Paul Andeshi Adah, KSM: Seasoned Administrator On A Mission To Rescue Cross River
https://www.fearlessreports.com/2018/02/paul-andeshi-adah-ksm-seasoned_17.html
Rt. Hon. Paul Adah, APC Governorship Aspirant |
More than ever before in the history of Cross River State especially in the present democratic dispensation that would enter an unprecedented 20year stretch on the 29th of May 2019, Cross River state has never been more unanimous in its quest to reverse the state's steady drift towards zero governance.
Unarguably Cross River State post 1999 was blessed with an emerging youthful political leadership that apparently came on board with a discernable blueprint backed with a mission and the necessary youthful vigor to turn around the status of the state that had tragically attracted the toga of a civil service state among the comity of states in Nigeria.
Credit must go to the first post military administration, headed by Mr Donald Duke in 1999 for giving the state a clear direction of its development options as well as bequeathing the state a distinct identity in the Nigerian nation.
Duke's administration no doubt created a direction for Cross River State's sustainable development which would certainly have moved the state inexorably forward continuously if the Cross River State project had successive leaders who shared in the vision.
Incidentally, Duke had conceptualized his vision for the development of Cross River after his short stint as a commissioner of finance in the truncated tenure of Chief Clement Ebri. Invariably therefore Duke using his sharp intellect was able to assimilate knowledge on the workings of Government which ultimately aided the implementation of his development agenda for the State.
Senator Liyel Imoke who was also a victim of the ill fated transition programme of General Babangida went ahead to serve in various capacities as Special Adviser and Minister in Obasanjo's administration between 1999-2007 before ultimately becoming the Governor of Cross River State between 2007-2015.
The experience of Duke and Imoke in governance before their ascension to the number one position in Cross River as successive Chief executives of the state invariably contributed to the cohesive, robust and focused governance they both provided for Cross River State.
On the contrary, the last three years have sprung up a weird form of governance that has thrown Cross Riverians into nostalgic hallucination. From the monthly celebration of statutory salary payments to the media hype of non-existent development projects; From the abandonment of inherited projects to the inability to pursue newly initiated projects to the logical conclusion; From the infantile theatrics being displayed as digital governance to the total abandonment of the civil service as the engine room of the implementation of government programmes, Cross Riverians have never stopped gnashing their teeth as to how a state that was on course to becoming a modern cosmopolitan city state has allowed itself to be so brazenly raped by a leadership that its citizenry supposedly elected to govern them.
Against this background, and as 2019 steadily approaches it has become more than ever necessary for Cross Riverians to take their destinies in their hands..
As 2019 draws closer with contenders wanting to replace incumbent Governor Ben Ayade for a popularly accepted clamour for the rescue of Cross River State, Cross Riverians must be fascinated by the resume of Hon Paul Andeshi Adah who has thrown his hat into the ring.
Born less than a month into Nigeria's independence in 1960 at Betukwel village Obudu Local Government Area to the Adah family, Paul Adah has never been a lackey. From his early primary education in St Anthony primary school, Alege Obudu LGA, through the St Benedict primary school and back to St Anthony Primary school, Alege in Obudu where he ultimately completed his primary education, Paul exemplified academic excellence.
Between 1974 and 1978 he was done with his Secondary education at the famous Mary knoll college, Okuku Yala Local Government Area finishing with a grade one certificate in WAEC of 1978. He gained admission into the university of Calabar in 1980 and duely graduated with a BA(Hon)s Education in 1984. He was to promptly add an MA to his first degree in 1988 shortly after the compulsory one year National service.
Paul plunged into the public service thereafter taking appointment as a Secondary school teacher between 1986-1989 when he transferred his services to the Unified Local Government service of Cross River State as Administrative officer 1 grade level 09. He had a meteoric rise in the unified service from then on and held virtually all the high ranking administrative positions including; secretary traditional Rulers council Obudu LGA Director of Administration; Etung Local Government Area and co-ordinating Director Yala Local Government Area amongst other high profile assignments in the various Local Government Areas he served across the State.
In search of a bigger platform to serve his people Paul took a bold step and voluntarily disengaged from the Unified Local Government Service in 2003 and joined partisan politics. He shocked high profile politicians in the Obudu, Obanliku and Bekwarra federal constituency when in his very first attempt at seeking an elective position, he won as member representing Obudu, Obanliku and Bekwarra federal constituency in the National Assembly. He was to repeat the same feat in 2007 winning a second term in spite of high wired conspiracy and intrigues within the top hierarchy of the then PDP state led government to stop him. These same entrenched forces within the PDP eventually truncated his ambition to transcend to the upper chambers of the National assembly in 2011 when the skewed PDP primaries at Ogoja they denied him the ticket of the Northern Cross River senatorial district. The result of that conspiracy is what has led to the present agony of Cross Riverians under the current administration.
He was not away from the political limelight for long as President Jonathan appointed him as Cross River State representative on the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission in 2013 where he was until that Board was dissolved by the new administration in 2015.
Significantly, it is Paul's impact on the various positions he has superintended in the public service that has made him so attractive to his people.
Paul Adah is a quintessential public servant who is approachable, cerebral, charismatic and result oriented; virtues that made him a household name in the unified Local Service. As a parliamentarian he impacted positively on his constituents. It is on record that he introduced empowerment programmes in the history of representation in the present democratic dispensation in Northern senatorial district. As vice chairman house committee of the Independent National Electoral Commission, a lot of Cross Riverians now gainfully employed by the commission owe their jobs to him.
Significantly however as Cross Riverians pray for a reliable personality to retrieve the governance of the state from the vice-like clutches of the present emperor, Paul Adah's profile perfectly fits that bill.
Cross Riverians will require the enormous experience of Mr Adah in both legislative and executive panache as he has demonstrated in the past to refocus Cross River State on the path of sustainable development.
From all angles therefore, Paul Adah whose catch phrase is PAUL FOR ALL, ALL FOR PAUL has the academic, administrative, legislative as well as physical and mental ability to lead Cross River State out of its present doldrums.