Ayade, the man who fulfilled his promise of back to South
Emmanuel Alfred
“I am for the South” were the words that came out of his mouth when he was asked who he was going to hand over to as Governor of Cross River State and he had to repeat those words more than three times as if he was trying to remind people that it was more than just a political phrase.
His Excellency, Sen Prof Ben Ayade was asked if he was going to maintain the status quo of rotation.
It began in 1999 when the Southern Senatorial District produced a Governor in Donald Duke before handing over to Sen Liyel Imoke of the Central Senatorial District. Ayade then completed the cycle after emerging the Governor of the State from the Northern Senatorial District.
There were doubts as to if Sen Ayade will maintain the rotation quota that had ensured that all the Senatorial Districts produced a Governor.
This question was fueled even more when some of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) stalwarts from the Southern Senatorial District endorsed Sen Sandy Onor from the Central Senatorial District as the Gubernatorial Candidate of their Party.
In an action that showed a statement of intent, the incumbent insisted that people from the South should pick up forms to give more chances of producing a candidate.
Sen Bassey Edet Otu eventually emerged as the Party’s Gubernatorial Candidate as a concensus Candidate of the Party .
There were bumps on the road particularly with another Candidate of the Party, Sen John Owan Enor who challenged the process that saw the emergence of Sen Otu with both the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal ruling in favour of Sen Otu, ofcourse with the obvious moral support of the Sen Ayade.
When the Campaign started, he ensured that inspite of his busy schedule of running the State, attended almost all the campaign tours and courtesy calls especially in the Local Government Areas where Sen Otu did not have a stronghold politically. These moves helped to sway the votes in Prince Otu’s favour.
As the results were being announced by the Returning officer for Cross River State, it was very evident that the support of His Excellency was positive because of the overwhelming number of votes Prince Otu got from the Northern and Central Senatorial Districts.
Prince Otu polled a total number of 258,619 votes to defeat Sandy Onor, the Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 179,636 votes.
While Otu won 15 of the 18 LGAs of the State which will see the Southern Senatorial District finally getting a Governor after 16 years, let’s not forget to celebrate the genius who walked the talk of returning power back to South.
