After the fight, after the cataclysm of politics in which brickbats and dirty words were used by opponents against another, now is the time to take stock and look for a way to advance the course of the popular masses of the State. What started after Sen. John Owan Enoh extended the olive branch to his brother Prince Bassey Otu both of the APC in the Cross River State governorship tango, has yielded a fruitful result. When Sen. Owan Enoh addressed a Press conference and withdraw all litigations against Prince Otu, some of us knew that Prince Otu would win the coveted diadem. As head of Sen. Owan Enoh’s Media Team, I knew from the barricade that wherever he went would be where I would go. I asked Sen. Owan Enoh: “Sir, now that you have withdrawn all court cases against Sen
Bassey Otu, to work with the party, what it means is that you are now supporting him and the natural thing is that those of us working with you would naturally support him.” He said, “yes”, Dan. That was when the divine reconciliation started.
Anything that has a divine touch, always manifests the signature of God. Owan Enoh collapsed all his structures for Sen. Bassey Otu. As a practical politician who was nicknamed Sen. Talk-and-do by supporters and admirers alike, Sen. Owan Enoh travelled several times to Calabar and other parts of Cross River State to work for the success of Prince Bassey Otu. A man of irrespresssible charisma, Sen. Owan told his supporters to support the APC and the people who love him so much gave him their overwhelming support. And it paid off.
The outcome was Sen. Bassey Edet Otu’s landslide victory at the polls in the governorship election which took place in the State on Saturday March 18, 2023.
The people of Cross River State who have been at the receiving end of the stick for so long, have got what they wanted. Prince Bassey Otu will surely deliver on his campaign promises and take the dividend of democracy to the people of Cross River State.
In retrospect, it was in that state that sports and tourism converged in the recent past in Nigeria. According to the United Nations Development Programme (Africa), Cross River State was the best governed state amongst the 36 states in Nigeria in 2013. Prince Otu should turn back the wheel in no time. He should build on the foundation laid by Donald Duke, Liyel Imoke and Ben Ayade to take the state to its enviable position as one of the 1st Eleven in Nigeria. Prince Bassey Otu should also remember that the Efik town called Calabar was the first administrative headquarters of modern Nigria before Lagos. It was in Calabar that the first monorail was built in Nigeria. HopeWadelTraining Institute in Calabar, from where Nigeria’s first President Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe graduated, was the first secondary school in the country. The first General Hospital in Nigeria was St. Margaret Hospital in Calabar which is now the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital.
Prince Otu should remember that it was in Calabar that Rev. Duke, the first principal of Hope Wadel introduced football into Nigeria inn1904. It is therefore not an accident that Prince Bassey Otu won as governor in Cross River State in the last election. The state needs a special grant by the Federal Government like Lagos. Prince Bassey Otu should deconstruct Calabar and the state at large. TINAPA must be revived and tourism rekindled in the State.
The Agbakum Waterfalls is capable of electrifying the entire state as in India. Senator John Owan Enoh should be celebrated for his kind and divine reconciliation for Prince Bassey Otu. The journalism profession was also brought into Nigeria in 1846 by the Presbyterian Church in Calabar. There is no suspicious time to develop Cross River State than now. The in-coming governor deserves the prayers and support of all Cross Riverians.
* Amor, from Cross River State, is an Abuja-based journalist and writer.
