“The Efiks As A Tribe Are Not Synonymous With Southern Cross River. There Are Others, The Quas Of Calabar Municipality, Akamkpa Local Government, All Of Which Are Of The Ejagham Tribe, And The Biase People

“Quite recently, I wrote a very friendly, educative, but instructive article captioned “Ethnicity Blurs One’s Legacy As A Leader And Defaces Their Good Intentions In The Face Of Unwarranted Discrimination And Seclusion”. Rather than upload my good intentions, ill-hearted and some mischievous persons or groups of people of Efik extraction misconstrued it and wrote to WhatsApp, where I was blocked from using the service. All messages in my major Whatsapp account were gone. I was shocked. That had never happened in my over eight years of using the platform. I had to contact friends and a few bloggers who shared my stories around the country and advised me on what to do to enable WhatsApp reviews or take another look at the articles to see if they go contrary to their terms, which I did. And after a few days, my Whatsapp account was restored to me amazingly.”

“The same attitude, the same format is what Effiong Bassey is duty-bent on carrying out with the current Governor, Prince Bassey Otu, where he had reached out to me with a series of incriminating issues on WhatsApp concerning the Governor’s allies and blackmail stunt involving activities around profligacy concerning persons in a close relationship with the current Governor whose names I may not want to mention here, hoping that could be a shred of good evidence why I should feel embittered for not being given my due despite all I deed in my singular contribution to bringing this government to power from the inception. But understanding Effiong for what he is, I kept all in view in one of my WhatsApp accounts under lock and key to his consternation, knowing that his mission was not directed at addressing my issues one bit but something to ignite trouble between myself and the current Governor, Prince Bassey Otu where he would leverage to his advantage.”b
– Obi Ojage.

Quite recently, I wrote a very friendly, educative, but instructive article captioned “Ethnicity Blurs One’s Legacy As A Leader And Defaces Their Good Intentions In The Face Of Unwarranted Discrimination And Seclusion”.

And I did so as one who sacrificed his life, friendship, intellectualism, time, money, media platforms, paternal tribal affinity and contacts to see the present Government of the state with my admirer and candidate, Prince Bassey Otu as head into power in his characteristics to do good to all manners of men and women including the youths of our state different from what we suffered in the deceitful hands of the past administration where governance was insensitive to pleas and highly personalized the end of which saw no tangible result or legacy left behind than mismanagement of homogenous fund acred to the state with nothing to show than grief.

I did all that I did with a strong belief that our government would not be a deficit in its promises, which I unrelentingly canvased the agiliterianess of intent and a mission to the reasonable distribution of opportunities to accommodate those who merit it as well as bring sweetness to our people in its efforts to do so in all ramifications, without fail or being castigated out of no fault of its leadership other than the usual distraction of the opposition by way of blackmail.

My Intention in the write-up as I said, was to bring to the notice of our dear Governor, (Prince) Senator Bassey Otu of the infiltration of a mercenary specifically from the Southern senatorial district amongst his kinsmen disguised as an ethnic champion on a rampage whose stratagem often creates fear to invite tension, all of which to attract attention to himself where vulnerability exists. I did as one from the same ethnic group as the Governor as my biological mother is both Efik and Qua tribe in both Calabar South and the Municipality. For the avoidance of doubt and the umpteen time, my late mother’s name is Ewan Edem Offiong Effiwatt of Nsirong and Ediba Qua Town, respectively.

Rather than uploading my good intentions, some ill-hearted and some mischievous persons or groups of people of Efik extraction misconstrued it and wrote to WhatsApp, where I was blocked from using the service. All messages in my major Whatsapp account were gone. I was shocked. That had never happened in my over eight years of using the platform. I had to contact friends and a few bloggers who shared my stories and advised me on what to do to enable WhatsApp reviews or take another look at the articles to see if they go contrary to their terms, which I did. And after a few days, my Whatsapp account was restored to me amazingly.

I mustn’t allow the government I fought for to fail while I stand aside and watch such foolery or it attract the wrath or criticism of another ethnicity as a distraction or bate for future elections in the state out of the inordinate ambition of a few opportunists and turncoats politicians whose hearts are telling lies.

It has become impossible for these sets of people to contain my energy and commitment to attain excellence in honesty or bear my aura of bliss and conviviality; they look for every excuse shamelessly to make me feel disinterested in politics, their kind of politics where truth is often being replaced with falsehood associated with a vendetta to exclusively fill their stomach and live in opulence undue to their capacity and contributions towards the success they do pride themselves. And where one must be a member of a secret society or a fellow Witch to earn their trust.

And these are often the handiwork of that category of men in politics who are weak-minded or less endowed who now turn around in a primitively interpreted mechevalian style to create a chasm as a result of my abhorrence or indifference to their deceit and conspiracies against Obi Ojage.

Unfortunately, all of these are of no consequence to me because my values are distinguishable. However, these must not be allowed to continue. Monkey work, Monkey must chop.

