SATURDAY POLITY
Bishop Josef Bassey is the President of the Cross River State Christian Leaders Forum (CRSCLF) and Bishop of God’s Heritage Centre Worldwide, with headquarters in Calabar. In this interview with select journalists including Bassey Inyang in Calabar, the CRSCLF President x-rayed the three years old Ayade administration and concluded that Governor Ben Ayade has failed to live up to the expectations of the people of the state. Excerpts
Are you Christians leaders or politicians?
We are stakeholders in the Cross River State project, and rightly so too. And what are we here to do? In a short while from now, a few months from now or thereabout, all over this nation, there is going to be elections, and possibly power shift and so on and so forth. And wherever you go, town hall meetings are going on; people are discussing the way forward, and looking at what is going on in their land, in their states. But, very curiously, what we see in Cross River State is shocking. None of that is going on. People are not talking. Those who are crying are crying, those who are complaining are complaining, those who are jubilating are jubilating. They are all doing it in some clusters under the table, and all of that. But, for me and for us, as a people, it is very worrisome. Why is that possibly so? What is it that in a state that was hitherto known for petitions, pull him down, and all of that, but suddenly they can’t even talk.
It directly points to one or two things. Number one; there is presence of poverty like never before. When a man is totally poor, all he thinks is about his survival, and at a point where you are thinking of survival, you can’t fight, you can’t do anything. It is like you grab anything you can hold onto. That is number one. Number two; it is the fear of intimidation, the fear of being killed, and the fear of different things happening or being bullied. There is such fear. But, if everybody is being cowed, the Church of Jesus Christ cannot be cowed because God holds his church accountable at every point in time for what is going on. And we think that whatever we have to talk about, whatever the issues may be, some of which, I think maybe, it could be that the government and the people in power do not even know, or are not aware of. Then we should be able to speak truth to power, make recommendations where necessary, and also discuss areas where there are issues because Cross River State, for us, needs to be rescued as a matter of urgency from sinking. We have been inundated with pressure of public complains. It is at different levels … people are crying, people are agonizing, all manner of things.
Given the context of what you have said, it does not appear the Church as body of directly affected, so why not allow the politicians, and the people to bear their Cross?
There is a spillover of these things, if you want to know it, go to churches. The average pastor from Obanliku to Bakassi, when you go to church for instance, what you find is that people come and queue for counseling, but actually nobody is coming for counseling. By the time they come in, it is my child, school fee, rent, this, that. These are no exceptional or isolated issues because when a state fails, the whole storage system of the church becomes the only shock absorber left. So, all of that bears on the church and that is what is going on. So, we need to speak truth to power. And we owe God that as a sacred duty, as a sacred responsibility, and also we owe our generation, we owe the state, and we owe even the government that; the government that we have prayed for, the government that we have stood by, the government that we are committed to because our commitment to the government and to the good of the people is irrevocable.
Are you saying that Ayade’s administration has failed in all aspects?
I am at a loss as to where to start because, precisely about three years ago, we saw a new governor being inaugurated that made promises. Discussed eloquently and passionately about the need to transform the state, about his signature projects, and how he was going to give his eye, I can’t remember what part of the body, whether his leg or his finger that he will give to see those things happen. But, I know that there is a part of his body and organ that he committed himself…. So, at different times, it has been right eyes, right leg. It is okay. But, you know that was very passionate. You could go back home and feel this government needs every encouragement, this government we should pray for, this government we should stand for, and see how these things would work going by the things said. But, first year he made excuses, and assume that he is trying to settle in and he has done a few things and all of that; the second year the same thing. As fathers, you don’t rush to talk, you don’t rush to say things, you watch, you pray, you hope, and believe that, if that is a mistake, that somebody will make it right. Let’s even assume that somebody played and played away two years, that this person is likely to seek reelection, he should do his best in the next two years to get things right. But, unfortunately, that has not been so because, as I speak with you, I have stop about to think, what are the key areas where you can say this is where progress, meaningful progress has been achieved and actualised? Sincerely, and in all sincerity, I rally cannot find any. And I have been around here for a long time by the grace of God, from the days of the military administration whether you are going to talk about Ibim Princewill, the Kefas, whoever, the Agboneni to the days of Clement Ebri , the Donald Dukes, all of that . You can put all of them together.
