It is an indisputable fact that right from the period when political aspirants of different political shades and coloration in the late part of 2014 started gearing up for the various political parties’ primaries, the state political landscape has been astronomically charged, as each contestant strives to out do the others to obtain their party’s tickets for various positions.
It was equally expected that with the conclusion of the various parties’ primaries and the emergence of the parties flag bearers, the acrimony and grievances which also emerged as a result of the political intrigues and maneuverings that played out at the primaries will simmer down and reconciliation takes its prime place as usual, but this seems not to be so, except for the very commendable, exemplary and brotherly kindness and maturity displayed by the former strong contender to the Cross River State number one political seat under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Goddy Jedy Agba who not only openly expressed his support for the man who eventually won the primaries, Senator Ben. Ayade, but is also serving as the Chairman of the Finance Committee of Ayade’s Campaign organization.
From the southern senatorial district through central to the northern senatorial district, almost all those who lost out at the primaries, especially those of the PDP have turned to alternative political platforms all in a bid to actualize their ambitions.
To this writer, the birth of an appreciable level of political opposition in the state is a healthy development and is not something that anybody should fret about because a constructive, progressive and issues based alternative platform or opposition is a fertile ground for the growth and development of democratic culture, traditions and tenets in any civilized society of our days.
However, what has become most worrisome and intolerable to this writer and other Cross Riverians of unquenchable patriotism and uncommon passion for decency, peace and love is the blatant resort to cheap propaganda, character assassination and monstrous lies by some candidates and their political thugs against their political opponents.
In fact, these crop of persons have completely thrown overboard the time honored and cherished virtue of caution and the employment of decent language passed on to us by our ancestors.
As far as this writer is concerned, it is a very sad commentary that persons we so respected and look on to as elders and leaders have allowed themselves to be blindfolded and fed with envy all because they are seeking for political power, believing that the only way to achieve their ambition is to callously and maliciously cut those they perceived as standing on their way to realizing their desires to size, by concocting and fabricating stories which they never care to verify because the end thing is to destroy the reputation of their target.
There has been of recent a malicious and unfounded rumor that a convicted rapist in the Philippines, Felipe Ayade Pulod is being deliberately misconstrued to be Senator Ayade, the PDP governorship flag bearer in Cross River State. There can be nothing more absurd to any sane mind and cruelly wicked for the fabricators of such nonsense and wickedness.
The most curious aspect of this episode is that the candidate whom the carriers of this wickedness sort to favor is from the same area with Ayade, it is therefore surprising that of recent, one Peter Offem Ubi, in his online postings, has continued to mischievously make those provocative allegations against the person of Prof. Ayade, allegations which are only traceable to a Link to Appeal No. G.R.No. 188561 between the Appelle, Felipe Ayade Pulod Filipino, Verses Velasco Jr., Nachura, Peralta and Mendoz11, which was filed in the Supreme Court of the Philippines, January15, 2013, seeking to reverse the Court of Appeals decision of March 31, 2009 which affirmed the regional trial Court of Mandaluyong city of October31, 2007 which convicted Felipe Ayade Pulod of the crime.
However, findings up to the supreme court of the Philippines as published by a leading online news portal in the state, CrossRiverWatch.com have already revealed that Prof. Senator Benedict Bengioshuye Ayade is not in any way connected to the convicted Filipino named Felipe Ayade Pulod.
Yet, when contacted, as quoted by CrossRiverWatch, Peter Offem Ubi still has the temerity to state that “political campaigns are not actually meant to lay their sources out but to create doubts about your opponent. I mean, I have been in court, when I get to court, I am not going to tell the jury to convict the person, I am just going to give them reason to doubt and not to believe the person. And in this case, I have to on behalf of the Ugbo campaign group give credible reasons why the public should not believe, why they should doubt Ayade and the public and the media should find out and bring out their sources”.
What Peter Offem Ubi however has failed to tell us is if he is unable at the end of the day to convince the court, especially in a case such as this whose walls have started crashing on Ubi’s and his sponsors shoulders, will he be ready to take the reversal heat from the person he had labored to dent his image to no avail or will he come cap in hand with his tail in-between his legs to beg?
It is unfortunate that the Internet which is meant to provide us with unhindered access to concrete and verifiable information, facts and data have been majorly taken over by people like Ubi whose stock in trade is to misinform using all sorts of trash and to smear the reputation of respectable citizens for a pot of very cheap porridge to survive.