That’s the universal role in politics to make everyone have a bite of the success recorded, able to change their circumstances and also to avoid a dissident group of those cheated who played vital roles becoming mercenaries of the opposition party to scuttle further success of their party.

It is not in my nature to truly enjoy success at any level when it comes to me on a plater or it is derived from shortcuts without carrying my input or an aspect of my initiatives, commitment, sacrifices and loyalty to the source especially in politics owing to why I easily trust those in whom I find a common ground to actualize whatever goals set, I put my best towards the attainment of my projection without compromises, unknown to me that most of those with whom we work who solicit my help in the guise of a friendship are mostly workers of iniquity.

But that cannot deter me or cause me to relent in being myself in fulfilment of my essence or contributions to entrench good leadership in my state and country because of the menace of a few grossly uninformed individuals about what life truly entails other than the transient nature of what materialism offers.

Those who populate our politics today in our dear state of Cross-river include one Engr. Effiong Bassey who has always been one ever in my trial for all the bad reasons, whose role in politics I hardly can define, or has anybody been able to tell me except for being nemesis to those unsuspecting public of his nuances, I am forced to put him in perspective and in the context of where his kind of activities in politics belongs.

For the period I have known him since we first met in the house of Eyo Etim Nyong, now professor, this fellow was introduced to me as Engineer Effiong Bassey but hardly has anyone seen or heard him engaged in engineering activities nor speak on the subject matter authoritatively ever since I have known him.

At least as one whose leverage carries a professional tag, he is expected to be seen engaged one way or the other in doing something relating to his profession. But not so with Effiong Bassey to the best of my knowledge. All he has always done is craftily join forces to create discord amongst persons he often claimed to know deeply. This time, it was so good for him that he found one who gives catharsis to his idiocy under the guise of ethnicity, he purportedly formed a group, so I was told, where he deceitfully made himself head to surreptitiously carried out the compilation of names of those of Efik extraction suitable or not, to serve on the present governments he claims Efik’s to stop those he considered a threat from reaping where they’d mistakenly sowed according to him.

Provided he finds money to travel; Effiong is fine; most of his associates would tell you that. All you hear and see him do is hang around prominent politicians from sunrise to when the sun goes down, here in Cross River and Abuja, hoarding names of one senator Mbata and others around Abuja purporting those to be his close pally in what they call name-dropping just to show how much he is connected and involved in the system or politics in general where in deed his sole purpose for coming close to the persons is to gather information for processing for his clandestine use. But all that is a facade and nothing more.

He is of no consequence and lacks electoral values not even in the local government where he claims to come from since most Efik folks of his orientation usually claim whichever Local Government they so deem amongst the Efik-speaking area of the southern senatorial district of Cross River, neither has he anything tangible to contributions towards anyone’s electoral victory other than ubiquitous talebearing amongst rivals to see which of his permutations suits the time.

He does nothing other than take information as a surrogate from one point of his so-called friends and twists it to suit his aims and causes discordance amongst rivals. That has been his type of politics. He has no supporters, a base or anything concrete you can count on him to enhance one’s chances other than name-dropping coated with blackmail to threaten recognition or fanning ethnicity to gain relevance. It is no different now.

What he does tactfully is that whenever he finds someone to be popular around, he devises a way to go around such individuals and have audiences with them from where he starts telling you of a catalogue of other prominent persons he has around as his friends. He usually starts with Donald Etim Duke, the former Governor of his home state of Cross River, whom he will always tell of the stories of how close they were when they were young. And about how he left his only bicycle bought for him by his father, to Duke back in Nigeria when he was going to school in America.

In my case, he had come to solicit my help at Punch Street where I lived at the time knowing how influential I was around the Governor then, to help plead for leniency from His Excellency for mismanaging the sum of 5 million nairas of government money given to him to execute a contract job which he failed to carry out but rather information reaching the Governor that the entire money was spent in renovating a house given to him by his late father where he presently stays.

This made the Governor very unhappy and asked that he be made to refund that huge amount of money at the time back to the government confers, which was why he came to meet me to solicit for him, and from that moment my apartment at Punch was where he visits first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening where he engages in the Long catalogue of known persons in a conversation from Donald Duke to now Professor Eyo Etim Nyong and many others including some Senators he claimed to be his friends before returning to where he lives.

He does this to achieve two things either to make you rely on him as who to meet if you need the attention of the Governor at the time or any of those names he drops around within the state of Cross-river or to give enough information to be used as a blackmail stunt of those of his so-called friends he had disputes to settle somehow, hoping the scandal spread between few people causing the victim who recognizes him as being the source, would decide to call for reconciliation to stall further leakage of other things he is the one privileged to know. And there and then, he negotiates a deal to become an embed man. Shall we say he is a deadly talebearer in this case or a blackmailer?

The same attitude, the same format is what he is duty-bent on carrying out with the current Governor, Prince Bassey Otu, where he had reached out to me with a series of incriminating issues on WhatsApp concerning the Governor’s allies and blackmail stunt involving activities around profligacy concerning persons in close relationship with the current Governor whose names I may not want to mention here, hoping that could be a shred of good evidence why I should feel embittered for not being given my due despite all I deed in my singular contribution to bringing this government to power from the inception.