But, in my opinion, and our opinion, we have never had it this bad. It has never been this bad for a state, and it couldn’t be worse than this, so I think. So, something needs to be done. What area is there to commend; maybe of course the area of appointments. That there have been a lot of people being appointed into positions, and these appointments also, well, for those of us who understand public service, and understand procedures how things are done are also worried because, how are these things done?
Never in the history of this state has the state civil service been so bastardised. I understand what civil service is about. When you now have a situation where a person is appointed a Director General and you go to his office and the person doesn’t have a chair, he doesn’t know where his office is. We should constantly work at developing stronger institutions than stronger individuals. But, when we see our institutions being destroyed, the legacy, the heritage of the civil service for instance, being destroyed before our very eyes, something is wrong. When you tell me there is a government running where there are no memos, and that memos are by WhatsApp, then something is wrong.
When there is a government running, and you say exco meetings should not hold, and when exco meetings hold, instead of exco being a brainstorming session for cross fertilisation of ideas, it becomes a forum where you are to sing the praise of, you know, maybe a particular player who becomes the know-it- all, and nobody can argue or say anything to the contrary, then we are in danger, we are in trouble, we are in trouble, nobody is safe. When you tell us that we are running a system today where cult activities are openly celebrated, and cultists are openly celebrated, and cultism has been elevated to a status where it is enjoying state applause, then there is a problem. So, I am asking you now, where to start from, because I am looking for where to say these are the areas that something has been done.
Let’s look at the education. A few years back, this state by WAEC was rated third. Just three years; do you know where we are? 26. What happened under this space of time? How did we get there? Not only that. We have students who were on state scholarships in foreign countries, in Russia, in America and all over, and they were sponsored by government, sent there by government. They were on scholarship. And then a government comes into power; some of them in their fourth year. A government comes into power and suddenly stops it. So, you find that the child becomes stranded. He has done for years in school, three years in school abroad, and he is repatriated, and all of that and it doesn’t appear that government understands the implication of these things. There is no prioritisation. Okay, somebody wakes up and says we are doing Budget of Kinetic Crystallization. That, put in simple terms, means it will crystallize as we go. It will crystallize; it will become apparent as we go. Which means that, just don’t worry, as you see it, you take it. I don’t understand. So, gentlemen of the press, the state of our state right now couldn’t be worse. And there is need for an urgent intervention across board, across board, across board! Security, we can’t even go there.
I want you to provide a straight answer to this question. Does Ayade deserve a second term in office?
Absolutely no, absolutely no; and unequivocally no!
Have you made adequate arrangement for your own personal security?
Have I made provisions for my own security? Well, you know, cowards die a thousand times before their death. It is only a coward that runs away and leaves his house because somebody came chasing him in his own house. Cross River State belongs to us. So, if there is security to be made, I am in Cross River State, and it is the business of the government of Cross River State to provide security first. That is part of what they should do, and it is not my business to provide security for myself. That is on the one side. But, I also know where you are coming from because everybody that said anything about the government got bullied. If it was a rally, the rally is scattered, and all manner of things. I really want to believe that those things were mere coincidences. I really what to believe so, but unfortunately, I can’t. The coincidences would be too frequent to be near coincidences.
Are you calling on Cross Riverians to produce a credible alternative to Ayade in 2019; is that what you are asking for?
On the issue of credible alternative: Yes. We are calling on people to rise. We are calling on other political parties, we are calling on, not just the parties now, we are calling on even the citizens themselves. You must first begin to talk about what goes on in your party, in your state. You must. And even if you were under some form of spell, that spell is broken now.
