From Judex Okoro, Calabar
The People’s Democratic Party governorship candidate in Cross River State, Prof. Sandy Onor, has pledged to ensure all-inclusive administration if elected in next year’s general election.
Onor, who stated this at a town hall meeting hosted by a group, Progressive Southern Alliance, in Calabar on Tuesday, decried the call for a return of political power to southern senatorial zone, saying it is a selfish agenda by a few politicians to promote their interest.
Onor enjoined the youth in particular to look for a governor
that cuts across all ethnic groups with a track record of accommodation of all ethnicities and also interested in the commonalities that bind the people rather than divide them.
He said: “I’m going to be a governor for everyone. I will ensure that young people are carried along from the South, Central and North. Nobody should compromise your future.
“Cross River State is broken, mangled, distorted, destroyed and devalued. If people are telling you in this state that you will have a greater future with APC than PDP, then you are living in Mars, not on Earth.
“I don’t believe in ethnicity but merit, if you want to challenge me, do so on the basis of competence. Speak to me on the basis of ethnicity, speak to me on quality and competence and because through my dint of experience and hard work, I am one of the best candidates.”
Reacting to back-to-south agitation, he said: “The people making these arguments support certain candidates and themselves but not about youths.
Now is the auspicious time to look for models, mentors and people who inspire them and pray to be better than them.
“As the 2023 elections approach, they should research before they begin to speak and engage in garbage-in-garbage-out style of politicking. Don’t allow anybody donate power to you because when they donate that ticket to you, then there must be compromises, if not politically, morally, if not morally spiritually.”
Decrying the state of affairs, the Senator representing central senatorial district, said Cross Riverians cannot afford a government that promotes lies as state policy.
He explained that as the former state chairman of the defunct National Centre Party of Nigeria (NCPN), all the aspirants for governor from his party namely Eyo Etim Nyong, and Donald Duke were Efiks and he defended them through thick and thin, wondering why it is now that people should try to ethnicise his candidacy.
On her part, Lady Emana Ambrose Amahwe Duke, the deputy governorship candidate, said it is high time the South re-examined the issues of back-to-south and ask questions on how the benefits of democracy will get to the people.
“Let’s sheathe our swords, introspect and look for ways that will pay us when value is added to our economy. We should maximise the things that unite us and minimise those that separate us.
“We will not sustain the dividends of democracy under a pile of refuse; imagine if it looks that bad outwardly, what is the state of our state behind the scenes. We would build a Cross River State where things work.”
On his part, the coordinator of the Progressives Southern Alliance (PSA), Asuquo Solomon, said the essence of the town hall meeting is to sit down and iron out issues.
He added that the meeting will give birth to a better and stronger southern Senatorial district in the interest of the party.