By Roseline Irek
“Please give me, from this crowd, one thousand women for Ten Thousand (N10, 000) Naira monthly. I believe 10, 000.00 can reduce the harshness of the economy. Don’t bring me anybody outside this park. I want to see Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and other names. I don’t believe that politics is about geography; I believe politics is about humanity. I don’t believe in religion, I don’t believe in ethnicity; I believe in humanity….” Those were the words from Governor Ben Ayade to the sea of heads (women in Cross River) that gathered recently at the Millennium Park in Calabar to voice their solidarity with the amiable governor, now pitching tent with the All Progressive Congress (APC).
Women in Cross River State, indigenes and non-indigenes alike, in an array of beautiful apparels, a little over a week ago, under the aegis of the Dr. Linda Ayade-loved Cross River Women Emancipation Initiative (CROWEI), gathered in their numbers for two reasons – to thank Governor Ayade for the unprecedented involvement of women in his administration; and to pledge their unflinching support for a man who has made citizens welfare and economic emancipation the core of his government.
And in his usual empathic disposition, touched by the labour of love exhibited by women of the State, the Governor’s pronouncement of ten thousand naira (N10, 000) for a thousand women across religious, ethnic and cultural lines, resident in the State, will help cushion the prevailing economic hardship made worst by the covid-19 pandemic, aligning with Martin Luther King Jr.’s postulation that “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
Even before assuming office as governor in 2015, Senator Ben Ayade’s antecedents conform to Irish activist, Betty Williams’ hypothesis “To say that on a daily basis you can make a difference, well, you can. One act of kindness a day can do it.”
Testifying of her husband’s goodness, Dr. Linda Ayade described Sir Ayade as “a compassionate and tender-hearted man,” who always thinks good about the State; trying to change the narrative, especially in the area of unemployment, being a job creator long before venturing into politics.
The above statement from the first lady, without prejudice, corroborates the governor’s empathic and humanitarian disposition as a world changer.
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