C'River Central lacks moral justification to seek governorship in 2019, APC Chieftain

A chieftain of the All Progressive Congress, APC in Cross River State, Chief Utum Eteng has asked those contesting governorship from the central senatorial district of the state in 2019 to back out as they lack the moral justification to do so.

Chief Eteng who gave the warning yesterday during a world press conference in Calabar, said that the northern senatorial district should be supported to do eight years like other zones in the spirit of equity, fairness and justice.

Eteng, a member of the defunct Presidential committee on Constitutional Reform said that for the central that just left power three years ago to want to return so soon would disrupt the gentleman agreement earlier reached by stakeholders to allow power rotate.

He said that “The central senatorial district has just left power, the north should continue and where this is not feasible for obvious reasons, the south should take it after 12 years of exit.

“It makes more sense than the Oliver Twist altitude of some political leaders from the central. Besides the present APC administration, President Buhari has, more than anything else favoured the central senatorial district with juicy appointments A quick look at the top appointments given by the President show that the central dominates the list.

 Apart from the Head of service of the federation, central senatorial zone holds the juicy federal appointments, Chief of Naval Staff staff, Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Auditor General of the federation, SSA to the President on Prosecution, Chairman SIPP, Chairman of NDDC and many others”.

Chief Eteng who is from Yakur, central senatorial district said the central should put resources together to sponsor a capable hand from the north adding that it would be wrong to deny the north it due because of lack of money.

He regretted that those who use money, even if not hard earned money to purchase their ticket first set out to recover their investment when they get into office.

"There's no doubt that the central is populated by rich individuals who have enough means to truncate a brotherly agreement but that will, in the long run, negatively affect the existing friendship. As it stands, the option begging for adoption is to sponsor a capable, credible individual from the north or south as an alternative to takeover. Cross Riverians must not allow money to rule their decision on this very sensitive matter", he said.

On using Gov. Ayade's performance to judge the entire zone, he said that "Let me remake here for the avoidance of doubt that capacity should not be measured in terms of the much money one has, but from an unbiased show of actual performance in previous positions if any. Let's not obliterate the fact that Ayade is only an individual who comes from the north.

"There are many other people in the northern senatorial district who can be sponsored/assisted and put forward in 2019 instead of other zones taking advantage of the alleged incompetence and inefficiency of one man, to scuttle the understanding that fairness demands".

He maintained that "If the south has waited for 12 years, central with all it rich men/women with alleged extreme heavy financial capacity can borrow the same patience. In fact, in my candid opinion the central has no moral justification to descend into the arena. It is a greed taken to the extreme. The central must live and let others to live.

“In a democracy, both the weak and the strong have a stake. In positioning an aspiration in a democracy, the weak must be taken into consideration".