Re: THE DAY SENATOR VICTOR NDOMA EGBA LIED:
Dominic Kidzu, Chairman, Publicity and Media Committee of CRS – PDP Campaign 2019, fired this first shot.
A few days to Christmas I was searching radio channels looking for good music when I stumbled upon a promo announcing that the distinguished senator Victor Ndoma-Egba was coming on live, in a bit. So I tarried.
It was not a long wait because the erudite senator’s voice soon carried across the airwaves in the same manner that it dominated the Senate of the Federal Republic for all of 12 years. This time however, the Senator, like the poet in an ancient ballad, lied.
Effusively struggling to launder his own self image and electoral value the distinguished senator shattered the airwaves with a claim that has turned out to be a fat lie. His words ” 90%of all the roads being built and being repaired in Cross River State are being done by the NDDC, which I chair or the Ministry of Niger Delta”. Implying that the state government was responsible for just 10% of all roads projects going on in the state. Thumb – chesting with a lot of pomp and circumstance, the senator dared anybody to contravene his assertions. Yet nothing can be further from the truth, upon close examination of these wanton claims.
Since that faux pas, the senator’s name has been good currency in circles of informal conversation about how the high and mighty can also lower their own standards in the search for electoral advantage and victory. I must thank Hit FM for their even – handedness in promptly allowing the Commissioner for Works in the state, Hon, (Engr) Dane Osim Asu the opportunity to put the records straight via the same radio channel.
Osim – Asu, offered a broad canvas of achievements in the Infrastructure sub – sector to the listening public, putting the lie to the distinguished senator. A little rendition should find some space in this rebuttal, even if only for the further education of the distinguished senator himself. For unbeknownst to the senator, most roads in Calabar are wearing a new coat of nylon asphalt from median to terrace. The dualization of Tinapa to Odukpani junction road is well underway, the 28 kilometre Boki East -West road cutting through virgin forest and levelling rock mountains and hills is about 60% completed. The 2.5 kilometres Usung – Esuk road in Odukpani is complete. So are the 2.5 kilometres road in Ikpakapit ,Yakurr, 5 kilometres Ovukwa road in Obubra.
The dualization of the 148 kilometres Mfom – Okpoma – Okuku – Abochiche – Obudu – Ranch bottom hill is at an advanced state of completion. There is work on – going on the Abochiche – Gakem and Igoli – Okuku roads as well. Work is also progressing on Yahe – Wanakom road, bringing the total volume to about 400 kilometres of roads under construction by the government of Professor Ben Ayade right now.
If the rendition above only amounts to 10%, then the NDDC and the Niger Delta ministry who the distinguished senator claim are handling 90% of roads projects in the state are working on at least 3’600 kilometres of roads in Cross River state.
There are those who hold the view that the distinguished senator Ndoma – Egba is a learned gentleman and a man of measured puritanical political temper. But that was then. This is now. These are desperate times. And desperate times invite desperate measures. The distinguished senator we knew then, is the old one. This one is a new one. I am respectfully inviting the distinguished senator to step forward and show Cross Riverians where his fabled 3’600 kilometres of roads lie on the landmass of the state, less, the people conclude that the distinguished senator lied. Less, the king looses his crown. Less, the Oracle descends from its lofty heights. Less, the sage of times falls outside the magical circle of sanguinary sagacity.
The distinguished senator enjoyed 12 unbroken years of representation in the Senate and verily discharged himself creditably. The good lord has been kind to him. He has had more than his fair hours under the sun and under the light. Now is the time to return just gratitude to the Almighty by saying thank you. When one stays too long in the lavatory, the green bottle fly will begin to play with his scotum.
Sandy Onor will be going to the Senate in 2019. And he will win the election fair and square. It is as it should be. The Governor Ben Ayade Administration has done more in his first tenure than Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke even contemplated in their first tenures. Let’s keep the main thing, the main thing. And pluck up the courage to call the truth by its name. The distinguished senator Victor Ndoma Egba can campaign on what he has been able to do. That is within his rights. He shall however not be allowed by the discerning public to construct lies with withering straws, because we shall burn down the lies and set the records straight.
We intend as a Party to wrap our campaign around credible and verifiable facts and figures, without embellishments, while furthering the most civilized and ethical behavior in the run up to the elections.
Someone close to the distinguished senator told me that the Senator was out of the country when he granted the interview. That may well be the case, my advice however is that when he eventually returns from Dubai or Afghanistan, he should take a land trip around the state and see things for himself so that when next he grants a press interview, the chasm between his claims and reality shall have been reduced to a tolerable level.
And Goddy Akpama Replied:
I have taken time to read through your write-up where you claimed Distinguished Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba lied my claiming that 90 percent of the roads construction in Cross River State can be ascribed to the NDDC and the Niger Delta Ministry.
Though you are entitled to your views about what Ndoma-Egba said concerning roads construction in the state, your words were vulgar and avaricious, smacking of irresponsibility on your part, and almost putting a dent on the decency expected of you.
In Boki nation where you hail from, and in the African context, though they may be wrong, Elders don’t tell lies. Dominic Kidzu, in this one, you have deviated from your parental upbringing. My advice is that you retrace your steps because the world is watching, and taking records.
On the issue of roads construction, is it not on record that the current administration in the state has said it over and again that it places no premium on the construction of rural roads? With due respect to the state Governor Professor Ben Ayade, he has said it in many fora that he would rather concentrate his energies and recourses on the industrialization of Cross River State, and investing on long term projects than dissipate his energies on construction of rural roads, just to score cheap political points.
Distinguished Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba was absolutely correct by asserting that 90 percent of the roads construction of the state is those handled by the NDDC and the Niger Delta Ministry. What Ndoma-Egba said did not subtract from the fact of what the Professor Ben Ayade-led administration has been able to do in terms of road construction. I would have gone ahead to make a list of the roads done and completed by the NDDC and the Niger Delta Ministry, but I reserve that for another day because there is no competition between Ayade’s administration and the federal agencies or organs because to the best of my knowledge the state government, the NDDC, and the Niger Delta Ministry have a good working relationship , and are complementary to each other.
So, knowing too well the personality, and disposition of Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, which has not changed, I make bold to say that he does not, and would never politicize the development of Cross River State. Rather he considers every individual effort at developing the state as a collective effort, conscious of the fact that every individual Crossriverian must abandon partisanship and support every genuine effort at developing our state.
Since Dominic Kidzu has decided to make political capital out of an honest comment made by the distinguished former Senate Leader, should have rather placed the public-spirited achievements of his newly found principal, Ntufam Sandy Onor, in all the public offices he has occupied since 1999 to date, against those of Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba for the people of the central senatorial district, and the entire state to judge. It is a well known fact that the contest of February 16th , 2019 is between Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba versus Ntufam Sandy Onor, who are senatorial candidates of their respective political parties, the PDP and the APC; and not between Ndoma-Egba versus Ben Ayade as Kidzu smartly attempts to confuse the people to believe.
To Dominic Kidzu, I will state over and again that the Victor Ndoma-Egba whose image he is too small to tarnish because of a “porridge of yam” is the same Victor that came to his rescue when he was sacked in 2005 or thereabout as Chief Press Secretary to Governor Donald Duke , as he then was, for betraying public trust. He remains the same Victor that you Kidzu hung on for succor in the recent past when you lost out of favour with your former employer, and former governor Liyel Imoke ahead of the 2015 general election.
Kidzu, my candid advice to you is that you should never bite the finger that once fed you. There is politics, and there is tomorrow. Your approach to politics today would definitely define your tomorrow even beyond politics.
Thank you.
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