At inception of this Administration I had high expectations of my Governor Ben Ayade. His credentials as a cerebral young man have never been in doubt.
I had thought he will bring his usual enthusiasm and passion for what he believes in to bear on the administration of the state with clinical diagnosis of very obvious problems and cutting straight through the meat to the bone of the issues that need urgent attention viz:
1) A collapsed private economy,
2) Waning public confidence in the government
3) A youth crisis anchored on lack of employment.
4) Dwindling revenue exacerbated by excessive borrowing and poor management.
5) An inefficient public service, stifled by lack of employment of fresh hands.
6) A failing Local Government system from long years of abuse of its resources in the hands of successive insensitive administrations in the state.
7) A failing public health system made worse by the erosion of training facilities and lack of employment of much needed health workers.
8) A failing school system as a result of lack of will power to enforce discipline because of chronic nepotism.
9) A collapsed public road infrastructure.
These are by no means all the problems of our state but I believe these issues will to a large extent capture and address the immediate concerns of citizens of our state.
To address these problems, I expected my Governor to assemble a compact, crack but competent team of capable men, but mostly women with competences and the passion to drive the needed reforms on identified problem areas, utilising the best possible data they can assemble and articulating a clear road map with defined targets and time limits for achieving them.
Such a team to my mind would have comprised:
12- 14 Commissioners
12- 14 Special Advisers
I would expect that every LG will be represented at the State Executive Council without a Commissioner from the LGAs that produce:
1) The Governor,
2) The deputy Governor,
3) The SSG
4) The Speaker CRHA or
5) The Accountant General and
6) The Head of Service.
The reason is simple: all these offices, except Mr. Speaker, are already members of the State Executive Council and can represent the interest of their LGAs therein.
I would have expected the Commissioners to be politicians mostly with adequate drive not necessarily professional capacities in their respective portfolios.
The Advisers however, would have been picked strictly on the basis of hard core professional track records and a track record of achievement in the core areas they are to man.
1) Adviser on Budget and planning
2) Adviser on Youth Empowerment and job creation.
3) Adviser on IGR/ Chairman IRS.
4) Adviser on Investment
5) Political Adviser
6) Adviser on Community and Inter Party Relations.
7) Adviser on Chieftaincy and Local Government Affairs
8) Adviser on Legal and Legislative matters
9) Adviser on Donor Agencies
And others in other core identified areas to be appointed as need arises.
I had expected that by now such a compact Team Ayade would have created jobs in the public sector as well as private sectors beginning by filling the yawning gaps in the Administrative cadre in the Civil service that will sooner than later erode the capacity of MDAs to function properly as many middle rank civil service grades have almost completely disappeared. Ask any senior civil servant in service.
Properly managed and return to their owners, the Local Government allocation can create a local economy that can accommodate most restive politicians in their LGAs without the total migration to the centre as we witnessed on a daily basis.
If statistics are taken it will be alarming how many young men and women from Obudu for instance have migrated to Calabar since the inception of this regime in the hope of getting closer to where it is happening….
…. to be continued.