“Ayade Is A Considerate Human Being; I Doubt If He Will Ever Have Issues With His Successor In Office, The Type Duke And Liyel Had Displayed Towards Each Other”

“For why Governor Ben Ayade refused to respond to Donald Duke’s laughable false allegations concerning his academic qualification as well as his professorship was ethical and more so because the assertion of Duke at the occasion where he uttered those words, fits well into the case of a man whose defamed shadow continues to be the subject of regret and worry to him as a mark of infamy he carries around of an impression he feels the people hold on him, by using the same accusation on one who now shares the very office he was at the time his accusers alluded, he would’ve made it a common slang if the same suspicion is thrown at those holding such position. By so doing, he would succeed in rendering such accusation a nullity and save his battered image by also accusing whosoever he finds operating in the office of Governor in the state of the same deficiency whether true or false.”

“This is where the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Prince Bassey Otu readily comes into play. A man who is known for his knack for turning restive youths into productive men in society by giving them the needed apparatus with which to use to enhance growth. My only fear is that he may decide to go beyond what the current governor is presently offering, which may depend solely on the availability of funds, and that on its own would be another great record on the food-on-Table phenomenon introduced by Ayade carried out fully by the new government of Prince Otu. In fairness, to these kindhearted human beings, those young men and women on the program who are being given jobs across the state are usually among those who truly need the government the most to curb unnecessary agitation and youth restiveness. It is a well-thought-out exercise or policy of state by the outgoing governor which is meant to encourage the people’s faith in the intention of the government to alleviate their suffering and reduce detente.”

“Another reason I guess why the current Governor refused to respond to Duke’s defamatory proclamation against him was because he evaluated the content of his accusation to be burned out of ignorance fueled by enviousness and hate, especially as a former Governor and one who has earlier used his mouth to praise what he saw as a great feat recorded by Ayade unattained by any of the governors before him in the areas of industrialization and did openly acknowledged that in no unmistakable terms. He further, in the same meeting place, expressed wonder aloud, on how the current outgoing Governor was able to accomplish those feats knowing as a former Governor himself, how lean the resources of the state are for one to be able to accomplish today what Ben had successfully put in place for the state for the generation to benefit from. And he said all this on live Television which was broadcasted to the entire world. If the very person Duke, by himself, now shamefully decides out of envy or to gain some cheap political points on behalf of his candidate Onor of the PDP he tries to market, who is doing everything possible to become his successor, chooses to de-market him using such rationales, shows naivety and the character of the person he is, and as such, he chose to ignore him and let posterity be the judge.”

– Obi Ojage

The Bible says the Lord loves a cheerful giver, that is to say that consideration for the plight of other people and the show of kindness is one great way of pleasing the Lord almighty. Blessed are the hands that give than the one that receives, is another Bible quotation to compliment the former.

Most of those who are going about as former cabinets ministers, honorable members, Senators, and big men in political circles in our state of Cross river today wouldn’t have been able to talk with such air and disregard or go about backbiting some of us especially my humble self the way they do if I had opted to go for elective positions when the opportunity had given itself. I have been ahead of these men of empty political boasts and had closer ties to the system that made them what they became.

But that may not be the point or where my annoyance lies.

The irony of it all is that ninety percent of these persons have grown horns and have decided to bite the hands that fed them, sounding as though they’re better politicians than those who brought them from political obscurity to being where they couldn’t have been if their benefactors had chosen to use the usual political yardstick in determining their suitability in the midst of those who contributed in their emergence, become greedy, unfriendly or inconsiderate at the time these were chosen or when they sort their help.

This was why I frown when I hear those whom Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke helped to either gain political relevance or attain such sudden lip to heights undue for their circumstance at the time, at no cost to them, now seen talking ill of these two men, I feel sad.

It is not that these persons do not have wrongs or had not disappointed many in areas where they were expected to do well against which the need to vilify them becomes unavoidable, but it isn’t the place of those whom they bend over backward to elevate to higher levels politically correct to come out to challenge their benefactors openly in a denigrating manner, no matter for who and over what?

