Ogoja, A State That May Never Come… BY AGBA JALINGO

What I want to write now is not new. It’s what I have been saying all along. Ogoja State may never come to pass, at least, not in my lifetime. You don’t have to believe me. Just wait and see. Those who are deceiving you will not tell you this. They want to continue spiking your vain hopes and have you continue donating your money every month to fund their fancies as they are already doing in one coven already.

A State that has not even been created is already suffering the brouhaha and hara-kiri of where the capital should be located and which LGA should or should not be part of it. Apart from trying to create space for the pint-head Caesars who are fronting to go and become Permanent Secretaries, Chairmen of Boards and Commissions and Governors and LGA chairmen in their fantasy State, there is absolutely nothing in the advocacy that is in it for the ordinary person in Northern Cross River.

Do we need a change of name on a signpost with OGOJA STATE clearly written on it, before our leaders can develop a land space that is smaller than Akamkpa LGA?

Let me repeat the statistics for you. Akamkpa LGA has a 5,003KM² land mass. Yala, the largest LGA in Northern Cross River has a land mass of 1,739KM². Ogoja LGA has 972KM². Obudu LGA has just 238.2KM². Obanlikwu LGA has 1,070KM² and Bekwarra has 306KM².

That means the entire five LGAs of Northern Cross River (Ogoja State), put together, amount to a total land mass of 4,325KM². That is 678KM² smaller than Akamkpa LGA alone. That means if you carry the whole Cross River North and fit into Akamkpa LGA, it will swallow all and still be left with an empty space about three times the size of Obudu LGA.

Yet Akamkpa has only one LGA Chairman. But the smaller space has 5 LGA chairmen. They have a Senator and two members in the House of Representatives and 6 members in the State Assembly and just produced the immediate past Governor for 8 years.

What is stopping all these guys from sitting down and developing this small land mass? Is it the non-creation of Ogoja State that is inhibiting the development of a 4325KM² landmass? If these guys are not faithful with the little they get now to develop that small land space, is it when they get the big allocation that they will become saints?

Your answers are as good as mine.

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.