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Tag: Ayade

  • 2019: Widows in Cross River root for Ayade

    A  non governmental organisation, Association of Widows in Cross River, has endorsed Governor Ben Ayade for a second term.

    The association commended the governor for the election of one of their own, Mrs  Abbey Ukpukpen into theHouse of Assembly to replace her late husband, Steven Ukpukpen.

    They spoke in Calabar, the capital, through their president, Mrs Grace Out, during a solidarity meeting with the governor.

    According to Otu, “we sincerely thank Professor Ayade for supporting the election of a widow to take over the seat of her late husband at the House of Assembly.”

    She added:” Today, we have one of us who truly understands our plight and will ensure that our interests is protected, and in appreciation, we  declare support for the second term bid of our digital governor to enable him complete the work he has started.”

    Mrs Otu said Ayade had impacted positively on widows since assumption of office in May, 2015, noting that it will be unfair not to back his second term ambition.

    Ayade, she said, was the only governor in the state that has demonstrated interest in their wellbeing as evident in the garment factory employing over 80 per cent widows and their children, the creation of a dedicated office, and a personal assistant to interface with them.

    The leader urged the people not to waiver in their support for Ayade’s polices and his re-election bid.

    Responding, Commissioner for Women Affairs Mrs Stella Odey, who described the election of Mrs Ukpukpen as a demonstration of Ayade’s magnanimity, love and passion for widows, thanked them for reciprocating the gesture through their endorsement.

    Odey, who stood in for the governor, said: “Ayade is a governor with a human face who is always seeking ways to better the lots of widows across the state through initiation of several empowerment programmes. These initiatives and programmes have transformed many widows which he passionately does not because he has so much but because he cares enough.”

    She urged others to emulate the governor, who according to her, came with a clean heart to serve with a vision to transform the socio-economic landscape of the state.

  • Ayade to get award for improving health sector

    Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade is to receive award for improving the health sector.

    The state emerged as the most improved in health in the Southsouth.

    One state per geopolitical zone was chosen for the award.

    The award will be presented to the governor at the 3rd ThisDay Policy Dialogue tomorrow at the Yar’Adua conference centre in Abuja.

    Vice President Yemi Osibanjo is expected to present the honours to the best performing states, a statement  signed  by  Dr. Okara Dogara said.

    The main thrust of the event, according to the statement, is to draw attention to increased function of health care in the states towards achieving universal health coverage on a state-by-state basis.

    Under the Ayade-led administration, Cross River has attained milestones, including significant reduction in maternal mortality.

    It also has the highest child survival rate in Nigeria and the first  to be declared open defeacation-free in West Africa.

    Cross River, which has completed the Calabar Pharmaceutical Company, and is building three modern referral hospitals in each senatorial district, is soon to become the state with the first council, Calabar municipality, to achieve HIV goal 90 90 90.

  • Ayade lauds judiciary as CJN opens Appeal Court complex in Calabar

    Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade  has commended the judiciary for upholding the rule of law, justice and equity.

    Ayade spoke in Calabar yesterday when he received the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen and other justices of the Appeal courts, led by its President, Justice Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa, on a visit prior to the inauguration of the Court of Appeal Complex in Calabar,

    The governor said he was impressed with recent landmark judgments of both the Appeal Courts and the Supreme Court.

    He said: “I think gradually you have helped change the politics of people thinking that they can win elections in court. So, I am shocked at the level at which people are now willing to settle their political differences because they know the court is no longer available for sale.”

    While urging them to be more proactive in line with the world order, Ayade added: “The primary essence of the judiciary is to guarantee law and order and that is why the history of law itself is derived from the norms and culture of the people, judicial precedence or pronouncement of the court. Therefore the court in itself, other than the legislature has the powers within the ambits of legal provisions to make laws.

    “Unfortunately, because we run a codified system of government, it does not allow you the luxury of your personal interpretation of issues as they come before you. But, the real truth is; as law migrates from common law to equity and going into a final level of jurisprudence, time has come when we must sit back and ask ourselves if the essence of the judiciary is being met.

    “The world is migrating fast from the codification system to moral justice; to what is fair. I, therefore plead, that as part of the sophistication and growth of our legal system, we must advance it beyond the codification and provisions that if we do this, this is your penalty. We must not continue to draw our rulings based on the prescription of the law. It is only a guidance, but the greater guidance is Kantianism. It is morality, it is good conscience, it is fairness, it is ensuring that warring parties that come before you leave as friends, as brothers and as sisters. That is the essence of the judiciary, which is the essence of the law that is the philosophy that guides the existence of this third arm of government.”

