Cross River State governor,
Senator Ben Ayade on Wednesday inaugurated the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)
campaign council in the state with a charge on members to win their polling
units.
Ayade, who expressed confidence that the party will sweep
next year’s general elections given the achievements recorded by his
administration in the areas of human resource development and
industrialization, said the inauguration of the council is a mere formality.
He however warned against complacency.
“The super abundance of every performance is always
detrimental to the performer. And therefore, no matter how competent, no matter
how experienced you are, you must allow yourself the luxury of inexperience and
give opportunity to do more calculation and plan better,” Ayade stressed.
The governor also charged the council to embark on
issues-based campaign.
“This election cannot be won by money because once you
use money, it becomes commercial and that is against the law. It should be won
by what we have done for the State, it should be won by understanding what we
have done.
“It should be won by the fact that this government
lifted embargo on employment; this government created employment for over 6,000
people by the instrumentality of appointments alone; this government pays
salaries promptly,; pays pensions promptly; this government created opportunity
to promote 33 permanent secretaries, that never happened in Cross River. This
government also directed the Primary Healthcare Agency to employ 1,000 nurses;
employed 1,000 primary school teachers; created opportunity for people to be
given jobs which is the core essence of government; people, people, people.”
Continuing, the governor insisted his administration is
“about the people and so we have something to tell the people. That is
what you should go and tell your people in your polling unit,” adding that
“we are indeed a government of the people, you know how difficult it is at
this time, as perilous as the economy is, we have sustained and placed people
first above every other consideration.”
The Director General of the campaign council and former
deputy governor of the State, Efiok Cobham, in his remarks said the decision to
have a very large campaign council is based on the need to win elections in a
manner that will be wholly convincing.
Hear him: “We have gone to the extent of having a large
campaign organisation because we are passing through interesting times and
interested times call for interesting behavior. That is why we have about 1,600
members of the campaign organisation. If I should have my way, I think we
should even go beyond that because the focus of this campaign is to win and win
all.”
Explaining the reason for the aim of winning all polling
units, Cobham posited: “We shall have campaign organisation up to the
polling unit level because we want to win and we want to win fairly. We want to
win observing all the decency and conventions and even the law that governs
everything so that those who thought our previous elections were flukes, let
them see us win and win convincingly. That is why it is operation win your
polling booth.”