From Judex Okoro, Calabar
In this interview, Hon Cletus Obun, the Vice Chairnam, APC Central Senatorial District, Cross River, stated categorically “PDP years of locust have come to an end in Cross River.”
According to Obun, the former PDP member representing Boki II state constituency at the House of Assembly, he said the PDP government in the state under Governed Ben Ayade has failed to fulfil its campaign promises nor even continue with some laudable projects initiated by his predecessors and therefore has lost confidence of Cross Riverians. The former member of defunct ACN in the state it was high time the electorate gave APC chance to return the state to its past glory.
PDP government is almost three years in Cross River, can you assess Prof Ben Ayade –led administration within this period in terms of delivering on its promise?
From what is happening, one can say sincerely that you cannot assess Ben Ayade’s led administration in isolation because Cross River has had PDP government, consistently from 1999 till date. The implication is that the problem of success of one regime ought o reflect in the successive administration. Between Donald Duke, Liyel Imoke and Ben Ayade governments. There ought to be a continuum. But what we have rather found is a very dislocated governmental programme that has resulted into stunted growth and development of the state both in human and infrastructure. For example, Duke came in with white elephant projects while Ayade came in with a drain pipe projects, intended to enrich certain persons in the government. In the present regime, we have the highest level of insecurity and gross underdevelopment of the rural areas.
The three signature projects including Supper Highway, garment factory and deep Sea Port promised with so much hype and MoUs but without execution have left the state with so much to be desired. Now, we have so much MoUs without practical execution after raising our hopes and wetting our appetite. I cannot understand how Tinapa and Ranch Resort can go down under Ayade. The same government is promising Super Highway and Deep Sea Port after about two years of its conception.
The so-called satellite towns and model cities are all gone; the agricultural enhancement programme which went into cashew, castor oil and pineapple are all gone down the drain; the palm and rubber estates revolution scattered across the state have been abandoned. What we have now is hype without any concrete efforts. If the present government had continued with the agric revolution of his predecessors, it would have re-jigged our economy while federal allocation would have been somewhat of a reserved fund. Agriculture is our major area of comparative advantage because we have four vegetational belts that can grow any crop on earth. From the semi-temperate forest of Obudu cattle ranch and the weather there off; through the semi-savannah of Obudu, Obanliku, Ogoja and Yala down to the rain forest in Boki and Akamkpa and then the swamp of Bakassi, Akpabuyo and Odukpani, no type of crop on earth would not grow in these four vegetations. There is poverty growing in cocoa, palm and rubber estates when we have the resources to sustain the economy. Besides, we have over eighty per cent of Western African forest in Cross River alone. That means ninety-per cent of Nigerian forest is in the state already. By now we should have been training forest and wild life managers as well as in eco-tourism.
So, why Cross River should be looking for oil money to survive and pay salaries? It is poor management and lack of quality leadership. Besides, the security architecture implemented by this government was not designed and therefore, has increased communal conflicts across the state, leading to loss of lives. Land disputes and border skirmishes became norm rather than an exception. There were incessant clashes at Ebijakara-Ebom; Bodje-Nsadop, Obudu, Ukele, etc. This was however, orchestrated by PDP’s penchant to remain in power for 16 years using cultists and gangsters to win election. So, Ayade just climbed on top of it and we are back to the dark ages. All these have taken us to another round of development crisis.
From the foregoing, the state has to start afresh from 2019 as we are back to 1999. It appears that nothing is happening again. But this is not to take away the attempt by Liyel Imoke to fill the tension generated by Donald Duke. The tension created by Donald made it impossible for anybody to live in the state then without providing security for himself and I think we are returning to that era. However, I can say categorically that PDP years of locust have come to an end and Ayade is only going to be a victim of what was put in place by his predecessors. It is a total failure of the institution and it is a monumental failure of the PDP government in the state. And that is why those of us in APC are asking to be given an opportunity to re-invent and re-discover Cross River and bring it to the paradise our fore-fathers envisaged.
