Rita Ayim is a major stakeholder in the politics of Cross River Northern Senatorial District. She was once a chairman in Ogoja Local Government and also served in the government of Prof Ben Ayade as commissioner.
In this interview with TNN, she made efforts to analyse why the people of the senatorial district will queue behind Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe as the preferred candidate of the APC instead of her former boss, Senator Ben Ayade.
Excerpts:
The process has started, for the selection of a candidate for the ruling APC in your senatorial district. Between Senator Jarigbe and Senator Ben Ayade, who do you think the cap fits? It is also said that Leghor Idagbo has stepped down from the race.
You know that speaking from my position, I come from Ogoja Local Government. And we have somebody who has been in the senate from this axis and has been performing, by the judgment of majority of the people, very, very well and in fact, beyond the expectations of the people because previous occupants of that position never (did so well)- it’s my personal opinion but I know that a lot of people will collaborate it.
Those who have occupied that position from the northern senatorial district have never delivered service this way. Schools, roads even health centers, educational support, electricity, all of the facilities that will make life meaningful for the people he has provided-jobs, trainings abroad, facilitated trainings and jobs for so many people. So, for us or for me, I believe that you do not discard a winning team or somebody who is delivering on his mandate. It is necessary to give the person the chance to go back and consolidate on what he is doing, the gains that we have achieved.
Besides that, in the whole of Cross River north, the young man’s disposition towards the stakeholders is unparalleled, even to the smallest child on the street, the old women in the villages, his name is a household word. Anywhere you mention his name, it elicits some excitements within the people.
Yesterday we were in Aladim and Bako Nation was there to endorse him, if you go to Facebook you will see pictures.
Who are you talking about?
I am talking about Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe. I am picking those because charity begins at home. I am starting from that point, Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe is the one I am talking about.
And he is from Ogoja like you.
Yes, and he is the current occupant of that position, he has done so well by the judgment of the entire people and maybe a small percentage will disagree with me, but 90 per cent of the people will agree with me, a very negligible percentage will say it’s not so but that is sentiment for you, based on perhaps, interest.
But here, cutting across the five local government areas, there is hardly any household you will not find, out of five, you will not find at least, three or four people in support of Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, I did say that it is my opinion but it is also an opinion that is about 90 per cent of the people. So, for me, I think that when Senator Jarigbe gets back there, the northern senatorial district will stand a better chance of bringing those dividends, those things that will enhance the livelihood of the people to Cross River North, than when you send somebody that is a neophyte, somebody that does not have the charisma and the love for the people back to that place. Those other people who are contesting with him I do not hold anything against them but for my former governor, incidentally I was a commissioner in his government. I’m sure you know that.
Very well.
We were instrumental to his emergence as governor. There is somebody that was my colleague then, I was chairman of council, Hon. Mike Osigbe; we traversed the length and breadth of this state, talking to our colleagues who served under His Excellency, Liyel Imoke, for one year before Ayade took over. I know what we did and how we campaigned and worked for him. Whether you agree with me or not or some other persons agree with me or not, if you go to Facebook and all that, you will see comments.
A man who had the executive power to do about anything for the state, including his senatorial zone, was unable to realize that dream which we from the north expected him to fulfill for us.
They will talk about a lot of programmes that are scattered around the state and all but for me, what is the functionality of those projects? The road from Ogoja here to Bekwarra, to Obudu, if you go, you will see that it is deplorable. But a man (Ayade) comes from that area, he ought to, we expected that would have been done. The rice mill that is here, ab initio from the beginning to date, the thing is moribund. It’s just locked and kept there, all the materials that were there were carted away, even before the government wounded up. I am stating facts, I am not trying to run him down.
Ikom-Boki Road, it’s impassable right now, especially during the rains. But we had a video where they said oh, this has been completed, this has been done, that has been done and so, what is the truth on ground? None of those things was done.
One or two things would have been done, like the Bakkasi Deep Seaport which we understand that the president is interested in completing it and making it functional. But until that is done, the project remains in a gestation point. The governor that is on seat now has tried his best to get the buy-in of the federal government and we are hoping that he will push it through.
You have said it yourself that you hear that our brother, Rt. Hon. Leghor, perhaps he is no longer interested in the race. I’m not aware of that, I have heard so, but I don’t know how true it is, but for us and for me, the focus is on the candidate, the person that is occupying the seat and the consolidation of the gains that have been achieved and his disposition to majority of the people and I believe strongly that he will work very well with the governor when the governor is re-elected into office and achieve greater things than he has done already in Cross River North.
I believe that the stakeholders know the truth, they know what is right, what is good for the people and we expect that as leaders and critical stakeholders they will do the needful, send Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe back to the red chambers so that he can consolidate and do well for Cross River North. I don’t think that we have a better person to do that.
Senator Ayade was there in the Senate, is there anything he can point to, specifically, that he achieved? For me oo, I don’t know, I cannot place my hand on anything… maybe there was free bus transport before his election as governor. After that it was off the street, and now the buses have reappeared again. I don’t know, maybe somebody else will have a different opinion, I am not running him down, I am speaking the truth which is visible to even the blind in Cross River North.
You know, representation is beyond entitlement to say oh it must come to this zone, it must come to that zone. The truth is that in the history of politics in the state and in the north, Ogoja is the mother local government of all the LGAs and those LGAs were offshoot of Ogoja. No Ogoja son has been in the senate before, this is the first time and so why should it be now that an Ogoja son should not finish up his own second term in office, when other zones have done so? Yala had Greg Ngaji eight years, in spite of that, Rose Oko still came after house of reps. In the OBO area, Bekwarra-Obudu-Obanliku, eight years in Obanliku, Bekwarra had the first opportunity which Kanu Agabi opted out and took a ministerial appointment. So, Obudu had His Excellency, Ben Ayade for four years, he opted for a higher office where we thought that the dividends or democracy and representation would come closer to the grassroots as the chief executive, controlling the entire resources of the state.
