2023 Guber Race: C-River South Kicks, Says No Compromise
- Insists Zone must produce the next governorÂ
BY UBON EKANEM, CALABAR – Ahead of the 2023 general elections, political stakeholders from the Cross River South Senatorial district are already firing on all cylinders to ensure the State governorship seat returns to the zone in the spirit of fairness and good comradery.
For them, there will be no compromise on the existing arrangement that favours the Zone to produce the next governor of the South-South state in less than two years’ time.
Addressing the All Progressives Congress (APC) mega unity rally to integrate both old and new members of the Party in Calabar, Deputy Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly (CRSHA), Rt. Hon Joseph Bassey said having waited patiently for 16 years and supporting the other two senatorial districts to produce the State Chief Executive, it is only natural that political power returns to the Southern Zone in 2023.
Hon Bassey said for equity sake and fair play, those justling for political power come 2023, irrespective of party affiliations, should be circumspect and rather throw their weight behind Cross River South to have another go at the State’s highest political office.
He said it is incumbent on other zones to support the South with their votes to reciprocate the kind gesture of extending the same olive branch of good neighbourliness and political goodwill during the next general elections.
On his defection to the ruling APC, the lawmaker said good conscience and political expediency demand all stakeholders team up with the Governor to link Cross River up with the national political grid.
According to him, except one is actively involved in politics, it would be difficult to really appreciate the danger of allowing Cross River State that falls within the minority block to play opposition politics and wallow in the country’s political wilderness.
Also speaking in the same vein, the State Commissioner for Urban Renewal, Emmanuel Edward said having been involved with politics since 1999, he is well placed to know that you do not play opposition politics just for the sake of it.
Edward said the usual proverbial federal presence has been turned into reality in Cross River by the President Buhari-led APC administration with the completion of the second Ikom bridge which the state has been yearning for since the Second Republic.
He said this is also visible in the ongoing construction work along the Calabar-Ikom-Ogoja Federal Highway that is now at 75 per cent completion.