Ayade: Portrait of a Promise Keeper @49
Yesterday, Governor Ben Ayade of Cross Rivers State clocked 49. In this tribute to him, Effiom Bassey writes that the young governor is modernising governance and keeping to his word to develop the state
He was renowned with just three labels when he waltzed into wider public consciousness in 2015, a professor, a barrister and a senator. To his erstwhile colleagues in the upper legislative chamber from 2007 to 2015, he was a boisterous senator who waxed and dazzled with so much erudition. In the academia, he was famed for his scientific inventiveness. In the bar, he is reticent, but no less consummate.
But barely seven months into the life of his then embryonic administration as governor of Cross River State, Professor Ben Ayade had already amassed quite a panoply of sobriquets. Sobriquets earned but not acquired.
For his avant-garde and unconventional approach to governance, he was christened the “Digital Governor”. And for his transformational and humanistic leadership style, he was soon to add to his vast expanding titles as the “People’s Governor.”
Before long, such appellations as “Investment Friendly governor, Labour friendly governor, Environmentallyfriendly governor, Salary Master” became common refrain.
For governor who had set his mind on staying focused by ensuring that not only the middle class was resurrected, but also given the needed oxygen to find anchor for their roots, these appellations were not misplaced after all.
It is common knowledge that while most states in the country are literally suffocating under the weight of unpaid salaries, Governor Ayade has ensured that salaries are not only paid promptly, but as early as between 20th, 25th and 26th of every month.
Today, the challenge in the state is not whether salaries are being paid promptly, but rather, it is the complaint from civil servants themselves that it is coming too early in the month. Indeed, the practice has endeared him to civil servants, necessitating his being named ‘Salary Master’. This has also earned him the title of ‘Labour Most Friendly Governor’ in Nigeria and similar award of recognition from a coalition of over 50 civil society groups in the country.
In absolute fidelity to his words that the wages of honest labour shall liberate families from the clutches of hardship and hunger, Governor Ayade, abolished taxes for civil servants below N30, 000 a month as well as the exemption of levies for artisans, petty traders operating in the state.
It is on this premise that one cannot but felicitate with the governor as he marks his 49th birthday today.
It is not surprising that while other states are to pruning down their workforce for lack of funds to pay salaries, in Cross River, the story is different as his administration, just barely three months in office lifted the 23-year-old embargo on employment into the civil service as most MDA’s are currently recruiting young graduates into the already jaded state civil service.
In order to rejig the fast depleting management cadre of the state’s civil service, the governor recently swore in 30 permanent secretaries. This is unprecedented and even more commendable as it was happening at the most challenging of time of recession. No doubt, this could only come from a man with a good heart.
Currently trending is the Cross River State Health Insurance Scheme, christened “Ayadecare”, which the governor signed into law a couple of months ago. This is socio-medical revolution will ensure that cheap and affordable healthcare is accessible to all and sundry in the state.
Today, many states have adopted it as a model. Under the scheme, even the poor can afford health care service with just one thousand naira monthly contribution.
As a further fillip to the AyadeCare, the administration of Ben Ayade recently secured a partnership with DANA (an Indian manufacturing conglomerate) to collaborate with the state government to develop a pharmaceutical outfit in Calabar to be known as CALAPHARM pharmaceutical to manufacture drugs locally.
When CALAPHARM becomes operational, it will cater for the drugs need of the South-south and South-east with capacity to generate massive employment for the regions’ teeming army of unemployed youths.
With an eye to completely alter the state’s economic architecture, the Calabar Garment Factory, with a capacity to guarantee 3000 employments, received so much accolade from the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Work left stunned by the sheer size and sophistication of the Calabar Garment Factory when he visited. To his amazement, he described the feat accomplished by Ayade as the 8th Wonder of the world for a factory reckoned as the biggest in Africa.
The news of the automated garment factory also prompted the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris to express the intention of the Nigeria Police Force to partner the factory for uniforms for its officers and men.
A few weeks ago, the Peace Corps of Nigeria also came calling, asking for the production of one hundred thousand pieces of uniforms for its officers and men. What more dividends of democracy can the people ask for?
Governor Ayade-led administration’s policy to create value chain for rice production in the state is equally evident as construction of the state’s Rice City project is in full speed. The project which is set for completion and commissioning on the governor’s second anniversary has the seedling and training centres incorporated with two or three technologies to be integrated, ushering in a new concept of rice farming in Nigeria. Of unique importance is the disease and pest resistance species of rice to be produced with increased yield per hectare.
At completion, this technology driven innovation will ensure that Cross River chalks up about 50 percent of the market share of rice.
To complement the Calabar Rice City and create its brand in the rice sector, the administration is currently constructing a state of the art Rice Mill in Ogoja.
To ensure easy access to facility for rice farmers, the administration has caused the state to key into the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers Scheme. Leading from the front, Ayade is cultivating his own rice farm that will contribute immensely to the effort of becoming a leading state in rice production.
In a bid to stamp out the power challenge in the state, the governor is also constructing the Calabar power plant, to drive an industrialized local economy.
What more, the Ayade signature project and one of the biggest projects of this administration, the Bakassi Deep seaport just got an EIA approval from the Federal Government. This is coming on the heels of the Transaction Advisor recently inaugurated by the federal government for the project. When completed, it will revolutionize the state’s economic landscape.
Another commendable project being undertaken by the administration is the 260km superhighway, designed to serve as an evacuation corridor for the Bakassi deep seaport to the Northern part of Nigeria, Niger and the Chad republic.
Given the parlous state of the economy, it is not out of place for scenic and skeptics to sneer at the sheer audacity of the governor to dream. But for a governor who will not hesitate to give an eye and a leg to keep his word, he has gone a shopping in Asia and Europe for investors who are falling over themselves for a piece of the investment pie.
In Ayade, Cross River has got a leader who has consistently put his soul above his problems, allowing his body to just follow.
Given the fecundity of his ideas, the intensity of his vision and the bullishness of his thought, there is no gainsaying that in this young ebullient and dynamic governor, the future indeed, beckons for the people of Cross River State.
And so, as His Excellency marks another year of greatness attained, I call on good and well-meaning Cross Riverians to coalesce in wishing the Promise Keeper, the Salary Master, the Digital Governor many more years of excellence and exemplary leadership as he continues to propel our state to even greater heights.
Happy birthday, Your Excellency