CROSS RIVER POLITICS: THE END OF A RUBBER STAMP ASSEMBLY

Anthony Attah

Real politics will begin in Cross River State in Nigeria, from next week when the State House of Assembly resumes plenary. The Speaker, Rt. Hon. William Jones Eteng will for the first time test the bite of real opposition in the once rubber stamp House of Assembly.

I can pontificate that beyond the present hocus pocus and higi haga, the real political theatre in the ‘new Cross River State’ will be the Legislative Chamber. With at least seven Members of the CRS House of Assembly, including, Hon Itam Abang (Boki 1), Hon. Fred Osim (Ikom 1), Hon. Nelson Ofem (Yakurr 1), Hon. Friday Okpechi (Obubra 1), Hon. Frank Ovat (Obubra 2), Hon. Efa Esua Calabar Municipality, Hon. Elizabeth Ironbar (Akpabuyo) staying back in PDP, the political equation in the once dull and passive House of Assembly is set to be altered for good.

It is expected that with the rumored incentives coming ‘outside’ the state coffers to PDP Members in the House, we are most likely to witness a measure of ‘opposition’ in the once Quabalized and Densified House of Assembly. Although, it may not translate to a complete Portuguese Parliament or the cerebral Ekiti State or other very engaging Houses of Assembly, we are very certain that for the first time in a little over 6 years now, the House is set for some legislative gymnastics and acrobatics.

The old era of caucus legislation and yeah yeah deliberation is going to give way to a new order of intensed lobbying, proper consultation and brainstorming sessions with both sides making clinical effort to buy public sympathy. Moreover, the office of Minority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader and others will be created automatically as against the status quo ante. In this case, the Leader of the House will no longer straddle like a colossus since he now has an opponent to contend with. Most importantly, Bills will undergo the needed legislative scrutiny and for the first time the House will undertake proper oversight functions. Budgets will henceforth be much more professionally prepared and presented without the usual grandiloquence and higgledy-piggledy.

Interestingly, unlike the last Assembly where the only Member who defected to the APC was kept outside the legislative chambers under the guise of losing his seat, this time around it is the PDP that rightfully ought to demand the resignation of the other 18 Members for defecting from the party through which they were elected into the house.

In any case, the days ahead promises to be interesting in the annals of Cross River State politics.

Thank you Your Excellency, Sen Prof. Ben Ayade for giving us a new Cross River State.

Comrade Anthony Bissong Attah is theChairman of Young Progressive Party (YPP), Cross River State.