But understanding Effiong for what he is, I kept all in view in one of my WhatsApp accounts under lock and key to his consternation, knowing that his mission was not directed at addressing my issues one bit but something to ignite trouble between myself and the current Governor, Prince Bassey Otu where he would leverage to his advantage.

I wasn’t too surprised when I was told all of what was going on concerning my place in this government. The likes of Effiong Bassey and other buffoons who claim to be stakeholders are behind it. Ironically, alluding to my Ejaghamness, which they now fear cannot be trusted. Against what, I asked rhetorically? After all, entreaties to have me in the opposition during the electioneering in comfort by those who know my capacity to confront adversities on my knees, using my head and my pen-power which I refused in support against my convictions to keep to what I assured Prince Otu I shall do in line with what we later agreed in a close discussion in one of the rooms in my house, shall we win.

Once again I repeat that I am an Indigen of Calabar Municipality. I was born here to a Calabar Mother who is Calabar proper from both Efik and Abakpa (Qua). I don’t know who is a better Efik or Calabar man than me.

All through my political life, not minding what others have achieved materially theretofore, I had played it here in Calabar before most of those moving their mouths be they Senators or whatever; came on board after I relented on my efforts to fight over what my human capacity cannot afford as a Christ Devotee except I compromise my resolve not to resort to evil forces for success of any kind as most of these empty big men do.

I ran for the House of Representatives of the entire Calabar under the Social Democratic Party (SDP) during the reign of General Babangida and was the only aspirant with posters across the entire Calabar constituency with encryption (Gods Choice). Myself, one Dr undenlekwu from Obudu were shining stars in the race, and of cause Ntufam Ekpo Okon from Odukpani. I had to withdraw as the party’s favourite for Calabar against Florence Ita Giwa of the NRC, two weeks before the general election because of the threat of the state party chairman late Chief John Oyom Okpa not to put my name forward due to our criticism in the press of his leadership style, myself and late Etubom Bassey Ekpo Bassey, as a result of which now senator Ita Giwa eventually went unopposed as the member of the House of Representatives from Calabar.

Beside that, I played a vital role in making Mr. Donald Duke an Efik, as Governor of the state under the People’s Democratic Party. And now Prince Bassey Otu, under The All Progressives Congress, particularly so, even though both were admired by me as the most qualified with the Lord’s favour at the time, more so was largely because I share the same ethnicity with these great men maternally.

Even though I equally have a much closer relationship with my Ejagham junior brothers (we as sons of Agborkem) in politics, intelligent as they are both Senator John Owan Eno and Senator Sandy Ojang Onor, I have not outrightly supported any of them in their quest to become Governor, but this time around surprisingly, many of the later day politicians of Efik extraction who cannot match my political sagacity, contacts and contributions to the Efik interest as a Calabar man, continue to conspire against me based on being Ejagham paternally, even when a majority of these agitators are said to come from Akwa Ibom State, I cannot but wish them well.

Because Effiong could be termed a friend, I tried reaching out to him severally to confirm what I was told of the role he and others are playing to deprive those classified in their figments as none Efiks including me from having my due in a government I worked so hard to bring to power at the risk of my own life and health at the time, and doing so at the expense of my friendship to those of our rivals against whom I turned enemies throughout the period just to see to it that the party (APC) to which I belonged and the candidate whose cause I unrelentingly championed defeat them which we did.

I can’t say for sure what tangible role Effiong Bassey and those of his type are now on the front line enforcing an ethnic card played during the campaigns leading to the election of the current government other than joining the crowd during rallies where he engages in carrying out rumours from both sides and name-dropping to those he believes may have the correct information to give to him to facilitate his work in trade of give and take.

I am never in politics for what I should gain alone, but sundry, neither am I in politics to stop others from gaining whatever heights their abilities catapult them to; rather, my mission is to mould opinion by supporting good courses where I find one and earn what I claim in the areas of my profession as an intellectual and media personality who brings the Christ Consciousness to bear on everything that I do including politics.

I do not go about laying false claims like the likes of Effiong and their policanize ally, by telling people of my ability to deliver my ward and local government when monies are given for that purpose I split it into three places and used one part for the job, expecting the party to attain victory through rigging methodology, whereas enough money was given to mobilize the people of where you claimed to live, but you embezzled it for the party to take other measures only for you to claim the victory and turn around to look for an appointment which you don’t deserve except for your being member of an occult group, fanning ethnicity or an agent of marine conclave and others.

My write-ups are evident and seen everywhere on almost every topic, from Politics, Institutional deficiencies, and Esoteric discussions, and I have been running my private office as a Politician, communication consultant, Critic, Christ devotee, kingmaker, Opinion moulder, intellectual writer of the Christ Consciousness as a sine quinone for living in tune with your Soul force to enable you to live forever in a world without end.

End Time Message.

GOD WITH US…

StreetReporters.ng

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