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From Aniekan Aniekan, Calabar
A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and member of the Presidential Campaign Council, Hon. Cletus Obun, has said the mega rally and road walk slated for Calabar is not an ordinary campaign, but an act of restorative justice for Cross River State.
Hon. Obun disclosed this in an interview ahead of the launch of the mega rally and road walk in the state.
According to Obun, the event is historic and epochal, given Calabar’s status as the first capital of Nigeria and the sacrifices made by the state for the unity of the country.
“This is not just historical, it is epochal. Cross River State has paid the price for Nigeria to be one. Any President who does not take cognisance of Cross River will pay the price,” he said.
Obun recalled that Calabar served as the first capital before it was moved to Lagos, and that the first gunshots of the civil war were fired in Gakem, in present-day Bekwarra Local Government Area of the state.
He said that, despite the sacrifice of the people of the then Ogoja Province, who insisted that Nigeria must not break up, no reparation had been made to the area.
He cited the failure to build a war museum in Gakem as promised by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, the demand for Ogoja State, and the loss of oil wells as part of the injustices suffered by the state.
“When Calabar, Ogoja and Rivers were demanding to be made states in 1967, Rivers was created, Calabar was created, Ogoja was made an appendage of Calabar. That injustice must be addressed,” he stated.
Obun said the present administration of Governor Bassey Otu was fighting for restoration, stressing that anyone coming to campaign in Cross River must recognise the state as special.
He described Cross River as the only state where it takes 12 hours to travel from one end to the other because of abandoned federal road networks, adding that the coastal highway and other federal projects must be seen as restorative.
On preparedness, Obun said the APC structure of 10 executives across 8,809 polling units in the state was ready to host a historic event.
He said key messages for Cross Riverians would focus on the Student Loan Scheme, improved food supply and ongoing federal infrastructure projects, including the Mfum Bridge and the Calabar coastal road axis.
“Nigerians are suffering, we don’t deny that. But our children now go to university with NELFund using just their phones without knowing anybody in government. That is reality, not proclamation,” he added.
Also speaking, Dorn Claimnz Enamhe, a spokesperson of the campaign structure in the state, said Cross River was ready to welcome the President and let him know that the people were always with him.
He said the three years of the President’s administration had brought huge benefits to the state and justice for its citizens, and that this was not taken for granted.
