There are some articles I wrote between 2015 and 2019 about the candidate of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC for Abi/Yakur federal constituency, Rt. Hon. John Gaul Lebo, when he was Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly, that some of his political opponents are now circulating as though they were written today. I have seen some of them being presented without the context in which they were written, so I think it is important to put things in perspective.
I was not one of John Gaul’s fans as Speaker. I had my reservations about his leadership of the Assembly and wrote about them openly at the time. I do not need to pretend otherwise today. But a lot has happened since then. New facts have emerged, circumstances have changed, and with the benefit of hindsight, I have come to see that some of the limitations he faced as Speaker were beyond his control. He was, in many ways, a product of the political circumstances around him and may not have been in a position to do much more than he did.
John Gaul himself also appears to have learned from the experience. After losing the 2019 House of Representatives election, he stepped away from public office and spent years in what many would describe as political oblivion. But those years seem to have changed him. In fact, as I wrote in a short piece a few months ago, I believe John Gaul has done more for Cross River during this period than he did as Speaker.
What stands out to me today is his commitment to the state’s struggle over its oil producing status. Cross River needs a strong voice in Abuja to support Governor Bassey Otu’s efforts to reclaim our rightful place as an oil producing state. The recent comments by Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, and the way Cross River’s littoral status was misrepresented, for instance, required someone with the knowledge, courage and political understanding to challenge the narrative and put the facts before the public.
John Gaul has been doing exactly that as a private person, he would do more in the floor of the National Assembly. He has put his political capital, relationships and much of what he has built over the years on the line for a cause that goes beyond his personal political ambition. Whatever one may have thought of him as Speaker, it is difficult to ignore the part he is playing now in the state’s fight against the injustice done our dear state by the Nigerian state.
The John Gaul I see today is not the same man I saw as Speaker. There has been a noticeable change in his approach to people and politics. In recent months, I have heard about several interventions and forms of support he has extended to people and communities. More importantly, he appears more accessible, closer to ordinary people and more willing to listen. This is the John Gaul we should be talking about today.
People should not be judged forever by one chapter of their political lives. His time as Speaker is part of his history and should not be erased. Neither should the criticisms that came with it. But his record since leaving public office deserves to be considered as well.
For me, whatever mistakes John Gaul may have made as Speaker, he has taken meaningful steps to rebuild his image and earn the confidence of many who once had reservations about him, including me. More importantly, he has helped place Cross River’s struggle back in the national conversation and is contributing to the effort to restore the state’s status as an oil producing state.
That is why I believe the good people of Abi/Yakurr should give him another opportunity to serve. They should judge the man they see today, not only the man they remember from the Speaker’s chair.
Inyali Peter, Ph.D.
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