COVID-19: As the world races to copy Ayade’s approach By Christian Ita

The one element that charms anyone making his or her first encounter with the Cross River State governor, Professor Ben Ayade, is his dept of intelligence and the wits about him.

This is a man you can hardly pigeonhole or straitjacket. A medley of some sorts, Ayade is omnivorous in his appetite for knowledge, quite catholic in his range of interests, vast and cerebrally deep in his expositions.

Painstaking and thorough in all his undertakings, the governor is not given to suffering fools gladly.

 Always steadfast in his convictions, while many will rather swim with the tide or go with the Jonses, as a way of staying politically correct, he would stick with his rhetorics no matter how unpopular.

His recent decision to demand that every Cross Riverian must wear mask in a bid to stand-off the Corona virus pandemic brought this character trait to focus.

Like the biblical prophet who is not respected in his home, there are those, either out of blissful ignorance or politics queried it.

As I write this, some idlers on social media have already taken issues with  the fact that the masks made by the State-owned garment factory and distributed for free to residents of the state by the governor were products  of textile or made of cloth.

But as it has turned out, Ayade was in his usual self, merely setting the pace for others to follow.

First, the White House is now advising American Citizens who are living in Coronavirus hotspots to wear cloth masks or scarves in public to help stop the spread of the virus. All major international news outlets, including the BBC have reported the directive as breaking news.

The World Health Organization which had earlier advised  against the use of masks by persons who are not sick as a way of addressing the scarcity of safety kits needed by professional care givers who are in the frontline of the battle against COVID -19, has just made a U-Turn.

It is now advising everyone to wear mask in public to prevent the spread of the viruses.

So, not only have these global institutions validated Ayade’s approach to battling the virus, events of the past few hours have confirmed our long-held belief. Ayade is indeed an asset to the country