You are aware that the garment factory is moribund, it’s not functional, the cocoa factory in Ikom was dead on arrival, it didn’t even take off. I don’t know whether you ate the chocolate that was produced from there. You will agree with me that what I have said is not about trying to present an individual in bad light, I am not doing that. I served under him as chairman of council for two years, I served under him as commissioner.
There is a school of thought that believes that the governor will reciprocate Ayade’s gesture who made it possible for him to become governor, by also supporting Ayade to bounce back as senator. Some people from the senatorial district have already kicked over this. Is it a concern to Cross River North people?
The governor of the state is a man of high integrity and intelligence. The truth is that the ticket that was given to Prince Otu as senator and as governor were given by the people. Were there no primaries? There were primaries, there was voting. Ordinarily speaking, do you think that the former governor would’ve given the ticket to Prince Otu? He had his friend Chris(Agara) that was there who also ran against the governor in that primaries. Was it not obvious that the ticket was supposed to go to the south? You do not know what played out and I don’t even want to go into it. As a journalist, you know better than us but I believe that P rince Otu was elected by the people and ticket he got was first sent by God because if God does not will it, it may not manifest it in the physical. That is why, for me, anything negative I take as a will God. God who knows it all and knows that if you continue in this direction your end thereof may not be okay according to his will for you. So, he might redirect your steps to different directions to keep you for something better or greater but I think that God designed it that way. He won the primaries that other people contested. He would have lost but he won it in spite of all. So, the man who was there, was the ticket not handed over to him by his Excellency Liyel Imoke? What favours did Imoke ask of him?
Even for appointment, Imoke did not give any name or put any pressure on him. So, his case can not be different, that he will now put pressure on someone else to say because I gave you ticket… was he not given ticket? Is he not a beneficiary? He came from Warri and came here when late Paul Ada was running for Senate and has been in politics and doing everything. He came from there and got the ticket to go to Senate. Was he the best person that would have gone there? It is not about doing anybody any favour. The governor, even in Senator Jarigbe’s birthday this year, even said there is no opposition in Cross River North again and that the opposition was Senator Jarigbe. So, if he said so, it gives you a picture of the fact that the man is the one that is greatly loved by the people and they believe in him. He is such a humble person. He is humility personified. Gbajabiamila, the chief of staff to President Tinubu even said that if you undermine him (Jarigbe), you undermine him at your own peril.
The present chairman of APC, at Jarigbe’s birthday, in his speech said he was the chairman of the committee that came for the primaries between Jarigbe Agom and His Excellency, Ben Ayade and that everywhere he went within the town, they were talking about Jarigbe and he was saying who is this young man Jarigbe? What am I trying to say? Politics is about winning. Prince Otu is desirous to go back as governor. All of us in the north support him to go back as governor, I will vote for him; and for him to win those huge jumbo votes, he needs to have somebody that is in the winning team, somebody that has capacity to deliver the vote, not only to deliver the vote for the governor but for the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who is the leader of the party, APC.
Recall that, in the last election, labour Party won in Cross River State, 180,000. APC came a distant second, before other parties. The governor certainly will not want a repeat of such a thing.
As I speak to you, the man who said he wants to run for senate(Ayade), you need to engage the stakeholders, the party said is consensus, consensus of the party stakeholders and those within the catchment area of the North. He has not done anything. When they went for national convention, he hosted them there and gave them money. Life is not about money, what impact have you created is the issue. So, at the end of the day, the man who up till today, this week there is going to be interaction between the stakeholders and the committee that has been set up to fine-tune and align people. The opinion within the north he has not come out to talk to anybody. The senator (Jarigbe) had gone round the five LGAs to do consultation with the people. He is in touch with the people, the grassroots.
Can the other fellow, that man. Let me not use fellow… the former governor, can he honestly come out now and confidently address people scoring himself and say when he was governor, he did well and then he will come out and face the people?
I was in the entourage with my senator to Obudu, Obanliku, I know the stress my car passed through on that road which leads to his (Ayade’s) which would have been completed properly. Politics is about the people, it is not about an individual or primitive accumulation of wealth. You need to have the people in mind because you pledged and swore to serve the people, not yourself or your pocket.
So, going back to your question, I do not believe that His Excellency, Prince Otu will do anything like that because he is a man that believes in ensuring that fairness is exhibited in anything that he is doing.
The ticket is not a matter of inheritance. He was a beneficiary of somebody’s benevolence too but even in that one, all of us across the LGAs still did a memo from each LGA to the governor then, His Excellency, Liyel Imoke, that these are the people that appeared before us by scoring. We scored them by order of priority. We did all of that across the 18 LGAs and submitted to the governor and the party on the basis of which Ayade now emerged. Somebody gave him the ticket and did not demand any favour from him. Liyel Imoke did not even choose one commissioner for him. He chose the people he wanted on his own. I was given commissioner because I said I was running an assembly election against somebody that he was interested in and in order for me not to run, he said he was going to make me commissioner. So, in this life everybody gets one favour or the other from somebody but it is not as if it is compulsory. The people will decide. I don’t expect or believe that our governor will want to do anything that is contrary to the wishes of the people. The people of Cross River North, we are with him and if the people are saying please Mr governor, this is the person we are comfortable with this is the person we want and this is the choice we have made… that is why APC said there should be consensus. So, we will watch and see what happens believing that the people will have their way.
