Ogoja/Yala By-Election: How The Young Made A Case For Themselves In The North

 

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By Dominic Kidzu 

It is now clear that a new generation of politicians in Cross River State are ready to take over the mantle of leadership seeing the way they led the charge for the electoral victory in the just concluded federal constituency bye - elections for Ogoja/Yala local government areas. If anyone doubted that they have arrived, this was the opportunity for them to change their minds and begin to believe in their capacity to deliver on serious assignments and critical responsibilities. 

From the youthful state chairman of the party, Bar Alphonsus Eba, the youthful candidate, Jude Ngaji, to the young and dynamic Sen Stephen Odey, the equally young chapter chairmen of the two local government areas to the elected chairmen of the local councils, no one would doubt the ability and readiness of young people to take over the mantle of leadership and chart a new course for the people of Cross River State. The single-minded commitment and dedication to the assignments have been admirable and assuring about the safety of the future of our dear state in their hands. They strategized and coordinated effectively they winning of polling units to the collation at the ward level and LG level. Most importantly they effectively protected the results at all cost.

Equally as important to point out for those who do not understand the operations of politics, losing your unit is not terrible, what is terrible is to lose your unit with vast margins. The APC youths in Ogoja stood their ground valiantly to ensure even the losses in Ogoja were with very slim margins. Off course PDP knew they could never win Yala with the roll-call of APC young gladiators there, so their strategy was to win and rig in Ogoja with far superior margins. They clearly didn’t count on the courage of the likes of young men such as Stain aka Aruku Thomas, Godwin Nyiam, Peter Odey, Achilles, Bajie, Abuo and many others. Some outrightly won their units others displayed tremendous courage under fire to forestall rigging and loosing their units with wide margins. In an election, every 1 vote margin counts and struggling to lose with one vote ultimately assists the party to win at collation. It’s akin to a defender preventing goals from going in while the strikers score the goals, all are extremely essential for a team to win.

The Young APC Ogoja stalwarts displayed true courage to assist the party win the federal constituency.

Without heckling and shoving our reverred elders to allow a new generation to take over in earnest it has become obvious that the future of the young people is indubitably tied to the future of our corporate state and their commitment to its success is also a commitment to their own individual advancement in tandem with the growth of the state. The young people know that the state is theirs to build or destroy just as their individual fortunes are theirs to build or destroy. It is this spiritual bond that recommends the youths for leadership roles today way ahead of our already successful and experienced fat cats who have been former this and former that while the ship of state remains forever adrift at sea.

The failure of the APC charge in Akpabuyo local government area strengthens the case for youth power as the State House of Assembly bye - elections were left in the hands of well respected elders of the party who unfortunately lost it to the opposition PDP. There can be no better vindication of the youths than the example above where the same assignment and enablement were given to energetic youths of the party in the North and experienced elders of the party in the South. Does the results not speak loudly for themselves? Surely if younger people were put in charge in the Akpabuyo elections the PDP would not have been allowed to run roughshod on the APC. 

Need I say more?