OPINION
By Chris Edadi
My dear party faithful and lovers of our dear party PDP.
I choose doing what I am doing today not out of insubordination as it may look like to some without insight but for the soul of this party PDP and for the sake of hundreds of us who have been investing into this party in dedication, their monies and in total loyalty to the party for so long and still believing in our dear party PDP for tomorrow.
Though, most of us have consistently been on the part of encouraging and saying the things that you want to hear to make you feel good, great and hopeful as a party member,but it’s pertinent at this point to tell you the bitter truth or nothing more. Because, is either it’s working or we know is not working at the moment.
One may ask, are you the only one in the SWC under the chairman?. The answer is no, but I can authoritatively say here and I can proof it to the end that the chairman of the party Hon. Vena Ikem is just alone out of fourteen of us and anybody you see standing by him publicly is a big pretender or under the influence of Hon. Peter Akpanke intermittent visit to calabar and the exchange. This is so because on several moves of the SWC and on two occasions by the SEC of the party,he Akpanke will always appear share some 100k or 50k and immediately they form a quorum then it’s over. In fact, nothing matters to him outside his pocket as chairman. Let me reserve my comment at the moment for the sake of the party.
Unfortunately, the state we are now is just two ways either Hon.Vena Ikem resign honorably or we forget about the party PDP in Cross River state. The idea of leaving till the end of his tenure next year 2025 is a big time waste and unproductive occupancy of the Exco under Vena.
I know most of us may be disappointed on this revelation but at this point there’s nothing we can do than the truth…. let’s fix it and start living as a political party.
You can’t be a leader that almost everybody is just pretending to be under you but deep down with so much bitterness, frustration, regrets over having him as the chairman and I think this is the right time for the chairman to take a bow and leave the stage and allow the PDP in cross river state to breathe.
We are in opposition and the chairman has failed us woefully. At least the party has helped him recovered all he couldn’t do as chairman of council of Obudu,SA to Governor, commissioner ( ie when SA’s and commissionership was what it’s not the ones of under Ayade and Otu), SA to the President and equally one time National Publicity Secretary and finally retrogressively State Chairman and who knows his next target maybe be the Chapter Chairman of Obudu if given the opportunity. So, in all of the above portfolios he has never completed one tenure successfully and those who are forcing him against his trajectory at the detriment of a generation will be the worse heat at the appropriate time, because at the right time, the battle will be the people versus Vena not even the candidate of the party in a protest vote…. Mark my word.
In fact, even in the just concluded ward and chapter congresses I had with me two strong petitions from the leaderships of the party in eight wards out of ten in Obudu,but nothing was done and you think those people are happy with the party?.We have had similar instance in some other LG where his interference wasn’t a balance approach as an umpire.
At least the party had helped him open a farm in Biase as a Chairman , pay his rent in Calabar, have a living house in Obudu, have some cars for himself and have some contacts and even the resources for the birthday preparation is all from being the chairman of PDP in Cross River state, but the big question is, what has Hon. Venatius Ikem given in return for the party?
Thank God he’s celebrating his 60th year on earth and that is the statutory age of retirement and after sixties what sustain a man’s fame influential in power is his past legacies and where there’s none then he out rightly become a burden and a liability to the party and his acquaintance, because you can’t expect any from any man without a good past.
This is where we are now, is either vena resigns immediately or he’s forced out or we forget PDP in cross River state no two ways about it
My name is Chris Edadi, State Fin. Sec PDP. Cross River.
