Jalingo needed the Airtime

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29 August 2019 

Agba Jalingo is making headlines on National Television. TVC and other national television networks have been headlining his incarceration today and highlighting the Cross River State government's alleged fraud in a FIVE HUNDRED MILLION NAIRA micro finance bank deal Jalingo was said to be investigating.

Jalingo several times called on the state government to arrest him. He needed the incident to call for national attention to what he's been highlighting in Cross River State. He needed the airtime. All dyed in the wool activists know how important this "airtime" is to every struggle.
Sadly, the government fell for it.
Even after Jalingo had offered to honour a needless police investigation and had publicly announced that he had agreed on a date and time of appointment with the state police authorities, the people in power could not allow themselves to be great.
-That unravelling urge to "show power". That bullish tendency to "punish the small boy" and "teach him a lesson". That "untamable" anger that comes with knowing you're the main cock in the yard and no cockerel should crow when you're around and so, "how the hell could he?"
…That pride that when unwatched leads to a fall.
See where it has gotten us?
The focus on several national discourse is now on why Agba Jalingo was incarcerated. Soon it will expand. To other alleged malfeasance. Then Cross River State will get unneeded klieg lights focussed on her …FOR the wrong reasons.
Those who urged the authorities into hounding and locking up Agba Jalingo are achieving their aim. They never loved the governor. They sought to bring national attention to the state and its governor for the wrong reasons and they are succeeding. The governor fell for their trap.
The narrative, dear people, now is: Journalist investigates fraud in state Micro Finance bank. Governor locks him in jail.
See?
I have said it here before. Agba Jalingo genuinely loves the governor and is simply urging his bette brother to do better and to succeed. The sycophants preaching and urging otherwise do not care about the Governor's place in history. They care instead for their stomachs and the sustenance of access to crumbs that fall when they raise the decibels of their praise singing. They do not care for tomorrow.
But the Governor cares. I believe sincerely that the Governor is genuine in his intents and desires for Cross River State. I believe he wants to leave behind a more prosperous state than what he inherited. But I worry that he surrounds himself with too many Halleluya boys and not people who shares his vision.
I believe also that the move to arrest and detain Agba Jalingo is wrong and will be counter productive. On a scale those who urged it are incapable of comprehending.
With Several National television networks now focusing on the story of Jalingo's arrest, I need not emphasis the negative credit the arrest brings the state and it's managers.
If Agba Jalingo is involved in crime, charge him to court. If not, release him quietly and end the circus that is doing no one any good.
My unsolicited tenpence.
Justine Eleshi is a social commentator