By Onwa Ekor, Calabar
Cross River governor, Prince Bassey Otu, at a media parley held at his Dan Archibong temporary lodge in Calabar, remarked that what remains pertinent to him is the concerns, welfare and wellbeing of the citizenry.
Otu who was responding to questions from journalists in the state maintained that contrary to insinuation of sour relationship among the ruling All Progressives Congress members which includes some of the National Assembly members and him as a result of the last conducted local government elections in the state, it was not true, a development, the governor dismissed as mere social media reports which holds no water.
According to the governor, “we are trying to build a state which is all inclusive because when politics is over, we do not have all those party and political problems, what we have is a state.”
Continuing, he said “it is not all about party but what you have to do for the people. You won’t be able to satisfy everybody all the time particularly in politics, however we used our process to make sure we come out with gentlemen and ladies as local government chairmen.”
“We had a meeting with all those that contested and we have laid that to rest and I can assure you that at the end of the day, we have gone past all that,” he said.
Explaining further, Otu disclosed that alleged issues of discord between him and some National Assembly members were social media reports which cannot be quoted as authority, reasoning that he has no problem with any of them.
His words: “Many of them come around for occasions here but in this situation, it is not everybody that would do well, doing well is not for me but for the people who we swore on oath to always see their welfare as top priority, so all we need is service delivery which is our baseline.
“We must put things in order as quickly as possible to deliver on our mandates so that at the end of the day, the people will know who is delivering,” adding that, “in politics, only those who are not experienced would not know that one hour is enough to change things in politics.”
The governor who also admitted that he dont talk politics rather stand for policies argued that his interest is to provide what is good for the people, look at how they are fairing while ensuring that they move in the proper direction.
“It doesn’t matter what the political class is saying, it is the concerns of the people that matters. It is therefore our responsibilities as elected officials to be accountable to the people and at the party, we have manifestos and the delivery of these manifestos is first,” Otu remarked.
On issues relating to power supply, the governor disclosed that his administration intends to procure the Odukpani Power Plant as it is currently working on the process and hopeful that at the appropriate time, such feat would be achieved.
“You cannot come and take something from my backyard without right of first refusal and I believe that such can be achieved because we have the money to buy the power plant and no one can take it away,” Otu affirmed.
On solar power, he intimated that his administration would power 10,000 homes which is not intended for the urban areas alone but extended to the rural areas as all local government areas would be represented in the scheme.
Reacting to questions on the conversion to gas in a bid to ease transportation, the governor expressed concern that due to the expanse of the State territory and foreseeing that gas may not be much in the long run to tackle petroleum challenges, gas conversion centres would be established even as he intends to introduce a transport master policy in the nearest future and looking at other options like railway and electric.
On why he is embracing the economy blue prints of his predecessors, Otu remarked that when one considers money spent on such projects and items, it is difficult to just let go as most of these projects cannot be afforded currently.
“Some of those things can serve our generation today, from the projects left by the past administration ranging from health, irrigation, agriculture, education and the rest, we have picked some of them and we are going to improve on them.
“We are buying into the experience of our predecessors, there are areas that we need to upscale the process and step up. We have captured all those areas that is why we are ensuring that we retrieve all assets including those that were built before 1999, we would make sure that we re-inject life into them, change certain things that have lost value because of time and turn them into valuable assets,” he informed.
Asked when the next tranche of gratuity would be paid, the governor affirmed that his administration is committed to the payments as starving elder statesmen and women who laboured tirelessly of such funds cannot be a good development for the state they toiled for several years.
The pained Otu said, “if the people who invested 35 years in service, leading the state to where we are, are not taken care of, then we are not going anywhere.
“Their prayers are prayers of tears, they worked tirelessly, a lot die at the course of service, we are committed to it despite the fraud still on it.
“We discovered that some of the people that are collecting the gratuities are not actually retirees, we are still working on the demographics to ascertain the real people that are retirees. We discovered that even some people we have paid to, have nothing to do with it and such funds we are recovering back, so, when we achieve all these, we will move to the second batch and I can assure you that we will get the best,” the governor assured.
On the recent call for the delisting of Bakassi local government area by some persons, Otu wondered why people play politics with serious issues, hinting that never in the history has a place been taken from a group of persons without referendum.
Arguing that though some parts of the territory were ceded to the Republic of Cameroon, he said that the area remains Bakassi local government area and one of the 774 local government areas in the country.
Viewing the decision of the callers as “a no case,” Otu remarked that “what they have done means they are from Cameroon, so we are sending them to Cameroon. We have already started discussions with the Cameroon authorities, we will unravel them and take them to Cameroon because nothing will hinder the progress of Bakassi.
“The man who did that,” the governor disclosed, “was the immediate past Chairman of the area, so I wonder how you would have been the Chairman without calling for the delisting of Bakassi and you are just waking up now and shouting that Bakassi should not exist. If we made a mistake for him to be the local government Chairman, we will apologise for that mistake, we are moving because Bakassi is a main evacuation corridor.”
On moves to recover the 76 oil wells earlier ceded to a neighbouring state, Otu explained that in line with his policy to recover all assets of the state, he has been working tirelessly to achieve the feat, admitting that though, challenges from the home front do exist, he would not be deterred.
“We are waiting for the process and we have gone far. The proceed from the Cross River oil wells is being put in a different account until the case is determined, so I will continue to fight while ensuring that what is Cross River is Cross River,” the governor assured.
Cross River Commissioner for Information, Dr. Erasmus Ekpang applauded the governor for the present renovation being carried out at the premises of the State Newspaper Corporation, publishers of Nigerian and Weekend Chronicle.
According to Ekpang, the renovation exercise including the procurement of equipment at the newspaper house including the radio stations were feats that have and would continue to help in the dissemination of government laudable programs and policies.
