The Director-General of a youth socio-political group, De Cruise Network, Comrade Nji Nji has urged Cross Riverians to unite across party lines to support Cross River State Governor-Elect, Sen Prince Bassey Otu.
Comrade Nji Nji made this known today to newsmen through a Press Release at the group’s secretariat in calabar.
Nji also noted that Prince Otu as the captain of the ship won’t do everything alone. He further called on Prof Sandy Onor who contested the governorship election against the APC candidate, Prince Bassey Otu to sheath his sword, mend fences and support the incoming government.
Read full Press Release below:
Cross Riverians Must Unite Across Party Lines To Support Prince Otu
Good afternoon gentlemen of the press. Thank you for honouring our invitation despite the short notice. We want to commend you for the role you played before, during and after the elections. We encourage you all to continue to be fair and professional in your reportage especially now that we want to begin the journey of building the Cross River of our dream.
Ladies and gentlemen, we didn’t call you here today to tell the stories of how as a support group, we toured the nook and cranny of this state to mobilise support for our great party, the All Progressives Congress in the Presidential, national assembly, governorship and state assembly elections. We believe that our modest efforts are well documented and resonate with every Cross Riverian.
We are here today to talk as partners who want the best for Cross River. Elections have come and gone. Winners have emerged, now is time to come together to build the state we would all be proud of.
Sen. Prince Bassey Otu will take the mantle of leadership of this State in less than two months from today. As a people, we have the collective responsibility of helping him to succeed. If we want him to succeed, we must see the task of building this state as a collective one. Cross River belongs to all of us and not Prince Otu or his party, the APC. If he succeeds, Cross River succeeds.
As it’s often said, a leader is the reflection of his subjects. Leaders generally are as bad or as good as their followers make them. If we want the new administration to be the super administration that the Governor-elect has the capacity to establish, we must be super followers as well.
We want to appeal to all Cross Riverians to come and join hands with Prince Otu to make Cross River great. We call on the candidate of the PDP, Sen. Sandy Onor and other candidates, traditional leaders, opinion leaders, market women, union leaders, leaders of faith based organisations, youth and students leaders, women leaders, etc to come join our Governor-elect to work for Cross River State.
Prince Otu as the captain of the ship won’t do everything alone. Where we are today as a State, we don’t need the distraction that the PDP candidate wants to bring with his declaration that he’ll challenge the election. We know it’s within his right to do so, but in the interest of the state, we appeal to him to demonstrate good sportsmanship and brotherhood by not only congratulating the winner but committing to support his administration.
The government that’s coming up won’t engage in any form of discrimination. The government will buy into any idea that’ll bring development to the State regardless where it comes from. By 29th of May when the new government will come in place, governance will begin immediately. The new Governor understands that politics is not part of executive functions and is not willing to play politics with anything that’ll bring development to our State.
We want to thank Cross Riverians especially members of APC who worked hard to secure this victory that we all celebrate today. The celebrations that have been going on across the state since Prince Otu was declared winner shows that the results as announced by INEC reflect the wishes of the majority of the people.
We thank the leader of our great party, Sen. Prof. Ben Ayade for staying true to his promise of ensuring that power returns to Cross River South in line with the power rotation policy of the state. We thank the leadership of our great party at all levels and urge them not to relent because the war has been won but the battle rages on. We must show the doggedness we showed during the election in working to deliver good governance to our people.
All hands must be on deck to ensure that the confidence Cross Riverians have shown in our party won’t be abused. We owe the people of this great state nothing but quality service and to achieve this, we must work as a united indivisible entity. As a leading support group of the party, we’ll continue to do our best to ensure the next administration ends as the best in the history of this state.
Once again, we congratulate the President-elect and his Vice, our amiable Governor-elect and his deputy, National Assembly members elected under the platform of APC, State assembly members and indeed, Cross River people for a very successful election.
Thank you for coming.
Comr. Nji NJi
Director General
