By Jonathan Ugbal: Government House Correspondent
Ahead of the December 9, 2017 national elective convention of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), former minister for information, Professor Jerry Gana has visited Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State with Professor Tunde Adeniran in a bid to woo the state to vote for him.
Mr. Adeniran who is one of the aspirants for the position of national chairman, commended the Governor for his developmental strides in the state and appealed for the state delegates to support him at the convention.
“Why I have come here is to thank my brothers for doing a wonderful job and to now appeal to our people; PDP and the entire people of Cross River State of course, we continue to appreciate them of course, give them the support that they need,” said Adeniran who had earlier disclosed that he signed Ayade’s deputy’s letter as Vice Chancellor while he was still Minister for Education during the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He continued: “Beyond this, we now send a message to PDP leaders that God has done it for you here, please let it spill over by ensuring that you now complete the cycle so that our party will now be managed and led by someone with full … will have synergy in this digital age and we will be able to work out, follow due process, do the right thing at the right time, looking ahead, planning ahead, imparting people with ideas and people who are determined, who are principled and of course we will be able to win and win and win at the state level and bring back to the people at the national level come 2019.”
He said that he had thought the decision through. He averred that: “Be assured that this Professor who by the grace of God we name your national chairman is not just someone who came for the fun of it but because he has being part of it all along as you are part of members of our team.”
In his remarks, Mr. Ayade went characteristically philosophical on the leadership challenges plaguing Nigerian and continental Africa.
He said that: “The greatest challenge that we have had is that we have forgotten that Africa looks up to Nigeria. Nigerians actually look forward to the political leadership and the political leadership needs to go through a crystal distillation to bring men of honor, character, integrity, class, elegance, exposure.
“The Kenosky narcissism, the ambience, the abuse of our cultural heritage, the negative change that has characterized our national setting where young men and women focused so much on money instead of value.”
He continued: “Because of the criminal tendencies that have occurred naturally, the dislocation of family sectors that have created a new culture of great impression that the black people can’t manage themselves has originated and crystallized in a way and manner that today, the name Nigeria and the black man is associated with thinking from the stomach, just about himself, greed, what do I have to gain? If I am to make this man chairman of the party, what is my interest in it?
“And so, we have become so microscopic in perception that we have reduced ourselves to want in body and in spirit.”
He maintained that power was transient pointing out that: “In locus classicus onchaloschadas, he argued and created an impression that when you take a deceased or unsound mind for leadership, you are bound to fail. Now, this philosophy and advance theory that has characterized society today is hardly known unless you rise to that intellectual and celestial level, where you begin to think beyond the body, where you rise above the precipice of power; because power is like the wind, it will soon blow away. Use it with the fear of God and the fear of tomorrow.”
Ayade who also posited that he believes “that the arrogance and sarcasm of power has been so demonstrated in Nigeria that we will be the best model for anything negative,” however urged politicians to know that: “The only thing you leave behind is the value you have brought to humanity”