By Tony Ochelebe II

First, it was news that Nigeria was the poverty capital of the world. Men and women of power shouted themselves hoarse in rebuttal. Why can they not do so when they live in grandiose, in affluence. Many of these men and women have not seen poverty before. In fact, poverty to them is stranger to them than how we sleep at dusk and awake at dawn. They lack the understanding of the concept of poverty the way some of us cannot understand why our mother's are women and our fathers are men. So they shout collusion, collusion, collusion and or conspiracy, conspiracy, conspiracy when they hear anyone labelling their dear Nigeria as the poverty capital of the world.  But that's all they do!

And then, we were told, just days ago that Nigeria is the sixth most miserable country in the world.  Again, we have been told by highly erudite Professor and other government goons that enemies of Nigeria were at work and those who manufactured that report are dunces where Nigeria's economy was concerned.  Of course, this was implied. Now the Professor was quick to let the general populace know that the nation has leapt in about fourteen places in the Ease of Doing Business.  But the bad guys in the opposition who easily pass as enemies of Nigeria are busy asking impact of such quantum leap. While they are at It, another damning report is out. And someone would say 'na only us waka come?'

We have another report that should make 'enemies of Nigeria' grin from ear to ear like bemedalled athletes. We made it to the list of seven hungriest country in the world. But what are our people doing? While those who should do something seem to be lounging and the majority of the hungry ones of us are 'shuffering and shmiling' apologies to Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

We continually spend billions of dollars in arms acquisitions because of the unrest in nearly all parts of Nigeria.  We are contending with insurgency, farmers and herders clashes and, cattle rustling in the North, the resurgence of of the Indigenous People of Biafra, kidnapping, armed robbery and rape in the South. But what we have not been able to do is connect our security challenges to hunger, joblessness and general deprivation. In solving these issues, Uganda comes in handy.

In 1987, Joseph Kony, the self acclaimed prophet founded a group called "The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)" whose ideology in principle was on a multi-party democracy with the aim of ruling Uganda using the Ten Commandments.  But of course that was in principle as the group's operations were far from the Ten Commandments.  The group was accused of murder, serial rape as it's its leader had over a dozen young women attending to his sexual needs. Yet, people gravitated towards the group because of entrenched poverty in Northern Uganda. When the government of Uganda became serious, it invested massively in infrastructure which was in deficit and gave out some form of palliatives to cushion the effects of decades of deprivation while at the same time weaning the people off the promises of an Eldorado by the LRA. Need I say the war against that 'terrorists has been largely won today.

I dare say hunger and deprivation are the Siamese twins responsible for most of our woes as a people. Governments at all levels, if since sincere enough can use the Ugandan model to avert the gunpowder that will soon go off and blow our buttocks into several splinters.

Ntufam Dr Sandy Ojang Onor who is a lecturer in department of History and International Relations impressed me while I was a Student in English and Literary Studies, University of Calabar. I always admired his aura of brilliance, his charisma, his finesse and best of all, his intellectuality. He had left lecturing to venture into politics, he paid his dues in his assiduous service to the good people of Etung as LGA Chairman and Cross River State as two times Commissioner for Environment and Agriculture respectively and then returned to the classroom with renewed fire to impact knowledge and thirst for more knowledge which got him a step up from PhD to Associate Professor. He at a point, became audaciously conspicuous in executing some responsibilities of the PDP in the State and headed many of her aspirants' campaign organisations both gubernatorial and Presidential. His astute pilotship earned him the name "DG Fantastic".  I consider all these mentioned here and a whole lot more stored up in the subconsciousness of our consciences, which Sigmund Freud holds that, there lies our true being, seeing his mien for uncommon productive representation, knowing his competence and capacity to be at the Red Chamber are all good augury of what is to come in days afew. 

There are good and better aspirants but, Ntufam Dr Sandy Ojang Onor is the best. His pedigree alone qualifies him. This is a truth that even mischief makers can attest to. The Caterpillar Movement Campaign Organisation has shown expertise and coordination, headed by a political luminary. It is One of its kind in the State. This assertion is subject to research.

Am told politics is not Church, I want to  believe it is also not a cult where good men and ideas are sacrificed on the unholy alter of interest. Therefore, participants in political communion should, in total submission to the will of the almighty conscience, do the needful.

For a better Nigeria,
For a better Cross River State,
For a better Central Senatorial District,
Think Sandy Ojang Onor.

My name is MODLIN ODU.

