The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Cross River State has condemned the return of Governor Ben Ayade’s return to school.
Governor Ayade who is the Governor of Cross River State was seen at the lecture hall of the University of Calabar after securing admission to read masters in law.
The APC described the return to school of the Governor who is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party as a sign of idleness, saying the governor has remained in office without any tangible achievement.
The State Chairman of APC, Mr. John Ochala while interacting with journalists in Calabar on Tuesday said any serious minded governor will not leave governance for school, recalling that no governor in the history of the country has ever done that.
Ochala regretted that the state had been handed over to an unserious person who has continued to drag it backward, maintaining that the party had always known that the governor was never a serious person in the first place.
“We are talking about dilapidated roads all over the state, look at our schools, our health infrastructure, our revenue generation capacity, and all other infrastructure. These are not enough to bother a governor. All that bothers him is to use public funds to go to school. Why didn’t he go to school when he was a Senator?”
Ochala added: “He is doing this to divert peoples’ attention from his failed administration. If I may ask; of what socio-political or economic value to Cross Riverians is his going to school? The schools he attended before now, how has he impacted the knowledge on Cross Riverians other than economic underdevelopment?”
The governor recently registered for his Master’s degree to study Law at the University of Calabar and the action has received knocks from a cross section of the public, with many people calling for his impeachment.
But APC in the state said it was not surprised at the action of Gov. Ayade as it has always known that he was not serious with governance, recalling that in the history of governance in the country, Ayade’s administration is the poorest.
“Look at the various white elephant projects he said he was carrying out without any tangible impact on the state. Let the governor tell us how much he has generated so far from all his so-called projects. Because he is actually idle doing nothing, he wants to go to school so that he will tell the students in that university that he is the governor of the state. Ayade likes showmanship,” the party said.
“You will notice that he travels outside the state too often. A man, who has challenges in the state, including communal clashes here and there, will not travel like that and that is to show you that he has been idle.
“Now he wants to be busy, not with governance, but driving siren to school to be cheered by students” the party regretted. The governor has refused to conduct elections into Local Government Councils thereby rendering governance at the local impotent, saying the state has been taken backward since the governor came into office.
“Governor Ayade was bold enough to lie to Mr. President about his so called super highway project, from the day of ground breaking ceremony till date nothing has been done concerning the roads, please help me advice him to get busy with the roads and other infrastructures begging for attention since it is very obvious that Mr. governor is idle.”
However, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Christian Ita described the criticism as “sheer idiocy.” He said there is no law stopping anybody from going to school even when the person is occupying a public office. “The criticism is sheer idiocy because there is no law stopping anybody from going to school, including those occupying public office. Mugabe had most of his degrees while in public office,” Ita said.
According to him, modern governance runs at institutional levels, “And the governor, not being a superman, has put into place institutions that will drive development.” Ita claimed that because of the Governor’s developmental strides, the federal government has given license to the state for the deep sea port, “which will drive development in the State.”
