It is interesting and worrisome, the way we have continually desecrated the traditional institution in Nigeria and in Cross River State. Worrisome because of the persons involved, to them everything is politics and it doesn’t really matter, after all the government pays and whoever pays the piper dictates the tune and that is where we miss the point. Because this is where we collectively rubbish our heritage.
The British will not rubbish their monarchy nor will the Saudis joke with their royalty. Everywhere you go, the essence of the people before the arrival of Western civilization is being messed with.
Let me stay with Cross River State, where the State Government, through its legislative and executive arms, decided to dramatize the tenure expiration of the chairman of the Traditional Council of Chief.
A state House of assembly that has just embarrassed itself in public after accusing the speaker of misappropriation of funds and ineptitude and the executive whose achievements after one is highlighted by rebuilding roundabouts in the state capital, had to drag HRH Etim Okon Edet, the paramount ruler of Bakassi to the village square, that he had overstayed in the position as chairman of the council of traditional rulers.
The questions to ask include, couldn’t they have called him privately? Should it have been so dramatized? I am aware that the revered traditional ruler had offered to step aside several times in the past. Was it a responsibility for the House of Assembly? Was the governor whose responsibility it was aware of? Who are their advisers ,whether special or ordinary?
What have they achieved by all the balablu, sorry hullabaloo?
I believe very strongly that the government of the Cross River State, by their actions in this matter, have succeeded in embarrassing all of us. I hope they will not proceed to give us a new anthem for the State. I’m still revising “Nigeria we hail thee”
Am Still My humble self.
Effiong Nyong is a Veteran Journalist, former 2023 governorship candidate in Cross River and writes from Calabar
NB: Opinions expressed in this article are strictly attributable to the author, Effiong Nyong, and do not represent the opinion of CrossRiverWatch or any other organization the author works for/with.
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