As leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC in Cross River State continue to await presidential recognition in terms of appointment, there’s an urgent need for the state leadership to take a step further by leading a powerful delegation to visit President Bola Tinubu to tell him the plight of the people.
It’s been almost one year since APC won the presidential election. Within this period, the president has made hundreds of appointments. However, the expectations of the majority of party stalwarts have not been met as Cross River has been treated unjustly.
Maybe the president is not aware. The swift reaction of the President to the intervention of the governor and leader of the party in the state, Sen. Bassey Otu to the call for the review of the last two statutory appointments from the state that went to the opposition can be a basis for a strong argument that the President may not be in the know of the shabby treatment of the state by his administration.
Since winning the election, it’s only Rivers State stakeholders that have visited the President from the South-South geopolitical zone to congratulate and press home some demands. Cross River, which is the only APC state from the region, has not had this opportunity.
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With the way the state has been marginalised in terms of appointments so far, it is very important to see the president as the development is alien to what he is known for. As a party man in and out, it’s strange that the only APC state in South-South is counted as first from the back in terms of appointment and many other things in this administration.
Party members have been told that the delay in announcing appointments that may favour people from the state was because of the directive for the partial implementation of the Oronsanye report. But within the period, this information was made public, and now, the president has made over fifty (50) appointments.
Some agencies and commissions like the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), National Agency for the Control of Aids (NACA), et cetera that are supposed to be affected by the partial implementation of the Oronsanye report have since been given new management by the president. What this simply means is that whoever sold this idea to the leadership of APC in the state was not correct.
It is a misnomer that after about one year, the only state with almost ninety-nine per cent success for the ruling APC in the last election has just one non-statutory appointment—an additional ministerial appointment. One of the ministers has been on suspension for four months without a word from the presidency.
One can even argue that the two ministerial slots were based on the conventional practice that where a party has only one state in a geopolitical zone, the zonal ministerial slot is always given to the state. For instance, when Edo was the only South-South state in APC under President Buhari, despite having the national Chairman of APC at the time, it still produced two ministers.
If this school of thought is anything to go by, then it’s safe to say that one year into President Tinubu’s administration, Cross River has not gotten any non-statutory appointment.
From the information available, the Governor has been doing his best to address this but since the expected results are yet to come by, a meeting of leaders of note to the President should be facilitated with a view to addressing this and other sundry issues.
However, before meeting with the president, there’s the need for powerful stakeholders meeting with ex-governors, Cross River National Assembly CAUCUS, ministers, federal appointees, former National Assembly members, ex-federal appointees and other leaders of note in Abuja. This meeting, which should be called by the governor, should brainstorm and agree on certain things, including the spread of federal appointments and other things that will be demanded of the president.
It is important for these critical stakeholders to close ranks in pursuing deliverables for the state as well as streamline interests to ensure that they always speak in one accord. The party can’t afford to go to the president without a harmonised list of demands to make for the state.
Similarly, stakeholders need to discuss frantically about the fate of the second ministerial slot from Cross River State. It’s been four months since the president ordered an investigation into allegations of corruption against the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu. The leadership should seek to know what’s happening.
Obviously, stakeholders can’t impose anything on the president but can negotiate with the best interest of the state at heart.
