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| Dan Obo |
21 July 2019
It’s variously believed in Africa that as a human person grows older, (s)he becomes wiser, whether this submission is true or not is not the business of this singular publication. Today, we concern ourselves with the fact that Daniel Obo the erstwhile Director General of Cross River State Recreational Park Agency turned a year older, Saturday 20th July 2019.
At the auspicious age of 36, the a year wiser Daniel decided to reflect on the question of development and political leadership in his indigenous local government area, Obubra. Dan begins with implicitly admitting to journalists in Calabar, Cross River capital city that given the glaring indices, Obubra is underdeveloped.
However, when queried on what he thinks is the reason for this dearth of development in his home local government area, Daniel points accusing fingers at the failure of political leadership indigenous to Obubra. He proceeds to disagreeing with the trending notion that his ancestral local government has been undermined in the power equation in the state, for him it is rather the quality of political representation and the advantages of bargaining by the representative at the state, and national horizon that defines this equation. He proposes unity and a pan-Obubra association as the solution to the development and leadership quagmire, while hinting at a pan-Obubra disposition, New Obubra Project led by Richard Romanus of Oderagha, Obubra.
His words in part, ‘As I speak with you, there are two hospitals in Obubra. As large as Obubra is, there is no urban centre and our internal roads are all bad to a point that you cant access some remote villages…
‘It is not the issue that government is against us, it is the issue that we have poor representation and bargaining right for the interest of Obubra.
‘We have members in the State House of Assembly; you think if they rise up today and move a motion for an urban centre in Obubra it wont be granted? Offcourse we will have it, but they have failed in their bargaining powers.
‘The bargain that has to do with Obubra is always a poor one. As youths, we are taking a new lead because we cannot continue to leave with this poor amenities before us forever,’ he said.
‘We need an Obubra that irrespective of party lines, we must gather, think and talk as Obubra.
‘In 2023 and going forward, we are building a new Obubra that will take up the leadership structure and erase the issue of underdevelopment in our area.
We believe in the dream of a new Obubra and collectively as young men, we must braze up, throw up fear and chat a way forward,’ he said.
Comrade Daniel, happy birthday.
