By Our Editorial Team
The so-called internal democracy of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) all over the country and in Cross River State in particular is once again passing through another litmus test as the party primaries for the National Assembly are and governorship are going on across the country.
In Cross River state which is our main object of focus in this editorial, it is an undisputable fact that the choking to a level of suffocating dust raised by the conduct of the previous week State House of Assembly primaries in the state has refused to settle. The conduct of the House of Assembly primaries have gone down as the worst rigged and manipulated in the history of the party primaries for the House of Assembly in the state.
We viewed with seriousness what happened last during the Assembly primaries where materials of some Local Government Areas were hijacked by elements in government in connivance with the Returning Officers, besides other political intrigues that played out by those in governmental authority in the state and their agent/supporters, culminating in the huge political joke called party primaries last week.
It is a very sad comedy in Cross River state that the political leadership of the state and the party, PDP has built and institutionalized the Francis Bacon Idols of the Theater, of building upon quick sand of PDP family; Idols of the Marketplace, of inventing a dubious means of flattery and deceiving the people; Idols of the Tribe, overestimating the importance of the PDP family and their will over and above the wishes of the people of Cross River state; and most dangerously the Idols of the Cave, given the governor, Senator Liyel Imoke, an over-blotted ego of attempting to transform himself under a democratic setting into an Emperor/Monarch of unquestionable character, thereby feeling unperturbed to extrapolate his will on close to three million Cross Riverians and other Nigerians living in the state.
Let this be known to the leadership of the state and the PDP in Cross River that the reactions of the people of the state arising from the recent happenings culminating in the charade of the previous Saturday, as expressed through protests and demonstrations even in Abuja are definite indications that majority of all the people cannot certainly be wrong all of the times even if they were the dummies of all ages.
The attempt by an individual or a negligible few, to work assiduously to impose their will on the majority without the people’s consent, and consequently drawing away accepted norms and standards that are universally beneficial to all, forming an opinion of theirs or influenced by others to a pernicious position and ensure that the conclusion remains inviolate even if the an entire race was to perish is a demonstration of individuals saturated with bestial, crude and primitive qualities runs foul of international/universal norms.
Before now the political education and the overall information at the disposal of the people of Cross River State, could best be compared with the prisoners of the great Philosopher, Plato’s allegory of the Cave, where these prisoners were chained to a wall of a cave, facing a blank wall, and they watched shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and thereby concluded that the shadows were real forms, not until they were freed from that cave, they never knew that there were real forms like trees, the light of the sun and others.
Today, Cross Riverians are better politically educated and well equipped with information concerning the state, how its affairs is being run among others courtesy of the passionate work of the new media platforms, besides the conventional media. So it will certainly be sheer folly by any person or group of persons to think that it will always be business as usual.
It is based on this premise that we in CrossRiverWatch team want to once again warn that what happened last week in the name of primaries should not repeat itself this weekend.
The naked display of power and clear robbery of the people’s mandate as exhibited last Saturday should be completely avoided this week.
We demand that the will of the people should be allowed to prevail, that people should find their way into elective positions not by the barrel of gun, ability to rig or use axe and machetes, but by the civilized methods known and acceptable to all civilized people globally.
We want to remind all that CrossRiverWatch is not opposed to the ambition of any person or group, neither are we supporting any person or group, but committed to true reportage of the events in the state and to uphold the democratic norms by ensuring that the right thing is done irrespective of who is involved. At least, our stories could testify of the veracity of our claim.
As we fought with all passion to ensure that a person of Cross River north Senatorial District emerges as the Governor come 2015, we would carry out the same fight if another district is involved or where the same to be an attempt to deny such district or even an individual’s legitimate rights.
There are clear ominous signs in the cloud which we, are passionately warning the power players to beware of and do everything possible to avoid a calamitous end which will neither be for their good nor for the collective good of the people of the state which they swore an oath to protect. We warn that the decisions of a leader do not only affect him and the family only but the entire state.
Julius Caesar, the old Roman leader went against the dreams of the wife, Calpurnia, the warnings of a soothsayer and the ominous thundering signs, with a bold statement that “cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste of death but once”, and then proceeded to his murder in the hands of friends. Caesar went boldly to his doom, but his demise change the course of Rome, introduced a civil war that lasted for many year
Caesar lived truth but calamitously to his own postulation that “men are nearly always willing to believe that they wish”, but also failed to remember his other assertion that no man should actually be so brave not to be disturbed by something unexpected or ominous. We are disturbed by the course the state is presently heading to, and we owe our people the responsibility to warn to avert calamity.
There is no harm in doing what is right and constitutional. However, the road leading to falsehood and untruth is appealing and sweet, but the end result is regret and chaos.
We again appeal to all political gladiators in the state, and especially those controlling the machinery of government to be wise and “Beware of the Ides of March”. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
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