By Declan Ogar Genesis

As it stance, it will be an eye-service position for one to posit that "the political weather is gathering momentum" even in Cross River State or any other states across the nation - Nigeria.
Whereas, the general notion in politics remains that, "there are no permanent friends, and no permanent enemies". Let alone, if the notion is a consensus, it therefore means that, the 2019 general elections particularly, in Cross River State will be a tumultuous one. Tumultuous in the sense that, no 'hasty generalisation' practitioner would come up to say "as usual, it's going to be a walkaway affairs", or "these other people are inconsequential ", or "are not important" as most people often times, when beggarly trying to convince their political benefactors at a given point in time, normally use in order to persuade and calm the foreseen challenges down in their selfish interest.

Although, a lot of alignments and realignments are going on separately. But the major ones which this article is focusing on, cannot be overemphasized. Hence, many have written other articles with a deliberate minds to educate the " ignoramus" and the  doubting "Thomases", long time ago. And so, this might be part of the ice on the cake. Whilst, some opines that the forthcoming general elections will no longer be determined by the usual popular (dominant) political party as it were. Rather, that it will be radically based on the individuals under whichever political parties out of the 92 registered political parties in Nigeria. Some are criticising in strong terms, the zoning methodology. The proponents of this stands holds that zoning remains the only yardstick that is guaranteeing mediocrity, nepotism, and ineptitude in a position of authority politically in Cross River State today. Many therefore, are advising public to disregard zoning and queue firmly on anyone who they believed have the capacity of transforming the state to the height of eldorado. And so on and so forth.

Giving that, Cross River State (since the magic carried out by Mr Donald Duke) has been described as a People Democratic Party (PDP) state, and things are rather going downwards. Which is roughly due to the propensity, loyalty and supports it has  enjoyed by the good people of Cross River State these years, there ought to be a rethink and possibly, a change of gear, method, and approach in all spheres, especially in the political realm.

 Unfortunately, and regrettably too, in Nigeria nay Cross River State, the general views remain that, the more the people becomes loyal to a particular political party, the arrogance such political party's leaders become, and also, the more corrupt the system becomes. And the more nepotistic the dividends of such politics turnout to be directed. Hence, the more deteriorated the whole situations are becoming, all to the detriments of the people. What a pathetic situation.

Going by this background therefore, it appears that the 2019 shall be a turning point for the good people of Cross River State nay Nigeria.

Like it currently the case in many other local government areas, Yala Local government is not an exception. It will be worthy of note that, Cross River State PDP as it stands, has few or no recognised 'elders' who are matured enough to control things anɗ makes it work the way it used to, exception of Sen Liyel Imoke. Unfortunately too, Sen Liyel Imoke in his wisdom understood the challenges (roughly caused by his successor) ahead of him. Imoke also believed (and still believing though) in the elders so much such a way that, he constituted Cross River State Elders Forum during his reign as governor. A platform that helped him in no small measure, to sustained the momentum and retained powers even to the level that, he swingled power to the people of the North with little or no stress as against the laid down plans.

All of these challenges are  keyed towards. So much such a way that, the only way Imoke can remedy the burdens and perhaps, woo more elders of the state back to his side, is to who the ticket of the party would be given to, in the forthcoming PDP primary elections to contest the governorship election.

In all, although there are pockets of verifiable allegations that the government of the day has already bribed some of these "strong politicians" (who may be seen as not in conformity with the current administration) with jumbo and jumbo contracts in order to hoodwink them over their possible opposition stand in the forthcoming elections for the interest of the masses. By these developments, you can't undermine or take-for-granted the decisions of some of these tough people, like Hon Fidelis Egoro, Julius Okpotu, Larry Odey, Tom Agi, Gabe Ugor, Jude Ngaji, to mention but few whom loyalty to the PDP are no longer guaranteed (owing to an individual Imoke handed over to). And their monmouth crowd with capacity of turning politics of the area around anytime, anyday. Not to talk of the emerging political gladiators like Declan Ogar-Genesis, Francis Ekpo and a few other consistent, determined and dogged young politicians who are springing up around the area by day.

No doubt, there are pockets of protests against the current administration in Cross River State State which began by the team of the members of the National Assemblies from Cross River State right from the onset. Ever since then, there have been protests from all angles and all strata of the Cross River State society. All against the administration of Sen Prof Ben Ayade without no visible change in response to the protests, exception of the recent declaration of the AUTOMATIC RETURN OF ALL THE ASSEMBLIES MEN AND WOMEN in Cross River State under PDP. Questions arising from this mimicked declaration are: to whose benefits? And to the detriments of who? Why this declaration now?

