7th December, 2017|
Santa
Claus or Father Christmas as we sometime call him represents freebies, gifts
and also reminds us of our childhood days when we long for gift items we didn’t
hustle for. In this feature I shall be situating the Santa Claus narrative
within Cross River political climate.
Santa
Claus comes with promises of joy, excitement and a magical aura that tells you
“don’t worry I can solve all your problems, with me you are completely covered,
and your Christmas will be heaven on earth.” Which at the end may not
be completely true because the joy Santa gives is seasonal and is time bound
compared to the assuring love of caring parent. Therefore, we can as well say
that Santa Claus is synonymous with childhood memories of deceit or fake
feelings.
Santa
usually will always have a pathetic end because when the chips are down all the
children will go home with bags loads of gifts while he is left alone, empty
and lonely. Nobody knows when Santa leaves the stage because at the end of the
party everybody looks for their family forgetting Santa behind.
The end
of Santa will be liken to the end of the likes of chief Ogban Ebok, who
contested cross river governorship elections against and lost to Donald Duke in
1999, Sunny Abang who lost to Liyel Imoke in 2011, the tireless but always
losing Vena Ikem, Sen. Bassey Ewa who has gradually gone extinct in Cross River
state politics, even my very own sweet Prince who is now clamoring for
relevance. Not forgetting the likes of elder David, Eyo Etim Nyong, Gregory
Ngaji, to mention but a few. All these may be liken to Santas whose
time has passed.
But funny
enough some of those mentioned above, are strongly behind the upcoming Santa of
Cross river state and this one seems to be the biggest of them all.
While
upcoming Santa of Cross River state is warming up and dashing out freebies in a
bid to buy his way into the center stage of Cross River state, the present
occupant of the stage is busy dancing his time out.
Remember
this feature centers on Santa and the dancer. So let’s take out time to talk
about the dancer.
A dancer
can be said to be someone who performs a sequence of rhythmic steps or
movements usually performed to music, for the pleasure or as a form of social
interaction.
Our
dancer, dances to the glare and excitement of his watchers and most times he
alone hears the beatings of the drum he is dancing to thus his watchers begins
to wonder what he is actually doing.
Inyali
Peter, the publisher of fearlessreport.com believes Ayade is "a comedian, a dance hall artiste cum entertainer on
us. ...a man that has little or no respect for the lives of poor Cross
Riverians. ...a high school or SUG President that takes to the street to dance
at every sound of music."
My people
use to say that when madness has reached the market square, then it is
incurable. I think this is the case of our dancer. A friend of mine will always
say, “I think there’s something speaking (singing/drumming) to/for that
man. And that thing may not be far from his village or his father’s shrine.”
As we
approach the 2019 elections, political pundits in cross river state are all
warming up some have even drawn the battle line, social media supporters have
started flooding the social web space with several campaign messages in support
of various politicians. The heat is on and many interests are being displayed.
Many have
called for the north not to be given a second shot at the governorship seat in
the state due to the perceived failure of Ayade’s Administration, while a group
from the north has pitched their tent against their own son, Ayade. A few still
believe in Him. They strongly believe he is the redeemer and savior the north
had longed for.
We all
know that millionaires are made during the electioneering campaigns, many
become rich as they position themselves to support their “perceived Best
Candidate” all in a bid to gather and siphon resources meant for campaigns.
This is the period when groups and associations are formed overnight with
thousands of membership data base, all geared towards deceiving public office
seekers that they can make him win elections with the sole aim of swindling
them.
It is on
this backdrop that I see the interest indicated by the oil magnet and money bag
Jeddy Abga to gun for the governorship stool of the state as an act of betrayal
by whosoever had advised him to run for the office after betraying his teeming
supporters in 2015.
The
purported planned second entrance of Jeddy into the governorship race come 2019
is a calculated act of monkey business by a gluttonous and rapacious group of
people who want to siphon his wealth. In fact they have nick named him “Father
Christmas.” or Santa Claus if you care to use that.
Truth be
told, let’s call a spade a spade Jeddy Abga can never win an election in cross
river state and will never be the governor of this state, not after his show of
chicken liver and betrayal to his teeming supporters in 2015 and even those
supporting and encouraging him know the truth but they won’t voice this bitter
truth out to him because his withdrawal from the race will mean a big loss to
them since they won’t be able to hoard wealth from him.
As Santa
or Father Christmas as some would prefer to call him prepares his entrants into
the race, the incumbent governor the Shocky king is busy
Dancing away his time into 2019, instead of solidifying the ground for his
second term bid. To me, Ayade looks like a man who is not willing to return to
government house in 2019, maybe he thinks 2019 will be a work away for him
because of his numerous foot soldiers in the name of appointees.
What
Ayade has failed to see is that his power drunk foot soldiers has stepped on
several foot that it will be difficult for them to win their various polling
units. The brand Ayadeism has become obsolete, thus it can’t win an election so
it needs urgent re-branding
What
Ayade does not know is that Jonathan has set a standard in Nigeria that the
Power of incumbency has no effect anymore in our new found democracy. If
Nigerians can vote out a sitting and working president, if Kogi state can
gather 52.3% signatures of voters to recall a sitting and active senator, why
can’t cross riverians vote out a dancing and nonchalant governor come 2019.
If you
ask me I will say cross river state needs more than a Santa or a shocky
king to reach its desired destination, what this means is that neither
Ayade nor Jeddy can lead the state to the Promised Land.
We need a
visionary leader like Donald Duke, Prince Otu Bassey, Sen. Owan Enoh, Sen.
Geshom Bassey etc.
This is
my personal view and opinion, if you have a divergent or supporting view, you
are welcome to comment below and it will be published.
Ukorebi
Esien
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