    Justice Onnoghen, who lauded the state for donating the piece of land for the complex, said: “It was nostalgic to witness the actualisation of the dream for a befitting court of appeal complex in this part of the country.”

    He maintained that with the inauguration of the edifice, judges will no longer suffer the hardship they had experienced since the former court was gutted by fire.

    While calling on the government to revitalise the old complex to serve as a national monument, being the first court in Nigeria, Onnoghen said: “I will seize this opportunity to seek the assistance of government and people of this state, to do whatever you can, to in fact,  if possible get the federal government involved and any other agency of government that can, including those in charge of the preservation of national monuments to be interested in restoring that structure for posterity.

    “It will be a great landmark in the history of this country and Cross River State in particular, because you cannot run away from the fact that that happens to be the very first seat of the judiciary in this country. It was the Supreme Court of southern protectorate of Nigeria before the capital was moved to Lagos.”

    At the venue of the new court of appeal commissioning on Diamond Road, behind the New Secretariat, Justice Bulkachuwa said the construction of the edifice started 12 years ago after the former office that was built in 1896 was gutted by fire in December 2011.

    While thanking the state government for the critical role it played in ensuring the successful completion of the court of appeal Calabar division, the President explained that the choice for the establishment of the court was borne out of the fact that Calabar once hosted the Supreme Court of the Southern Protectorate in 1896 before the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorate in 1914.

     

     

     

  • Ayade: Cross River cocoa processing plant ready soon

    Cross River State Governor   Ben Ayade has hailed work at the 30,000 tonnes yearly cocoa processing plant in Ikom.

    Ayade, who was excited by delivery of equipment for the plant, said the factory will soon be ready.

    “I am really impressed. As you can see, intellectual money is on display here. From what I have seen, the contractor deserve an excellent pat on the back. This is what we call commitment and consistency,” the governor remarked.

    He said the plant could process cocoa beans to chocolate bars.

    “Again, we are going to be the first in Africa as this is the first cocoa processing plant that will process cocoa beans to chocolate,” he stated.

    He said with the delivery of equipment, his vision for cocoa revolution in the state is crystallising.

    The governor, who said he knew from the first day he was sworn in, what he needed to do to enhance the economic wellbeing of the people, said the plant would bring about value-chain addition to cocoa, which will ultimately enrich cocoa farmers.

    “This is the spirit of intellectual money and Cross River ultimately will be proud that I knew where I was going from the beginning. I am following an agenda that at the end of my eight years in office, when every single citizen of the state remembers my days, he or she will say this young man had a great vision.

    “For all the years gone by, Cross River has been producing cocoa for other states to bear the name because we did not have an off-take mechanism, we did not have a programme by government to buy off the cocoa at good rates. So, outsiders used to come in and buy the cocoa from us and grade it as cocoa from their state.”

    The plant, which will soon be operational, offers cocoa farmers in the state “the opportunity, platform and industry to process their cocoa, giving a premium value for money. A cocoa house is going to be built here. Once you have a cocoa farm, you just come here, collect money during harvest, we take your cocoa, so you have money for the product and you don’t have to go to bank to get a loan.”

    Ayade urged the people of the central senatorial district to see the cocoa processing plant as their own baby by ensuring no harm comes to it.”

  • Ayade is BusinessDay Best Governor in Agriculture

    Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade has won BusinessDay Award for Best Performing Governor in Agriculture. The newspaper said the award was in recognition of Professor Ayade’s initiative in agriculture.

    President Muhammadu Buhari recently inaugurated Africa’s first and only Rice seeds and Seedling Factory in Calabar.

    The factory is one of Ayade’s signature projects.

    Buhari commended the governor for keying into the economic diversification policy of his administration by investing in agriculture, describing him as a reference point in agricultural revolution.

    Ayade who has often spoken of his determination to remove Cross River from over-dependence on oil- driven federal allocation through diversification, is also building a modern rice mill in Ogoja, and a 30000 yearly cocoa processing plant in Ikom.

    He has established a cotton farm in Woda, Yala,  Banana Plantation in Odukpani. Work has commenced on the Calabar mordern poultry farm and  yellow maize farm in Obubra  among others.

    The Business Day Award, which will be confered on the governor on Thursday, at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, is the latest award confered on Ayade in recognition of his achievements.

    He had won the Vanguard Governor of the Year Award, Authority newspaper Governor of the Year Award, Tell magazine Man of the Year Award, and The Most Labour Friendly Governor Award, from the organised Labour.

