With the burning embers still alive and bales of black smoke still devilishly ascending out of the charred carcasses of public and private property flung all over the entire swathe of the once beautiful streets of Calabar, Orokawan. H. Duke, writing on behalf of the Efik Kingdom has laid bare the Efik Agenda for the people of Cross River State today and in the days to come. We are particularly beholden unto this lady for giving us the heads – up, an “outsider’s rare glimpse into the future that awaits him in his state of origin. Perhaps if Orokawan. H. Duke had not graciously laid bare the secret, we would not have known that Calabar was Efikland for the Efiks and the rest of us were tenants. The old feeling of just pride and sense of ownership in our state capital must now, sadly, give way to the settler psychology and the consequences appertaining thereto.
Coming more than two years before the general elections in 2023 all who are ” unfortunate” to be none Efik must now necessarily be wary of the choices we must make in the wake of the disingenuous plot against us at the doorstep of a new dawn.
It is perhaps this kind of feeling that gave occasion to the formation of Atam People’s Forum by some very weighty individuals from
the Northern and Central Senatorial zones at the turn of the millennium, and I make this reference not to stir up old rancors but to remind us all of exactly where we are coming from. The widely publicised article ‘ Ben Ayade’s Continuous Desecration of Efikland and Other Matters At Hand’ will end up in the anals of the history of our state as an article that should never have been written because:
- It tends to alienate everyone else apart from the Efiks from the common heritage, ownership and patrimony of our dear state capital, Calabar.
- It inequitably appropriates Qua kingdom and lands throughout the length and breathe of Calabar Municipal local government, where 95 percent of the carnage took place to the Efiks.
- It reinforces the old suspicion of an innate sense of superiority over others among the Efiks which is often times demonstrated without being stated.
- It ironically in the same breathe plundered the reputation of the very best that there is in Efikland. How could anyone, even if they were the most obtuse dissentient describe Mr Donald Duke as, wait for it, a ” paid hireling” of the sitting Governor? For the avoidance of doubt, Duke to whom I was chief press secretary is a man of puritanical political temper, with an old sort of nobility which seems to demonstrate that service to humanity is the rent one must pay for his room here on Earth. Indeed the hypothetical “Efikland” which Orokawan. H.Duke purports to defend today was nothing more than an easily forgotten semi – urban outpost, cluttered with decrepit, dinghy and squalid thatch houses and miasmic alleyways before the coming of Mr Donald Duke. Somebody needs to educate our benighted sister that it was this same Duke she is today writing so disparagingly about who designed and built the modern Calabar and put Cross River State on the map of the world.
Senator Florence Ita Giwa will forever remain the foremost Efik woman no matter how hard Orokawan. H. Duke tries to diminish her because she has a cupboard full of firsts that history has already long recorded in her favour. Whether it helps Orokawan. H. Duke to sleep well or not, it must be stated that Asuquo Ekpenyong Junior is one of the emerging leaders Nigeria must reckon with and rely on as we move away from the old boys to a younger leadership in governance. Educated in the best colleges in the world, with an inborn intelligence and early exposure to leadership, the sky will effortlessly yield favours to him in spite of the belly – aching of fifth columnists.
The great writer Maya Angelou once said that people will always forget what you say or do to them, but they will never forget what you made them feel. Those who elect to write in the public space must themselves first be educated, informed and just and must also be ready to take responsibility for what they write in their own behalf and for the people whose views they purport to represent. Less every passion of a misguided and infatuated population is let loose upon the land as a result of their mischief and miscalculations. As Boki people say, it is the cripple that causes war between neighbouring communities.
Obongawan. H. Duke who I suspect to be an alias, then descended on the Governor of our state with the vilest invectives and gutter diction that betrays her total lack of class and finesse in a narrative that is as illogical as it is unfounded. She accuses the Governor of ochestrating the mayhem and marking out the targets for the looters and arsonists to attack, including his brother’s house and hotel? Including his brother’s filling station? Including his sister’s house? Including his proud legacies at the Industrial Park? What kind of logic informs this crass illogicality ? Or did she write in a strange bubble or the froth of palmwine? Can a man however determined severe his own head to make a gain?
What is repugnant to all decent people of Cross River State is that in the midst of so much agony and anguish in the land people like this boogey – woman and her colourless backers remain unempathetic, tucked away in the dim background of their dwelling places, plotting rank mischief to achieve political capital and dance on the ashes of a city laid waste by droves of the wretched of this molten earth. These people must be reminded that no matter how much they hate Governor Ben Ayade, a Professor and a Senator, they cannot abridge his constitutional tenure. He was voted into office by the vast majority of the electorate in Cross River State and he must run his full course even if their errant bile leads them to cut their noses to spite their ugly mugs.
The vast majority of the people of Cross River State are grateful for the trouble – shooting work that the Governor Ayade, the former Governor, Duke, and Senator Ita Giwa undertook, at great risk to their lives to go to the youths and the people and douse the raging passions of frustration with a nation that has given them no quarter. All students of our national history will tell you that the dancers came late at last, because the drums of war have been beating far into the hot nights since the early nineties. The entire Southern Nigeria fell under the grapes of wrath simultaneously fulfilling Karl Maeir’s prognostication of ultimate Armageddon for Nigeria in his book, THIS HOUSE HAS FALLEN. History will be kind to all the brave men and women who came out to work with the Governor to restore peace and order in our state capital. For those who have chosen to demean, diminish, debase, derogate or despise the efforts of these heroes because of a political empire they plot to inherit in 2023, may the Almighty forgive them, even as He forgave the very ones who crucified His only begotten son, Jesus the Christ.
DOMINIC KIDZU is the Special Adviser to the Governor on Information.