By Ogar Monday
Prof. Sandy Onor, the Governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in next year’s polls has said that the warm welcome the party has received and the inroads it has made into the Southern Senatorial District has proven that “the Back-To-South mantra is an illusion.”
Onor insisted that people of the Southern Senatorial District connect with the party “and they see the people-focused projects executed by the party in the area” and therefore will not be carried away by ethnic sentiments.
The Governorship candidate who was speaking in Calabar on Friday, at the inauguration and launch of the PDP Governorship Campaign Council and organization made up of 1080 persons, said that the PDP will sweep Southern votes.
He insisted that the mantra was “put together by a few for them alone. But the people know that we are the way, and they are with us.”
His words, “They think that the South is their bastion. They will start failing from the South because the people here are not fools.” He said.
The Etung-born politician added that there “are too many things going wrong in the State. Almost all processes have been abused and debased. Nothing is regular. Everything is irregular,” but that he aims to reclaim the State and set it back on its path to greatness.
He charged all those appointed to the Campaign Council to see it as an opportunity in creating history and to save the State from “rolling over a cliff.”
On his part, Mr. Donald Duke, Chairman of the State PDP Campaign Council said the job before everyone is the one of saving the State, adding that there is an ongoing battle for the mind of the people, especially with the “food on the table” mentality now ingrained in most young persons.
“Our State is no longer in ranking at all. Not even in our Niger Delta, nor even the South-South. This assignment is a challenge, and a daunting one, but we believe we have it in us to deliver our State from impending shackles.” He said.
The former Governor of the State held that when he ran his campaign, it wasn’t based on ethnicity or where he was from “but we campaigned on the basis of what we could do for our State,” and that is the same kind of campaign the PDP intends to run.
Duke added that Governor Ben Ayade’s performance has been underwhelming and so he is now resorting to buying people’s conscience and that another four years in that same path might leave the State “unsalvageable, at least in my own lifetime.”
Earlier speaking, Barrister Vena Ikem, the Cross River State PDP Chairman, said that the party intends to run a grassroots campaign and that everyone, whether they are named in the campaign council or not, is important.
He revealed that his “greatest joy is the number of people who have called and indicated their desire to work for the victory of the party,” and that the campaign “is a movement to reclaim our State, as all of us are suffering the consequences of where we are from making just one wrong choice.”
He said the inauguration is “largely ceremonial but significant because you are the leaders that will take us to that next level of coordination” but that everyone belongs to a local government and that is where they should function.
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