     

     

     

  • Cross River ready for Buhari’s second visit, says Ayade

    Cross Rover State Governor Ben Ayade said yesterday all is ready for President Muhammadu Buhari’s second visit to the state within three years.

    The Prsident is expected in Calabar tomorrow to inaugurate the multi-billion naira automated rice seeds and seedlings factory in Calabar. It is reputed to be the first in Africa.

    .The governor said: “We are perfectly in order. This is home coming for Mr President and as far as I am concerned, Cross River is ready to receive him. We are going to him a perfect reception.”

    He described the visit as an indication of the President’s love for the state and a stamp of approval for his administration’s investments in agriculture.

    He said “the first visit of President Buhari was on infrastructure but this second visit will be agriculture related and it shows consistency and a pass mark on my government.”

    The President will also inaugurate the ultramodern Navy Hospital in Carlsbad.

    Governor Ayade said with Federal Government’s support, the State would be generating at least N50b annually from the factory.

    Already, Calabar is looking spick and span in readiness for the visit

  • Ayade unveils theme for Carnival Calabar 2018

    THERE are indications that the annual Calabar Festival would be repositioned and transformed into a veritable platform for African discourse.

    This was made known by Governor Ben Ayade of Cross Rivers State during the unveiling of the theme for the 2018 edition of the Carnival Calabar tagged ‘Africanism’.

    The event which held at the State Executive Chamber, Calabar, included a short video presentation on illegal mining exploitation across Africa by a few rich foreign aristocrats.

    Ayade expressed optimism that this year’s edition of the tourism event will go a long way in righting the wrongs done to Africans by foreigners, especially colonial overlords, by portraying the continent and its people as the true owners of the real wealth in the world.

    The governor who described the carnival as Africa’s biggest street party stressed that he has a burning desire to see Africans speak in one voice.

    He said: “Because Nigeria’s foreign policy is Afrocentric, the unification of Africa has become critical, let the carnival speak to power, speak to Africans that the African Union must rise and defend Africa.”

    Elated by the theme of this year’s carnival, he said, “time has come when Africa must start thinking as a country and provide a shoulder for weaker African countries to lean on.”

    Ayade charged the band leaders of the 2018 Carnival to make Africa proud by talking big about the continent, as, according to him, “Africa has grown and will war no more”, adding “make the streets glitter with things and colours that truly represent Africa as only this will show we have come of age.”

    Chairman of Cross River State Tourism Commission, Gabe Onah said the Calabar Carnival remains the main factor that has changed the narrative about Cross River and put the state and Nigeria on a global map.

    Onah praised Ayade for introducing other segments like the International Carnival, Bikers’ Parade, and Miss Africa Beauty Pageant among others, and taking the yearly event to unprecedented height.

  • Ayade: I’ve taken governance to people

    Cross River State Governor Prof Ben Ayade has said in the last three years, he was focused on the people by taking governance to them.

    Ayade spoke when he led a walk around Calabar, the capital, in celebration of Democracy Day.

    Addressing a huge crowd, Ayade said: “When you are a governor and you focus on the people, this is what you get because I have shifted government from a small number of people who before now thought that they were the Alpha and the Omega.

    ‘’I have commonised government, expanded it and taken it to the people that need it most. That is what has brought the atmosphere you see here today.”

    Justifying his expanded government, the governor said: “Cross River State has never had it so good, when almost every family has somebody in government,” adding that “that is the secret because in a sluggish and developing economy, the focus is on the people, while infrastructure becomes secondary.”

    According to Ayade, “if people have not eaten, you cannot be thinking of doing roads for them. Food first. While my first term policy is food on the table by expanding government, I did so because I understand that in politics, the emphasis should be on the people.”

    Further, he said: “When we move from this level to a level where hunger is no more and they are guaranteed of a decent livelihood, then you move to the next phase, which is infrastructure. So, I’m doing what my people love and that’s why you are seeing all this enthusiasm.

    “We are happy for the stability of our democracy but little to show in terms of character. Indeed, Nigeria has just become a political country.”

    The governor, while arguing for less emphasis on electioneering, and more on service, said: “From the beginning of an election, you think of another election, so we do election in Nigeria for the purpose of election and not for service to the people.

    “I feel sad that after 19 years, we still have this kind of democracy. If Nigeria is indeed a leading country in Africa, then this is not the kind of democracy I will expect from Nigeria 19 years after. And so, I expect to see more finesse and more educated people in politics, I expect to see better character. It is not normal that in every election season, there has to be this level of tension.”

