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LG allocation: A brewing war in Cross River
Ofonime Umanah
DATELINE: July 9, 2004. Time: 3.30 pm. Venue: Executive Chambers, Government House, Calabar, Cross River State. Occassion: A meeting between the Cross River State Governor, Mr. Donald Duke, and the chairmen of the state�s 18 local government areas over the deductions from the councils� May allocation by the state government.
But also at the executive chambers that afternoon were some members of the National Assembly from the state, leaders of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party and members of the state House of Assembly. Their presence, at the venue of the meeting, was a shock to the chairmen. The state radio that announced the convocation of the meeting did not say that others, apart from the chairmen, were going to be there. That was the first shock.
When the governor emerged, his subjects, the chairmen and all those present, stood up as protocol demanded. Duke�s look was grimmy, just like that of Saddam Hussein on trial. In a jiffy, he looked through the hall. He sighted those he considered �rebels� among the chairmen for daring to, in his opinion, threaten to reject the May allocation that he had, according to some of the chairmen, �mercilessly� tampered with. When it was time to descend on them, he did just that. As the man who saw them through the election, offering them his back to ride into office, Duke was shocked that the chairmen had the audacity to complain or murmur over the deductions.
It was, indeed, vintage Duke at the meeting. The governor who was scheduled to be at the Zonal Executive Committee meeting, South-South, of the PDP and the meeting of the governors of the South-South zone in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, at the time the meeting was being held, took time to narrate how he helped the chairmen during electioneering. He reminded one of them of how he would have been disqualified from flying the party�s flag and even taking part in the election if he (Duke) did not intervene in what he called an indictment stigma that hung on the head of the then would-be chairman. And to another, he was quick to remind that he was not a citizen of the state and was therefore shocked that the rebel chairman had joined �the sons of the soil� to challenge his handling of the local government funds.
Duke reminded them that he had the final say on all matters affecting them since the local governments were mere appendages of the state government. He defended his actions and did not forget to rebuke Nigeria�s former ambassador to Germany, Chief Mathew Mbu, for daring to challenge his decision to hijack the local government funds. He called Mbu unprintable names. But he was disappointed that the Chairman of Boki Local Government Area, Mr. Jacob Enyi, one of the two chairmen absent from the meeting, was not there to deliver the message to Mbu, his kinsman.
He then read the Riot Act: Henceforth, there would be no allocation to the local government areas again. Only security votes would be made available to the chairmen. And the clincher: All the appointments made by the chairmen, he said, had been �annulled.�
That marked the end of the meeting. But before Duke walked out on those present at the meeting without allowing anyone to say anything, he directed the Chairman, Akpabuyo Local Government Area, Dr. Salem Joshua, and three others to address a news conference. They were to tell journalists that the issues concerning the disbursement of funds to the councils had been resolved. He said the four of them should tell the press that the deductions from the councils� account was done with the consent of the chairmen.
Joshua, who confirmed all that transpired at the meeting to our correspondent, insisting that it should be published unedited, said that he refused to address the news conference as ordered by Duke because he could not tell lies to the people. Being a pastor, Joshua said, God would punish him if he told such lies. He said that Duke should be held responsible if anything happened to him. He saw the governor�s attack on him during the meeting as an invitation to war.
Joshua said, �As far as he has called me in the public and derided me, he has just opened a frontal war with me and if he had given me a chance, all I would have asked him is that I am a child of God and that I don�t depend on any human being in the world. That if he wants to remove me, let him roll his own dice and take his chances. It is as simple as that. If Donald Duke wants to remove me from office, let him roll his dice and take his chances. He should better do that fast because if he goes the way he is going, I am going to resign, just as I resigned from his government.
�He said that the way he operated from 2002 is the way we are going to operate. There is nothing like contract. He said that he pointedly told the caretaker committee people that they could not award contract and that the situation had not changed. He is the sole administrator. In fact, in his words, he said that since we rode on the back of a dictator to our offices, that we could not come down and that everybody that thought he was mad enough, let the person open the war. I am not opening any war with him but I want to let him know that he is not God. Let him remove me and stand against God. That is what I want now since he is the Alpha and Omega of Cross River State. I have never seen a meeting you called a family meeting, you called respectable men and women across the state and spoke and agreed that you are a dictator and at the end of the meeting you also proved that you are a dictator by carrying your papers and walking out on everybody without asking for one comment from anybody.
�The picture he is giving us is that he has the backing of every tier (arm) of government. But I want to take an exception to the insults. As far as I am concerned, he has insulted me and age wise, I do not think he is older than I am for more than one or two years. If he has gone to the university, I have gone to the university. In 1996, when I was chairman of my local government, he was not there. I can tell the history of his politics but he cannot tell my own history. I introduced him to the people of Akpabuyo when he just came into politics because I wanted him to be my leader. If he thinks that I rode on his back to where I am today, he first rode on my back to where he is.
�I want to put in on record that I have started seeing some mischief-looking men moving around my house and monitoring my movements. Let him roll his dice and take his chances. After what I am seeing now, I am going to address my community, that peradventure something happens to me, they should hold him responsible. He should know that we have been in this business for a long time. If he is saying that people rode on his back to offices, I want him to know that he rode on the back of people to where he is right now. He has met with a very wrong man because as far as I am concerned the difference between life and death is nothing. It is just a transition. What I am saying now is what I would have told him in the presence of those people. Let it be clear to him that if I close my eyes on this side of the world, I open it on the other side. But let him think of his own end. I know him very well, probably more than he thinks I know him, so let him go ahead and do his worst.
�I have started hinting my people on this problem and I want it to be on record that Akpabuyo is one of the local governments that share borders with Cameroun and with Bakassi. It appears the problem we have there is not enough. He feels that he wants to rock the boat.�
Enyi, after the meeting had ended, told our correspondent that the attitude of Duke before, during and after the meeting was a pointer to a slide towards a state of anarchy in Cross River State. Enyi said, �If all I am hearing happened in the meeting, I do not think it is healthy for the people in the same family (of PDP) and in a situation where we are practising democracy. People should be allowed to say what is in their mind so that corrections will be made. It is not when somebody observes something, it now becomes war. I do not think it is good for anybody at all. If he is going the way I am hearing, it is not going to be well.�
Said a political analyst in the state on this development, �The governor claims to be a lawyer. But as he addressed the meeting and made the announcements, his consciousness of the legal implications of those pronouncements were not taken into consideration. For instance, he had forgotten to remember that there is no place in the state law that gives him the power to annul appointments that have been made by the chairmen. He forgot that that the state law did not provide for the approval of a budget as condition for him to release the local governments� allocation. He does appear like an emperor. He may not look like an unrepentant dictator but he acted like one that Friday night.�
The Punch, Friday July 16, 2004
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The President-elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
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