Ayade government is not carrying us along – Ex-house leader, Alex Ebu

Alex Ebu, a former house leader of the Cross River State House of Assembly and chieftain of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, has criticised Governor Ben Ayade’s approach to governance in the state without the input of former party leaders.

Ebu said the governor has unfortunately departed from the state development plan which was successfully implemented by the previous administrations of his predecessors.
The former house leader disclosed this in an interview with BDSUNDAY in Calabar.  Ebu, who served between 2007 and 2015 as a member of the PDP, said: “If you look at the way the governor is going along with the party and even with his administration, in my opinion you cannot exactly assess what he has achieved in the last 15 months.”

He acknowledged that “though those in the government with him will tell you the government has done a lot, there are certain things which he needed to have done from the beginning which he has lost along the line.”

“Donald Duke as governor started the vision and put a lot of things in place. As the leader of the party then, he was able to achieve reasonably. He handed over the baton to the immediate past governor (Liyel Imoke) who also tried his best in order to keep the PDP flag flying in Cross River State. But as we speak today, we do not know the vision he has for Cross River. There were several aspirants in the PDP who aspired for governorship and at the end of the day, he was lucky to emerge the flag bearer of the party, but he has gone ahead to digress from the major vision of the previous administrations in Cross River State. That is why we are beginning to have these things people are complaining about,” he added.

Ebu said, “Take for instance, when Liyel Imoke came onboard, he continued with the programmes that were on ground, we had programmes such as infrastructures in health, education, schools, roads and all of that, you had interventions in colleges, secondary schools, science blocks were built, computer blocks were built for computer educations, science education, about 60 secondary schools. Renovation of colleges and primary schools, were ongoing. Even some new ones were built. But as we speak, nothing like that is currently going on. There were two arms, first, state government intervened in secondary schools, and SUBEB intervened in primary schools and junior secondary schools. But today you can find such except SUBEB that is trying to do a few jobs,

“We believe that what the government needs to do is to go back to the vision of the previous administrations of Donald Duke and that of Liyel Imoke, put together. Find out what exactly led to those achievements that were recorded, if there are challenges, you improve on them, Cross River people really felt the impact of those administrations, primary school blocks were built, health centres were built. You need to go back to those health centres. Most of them that were built, lacked prescription drugs, they don’t even have the man power to man the health centres, we have people who have left colleges, for instance graduates of school of nursing and college of health technology, who are unemployed and most of these community health centers need people to go and man the health centre.

“The government should see how people can be recruited and send to those health centres that were built. Health care delivery is very important. You must look at the health status of your citizens. Go back to that blue print and see how you can revive it. You need to-do the same for schools. Recruit people that had been trained in the colleges of education to schools that were renovated in schools in the villages.

“We don’t feel the impact of Governor Ayade’s administration because all they are thinking of is the super highway and the deep sea port, which are distractions, and are projects that cannot be completed in four years.”

According to him, “In my opinion I advise the governor to take projects he will be able to complete within the first four years. If he wins again, he will do something else.
“What I want to say as an advice is to urge Cross River people, that in spite of the challenges the PDP is facing in the state and at the national level, we should be able to come together as stakeholders of the party; the party belongs to us. We should be able to put our bitterness behind us, even as a state, and those in the corridors of power, particularly the elected representatives at the state level, and commissioners, and party executives, we should be able to put our heads together as a party and think of how to move the party forward. Because whatever, we are enjoying today is as a result of the legacies that were left behind by the previous leaders of the party and participants in government; so a situation where the party will be looked at as a weakling, because today, the way the party is going, if we are to hold elections today, there is no guarantee that we can win as we usually do.

“This is a state where elections are won by the PDP 100 percent. I won’t be surprised if elections are conducted today, several seats, both at the national and state levels, we may not be able to win because of the way the party is going. This is because those in government today are not thinking of putting the party together. Those of us at home feel the pulse of the people who are feeling that the present government is not really reaching out. You cannot appoint everybody into office or employ all. The best option for instance was what the immediate past administrations of Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke were doing, they ensured that private sector economy was being driven and major stakeholders of the party were taken care of from there, through interventionism the building of these health institutions and colleges. Contracts were being given to major stakeholders of the party. But today, nothing is happening in the private sector. If elections are tomorrow, where would we get the resources?”