Whatever the former Governor Mr. Donald Duke said derogatorily against the outgoing Governor, Professor Ben Ayade is of no bases, it is left to the handlers of Ayade’s Image to respond appropriately and not those whom these persons helped at the expense of many who deserved those positions at the time who were denied same in the face of many grumbling.

I am pretty sure that the current Governor has more than enough to say with evidence about his accusers that can make them keep quiet and Bragg less. And he will be talking as one who knows what sins they’ve committed against the state in more detail than anybody else.

But in his wisdom, Ayade decided not to say anything, either by himself during the campaign or at the campaign ground or through his aids where some highlight of the ills of his accusers would have been mentioned with facts in a display of his annoyance. That is maturity.

Governor Ben Ayade is a more considerate person in this case and that cannot be taken for cowardice. He is merely considering what it took Liyel as a friend then, to make him Governor than what name Liyel calls him now.

That’s the attitude of a man who displays conscience and eschews pride or the decision to weld in the power he has at the time to unleash whatever he deems would breakdown the little left of his accuser’s pride before the public to prove his superiority as well as his innocence, but he remains reticent in the face of such provocation.

This has shown how less egoistic Ayade is over his persecutors who are struggling to present a fake image to the unsuspecting public whereas they carry baggage full of guilt over what they both failed to provide to the state or its citizens at the time of their reign on account of the huge amount of money said to have been spent on elephant projects who’s elephantiasis disease is responsible for the inability of the state to grow at par with her counterparts economically because of the huge amount of debt they incurred that had contributed in crumbling the state and left it in perpetual indebtedness all due to their profligacy, especially in the case of Duke.

For why Governor Ben Ayade refused to respond to Donald Duke’s laughable false allegations concerning his academic qualification as well as his professorship was ethical and more so because the assertion of Duke at the occasion where he uttered those words, fits well into the case of a man whose defamed shadow continues to be the subject of regret and worry to him as a mark of infamy he carries around of an impression he feels the people hold on him, by using the same accusation on one who now shares the very office he was at the time his accusers alluded, he would’ve made it a common slang if the same suspicion is thrown at those holding such position.

By so doing, he would succeed in rendering such accusation a nullity and save his battered image by also accusing whosoever he finds operating in the office of Governor in the state of the same deficiency whether true or false.

Another reason I guess why the current Governor refused to respond to Duke’s defamatory proclamation against him was because he evaluated the content of his accusation to be burned out of ignorance fueled by enviousness and hate, especially as a former Governor and one who has earlier used his mouth to praise what he saw as a great feat recorded by Ayade unattained by any of the governors before him in the areas of industrialization and did openly acknowledged that in no unmistakable terms. He further, in the same meeting place, expressed wonder aloud, on how the current outgoing Governor was able to accomplish those feats knowing as a former Governor himself, how lean the resources of the state are for one to be able to accomplish today what Ben had successfully put in place for the state for the generation to benefit from.

And he said all this on live Television which was broadcasted to the entire world. If the very person Duke, by himself, now shamefully decides out of envy or to gain some cheap political points on behalf of his candidate Onor of the PDP he tries to market, who is doing everything possible to become his successor, chooses to de-market him using such rationales, shows naivety and the character of the person he is, and as such, he chose to ignore him and let posterity be the judge.

Otherwise, it doesn’t take the current governor anything to expose all he knows about the sins of the Duke against the state, to further incite the people against him to cub those grandstanding because he has all the facts, and he will do nothing. But he chooses not to.

And I am equally sure that Duke knows the consequences of daring a sitting governor who still has four clear months to vacate office. No one would’ve done a similar thing to him while he was in power and felt safe further ahead.

It is that aspect of human consideration that has enabled the current governor to govern the state without the incidence of intimidation and segregation that were prevalent in the reign of these two former governors especially Duke where few selected persons mostly friends and associates were accommodated in government, while many who meant little to them were regarded as cannon fodder, good only to be praise singers or hitmen.

