On Democracy Day, Senator Chides Ayade, calls him total failure

Six years after Governor Ben Ayade took over power as governor of Cross River State, a member of the Nigerian senate, Senator Sandy Onor has pilloried the governor, saying those of them who believed in the capacity of the governor to deliver dividends of democracy to the people have since been disappointed.

Onor who represents Cross River Central Senatorial District of Cross River State said Ayade started well as governor but derailed when he allowed himself to be carried away by ego and self adulation.

The senator recalled how he used to extol the governor when he came up with some lofty signature projects, including the super highway, the spaghetti flyover, the Bakassi deep seaport, the garment factory et cetera.

He said he had looked forward to a harvest of mega projects in the state but that he was soon to discover that the governor was merely deceiving the people. Onor said the people of Cross River have since seen the nakedness of the governor and what he called the governor’s macabre dance on the streets
The senator said he was among those who had urged the people to trust in the governor and give him the benefit of the doubt, at a time that many people felt the governor was on the path of perdition.
He said: “I was one of Ayade’s campaigners. I believed in him because I thought he was sincere in his dreams for our state. I had thought we had seen a messiah with the ability to cause a great transformation in our state, based on his statements. But the man has disappointed all of us and I feel terribly disgusted about the way things have nosedived
“I am not a pretender. I love my state with all the fibres in me. I want the best for our state; so, I am always ready to support anybody with genuine intentions to move our state forward. My support for and eulogy of Ayade some years ago was premised on the belief that Ayade was going to live to his words. But his actions privately and publicly have made nonsense of that genuine trust.
“I had expressed before now, my utmost confidence in Ayade’s ability to transform those dreams of his from the podium of idealism to the mountain top of actualization. That was why I pledged my support to him. But he failed woefully and our state has become a laughing stock under Ayade.
“My prayer is that God should touch Ayade’s heart so that he can metamorphose from the failure he is at the moment into the man we all expected him to be when we queued behind him and pledged our unwavering support for his government. On this democracy day, that is my wish for Ayade and our state. We have suffered enough in his hands. We have seen enough of his deceit. But he can still use the remaining two years to redeem his badly battered image.”