so we have something to tell the people. That is what you should go and tell your people in your polling unit," adding that: "We are indeed a government of the people, you know how difficult it is at this time, as perilous as the economy is, we have sustained and placed people first above every other consideration."
The Director General of the campaign council and former deputy governor of the State, Efiok Cobham in his remarks said the decision to have a very large campaign council was based on the need to win elections in a manner that will be wholly convincing.
Hear him: "We have gone to the extent of having a large campaign organisation because we are passing through interesting times and interested times call for interesting behavior. That is why we have about 1,600 members of the campaign organisation. If I should have my way, I think we should even go beyond that because the focus of this campaign is to win and win all."
Explaining the reason for the aim of winning all polling units, Cobham posited: "We shall have campaign organisation up to the polling unit level because we want to win and we want to win fairly. We want to win observing all the decency and conventions and even the law that governs everything so that those who thought our previous elections were flukes, let them see us win and win convincingly. That is why it is Operation win your polling booth."