Young people in their numbers today in the state have had the privilege of generously putting food on the table and even marrying and having kits thereby reducing their tendency to resort to crime because of a lack of what to eat and what to give to their loved ones.

No matter how we see or evaluate these new trends, it has invariably reduced youth restiveness and crime. Their self-esteem is boosted by their being described as appointees of the government whether or not they’re given physical offices to operate from. This was grossly nonexistent during the time of Duke and Imoke.

It has been said in many quarters that Ayade had brought the Food-On-Table phenomenon as an innovation that cannot be traced from the state budgetary provisions without a fight from the youths especially those in the ruling party who may consider it their turn to attain such heights or wear such nomenclature of an appointee as their identity.

And it takes a considerate leader who has compassion on the masses of the trodden to take such actions at the expense of other pressing state matters. This is where kindness comes in. If you are not a kind man in heart, you cannot accommodate such a policy.

This is where the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Prince Bassey Otu readily comes into play. A man who is known for his knack for turning restive youths into productive men in society by giving them the needed apparatus with which to use to enhance growth. My only fear is that he may decide to go beyond what the current governor is presently offering, which may depend solely on the availability of funds, and that on its own would be another great record on the food-on-Table phenomenon introduced by Ayade carried out fully by the new government of Prince Otu.

In fairness to these kindhearted human beings, those young men and women on the program who are being given jobs across the state are usually among those who truly need the government the most to curb unnecessary agitation and youth restiveness. It is a well-thought-out exercise or policy of state by the outgoing governor which is meant to encourage the people’s faith in the intention of the government to alleviate their suffering and reduce detente.

Unfortunately, the candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) recently vowed to jettison the policy if voted into power. I hope the youths are taking notes of such a sad and unpeopled proclamation. Where then lies their hope that everything has always been shared among those so-called elites class in power? This is no politics, I am stating the facts as there are.

But I must confess that Imoke, unlike Duke, is known to reward loyalty. He does not joke with those he found who had worked hard for his party, he rewards them one way or the other. But amongst what class of people had he done that, is the question? The percentage of those who have benefited is minimal on the part of those party men and women who did work, especially the foot soldiers. There lies the irony.

This was because he was being choosy and targeted but those who acted smart or those who were bold enough to demand their rights through confrontation, but how many were they?

However, one can not say the same concerning Duke, that wise; although there were areas where he did something significant such as the expansion of the Municipality and maintaining of good sanitation throughout his tenure as Governor including of cause, the end-of-year Carnival shows that virtually brings the world into Calabar to witness what is known as the world’s biggest street party.

The reasons prevailed because the two men were too selective and lacked “Consideration” towards everyone especially those out of their circle of friends, classmates, or those who ran errands for them in their private capacity. It’s never so with the current governor.

Ayade has consideration for everybody especially those whose names were sent to him by either their chapter chairmen or some stakeholders in the party including elders. And that has been his muds Operandi. That is what determined the constituting of the bulk of those he appointed PAs and SAs.

And certainly, such an approach of reaching out to able-bodied youths with something to keep hope alive will resonate in the future with some modifications with the coming to power of Senator Prince Bassey Otu whose life is synonymous with giving and building youths to become men in all manners of his relationship. This is why he is the right choice for governorship and not the original Caterpillar or anybody for that matter from other political parties apart from the ruling APC, who may be contesting to succeed the outgoing Governor.

Professor Ben Ayade in my observation, is one man who loves displaying his talent in a showmanship fashion and putting his ingenuity to proper use to prove cynics wrong on every one of his embarked adventures which often awakens criticism but turns out a cynosure in its usual bewildering peculiarities.

Perhaps those are some of the areas the people of the state would miss him more when he bows out as Governor of Cross River in a few months to come with Prince Bassey Otu of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) taking charge of affairs his successor for good.

End Time Message.

GOD WITH US….

StreetReporters.ng