Senator Ben Ayade will vacate the office of Governor in the next 1 year, 10 months.
Despite his impressive performance in industrialization and expansion of Government to accomodate more unemployed youths and adults, his recent political moves has created so much blank lines behind his political history.
Can anyone truly trust Ayade to stand, fight and protect him when “push comes to shove?”
Can Ben, actually be trusted to watch over anyone’s fragile political “back?”
Is Ben worth dieing for?
Let’s take a historical review of his digital political battles.
1) In the build up to the 2019 elections, Ben projected his best friend Chris Agara to run for Senate from central senatorial district after hijacking the 2015 People’s Democratic Party (PDP) congresses.
At the end, outsider Sandy Onor strolled to the ticket effortlessly. Chris wept, Ayade blamed Imoke and Wike.
2) In his second term transition, the only member of the Ayade’s team to win a primary to any National Assembly elections was his Speaker, Honorable Gaul.
Having accepted automatic tickets for National Assembly (NASS) members, Ayade couldn’t replace any NASS members, despite hijacking their ward and chapter structures.
Under Ayade’s watch, his most loyal number 3 man lost the elections. Gaul was to fight gallantly to victory at the Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, where he got a rerun.
Ayade lost the rerun despite having over 9,000 votes ahead with less than 12, 000 votes at stake in the rerun.
Ayade blamed Imoke.
3) Ben’s third political battle was the ward and chapter PDP congresses of 2019, as sitting Governor, Ben lost control in 15 out of the 18 local government chapters of the party to a few National Assembly members led by Sandy Onor.
Sandy pulled out one of the most outstanding political victory against a seating Governor by adopting Honorable Jarigbe as his political field commander and used Jarigbe to deliver both the battle and the victory inside the Governor’s senatorial district, while oversighting the whole project from the comfort of his Aso Villa apartment.
4) Ben, the sitting Governor haven failed to convince his party to reverse his delegate list went to court, from the High Court, the Court of Appeal and Supreme, the Governor was given a cerebral judicial trouncing classically funded by Sandy and his “Paddy-man” Wike, another seating Governor in nearby Rivers State.
Ayade blamed Wike.
5) Then came the demise of Senator Rose Oko, the Governor’s Senator. He nominated his former Senior legislative Aide to replace Senatir Oko.
With the Support of the PDP, Imoke and Gershom, Ayade took full control of the party primaries and even voted at the primaries in Ogoja amidst gun shots and harrassment of delegates.
But again, his nemesis Sandy and Jarigbe were preparing a political martial music, the one Ayade doesn’t seem to comprehend.
In brief, Jarigbe was declared candidate of the PDP up to the Supreme Court.
Ayade blamed Wike.
6)PDP in a desperate bid to retain Ayade in the party offered a soft landing and wrote NASS declaring Odey as their nominated candidate.
And boom, Sandy and Jarigbe switched on their martial music.
Again, Ayade danced zanku and sent Odey to the election’s tribunal, while waiting for “consequential orders.” Despite the low current judgment of the Tribunal, the Court of Appeal declared Jarigbe as Senator in conformity with the earlier Supreme Court verdict.
The Court of Appeal is the final court in this case.
Who is Ayade blaming? Maybe, Wike, Sandy, rain maker, thunder controller or consequential orders.
7) From the cases of Agara, Gaul, Odey and the PDP congress defeat, Ayade has inherent and natural problems.
A) (Ayade is) lacking capacity to take critical responsibilities despite who is involved.
B) Ayade does not enjoy the influence and goodwill associated with a sitting governor as in the past, the goodwill that can be called upon at crucial moments of crisis.
C) Ayade is not trusted by nature, fortune, grace or favour to fight for anyone beyond fighting and protecting self.
D) Ayade has invested so much vital social capital to protect the perfection of self/family and is blinded by the Grace to look after anyone else.
8. Unfortunately, a lot of people will still fall asleep blindly counting on the Governor to protect, project and fight for them in 2023.
Beyond the stomach infrastructure advocates, even experienced politicians still expect Ben to understand the lyrics of the martial music playing in the background ahead of 2023.
I don’t blame them, Ayade has the gift of constructing a “perspective and perception quarantine” and hold his loyalist spell bound.
Remarkably, he has the gift of 2 extreme behaviours:
One, To dance in public when he is over excited and his loyalist take his Zanku steps for internal happiness or confidence.
And secondly, to cry in public when he is depressed or frustrated, his loyalist taking it as exhibition of emotional empathy and sober attachment to their sufferings.
“I wish I Can Help” kind of scenario.
The danger of trusting Ayade ahead of 2023 is simple.
1) Those who are fighting Ayade ahead of 2023 know him so flawlessly perfect, they have used 6 years to study and test run his fragile political immune system and successfully infected him with a wicked Virus, his immunity is going down daily.
And from Agara, Gaul, Odey and PDP congresses, they have carried out successive strategic dry run on Ayade with one simple martial music rhythm.
2) Incredibly, Ayade knows how to run away from the battle field thereby exposing his loyalist.
For instance, how one member of the house of representatives, Jarigbe successfully fought the sitting Governor in his senatorial district, took away his party structures and senatorial seat without any form of return fire.
And typically of Ayade, he jumped bail, took AWOL and ran away to APC, socketing to the national with a low current transformer, at a time APC has become what Hausa people call “Kasuan Dere” (Night market).
3) Ayade has been politically humiliated and bruised right inside his own party of 6 years PDP and after socketing to the APC national, his beaten run still continued.
At this point, my people “Shine Ya Eyes”!!!
real politicians should now understand that the level of trust to place on Ayade should be counterfeit.
Obviously, Ayade is not near the clinical execution elements in Duke and Imoke.
In 2023, clearly if you choose to trust Ayade, check the unbeaten runs of his opponents against him, take note of his proclivity for “Unforced Errors” And like Lawyers will say, “Caveat Emptor ” Buyer beware.
I dey salute una ooo.
Ikuh Akpanke, a Cross Riverian, writes in from Betukwel in Obudu Local Government Area.
NB: Opinions expressed in this article are strictly attributable to the author, Ikuh Akpanke and do not represent the opinion of CrossRiverWatch or any other organization the author works for/with.