OPEN LETTER TO MY GOVERNOR

Your Excellency, Sir (Senator)(Professor)(Barrister) Ben Ayade.,

We the people of Cross river state appreciate your laudable industrialization drive in the state. Like I always recount to whoever cares to listen, it couldn't have come at a better time.

We thank you for ensuring prompt payment of civil servants' salaries. We can't thank you enough for your effort to boost the electricity generation capacity of the state through the exceptional 23MW power plant project.

The hybrid rice seedling facility and world class cocoa processing plant which are offsprings of your agro-industrial revolutionary drive are the envy of the entire west African subregion, poised to attract the dollar and mint a new generation of green millionaires in the state; all thanks to your visionary and political acumen.

For these and the plethora of phenomenal projects too numerous to mention, I can attest that Cross riverians are indeed very proud and lucky to have a fine intellectual like you as their governor.

Your Excellency, however all these laudable achievements should not come at the expense of the sanctity and serenity of Calabar which was once a standard for beauty and cleanliness in Africa.

Your Excellency, you may have to ignore the false reports from some of your aides and take a tour around the city to see things for yourself.

Our once pristine city has degenerated into an aesthetic eyesore. The streets, roads and gutters have been subjected to unprecedented conceptual and spatial violence. Even the pride of Calabar (Marian road) that used to retain a semblance of orderliness has evolved into an urban ghetto. The drainages have become plastic infested, clogged with sewage and turned a breeding ground for the novel Covid-19 virus.

We therefore appeal to your ever sympathetic disposition to the plight of the people and call on you to meristematically commission all relevant stakeholders and instruments of governance to our rescue.

God bless you your Excellency.

Owai King Ibe