I have not yet met Prof. Ayade. I
did not know of him either until I was posted to Cross River University of
Technology (CRUTECH), Okuku Campus. The name made an impression when I learnt
of a certain Ayade Motors that charged a thousand three hundred naira (N1,300)
from Ogoja to Calabar at a time other transporters charged up to two thousand
naira (N2,000). It aroused my interest and I asked to know who Ayade was. On
knowing he was a Senator, I said to myself that Nigeria needed such leaders –
people who care about the masses. I was to know later that the subsidized
transport was only one of the man’s many people-oriented programmes even as a
Senator. The rumour mill has it that the man was quietly preparing to return to
Senate when fate played on him, and turned him into the Cross River State
Governor.
I am not a politician. I do not
belong to any political party. I vote for persons, not parties, and I think our
choice of Ayade was not misplaced. This is because the man’s performance so far
shows his people-oriented programmes before he became Governor were no
political gimmicks. He has concern for the masses. Again, the rumour mill has
it that in the thick of non-payment of salaries to State workers in the
build-up to the 2015 general elections, money was brought in ‘Ghana-must-go’
bags for anything but salaries. The man was said to have asked why government
complained of having no money to pay salaries while that much money was brought
for God-knows-what. He was promptly silenced and asked to apologize.
Prof. Ayade’s policies show the man
cares for those he is leading. Besides tax relief for those struggling with
life in their petty businesses, the Governor has paid all Cross River State
workers to the current month (December 2015). This is a most significant
gesture, and stands in striking contrast to what obtained in the past, or what
is even happening in some States presently. By this the Governor has shown
Cross River is working and can still be better. When leaders mount the saddle
of government with the interest of the people at heart, such good will always
be the result.
Nigerian masses are suffering, not
because the country lacks resources to sustain them but because many leaders
enter government merely to enrich themselves and their cronies, neglecting the
masses who voted them, or at best giving them crumbs. We believe the masses are
not hard to maintain in any society where justice reigns. Only give them their
due and there will be peace. Withhold their due, and their cry to the God of
justice will bring disquiet in the land.
We commend Governor Ayade and his
able team for putting smiles on the faces of the people. The era of
aristocratic leadership in Cross River is gone. In that era, only the
privileged and powerful received their due while the weak and vulnerable languished.
Salary arrears were considered a normal thing that shouldn’t be complained
about. Thank you, Your Excellency for changing all that and giving us a new
lease of life.
We want to call on labour to
reciprocate this good gesture of government by putting in their best at work
and giving this administration their full support. We should return to the ethics
of service that promote productivity. They include punctuality, honesty, and
dedication to duty. We should not go to work merely to sign the Time Register
and squander the time doing other things. That would rarely yield what the
State needs to meet its various needs including salaries when due. All hands
should be on deck to lift Cross River beyond its present glory. Why, we can
even get beyond that tag of ‘Civil Service State’, and promote private
enterprises. Let us identify with the good intention of this administration and
lift our State higher. Thank you Governor Ayade. May God bless you and yours,
and make your tenure peaceful and fruitful.
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