BY UGOJI NWABUEZE SENIOR SPECIAL ASSISTANT ON NON INDIGENE AFFAIRS.

The digital and emerging Pan Africanist leader and Governor of Cross River State , Igwe, Prof, Sir Ben Ayade has thrown the gauntlet to the political class in the South south geopolitical region, especially his brother- governors: Let us come together, speak with one voice and demand our fair share from the Nigeria project.

How the political leaders of the region  respond to the Ayade challenge in the face of the obvious mindless and criminal neglect of the region that lays the golden egg remains to be seen but one thing remains constant: It takes a focused, people-oriented, urbane and celebral leader to feel the pulse and pains of his people.Ayade is; Ayade do.

He used the occasion of the recent courtesy call on him by the Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki to implore the people of South south geographical zone to come together and speak with one voice on various Injustices against the zone, particularly the ceding of the Bakassi Peninsular and the attendant suffering its inhabitants are facing.

Governor Ben Ayade by this appeal was primed at alerting the people of the region to the urgency of pulling it from the doldrums.

Essentially,  his growing intellectually crystalized leadership role in South- South can not be overlooked. This explains why  his clarion call to all the governors of region should be taken very seriously as a welcome development. 

The robust and internationally acknowledged intelectual content of  Governor Ben Ayade and his enigmatic positions on critical national issues evidently mark him out as a veritable rallying point. And he has not disappointed.

In Ayade, the South – South has a loud voice, a strong character who, sometimes is the lone one in the wilderness crying for the emancipation of his people knowing  that an injury to one, for example as in the issue of the illegal ceding of the Bakassi peninsula, the suffering of its inhabitants and the questionable loss of Cross River’s oil well, is indeed an injury to all.

Notedly, the  Edo State election was a locua classicus in election planning, strategy, and execution by the South South Governor’s. It is a crystal example of dividends that can acrue from indisoluble unity.

The amity and unanimity exhibited by South south governors in Edo must serve as an eye opener to them and register in them the underlying message: Strength lies in unity.

One must therefore, commend the South South Governors  who saw the Edo State election as a rallying ground to test the spirit of oneness and solidarity.It represents Ayade’s credo of tenacity of purpose among the leaders of the region.

The Edo State election has come and gone. It’s time to consolidate on the new zeal and high spirit and move on to other critical areas of  regional development. 

For instance, the South – South must urgently think the way of a regional security outfit can address internal security issues within the region.

It becomes more worrisome when juxtaposed with the clarity with which the South West region taking advantage of their unity outlined their position on Amotekun as it’s regional security outfit without negotiating with Federal Government. South South is still in coma in this direction.

Lately, prominent Nigerians like Mailafia Obadiah, TY Danjuma, Prof Woke Soyinka, Femi Fani Kayode, Dr Katch Onunuju, Reno Omokiri, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe,  Suaka Mamudu, Akin Osuntukun, Dante Babarinsa and other well meaning Nigerians have been shouting themselves hoarse on the need for regional blocks to come together and be stronger to with stand dictatorship from the Center.

 Governor Ben Ayade’s Clarion call for unity and togetherness was timely If not apt.  The need is obvious. Hear him, “the South South is in crisis. We are the greatest generators of the revenue of this country , yet you cannot come from Uyo to Calabar by road. You have to fly because within that 45 minutes  journey you will have to do it for four or more hours. Our seaport is suffering because it cannot be dredged. We cannot as a region sit back and watch this happen”. what is most painful is the fact that the ceding of the peninsula was an act of illegality, and therefore, called on the geo-political zone to collectively rise up in condemnation of it.

“The ceding of Bakassi was totally illegal because there was no mratification by the National Assembly, there was no plebiscite which is totally inconsistent with the provisions of International Law. I believe that it is time for the south south to come as a bloc to speak strongly for the people of Bakassi. We  can not as a Region just sit and watch this fundermwntal violations happen with out rising in it’s condemnation”

I urge Governor Ben to continue to bear the torch of this new dawn by matching his call with action in the mould of persuading other Governors of the Region to see the need for unity and perhaps host the first meeting of a new and turbo vitalised  South South region’s BRACED.

And also, as a broad minded intellectual, I urge Professor Ayade to explore the possibility of, and mute the idea to his counterparts, a rock- solid inter- regional economic integration between the South south and south east.

In this regard, captains of industry, business moguls and industrialists of South east extraction in Cross River will be super excited to queue behind God’s gift to Africa, Professor Ben Ayade.