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Sunday Ani
The Cross River State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Sir John Ochala is not happy with his state governor, Professor Ben Ayade. He said the state is afflicted with so much infirmity that only divine deliverance would bring the state back on track.
In this interview, he speaks on some of those vexed issues such as the governor’s inability to conduct the local government elections, and his penchant not to pay workers’ salaries promptly, leading to many months of unpaid salary arrears among other issues.
Five years into Ben Ayade’s government, LG are still being run by administrators. As an opposition, are you not worried about the development? And if you are worried, what steps have you taken to address the anomaly?
Yes, we are extremely worried and if you have been following the trends of political happenings in Cross River State, you will recall that several times, we have called on him to conduct the local government elections. We have also on several occasions asked other critical stakeholders to join hands to make him understand why there should be local government elections. At a point, the pressure was so much that he pretended as if he wanted to conduct local government elections. The state electoral commission set up a timetable. Our party conducted primaries and after the primaries, there was a halt on the process and the state electoral commission’s chairman announced that there would be further communications on when elections would be held. But, till now, elections have not been conducted. The party candidates who ran the primaries are holding the tickets waiting for the election. As it is, we don’t even know whether such tickets have expired or not. It got to a stage where we had to take Ayade’s government to court to compel him to conduct the local government election. He has done all he could to ensure that that case did not see the light of the day. And we have done all we could within our legal limit to ensure that the case went on.
The above question is premised on the general belief that there is no opposition in the state considering the way and manner the governor runs the state. It is believed that he runs the state as a personal fiefdom; why has your party not provided the needed opposition to make the governor sit up and face governance in your state?
Why has the Press not been able to provide the needed opposition? You people make a lot of mistakes. You think that the opposition party is the only stakeholder that has to say something about the government, but, it is not so. Every sector is a stakeholder, including political parties. I expect the Press rather to do more and one of the challenges we are having comes from the Press because they see white and call it black. Let all stakeholders, including the Press, organised labour and organised professionals come together and condemn what is happening. What has the Press done in Cross River State to let Ayade know that he ought to conduct the local government elections? Are they not stakeholders? Is it only the APC that is a stakeholder? Go and check, as I speak with you, we are in court. We can’t go beyond legal limit; except you are talking of people being violent or lawless. That is not part of the APC because we can never be lawless. Everything we do must be within the law, and everything within the law to make him understand why he should conduct the election is what we have done.
During his first tenure, he was commended for prompt payment of salaries; a situation that even contributed to his second term electoral victory. From reports, such cannot be said of his second tenure. Now, workers are being owed up to four months’ salary arrears? What do you think could be responsible for this sudden change of attitude?
There is no change of attitude except you don’t have the facts on grounds. During his first tenure, there were groups he would owe four months and some groups he would owe eight months. He scattered the structures. The ones he has paid, he brings them to the Press and let the whole world know that he has paid those ones; the ones he owes six, eight months, nobody hears about them. As I speak to you, during his first tenure, those who are pensioners and retired, up till date are still crying for their pension, he has not paid them. He has not paid debtors up till date. Teachers are crying for their salary. The truth is that government in Cross River State has taken the people for a ride. Governance is total in abysmal condition. Several things are wrong; I don’t know what to point to that is right in Cross River State today. It is a very unfortunate situation.
Is it also true that the State Assembly is equally being starved of funds?
The State House of Assembly cannot pull its weight. It cannot oversight. You see, once you give yourself to mundane issues, you become culpable. The question you will ask is how did the members of the assembly get there in the first place? My brother, Cross River State needs deliverance. The challenges are enormous.
Your governor is yet to constitute his cabinet almost six months into his second tenure; what do you think is responsible for the delay?
Governance is like a toy in his hand. Under normal circumstance, it shouldn’t take him a long time to set up his cabinet. As I speak with you, no department in the civil service is functional. You may wish to visit the state and go round different sectors to see things for yourself. You will never meet light in any of the offices; even in the governor’s office, there is light. You give employment or appointment to over 7000 people and there is no office or even desk for them to write on. Apart from the name tag, there is no job description. A lot of impunity and racketeering are going on in the system. Those 7000 employed workers are shortchanged and they can’t complain. If, for instance, your monthly income is N450,000, you will only get alert for N100,000. So, what happens to the remaining N350,000 multiplied by these 7000 people? They can’t ask any questions because they are not working for the alert they are getting. So, that is the situation we find ourselves in Cross River State today. If the newsmen want to know the truth, let them go and ask questions. The governor brings Mr. President to do a groundbreaking ceremony on what he called superhighway. The question you will ask yourself is: what is the priority of that project? From the time the groundbreaking was done till now, they have not done anything beyond that groundbreaking. There is crisis of leadership in Cross River State.
There are also rumour that the governor’s younger brother is the one calling the shots, while the governor takes orders from him; how true is that?
In about five decades that I have spent on earth, I have never seen this kind of thing where there is a governor and a co-governor. The deputy governor is just a ceremonial staff. The co-governor is actually governor’s younger brother, who seems openly to even be more powerful than the governor. The rumour is correct and if you want to confirm it, just come and spend a few days in Cross River State and watch a private citizen move with entourage of security and you will be shocked. He carries out official function of the state.
