|12 February 2018 | Ukorebi Esien
As for democratic
justice, we call ourselves the paradise state, I am a Christian and Christ has
told all of us that the road to heaven —if you like call it paradise, if you
like call it eldorado any how you call it— the road to heaven is not smooth and
it is not for shallow persons, it's for deep thinkers and you will agree with
me that in terms of thinking, in terms of visioning, Governor Ben Ayade is a
deep visionary leader and you don't castigate visionary men rather you
castigate those who do not realize their visions, so we have to wait until
after 8 years before we can assess him in terms of vision and to add to that,
if under this depression, under this porosity of everything and resources,
Prof. Ben Ayade had the kindness to spread appointment the way he has done.
Meaning he wants (like he usually says) food to be available on the table of
very many persons. I think that utilitarian position should be appreciated. No
man is perfect, I agree, but he has been so Benthamite. From Jeremy
Bentham, that is the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. They
call it Utilitarianism. That is why I said that for doing what he is doing, I
think he deserves a second term, to me and to the people of the southern
senatorial district. —Hon. Ogbor Ogbor Odop
The Honourable Member
representing Biase State Constituency in the 8th Cross River State House of
Assembly, Mr. Ogbor Ogbor Odop aka Rootman has borne his mind on
the political endorsement of the incumbent Governor of Cross River state, Sen.
Prof. Ben Ayade, for the upcoming 2019 general elections. Rootman has hinged
his support for Ayade on two principles of justice which he tagged
—geopolitical and democratic justices. He has said that Ayade should be
assessed after the end of his second term in fitting respect for a 'deep
thinker'. Excerpt :
Thedailynewsng: What's your take
in respect of the just concluded gale of state-wide endorsements of Governor
Ben Ayade in view of 2019 General Elections?
ROOTMAN : I am fully in
support of the endorsement. Biase endorses the governor for a second term,
Biase and Akamkpa Federal Constituency endorses the governor for a second term
and then the '7 Alive' made up of the 7 local governments that make up Southern
Cross River, we all endorse the governor for a second term. And of course,
we have our reasons.
If you want me to tell
you the reason, I will say that for me there's nothing we do without
considering justice, if there's no justice in anything then that thing is
actually nothing. Justice in the sense that if we ask ourselves questions we
should begin to think about the stability and peace of this state.
I anchor the endorsement
of Sen. Prof. Ben Ayade on two planks of justices: one is what I call
'geopolitical justice' and the second, 'democratic justice'.
Geopolitical justice —as
shown strongly in the state in this dispensation, that means, starting from
1999. The southern senatorial district enjoyed 8 clear years in a governor's
hand and that was under one person in the person of His Excellency Mr. Donald Duke.
After that 'the central'
enjoyed the same thing under one person, not two which is His Excellency, Liyel
Imoke; I think if we have to be fair to all of us, the 'north' deserves to also
serve 8 years and it should be one person and that person is Prof. Ben Ayade.
That is what I call geopolitical justice.
As for democratic
justice, we call ourselves the paradise state, I am a Christian and Christ has
told all of us that the road to heaven —if you like call it paradise, if you
like call it eldorado any how you call it— the road to heaven is not smooth and
it is not for shallow persons, it's for deep thinkers and you will agree with
me that in terms of thinking, in terms of visioning, Governor Ben Ayade is a
deep visionary leader and you don't castigate visionary men rather you
castigate those who do not realize their visions, so we have to wait until
after 8 years before we can assess him in terms of vision and to add to that,
if under this depression, under this porosity of everything and resources, Prof.
Ben Ayade had the kindness to spread appointment the way he has done.
Meaning
he wants (like he usually say) food to be available on the table of very
many persons. I think that utilitarian position should be appreciated. No man
is perfect, I agree, but he has been so Benthamite. From Jeremy
Bentham, that is, the greatest happiness for the greatest number of
people. They call it Utilitarianism. That is why I said that for doing what he
is doing, I think he deserves a second term, to me and to the people of southern senatorial
district.
Thedailynewsng: There is this
section of the society which beliefs for reasons best known to them that it
shouldn't be the governor but any other Cross Riverian from the northern
senatorial district? How do you respond to them?
ROOTMAN : First of
all as Democrats, we must respect every view, that is what we owe ourselves and
others, but don't forget I said that when the south went, they did that
under one person, same with the central under one person, should the
north now be two or three? That will kind of rock the boat and don't forget the
constitution allows the chief executive that is the governor and the president
a limit of two terms. So by the time you bring in some other persons from the
north, the tendency may be (you know human tendencies when you talk of
ambition), when the person serves four years and the constitution allows him to
go for another term we will begin to have issues in Cross River state. So I
think that we should swallow our ambition and allow this young man complete his
eight years.
