Cross River North Senatorial District: Senator Jarigbe floors Ayade at Appeal Court
The incumbent representative of Cross River North Senatorial District, Senator Jarigbe Agom may have finally drilled the nail on the political coffin of Ben Ayade, the immediate past Cross River governor at the Appeal Court making it the end of the road for him, at least as far as returning to the Senate is concerned.
Indeed, it’s been a long road to travel and a hard way to go for Senator Jarigbe Agom. He has gone through grit and grime. For more than five years, Ayade has used the resources and apparatus of the state to supress him. Sometimes he succeeded in taking him down, but like proverbial cat with seven lives, Jarigbe always found a way to bounce back. While one of the duo paid obeisance to mammon, spending generously to woo voters and wearing a haughty mien, the other worshiped at the shrine of the people.
This is the reason why Jarigbe could not fail because the people validated him in advance on election day and the days after. They believed in him and trusted him.
He has no mansion in Abuja, Calabar, room in London or America, because he has spent his political seasons building his mansions in the hearts of men. So, they are prepared to live and die with him. At last, Jarigbe has slain the mighty Goliath with simple weapons of sincerity, steadfastness, and acts of charity and kindness.
Jalal Al din Muhammed Rumi, an Islamic philosopher and poet wrote: “When we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men.”
Jalal Al din and Mahatma Ghandi, international poets believe the ultimate fulfillment is in doing good, as Ghandi professed: “I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”
Nevertheless, Ben Ayade may well bounce back into political reckoning only if he has the humility to read from Jarigbe Agom’s rule book. Ben Ayade and his family piled heaps of cash for themselves in the eight years of his misrule.
The Appeal Court ruling I suppose should have thought Ayade a lesson that money cannot tell one good morning when the day breaks, only people can. Ayade must be a lonely man now fraternizing with Alphonsus Ogar Eba, the chairman of his party and crafty contriver who exploited and led him on.
By: Archibong Emmanuel
(Snr. Reporter)