Take for instance, Hon Fidelis Egoro was a former Yala LGA Chairman. He garner political relevance in Yala LGA, particularly at the Ukelle axis till tomorrow. Hon Tom Agi is of the Okuku ward. He has represented Yala state constituency 1 in the CRSHA for two terms before. And then, has been one time this and that. Hon Gabe Ugor remains a shining star of the Yache - Gabu axis including Yala speaking axis, and a Chairman who has not got his replicant in terms of his sterling performance in office as chairman of the council in Yala LGA. Mr Jude Ngaji was a state publicity secretary in PDP before, and then deputy chief of staff, and then became the chief of staff during Imoke's era. Jude just resigned from a revered office as the state security adviser (SSA) to pursue the political career of his choice.
Imagine the young Declan Ogar-Genesis. A guy who acted like "John the Baptist" in favour of the current governor of Cross River State, Sen Prof Ben Ayade, and the one who just consulted (and still consulting though) for the position of Yala LGA Chairmanship (even though, Ayade bluntly refused to conduct the Chairmanship elections unlike his predecessors, all to his personal gains and nobody seems to be questioning him on that, while many have expended so much money towards the scheduled elections which he never bother to conduct), and remains an influential young personality both in social, political, media, etc, etc, waves, not just within the Yala nation, but across Cross River State and beyond.

These political juggernauts like in all other local government areas of Cross River State cannot be taken for granted, and assumed a usual political runaway in terms of permutations, divide-and-rule practice, and hooliganisms that have characterised and bedevilled the political scenario of CRS in the past.

And so, basically, the onus now lies on Sen Liyel Imoke to redefine the direction of Cross River State with the instrumentality of who carries the PDP flag for the forthcoming gubernatorial elections in Cross River State, and how to reunite the "family" for the interest of the people and the progress of the state in general.

Should Ayade dramatically clinch the PDP ticket in Cross River State during the primary, it will not be the uhuru.

By Declan Genesis Ogar
One day a man named Truth and a man named Lie stood by a river just outside of town. They were twin brothers. Lie challenged Truth to a race, claiming he could swim across the river faster than Truth. Lie laid out the rules to the challenge stating that they both must remove all their clothes and at the count of 3, dive in to the freezing cold water swim to the other side and back.

 Lie counted to 3, but when Truth jumped in, Lie did not. As Truth swam across the river, Lie put on Truth’s clothes and walked back in to town dressed as Truth. He proudly parading around town pretending to be Truth.

Truth made it back to shore, but his clothes were gone and he was left naked with only Lie’s clothes to wear. Refusing to dress himself as Lie, Truth walked back to town naked.

People stared and glared as naked Truth walked through town. He tried to explain what happened and that he was in fact Truth, but because he was naked and uncomfortable to look at, people mocked and shunned him; refusing to believe he was really Truth.

 The people in town chose to believe Lie because he was dressed appropriately and easier to look at. From that day until this, people have come to believe a lie rather than believe a naked truth.

The moral of this story, and how it applies to modern day society, is that we often either consciously or subconsciously reject certain truths in our personal lives or in the world around us for the sake of our peace of mind. These truths may be in our personal lives: financial issues, relationship issues, struggles with our faith, addiction problems; they are all areas where we often turn our back to the cold hard truth, even if it’s at our own peril. We’ve also seen this in public society as well. Our country is brutally divided among ideological lines on every front. People can be presented with irrefutable yet inconvenient truths regarding societal issues including terrorism, global warming, race relations, cultural differences, and countless other issues, but they shun those truths and decide instead to believe the well dressed lie, especially if it benefits their agenda or idealistic narrative. The story of Truth and Lie swimming in the river may answer why we do this to ourselves, but what it doesn’t answer is when and if we will ever learn from it.

By Adoga Michael Oyi

As we join Christians in the celebration of
Easter, may we truly reflect on the quintessential
modus vivendi of Master Jesus; The Christ, who
peregrinated this incarnation as an exempli
gratia of self abnegation, puritanical
excrescence, spartan discipline, mental
magnitude, hierophantic candour and altruistic
effusions,qualities which have become a
desiderata for national resurgimento.

“Beyond the fugacious razzmatazz of the
moment, I seriously call attention to the
rutilanting and coruscating modus vivendi of
Master Jesus the Christ and I dare pontificate
that save and until we viscerally emblematize
the virtues of self-immolation, quintessential
abnegation, eulogizeable simplicity, Christ-like
humility and immerse ourselves in a platonic
emotionalism of agape love and communalistic
service, we would have woefully failed in learning
and imbibing the true meaning of EASTER.
We must elevate this moment from a proscenium
of joie de vivre into one of meditative
transcendentalism”.
HAPPY EASTER.