    Citing other democracies, Ayade noted: “I was in China during their presidential election, I was not aware that there was an election going on that day because everybody was in the factory working. It doesn’t matter who is the president. That is the situation in a near perfect system as China.”

    Ayade, who insisted he is more focused on the people, said: “I’m more focused on my people and if your focus is on the people, politics will be three months before election and I think whether you are in opposition or in the ruling party, just focus on your people and you will see that the conflict in your state will be less because if I’m doing well as a governor, there will be no desperation to effect a change. The only reason where you see fierce competition is because those who become governors or even presidents hold it and limit it only to their political party.

    “Already I have started hearing of assassinations and killings. He who is killing somebody will die one day.

    ‘’Don’t you feel ashamed that when you take a life and you go and sleep, do you think your children will succeed by stopping another man’s progress?”

    The event witnessed various groups including men, women, students, workers, youths who defied the rains as they walked round the capital city chanting solidarity songs for Ayade and his team for tremendously transforming their lives as evident in the long term projects spread across the three senatorial districts of the state.

    In her remarks, Commissioner for Information, Mrs. Rosemary Archibong, said: “Democracy Day is worth celebrating in Cross River because Governor Ayade has in three years turned the state to an industrial hub. From the South, Central and Northern Senatorial Districts, evidence of performances is everywhere and since the projects are not short term projects, continuation is only real and necessary for the governor beyond 2019.”

     

     

     

     

     

  • Ayade to Buhari: Endorse African Trade Agreement now

    Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the African Trade Agreement.

    Ayade made the call in Calabar when the Nigeria Office Trade Negotiations (NOTN) in the Federal Ministry of Trade, Industries and Investments held its fifth national stakeholders sensitization forum on the African Continental Free Trade Area.

    The governor commended President Buhari for not signing the agreement in Kigali, Rwanda, last month and urged him to expeditiously endorse the agreement as the country has much to benefit from the pact.

    “This is the time for Nigeria to exert her ‘giant-hood’ in all spheres in Africa since there is an unfair global trade against many African countries.

    “The President should proceed immediately to sign that agreement. We stand to gain much. The success and wealth of Africa lie on Nigeria’s shoulders.

    “We should not necessarily intervene militarily but economically and commercially in many African countries. There is so much wealth in Africa and Nigeria and time has come to harness them to enable us stand tall and proud,” he said.

     

     

     

  • Ayade inaugurates health insurance scheme

    Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade yesterday launched the state comprehensive health insurance scheme, christened Ayadecare.

    The scheme, which targets the vulnerable as well as zero income earners, got N250 million as seed fund from Ayade.  Ayade donated N200 million on behalf of the state; N50 million was donated on behalf of the governor and his family.

    Speaking at the U. J. Esuene Stadium venue, the governor said the May 27 launch, a day set aside to celebrate children was deliberate as it sought to give priority to children and women, who are the vulnerable in society

    “The state will invest  heavily in the scheme to ensure  quality and affordable health care services  for our people”, Ayade said, while seeking Federal Government’s support.

    Justifying the launch, the governor said “the scheme  is a clear indication  that the state is in the right path to ensuring  prosperity  and better health services for the people.  Our children must access the scheme,  and the launch on Children’s Day is to celebrate children, who are leaders of tomorrow.“

    Also speaking,  Speaker,  House  of Assembly,  John Gaul Lebo,  hailed Ayade  for the scheme, noting that with the launch, the governor  has shown a strong commitment to better health care.

    The Speaker assured  the governor of continuous legislative  support  for the scheme.

    Special  Adviser to the Governor on Insurance  Chief Godwin  Iyala praised Ayadee,  saying the scheme was designed  to put more money in people’s pockets.

    According  to Iyala,  an average family  in Cross River spends at least  N25,000 monthly  on health and that by “this scheme, we are determined to ensure health governance. It is to ensure  affordable and quality healthcare.

    ‘The people  are happy with the governor. The universal health care is at our doorsteps  and we will ensure it succeeds.”

    The Director-General of the state Primary  Healthcare  Agency,  Dr.  Betta Edu,  said Ayade  has taken measures with the launch of the scheme to  improve the  health care  of Cross  Riverians

    According to her, “less than five percent  of Cross  Riverians  have access  to health care. It will enhance  quality  and affordable  healthcare”

    Commissioner for Health Dr.  Inyang  Asibong said  the launch  of the scheme  was in fulfillment  of the governor’s  deep vision  for healthcare  in Cross River State.