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| Gov. Ben Ayade crying helplessly |
24 May 2020
After watching you cry uncontrollably on live television over your inability so far to deliver your good intentions for Cross River State, I must say I was equally moved to cry. Your tears, I know did not start welling up while you sat at that conference table. I understand that a lot of introspection would have taken place before you arrived that conference room, probably a night before and a night before. I, just as many Cross Riverians and residents in Cross River have been sobbing just the same way you did, wondering why in spite of your obvious intellectual capacity, the state continues to see less and less of your impact.
Dear Governor, your administration has proven to me that just as the Holy Bible says ‘there is a God in heaven that rules over the affairs of men,’ there are as well, evil and invisible forces that rule over the intents of governments.
Statistically, and in fairness to you, you are not the worst- performing Governor in Nigeria at the moment. Only, for a man of your caliber, we, just as you implied yourself in your recent burst of emotion expect much much more by now. Actually for a material like yourself, I personally expect results at ethereal proportions.
My admiration for you has never been opaque. Infact since leaving the PDP fold to follow a cause under the now delisted National Conscience Party, I have been a regular critic of your administration’s output both privately and publicly. Although I still believe you have miscalculated on a number of issues, I have never minced words or failed to express my regards for your person.
When I say I have high regards for your quality, sometimes I have a feeling not many people understand why i think you are uniquely qualified for the job. So, in the public interest it might help to list some of those qualities that should make you a particularly successful Governor:
1. You are well schooled, an academic in the rank of professor with a deputy in the same rank who as former Vice Chancellor of a first rate Nigerian University is arguably, more scholarly.
2. You have an obvious charisma which of course in leadership, we know is quite a thing.
3. Your gift of the gab (oratory) is the icing on your charisma which acts as a propellant in your audience upon digesting your words.
4. Your experience and legacy in the Senate is another arrow in your quiver that armed you for the exalted seat of Governor.
5. Then, in general you are all of a smart, intelligent and likeable fellow.
With all these, your performance should have ordinarily been a natural and effortless thing but permit that I say unfortunately, there are evidently unnatural things ruling the natural. Governments and governance are not spared that order and how often lofty policies have failed and fantastic plans taken a hit.
So your Excellency, I can relate to your crying and that frustration which feels like fetching water with a big basket.
I am happy you cried not because I am sadist but because your tears affirmed my inner belief in you. They spoke to my heart that despite the shortcomings of your administration, you are only erring as human and not a the outcome of some grand conspiracy against your state and its good people who with such adulation ushered you into that sacred office in 2015. Now I know!
I had intentionally skipped my open letters to you for months because it felt like the more we talked the more your government seemed like a child’s play but now I know you are just as disappointed. Now I know!
But, you see, dear Governor, our frustrations in Cross River may be high but my tears flow across Nigeria. As voiced in the supposedly leaked audio attributed to Rotimi Amaechi, “this country is heading no where.” That speaks volumes and for that Nigerians should not only weep but wail! It appears the invisible forces against the country have now been recalibrated upward and that should cause the louder cry.
As for Cross River State, I believe now, more than before that it takes more than critism to call government to order. We should all cry for our release from powers of evil against the land. It is perhaps, more than meets the eye.
Dear Governor, you have wept again in public but I suppose, you should take Cross River to the altar of The Living God. The God of Israel. He wipes away all tears. Call for a solemn assembly.
Remember how in your court battles with Joe Agi, you declared “only God can help me.” In the end He helped you. We all saw the hand of God in your victory at the Supreme Court against all odds. In your latest episode of public outcry, I heard you say ‘you have been praying to God’ to help you. I am sure he will and by God’s grace with your remaining three years or so, you will pursue and will take back all you have lost in any good plans you have for our State.
Long live dear Governor.
Peace!
Awan Ayan
