John Fitzgerald Kennedy, one-time president of the United States of America was quoted to have said that the moment we start thinking alike, speaking alike and moving alike, then the end is near. Kennedy was emphasizing the need for independent mindedness, multiparty society and true democracy. He was clearly aware that no man has the monopoly of ideas.
Conscious of this notion, bigger democracies all over the world, from where we borrowed the concept and practice, have allowed individual opinions to thrive. But Cross River State appears to have a different idea about what multi-party democracy should be.
It has suddenly become fashionable for the two important arms of government in Cross River State to advocate a one-party state. And this is done with sacrilegious relish. Ushering and canvassing vigorously for one-party in Cross River was the state governor, Mr. Donald Duke. In doing this, he chose the fertile ground of his pet project, tourism, in far away Obudu the northern senatorial district to tell the adherents of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, that he wanted a Cross River of one party.
Although the Special Assistant and Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Dominic Kidzu has vehemently washed Duke clean of the allegation, it clearly means that Kidzu is aware of the negative effect of such a statement hence his stout defence of his boss. Ironically, it was the office of Kidzu who earns his salary by defending his master’s voice that opened the pandora’s box.
It came through a reporter, a certain Solomon Asha who was in the governor’s entourage to Obudu for the local government campaigns. He quoted Duke verbatim: “beside the aggressive developmental strides of the state government which is a clear manifestation of the sure victory for the PDP in council polls, there was need for a one party situation in the state.” However, in what amounts to an attempt to whitewash Duke, Kidzu, the governor’s aide quickly released a statement that “to set the records straight, what His Excellency, Mr. Donald Duke stated at the launching of the Peoples Democratic Party Local Government Elections campaigns in Obudu was this: Vote for PDP, you have already been doing so. Ensure you put the right people in office. We do not want gangsters who will come into office to fight rather than to work. Our party, the PDP has a track record of achievement, if you give us the mandate from local councils to the top, we shall speak with one voice; we shall deliver as a family, we cannot fail because we shall not be speaking in discordant tunes.
"These were the key points of Mr. Duke’s exhortation at the occasion. He was campaigning for his party and had the legitimate duty to ask the people to vote only for his party. Except we task him to, in addition ask for votes for his opponents. No campaigner in his right mind will do that in party politics, to do so is tantamount to political hara-kiri, the highest form of anti-party activity. Even our large-hearted journalists, I dare say, will not openly advocate patronage for rival tabloids in preference for theirs; even when they know that the one they work for is merely a rag sheet."
Even in an attempt to cleanse his master, Kidzu merely opened another box of controversy. It is necessary to say here that indeed, Duke is not shy to express his emotions, wherever his feelings are tickled. At a press parley in Calabar, a correspondent informed him about the complaint of legislators in the state House of Assembly over their allowances. The governor did not mince words when he said: “listen that is a PDP House of Assembly; we meet regularly and I know their problems more than you.” Could Duke have implied that what goes on in the House is a PDP affair and by extension a one-party House and perhaps more extended, a one-party state?
In fact, this new thinking among Cross River politicians, nay PDP politicians, was re-echoed even more recently when Speaker of the State Assembly, Mr. Bassey Ewa, clearly advocated a one-party state. Hear him: “I am comfortable with it, it is working in the state, my constituency may not like it but one-party state helps the party to carry out its manifesto to the letter.”
If the executive and legislative arms reason in one direction, then we may never know how the judiciary will interprete this looming threat to silence the opposition in Cross River State.
A one-party state makes the entire citizens of the land see their existence through only one eye. That is not healthy for a democracy.
Perhaps, it is this one-party situation that has made it impossible for the State House of Assembly to ask Duke what has become of the cashew, castor and pineapple projects in which millions of the state’s scarce resources have been sunk. No one in the House too has been courageous enough to ask the Governor on what has become of the Uyanga model village which we were told would be sprinkled across the state.
Yet again, the House of Assembly is silent on what has become of the millions of naira allocation to the 18 local governments of the state for the two years that the elected officers were not sworn-in. What we have seen instead is the distribution of jeeps to the council chairmen.
How does the peasant farmer benefit from a jeep driven by a local government chairman. Even the chairman of Bakassi Local Government got a jeep to be driven in a local government that has no roads. No one was able to advise that the Bakassi man would need a canoe or speed boat, rather than a jeep. Each of the jeeps was put at N3.9 million which was contract value while the entire 18 jeeps cost N70.2 million.
Politicians who advocate one-party state need to have a rethink for it is modern tragedy to embrace such position.
Before the chairmen were sworn-in, the allocation accruing to the councils were in some cases about N70 million to each of the councils in cases such as Yala and Akamkpa council areas. But only N1.4 million goes to each of the councils every month. The breakdown shows that chairman, secretary and members of the caretaker committees were collectively paid N450,000.00 while security vote to each council is N250,000.00, management fee N500,000.00 while civil servants fee for management is put at N250,000.00. What has happened to the remaining money, because not even a single road or borehole was constructed in any of these councils throughout the period.
We do know, however, that salaries were paid, including backlog of salaries but much is still left. Presently, Cross River State owes $146 million to foreign debt and the government has borrowed another N4 billion to finance its tourism project.
No matter how unpleasant these other opinions may be, those who have other ideas should not be gagged because someone wants to satisfy personal interests under the guise of one-party state.
