By Jonathan Ugbal
The immediate past Chairman of the Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission, Mike Ushie has demanded an apology from the Secretary to the State Government, Professor Anthony Owan Enoh over the content of his letter to the House of Assembly seeking his removal.
Recall that, Professor Enoh had written to the Assembly claiming that Ushie, an Associate Professor, and his team had a cavalier disposition to work which had made the state unable to conduct Local Government elections.
However, Ushie resigned his post and penned his thoughts on the allegations in an open letter, obtained by CrossRiverWatch, where he outlined how the Governor was yet to approve the conduct of the elections as the budget for the exercise was already before him.
READ MORE: CROSIEC Chairman, Mike Ushie Resigns After State Government’s Swipe
Ushie who said he oversaw the conduct of the 2020 council elections without any hitch demanded an apology from Enoh whom he said had to give “the archetypal dog a bad name” just because he wanted to hang it.
Read the open letter below:
OPEN LETTER TO PROF. ANTHONY OWAN-ENOH, SECRETARY TO THE STATE GOVERNMENT, CROSS RIVER.
Dear Sir, I write with the most excellent intentions to inform your good self and the public that I deeply resent the wordings in your communication to the State House of Assembly regarding the Governor’s intention to restructure the Cross River Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC) which I headed until recently.
In the said letter, you claimed inter alia, that “Since the inauguration of the current Administration, His Excellency, the Governor, has observed with dismay, a cavalier work attitude by the Chairman and members of the state electoral Commission. This inertia has led to the state not being able to conduct the state local government council elections, which ought to have held in 2023.”
Sir, you further went ahead to write that “In other to salvage the reputation of government, it has become expedient to disengage the current membership of the Commission who have been most tardy in the discharge of their functions.” You also averred that the governor was “seeking to remove the Chairman as well as all the members of the Commission owing to serial ineffectiveness.”
The SSG, Sir, permit me to inform you that the commission under my leadership, conducted the 2020 Local Government Council elections peacefully without litigation, presented and defended the 2024 LGC election budget, and even wrote to the Governor, through the Commissioner for Local Governments for presentation of the budget for Executive Council approval. Unfortunately, while waiting for the approval thereof, you thought it expedient to soil my reputation and besmirch my work history by publicly describing me as cavalier, tardy, and ineffective. This is, to say the least, totally unfair, unacceptable and mischievous on your part.
READ MORE: CROSIEC To Commence Local Government Election Processes In January, As PWD Sues For Inclusion
Every appointment in the State, including even the statutory ones, are in practice held at the pleasure of the State governor. The governor therefore enjoys the privilege to remove the board and replace same without his SSG first destroying the reputation of those who held the office previously. I obtained a PhD in Demography since 2010, and have been assessed for full professorship since 2022, and in my work history, the terms, cavalier, tardy and ineffectiveness have never been ascribed to my person before you tragically did so yesterday. Did you need to give the archetypal dog a bad name just because you wanted to hang it?
Sir, you had no justification in characterizing my team and I in such mediocre and disdainful terms, when you know very well that the decision to conduct elections does not lie with the commission. At best, the commission can only make critical preparations and then wait for funding approvals and matching orders from the chief executive, which the commission strained every nerve to do, a long time ago.
It is in the light of all the communication improprieties and false accusations above that I demand an unreserved apology from you for unduly seeking to destroy my reputation and to lower me in the eyes of the public.
Thank you.
Associate Professor Mike Ushie.