By Dominic Kidzu
No one who loves Cross River State would be happy about what is happening right now in its political sphere. The drums of war seem to have been unleashed rather early, almost two clear months to the elections and the dust being generated may well settle on every roof in the end. Yet it is not too late even now, for the warlords to pull back and return to the people the peace and serenity that they have lived in over the years.
The State Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Honourable Venatius Ikem raised the alarm yesterday after 30 members of his party were arrested in Ogoja and brought to Calabar on allegations of vandalising campaign publicity materials belonging to candidates of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC. Ikem alleged that this is just one in a series of such bloodletting escapades planned by the ruling party to intimidate and bludgeon the opposition into fear.
Key members of the state Governor's security apparati have been fingered to be involved in these one-sided so-called sting operations against the PDP and its members, leaving no one in doubt that the Governor himself sanctions these underhanded tactics in the name of political strategy. For the avoidance of doubt, the highest responsibility of a state Governor is the preservation of the lives and property of the citizens
and the maintenance of peaceful coexistence among them. To do otherwise, or appear to be doing otherwise, amounts to dereliction of responsibility and indeed a breach of the law.
The leadership of the APC must be reminded that the same incumbency which it is so proud of today and by which it is attempting to bruise all citizens who do not share their political views was won under the banner of the PDP. They should not also forget the fact that no party aside the PDP, has won any substantial elections in Cross River since 1999. The PDP that brought the Governor to power is still alive and well and would bring a new Governor to power in a golden chariot driven by gilded horses in 2023, the resort to atavism notwithstanding.
They must be told that the sticky point about activating violence is that it can spiral into a life of its own and thereafter mutate out of the control of the one who started it all. These people should be well advised that even a goat will bite if it is boxed into a corner of death and that the members of the PDP in Cross River State are themselves not cripples. The protests by women that erupted in Ogoja yesterday against the arrests is a clear pointer to that effect.
Someone should tell the leadership of the APC that there are a few simple things they could have done to endear their party and candidates to the electorate if they didn't drop the ball so woefully. After nearly eight years in the saddle, the leaders of the APC are still afrighted by elections because they have no roads or bridges, no electricity or water projects to hang their campaign hats on. Only tall promises and laudatory declarations remain on parade, little wonder about their resort to violence.
Is it not a wonder that the so called ruling party is the one most terrified and unsettled about the upcoming elections to the extent of attempting to put strongmen in the opposition out of circulation before elections by arresting and locking them up on trumped up charges. Thankfully, the new voting platform has increased the power of individual political choice and rendered the flagrant exercise of brutal power by incumbents useless. The only way to electoral success left is by connecting one's genuine intentions with the people, just the way Senator Sandy Onor,
Senator Jarigbe Agom and many other PDP candidates have been able to do.
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