Your Excellency, It has become pertinent to speak out. I was told, evil prevail when good people sit back and do nothing (or say nothing) about it.
I am talking about Calabar, yes, our Calabar and indeed Cross River State.
Sir, since you took over as governor, it has become ‘too bloody’ for us. It has been from a once peaceful and serene state to that of violence and bloodshed.
Yes sir, stating it mildly, from bad to worse. That is exactly what I mean. And please, do not raise your eyebrow yet, no sir, don’t, because you need this.
You need people with the temerity and guts to tell you the truth. You need people whose consciences are not seared with hot iron. You need them much more than you need a second term.
You do not need praise singers now sir. If it were so, I would have told you for there is time for everything. You don’t need those who are willing to sing, dance and jump because of a bottle of Champagne and fried rice.
You need those who are willing and courageous enough to look you in the face and criticize you. (I know this doesn’t work well for politicians)
Take a good look at our streets, corpses adorn our highways and roundabouts, our suburbs and hinterlands are painted with blood.
Blood of untapped resources. Our State’s tomorrow financial experts and economic pillars. Corpses of young people who would have achieved much more greater heights than you have. Are you not worried Sir?
From the densely populated and ancient looking streets of Calabar South to the historic and expansive rural city of Ugep, blood of young men and women vengefully fallen and terribly wasted by both strangers and brothers even.
Never, never have we had it this bad. Up to Ogoja and the entire North, hardly a month passes by without a report of violence, blood and wasteful destruction of properties and human lives.
Our state has not had it this bad. And that is why I am tempted to ask if your assumption as governor does not connote evil rather than good for the state. (bear with me yet)
For the past two years or more, our dear state has been eclipsed with myriads of catastrophes. A state that was once noted for peace and calmness is now synonymous with everything evil and sad.
From Bakassi to Yala, Ogoja to Yakurr, stories of violence, communal war, it is either we are fighting against ourselves or others are killing us.
When did we get here? Shocking, if our people have forgotten how to dwell among brethren, should those who swore on oath to defend its people and properties also do?
Why should they forget that, the buttocks are like a married couple though there is constant friction between them; they will still love and live together?
Your Excellency, let me put it more clearly. It has been commonly reported among your people and indeed in every corner of the streets.
In fact, it is on the lips of the people that much of your appointees are members of different cult groups. And that the present wanton destruction of lives and properties, is because of these elements within the hallway of power, who devilishly market themselves to claim superiority.
It is alleged that some of them are doing it to impress the powers that be, that come 2019, they can ‘deliver’. What ignorance!
One word for you sir, sack them! sack them before they sack you. Even if such is your blood relation, sack them or else the people will sack you, for if a man goes to sleep with an itching anus, he is sure to wake up with smelly fingers.
I have learned long enough that no matter how tall evil grows, it does so to its own destruction. The glory, to which it attains, is the same to which it will fail.
The admonishment of the Holy Book is even more instructive: ‘the companions of evil shall themselves be destroyed’
Your Excellency, I know you mean well for the state. But if the foundation is destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Our youths, our future, our very foundation is continually threatened and daily destroyed by this misadventure.
No matter your plans, no matter your goodwill for Cross River and Cross Riverians, if this unreasonable and evil voyage is allowed to sail on, a catastrophic end awaits us and we will be shipwrecked in the ocean of life.
Please, take a decisive stand, act on it. End the violence and bloodshed in our land.
Of course it will take courage, do it however, it may hurt relationships, do it however, for history will not judge you by the relationships you made but by how many lives you protected as you swore by both the Holy Book and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
But let it be known unto you, Your Excellency, that even if you refuse to act and do that quickly, the people’s desire for peace will, through the tide of season and time paddle away your administration with their consciences and votes.
Edem Darlington is a Nigerian Journalist and can be reached via; edem.darlington@gmail.com
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