Let us think deep as we
should, in 1999, Cross River state never met anywhere to decide it should zone
governorship to the south so as of that time, you expect all three senatorial
districts. In 2007, the south had already gone, so no southerner contested only
central and north because they were the only two left. Why did the south decide
not to contest? Because they knew they have taken their own share, it's not
everything that should be written, it's conventional. That is why after the central had
served their eight years, it was only the Northerners and nobody came out from
the south and central to contest. If at all they did, they were just pretenders
and not contenders.
So the question you
should ask yourself is how come in 1999, the three zones contested? How come in
2007, only two and how come in 2015 only one?
That means that even
without being told, we knew that as at 1999 since we had not sat and said, let
it start from the south, then everybody can contest. If for instance Chief Kanu
Agabi had emerged and not Donald Duke, the tendency that northerners would not
have been contesting in every election, but a southerner emerged and having
completed the eight years, we knew without been told that south had had their
own share.
That was why in 2015, you saw it very clear that the whole thing
centered in the north. Even though when you talk about LGAs we have more in the
other two senatorial districts. That should let you know that humans are very
intelligent, don't forget convention is part of the law, a source of law
if you like. So that is my take on that.
The idea geopolitical
justice favours him and the idea of democratic justice also favours him.
On that of democratic justice, I mentioned that he is the one who can take us
to the paradise. That was why I said shallow thinkers are not needed now. In
case some people will get confused let us reduce it to concrete terms.
The way he made his
appointments and considering the fact that he came at the time that Nigeria was
down economically and he still had the mind that kindness spreads appointments
the way he did. With 3000, 5000 youths in his appointment list getting alerts
every month across the state. That type of a person, it's very clear that if he
were to have the type of excess funds that others had and are making noise now.
He would have performed wonders.
When we access our
leaders we should also look at their resources, if we don't then we will be
making a mistake. You can't give a man an elephant and the other one a goat and
you expect both of them to donate equal size of meat to the public. So, what I
am saying is that he has tried. And one aspect that you can give him kudos is
by being selfless, selfless in the sense of saying let as many persons as possible
join me in this resource control/allocation.
Thedailynewsng: During Donald Duke's
first term, we all knew where he was talking Cross River State to likewise
Imoke, can you categorically tell us where Ayade is taking Cross River
State to?
Did you say that during
Donald Duke's first term, we knew where we were going to? I disagree with you. In
Donald Duke's first term we were hearing of pineapples, castor oil and the rest
and none of them saw the light of the day. It was in his second term we started
hearing about tourism and the rest. You have to be very historical. The same
thing with Sen. Liyel Imoke, don't forget, that more like Ben, Liyel knew he
was going to be governor even though he was not a God. We should be very very
practical so Liyel unlike others planned, so when Liyel came, the tendency was
that he started on a good footing. But even at that, he was not as good as it
should. It was in his second term when he now entered the rural areas and did a
lot of roads. For Ben Ayade, he came and told us clearly that all he wants to
do is to decouple our economy from the federal allocation.
Now one way to do that
is to think outside the box. And thinking outside the box is the deep sea port
and super high way project of and I will tell people that when a man sells a
deep vision to you, it is our collective responsibility to make those visions
to be realised. We should just look at the benefit of the deep sea port.
When it happens, where will we be? That's all that matters. When the other one
comes, where will we be?
Sometimes you allow
tomorrow guiding you; you build hope, rather than condemn it. So when some of
us begin to condemn and counter it, say it's causing a problem with this super
high way. I don't think we are doing that in the interest of the state. Rather,
let us corporate with him.
I am not saying we
should not judge him now. What I am saying is it is better to judge a deep
visionary at the end of his tenure.
But while propagating
the deep visionary and one thing or the other. We have already called it deep.
It will be difficult and sometimes unfair to judge it now because you won't see
the result because there are some results you won't see, so what we need is to
ask ourselves, will the deep sea port and superhighway take place?
We need to consistently
and insistently let him know and all those who are working with him that we
need these two things he sold to us and let us do our own aspect. And at the
end of it, if he doesn't realize it that's when we can comfortably say Oga, why?
But for now, if you condemn, to me it's not too right.
Until the people begin
to govern the government, then we are nowhere close. Sometimes we are too
aloof, we think by the government we mean one or two persons, No! Sometimes the
people force the government to do something. If the press is firm, if the press
is constructively critical, it will spur the governor that will be better than
condemning him. Saying he did not even mean what he was saying, by the time you
do that, then you become a cloak in the wheel of progress.
So, the realisation of
the deep sea port and superhighway for instance not only depends on the
government but on all of us. And the question we should ask ourselves is, Ben
Ayade as a person, what does he want, resources-wise or money wise?
I remember I told him at
Abuja that my respect for you is not just because you are the governor but you
are an intellectual, let us not forget.
As a private individual,
the man discovered a formula that is helping mankind. We shouldn't forget that
it's rare. I think he deserves our cooperation.
It's rare in the world
to see an intellect advancing politically. I think we should cooperate with
him. That had been my stand from day one.
Ukorebi Esien
blogs and
publishes for thedailynewsng(TDN)
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