Joseph Odok|29 November 2017
I honestly love Sen. Prof. Barr. Ayade Benedict. I truly would love him to succeed but I can't accommodate his flaws nor will I place him above the Cross River State dream. He is a young man that grew out of stark poverty but by little hard work and the goodwill of people towards him, God lifted him high. There is nobody I know in Cross River State that is as lucky as Prof. Ben Ayade, no one has been favoured with the position of a professor before he was due to become one. When he became senator, he got benefactors like Venatius Ikem and JD Agba to raise funds and stop the more popular Hon. Paul Adah, he was the least in consideration for Governor, he barely knew Liyel Imoke but God confused Liyel Imoke with hatred for his core men to the preference of an unknown person and a stranger like Ayade. Before Ayade became Governor, he was a stranger, yes someone no one would have taken serious for a second. I repeat that Prof is the luckiest citizen of Cross River State in the history of the creation of Cross River State.
Being a child of Grace, the Governor quickly began to fight the very God that blessed him. He began maltreating the very poor people he share a history and story with. He began to fight the very people that voted him, he began struggling the structures of the godfathers that installed him
Ayade's structures are not those of his godfathers, his best structures are the poor people in the street and these were the first people Ayade abandoned. He then fixed his mind on lies and changed from his true mission. Ayade's structures would have been built by building roads, funding education, providing water, scholarship, security and freedom but rather Ayade began fighting the poor and impoverishing them. He is said to be harmless but surrounded by cultist and assassins. Ayade's few years in office have become a waterloo and a geometric retrogression of Cross River State. The gods are angry and have abandoned him
Ayade's sins are not more than those of Donald Duke. In Duke's first years in office, he may have been worst than Ayade. But Duke was lucky that there was no social media to expose him in his time. Ayade's years may not be worst than the Liyel Imoke's days. Even in Liyel's days the emergence of social media and increasing awareness, exposed Liyel Imokr as a sleeping Governor, he was at a time removed from office. In the Liyel Imoke's era, the was the emergence of social media at it's nascent stage but in Ayade's days the social media have seen a revolution with increasing participation in governance. Ayade must increasingly come to terms with the fact that times have changed
Channels TV, AIT, NTA and print media cannot help Ayade, he must stop wasting our monies. The social media is now more powerful, you got to be at a particular place to watch news, you need some money to buy papers but you need just subscribe a few naira and you are there on social media. The social media news is always there, you can access it with a click on your phone effortlessly. Only the poor can safe Ayade, only bringing monies he has stockpiled for elections to develop Cross River State can save Ayade.
Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke could cover their past. Ayade can't as his secrets are in open space and even his appointees are always ready to share them to liberate Cross River State. There is unity in the ground swell movement to liberate cross river state and the Ayade's era is not the one information can be suppressed. In Liyel Imoke and Duke's era one could buy the distribution of a news item published in a newspaper. Ayade tried it when he published the revocation of lands for super high way and failed. Through his in-law and my colleague Dr. John Inyang he published the revocation notice in Chronicles and bought the circulation of the paper, somehow the paper leaked, when I got hold of just a copy of the revocation notice and posted it on social media, the news of the revocation of 10km length of land on each side of the super high way spread like wild fire. The embedded lies are still the reasons for the withholding of the approval of the super high way till date
Ayade must know that he is in democracy in an era of social media. His men got offended and wanted to kill me in a failed assassination attempt because I was criticising the government and used Agba Jalingo and his Cross River Watch to criminalise me using the media. I am alive, they failed. Ayade must know he must stop his drive to eliminate opposition voices, intimidation will no longer help at this moment, rather it is freedom and appreciation of truth can do magic for him
Ayade must know and appreciate the fact that core to democracy is freedom of expression and increased participation in governance. He must know that he can excel in this new era by accommodating critics and ensuring that the dividends of democracy are held sacrosanct. Ayade must know that his praise singers are his worst enemies, he must know that he can buy the media to build a positive image for himself outside Cross River State but it is the people of Cross River State that will vote him, they are the people that will ask him question during campaign. I am wondering what Ayade will tell the people in his reelection campaign
Ayade must know he has lost the confidence of his people, he must realign himself with the poor and people of Cross River State. No single man can fight his people, Ayade has began a fight against his people and the gods are angry. Ayade must immediately change because the gods are obviously angry with him.
Joseph Odok
Social Change Agent