Looking at all the projects that Governor Ayade has embarked on, it looks clearly he has the intention to industrialise the state through the signature projects. Do you have fear that it could be abandoned?
I have already told you how lack of continuity, vision and false implementation of PDP manifestoes have led to where we are in Cross River. The Mono rail, Tinapaand ranch Resort are all signature projects started by Ayade’s predecessors that if they were allowed to flourish as a result of continuity, definitely we would have gone beyond this state. Look at Lagos State where continuity works. There you see Lekki project and others, the incumbent continued from where Governor Fashola stopped. But we don’t have that in Cross River. Again, note that he has no time on his hand to be talking of Super Highway and all that because going by INEC by June 2018, all the presidential candidates of all parties should emerge. That tells you by January 2018 we are beginning election and an average Nigerian politician looks at election rather than development plan. So I would have been optimistic if there were conscious efforts to keep Cross River project on. I think the present administration is just day-dreaming with Super highway when it cannot even intervene on existing federal highways of Calabar-Ikom-Ogoja-Obudu and Calabar-Uyo that links virtually all the local governments.
For me, I had expected the present government to maintain the only road in the state and that is the Calabar-Ikom-Ogoja-Obudu higway. As at today, about eleven local government areas are not connected to Calabar because of bad road network. We have terrible topography. I also expect the government of the day to look into rural farming by bringing back our rice farms in Bansara and Ijegu where we used to have over 3, 000 workers. What we expect from this administration is to look for investors in this agricultural sector and open up more farms to reduce unemployment. Appointing over 5, 000 aides in the name of stomach infrastructure without doing anything is killing the economy and brewing more economic crisis in future. When that food stops coming they would look for other means of survival and this would of course open a flood gate of crime. It is high time we stopped playing politics all the way and face development to plan for next generation. We can’t grow like that and if this government really think it is digital as it claims, it should look in this direction.
APC in the state seem not to be playing their expected role as an opposition party. It is alleged that the leadership of the party is romancing the PDP government
I must admit to you that we are not doing enough as an opposition party in the state. The reason is because we have a leadership crisis on our hands, which we are trying to clean up now. Once we get it right in that aspect, we shall move on from there. As for those contracts and contractors who get patronage from this government, it is very clear in APC constitution that once you accept a contract or appointment from any government that is not APC that person is automatically expelled. Already, a committee has been set up during South-South APC meeting held in Calabar to investigate the allegations of members collecting contracts from PDP government. Those found wanting would be exposed and expelled from our party for double-dealing. It is more difficult to deal with inter party crisis than intra-party. And sabotage of this level could weaken and kill the electoral fortune of the party. And we are dealing with it headlong.
2019 is around the corner, how prepared is APC to take over the mantle of leadership in the state?
It has always been my policy that we should not put out our war chest in the public. But I think we are strategising this time by thinking, working more and talking less. We are digging deep to ensure that we take over Cross River. Presently, we are doing internal re-organisation and over-haul of the party leadership. We have recognised that we have not done enough as opposition in the state. We have not done enough in the area of strategic communication, which we are building on now. Cross Riverians are going to see a brand new APC in the area.
Are you worried at the gale of defection going on in our polity, especially with the current movements of political big-wigs crossing from one party to another?
Well, let me say this thing to you that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and a few of his die-hard supporters are suffering from an ailment I once described as ‘Adamawa syndrome.’ It means a political leadership that rises to the pinnacle of power and concedes it by a migratory trend that suffers a nomadic movement. I call it also an unending movement. Remember, at the height of Atiku’s carrier when Nigerians saw in him the leader they wanted, when he was battling Obasanjo and won thirteen cases up to the Supreme Court in the build up to the 2007 general election, he at that point left Nigerians disappointed when he defected to ACN and later came back to PDP in 2011 because he wanted to be president. It is now becoming very clear that Atiku is chasing a shadow and it is in his own interest to allow himself play the role of a kingmaker. It is no longer going to be possible for him to rule this country again. He has done this thing over and over again, which in the process, whittles down his goodwill. So, I am not worried if the movement was intended to build institutions, but for him and others to defect at this time is very disappointing.