It is the opinion of this writer that people like Peter Offem Ubi who lack the revered virtue of patience needed to find out the actual truth before coming out to mislead the public, if properly examined, we will find out that people like him are perfect candidates for lunatic asylum till such a time their mental rectitude is certified to be normal.
They should not be allowed to walk the streets to cause confusion in the society. Now that the media has found out the true source and facts which have shown Ubi to be an irredeemable liar as far as this matter is concerned, the only civilized option for Ubi to take, if he has a sane mind is for him to publicly tell those he had misled through his false story and smear campaigns that he told a lie and that he is sorry, while at the same time plead for forgiveness from the man he has fruitlessly and maliciously plotted to defame and erode his reputation and hard earned pedigree.
The Ugbo campaign organization should equally come out boldly to tell members of the public that Peter offem Ubi is purely on his own, and that he was or is not speaking the mind of Ugbo, neither was he sent by him, if truly it is not the case that the voice is that of Jacob while the skin is that of Esua.
Over the years, Cross River state and its people are noted nationally and globally for their peaceful disposition and accommodating spirit, abhorring all forms of evils and ill-intentions towards others; we must continue to strive to maintain that reputation, irrespective of whatsoever grievances we may have, especially as a result of the fall out of the party primaries.
It is only a sane thing that if anybody has any problem with the primaries which produced the various candidates in all the political parties, he/she should go and sort it out with the party and with the leaders of such a party, and not to vent their anger on the candidates who eventually emerged.
It is only people who themselves are morally bankrupt right from their own homes that believes that it is right to play politics without an iota of moral and ethical virtues and decorum, and as such do not deem it fit to exhaust all avenues and verifiable means before rushing to publicly malign others.
Politics is played in the domain of God’s higher creation, man, and it is ethics and moral codes that binds and keeps every society in harmony; hence politics which is played within the purview of the human society should equally not be devoid of ethical and moral standards as a guide to the players of the political game; after all there are no games without rules.
In politics, it is often said that there are no permanent friends or enemies, but permanent interest. How enjoyable will be an interest to a man who within his very mind know that he falsely damaged the reputation of another man in his fight upward, and how is he going to re-establish friendship with he whose image he has wickedly maligned when it become necessary to do so for his own political survival, bearing in mind that no man is an Island?
It is time our political class had a deep re-think about themselves and the type of politics they are playing and if that is what they would want to bequeath to the future generation. It is time they know that they have collectively failed us, and that the very politics of bitterness which they daily dish out offends the very psyche of our collective national heritage and serves to portray us as uncivilized people before the comity of nations.
For Peter Offem Ubi, whatsoever cheap political points he intended to achieve for the person he claimed to work for by mindlessly, but without success trying to destroy the good reputation of the PDP flag bearer in the forth coming gubernatorial election fixed for April 11, 2015, by now it might have dawn on him that there is a boomerang effect, and that he is actually now at the receiving end as emerging facts have proven him to be a cheap lair, just as Cross Riverians can now see very clearly through the evil smokescreen whose diabolical intend has been unveiled by the very media.
But for Prof. Senator Benedict Bengioshuye Ayade, this writer never had any doubt that he is a man of unquestionable and impeccable character that I know him to be, and being a product of a society which still holds very close to the heart the time honored virtues and ethos of our fore bears, he would never had attempted and shall never attempt such a disgraceful act.
Those who are strenuously attempting to create a monster of Ayade should rather look very closely at their own selves to see if they are not only hallucinating and trying to impute those very socially unacceptable conducts they indulge into on others!
For Ntufam Fidelis Ugbo, it is note worthy to remind Cross Riverians that you, at the U.J. Esuene stadium during the PDP primaries, openly and willingly stepped down and promised to support any candidate that emerged from the primaries.
If political constrains forced you to change your mind and turn around into the ring, it is instructive to press it upon your supporters that you have cherished values that lay beyond cheap blackmail and smear campaigns. Impress it on them also that you will not rule Cross River state by your supporters striving in vain to smear the reputation of opponents.
Cross Riverians are waiting patiently to exercise their franchise to elect candidates of their choice in the forth coming general elections. All candidates work to mobilize the people and prove to them in their campaign manifestos what they intend to achieve if elected, and not to waste time trying to win an election through the cheap avenue of bare faced blackmails.
Indeed, what does these political mudslingers actually seeks to achieve against Ayade?
Certainly, they will achieve nothing because they have nothing to offer to the contrary!.
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