A traditional ruler in Cross River has insisted that a recent media publication reporting that he angrily vowed to make public officials go blind, should they continue to mistreat traditional rulers was an utter misrepresentation NEGROIDHAVEN can report authoritatively.
Paramount Ruler of Bakassi LGA and Chair of Cross River State Traditional Rulers Council, HRH Etim Okon Edet, has said that a Monday 30th January 2023 Today’s News Now, TNN (Volume 10, Number 3, page 3) publication, was in professional bad taste.
HRH Edet informed that his ancestors did not teach him to inflict injury on his perceived detractors. He made this disclosure in a 25th January press release where he asked TNN to release video footage of the visit. He said, ‘Let it be stated clearly and in categorical terms – I did not angrily vow to maim any government official(s), not now or tomorrow. I am too educated for such childish, myopic fantasies. Besides, such exuberance is not the antecedent of my ancestors. Ayade never promised me a Palace, Obasanjo promised.’
Excerpt of the release:
RE: ANGRY BAKASSI RULER VOWS TO MAKE GOV’T OFFICIAL GO BLIND
My attention has been brought to an utter misrepresentation of a political opinion I held recently when the People’s Democratic Party, PDP Cross River gubernatorial candidate, Prof. Sandy Ojang Onor, in company with former governor Donald Duke and deputy governor, Efiok Cobham and a host of others paid me a visit as part of their campaign tour for the forthcoming general elections in Cross River.
In a Monday 30th January 2023 Today’s News Now, TNN (Volume 10, Number 3, page 3) publication, it is reported that I, Etim Okon Edet the Paramount Ruler of Bakassi, angrily vowed to make government officials go blind for not treating Traditional Rulers well.
To begin with, this is a glaring instance of quoting a subject out of context. It is a regrettable misconstruction of what I said on Tuesday to my august guests in the state capital. This quality of sensationalism by a seeming reputable media organisation is absolutely unprofessional and in bad taste. The full video of what I said should be published for the people to view.
Why should I make government officials blind ? Am I God? Am I not still human? Is that what my ancestors taught me to do? How could I prioritise inflicting pains on another person for a perceived wrong?
Let it be stated clearly and in categorical terms – I did not angrily vow to maim any government official(s), not now or tomorrow. I am too educated for such childish, myopic fantasies. Besides, such exuberance is not the antecedent of my ancestors. Ayade never promised me a Palace, Obasanjo promised.
Let me use this opportunity to re-state what I said to my guest: That I need a palace. I want to live in Bakassi. Then, I jokingly said politicians are blind to the fact that they only empower politicians forgetting that Traditional Rulers also custody political culture of the people. I am the number one IDP in Nigeria, and so I want the federal government to properly resettle us. In Hindu mythology, the story is recounted about determination and that PDP should adopt determination to recover their lost egg.
For me, this is what the forthcoming general elections in the state should be about, not a politics hinged on ethnicity and tribalism but, on competence and character.
HRH Etim Okon Edet
Paramount Ruler of Bakassi LGA & Chair of Cross River State Council of Traditional Rulers
Wednesday 25th January 2023.
EDITORIAL
This story amongst others are reviewed on Sparkling 92.3FM http://mixlr.com/sparkling923fm–2 and FAD 93.1FM. Again, opinions expressed on NegroidHaven are exclusively the author’s not NH’s.
