I am a bit excited at the ongoing effort to ensure LG funds get to elected Chairmen.
Many people have been talking to me from my Local Government Area, Obudu in Cross River State, about their intention to run for Chairman in the planned election.
On average, Obudu LGA gets an average of N200 million monthly allocation on paper, before the capture of the money by the Governor. If for any good reason this money or even half of it, begins to end up with the elected Chairmen, I please want to say some things to those who want to run Obudu.
If you don’t have anything in your brain about the development of local communities, please bury the thought of running for the office. Look for another job or an appointment in Calabar. This is not about certificates obtained from UNICAL, it is about the existentialist challenges facing our people. It is about competence and exposure. Not distribution of palliatives and spreading gangsterism.
Please you will not use zoning and the acclaimed number of years spent in your party to seek emotional and undeserved favor; if you don’t have track record and competence.
All of you hopping about and shouting how you have been loyal for years; loyal to what? That’s not a criteria for development.
Your dubious god-fathers may get you the ticket and the office but you won’t have peace of mind in that office if you don’t have capacity. We will breathe down the throat of anyone who is going next into that office. The person must show evidence of performance. Enough of going in there and leaving without doing anything.
Almost all the people aspiring for that office are my contemporaries. We are within the same age bracket. I do not have any interest but I have maximum interest in making sure that none of my contemporaries will enter that office and take Obudu people for granted again. Never again!
So consider your options before running. Run away, if you don’t have a clear and practical program. Because me like this, I will drag you morning, afternoon, evening and night. I will drag you in the media, in the courts, physically, and spiritually. Enough of this suffering and looting. So help us God!
Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo is the Publisher of CrossRiverWatch and a rights activist, a Cross Riverian, and writes from Lagos.
NB: Opinions expressed in this article are strictly attributable to the author, Agba Jalingo, and do not represent the opinion of CrossRiverWatch or any other organization the author works for/with.