2023 : Ndoma-Egba calls for scraping of zoning in Cross River

Sen. Victor Ndoma-Egba

Former Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), has called on politicians and elder statesmen in Cross River State to come together to proffer a roadmap for the determination of who becomes the next governor of the state, come 2023.

Ndoma-Egba said that rather than adopting the zoning formula which had apparently failed the state, it has become expident for all the stakeholders to come together to chart a new formula.

He Said , “we should jettison the zoning formula and go for competence amongst the contestants irrespective of which zone he or she is coming from”.

He declared ”I am calling for the jettisoning of the rotation formula for the governorship position in Cross River State. What is needed at this point is competence in governance”.

Ndoma-Egba, who had represented the Central Senatorial District for three consecutive terms in the Senate until 2015, said the issue of rotation should be completely abandoned.

“On the issue of power rotation, I think we have come to that point where every zone in the state has tasted power. So I think we should move beyond that now. Where we are now, it is competence that should be the key criteria for determining our next level in Cross River. There is no time other than now that we require competence for governance, he said”.

In answer to a question, Ndoma-Egba, said that the state’s Ministerial nominee, Goddy Jedy-Agba, is absolutely qualified given  his performance at the screening in the Senate.

Jedy-Agba, he added, was one that had made a lot of contributions in building the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) in the state and should not be judged on the basis of visibility in elections, and hoped such disposition would continue.

“Given his disposition, we would not have that much problem of running the party because he has shown a disposition in the past to assist. And I want to believe that disposition would continue. If you know his temperament, he certainly would not bring the kind of divisiveness that we experienced in the party in the recent past. Undue divisiveness because people insisted they were the governorship candidate.

The Supreme Court had said  it again and again that the candidates of parties must emerge from primaries conducted by the National Working Committee of the party. So if you went to Akamkpa and organized people to organize your primaries and you are here insisting that you are a candidate, you are just distracting people, Ndoma-Egba said”.

It would be recalled that former  Governor Mr. Donald Duke from the Southern district was in office for two terms from 1999 to 2007. Liyel Imoke took the turn of the central from then till 2015, then Ben Ayade from the north took over till date. Ayade had promised that power would rotate back to the south after his second term.