Ebri
Diana Okon-Effiong, Calabar
Chief Clement Ebri, former Governor of Cross River, has advised political parties to dig deep and present experienced persons as their candidates because the state required no rookie governor in 2015.
Ebri gave the advice in an interview with journalists in Calabar Wednesday.
According to him the advice was timely because Cross River needed to function without oil and required someone with contact, experience and personality to attract investors.
“We can only have one governor and we need a quality governor for Cross River State. They have taken our oil wells; we need a man who can get up to Abuja and approach the authorities and be taken seriously. We need a person with a lot of experience; somebody who will speak and people will listen. Our neighbouring state, Akwa Ibom, has very viable material, people with lots of experience; who can stand any opposition, discussions and so on. We cannot afford to go down the level and begin to provide immature people or those who do not have the capacity to run our state. We want the best.
“There is saying that the man with a very deep eyeballs starts crying from afar. We in cross river have a very big challenges so we have to start crying now. Our resources have dwindled so dramatically that we just have to compensate and that compensation has to come in terms of the quality of the person that is leading us. If we have a quality commander he can make up for a lot of things. The Biafran war lasted that long because they had a quality commander in Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, who was not only very competent but eloquent; an orator. He could cover up for even the shortage of ammunition or whatever they had with his words. We in Cross River need to do that kind of thing.
“If you do not have the money you must have the competence. And it is that competence that will be able to attract banks and others who will say yes we can give them something because we know the person who is there has the capacity, the maturity and the pedigree.
But if that we are doing is a generational thing; it will not work. I will insist that we put up our best material, we have to get our first 11.
“This not about loyalty to an individual or anything; it is about ability, commitment to the state and ability to steer the ship of state; it is not about friendship. The earlier that we realise that this thing is about commonwealth, for all of us, the better. Our people should all come together and agree that this is the person they trust be the governor of this state.
“The current governor, Sen. Liyel Imoke, has done his best. He is a charismatic figure, people respect him and also accept his humility and all of that. He has helped open a number of doors for us. If he is leaving then we must have somebody who will be able to endear himself to the people the same way or even more. That is the only way things can get done. We should bury our differences and once a person is competent allow him to run. Let us look beyond individual interest and focus on somebody with ability to secure peace and tranquillity in the state”.
He also had words of advice for all those struggling for the soul of Cross River: `”I want to say that they should all take a deep breath and consider the interest of the people they lead. That should be paramount. I think that there should be that level of tolerance.”
He said that as an elder statesman he is open to offering advice when needed:” I have been talking to a number of people too in the state and I think there is need to call a halt to all these distractions, protracted political squabbles because there are totally out of tune with Cross River.
The former governor also had some hard words for the masterminds of Monday’s Improvised explosive device blast at the state PDP secretariat.
He said: “We cannot afford to be negligent of the past. The first and the second republic crumbled because of the excesses of our politicians.
“They bickered so much and in the process elevated malice and vindictiveness into principles of state craft, dissent was tantamount to sin and any dissenting view was visited with so much force. They were even prepared to kill a fly with a sledge hammer and at the end of it our democracy was aborted. The signs I am seeing today are very much in tune with what happened at the time.
“But I have thought that at this time we would have drawn a line between that ugly past and the present day realities.But it seems things are getting a lot worse. We did not experience this kind of situation when I was governor. Now the level of desperation is so much.
“May be because of the economy now, the only viable thing is politics; everybody wants to go in there. It is more than cut-throat competition. The level of impunity and all that is associated with it is such that violence appear to be a natural outcome. They slug it out in a very dirty manner. This is not good. Cross River is noted for peace.
“It is not good for our tourism, our annual Carnival. So whatever must have led to this must be addressed very, very seriously. We must address political issues within limits of propriety. Bombings should be out of it. As somebody who has been there before, I will advise our young people to, pleas tread with caution, Cross river has never witnessed this kind of thing,’’ he said.
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