WHEN on May 29, 2015, Senator Professor Benedict Benyaushuye Ayade was sworn-in as the 3rd Governor of Cross River from 1999, and the instrument of power and authority passed over to him at the prestigious Calabar International Convention Centre (CICC), venue of the inauguration ceremony, Ayade the ambitious young man from Obudu and first Governor from the northern senatorial district  in his inaugural speech left  no  one in doubt that he was coming to government with the sole purpose of  providing service  and qualitative existence for the generality of the people of Cross River and other Nigerians living in the state.

His vision as encapsulated in the inaugural speech is clear as to the direction/path he intend to chart.  In that speech Ayade was passionate that as a people we have come to a point in history of possibilities/prosperity because he has come with the right ingredients to drive the state away from backwardness to greatness and the people from poverty to being economically viable.  To achieve the desired goal therefore, it require that the people must collectively “rise to…full height to envision and carve out a better future” for themselves and the coming generations.

Governor Ayade subsequent utterances and actions from the day of his inauguration to his 100 Days in Office lucidly indicate that he is on course,to move Cross River out of doldrums of social, economic and political irrelevance.  Ayade had maintained in his inaugural speech that,“in the new Cross River of our DREAM, there is a place and hope for everyone. There will be jobs for the youth and prosperity for the working class. The resurgent middle class shall find anchor for their roots and everyone shall find independence and pride in their work. The wages of honest labour shall liberate families from the jaws of hardship and no child shall go to bed with an empty stomach. Neither shall any mother be depressed by lack of access to Medicare for her children and loved ones. Brothers and sisters, this is our DREAM!”

In 100 days, Ayade has made good his promise to provide jobs. With the conclusion of recruitment interview to employ 1000 persons for the Green Police and the Garment factory (500 each for a start), lifted the  embargo on employment, started and sustained prompt payment of workers’ salary , concluded arrangement with a Dublin based Irish company, Affordable Buildings Concept International Limited for the building of 5000 houses for the low, middle and upper income earners , and the appointment by executive fiat to Mr. Ashie Osor a linage reporter with the Cross River State Newspaper Corporation since 2009, indeed better days beckon for Cross  Riverians.

As part of efforts to creating employment opportunities within his 100 days in office, Ayade has also ensure that work on the garment factory is ongoing, inspite of the heavy rains, he concluded arrangement with Irish Dairy firm for the establishment of an ice cream making factory. A Spanish company, Cavenco is to establish a Dairy Farm to revitalise the Obudu Ranch Resort Farms. It is based on this reality that in his inaugural speech he specifies what this period expects from the entire people of Cross River.”This is what this moment requires. The capacity to dream!”

To bring to fruition his promise supported by the cooperation of the people to take  on new ideas as well as technology to bring about total empowerment to Cross Riverians, Senator Ayade has equally within his 100 days  concluded a pact for the establishment of a tractor assembly plant in the state. China Harbor Engineering, a globally renowned company is already carrying out preliminary work at the proposed Calabar Deep Seaport that will help to evacuate the corridors that have  prevented bigger vessels from entering the Calabar seaport, as they had to stop at Lome and then use smaller vessels to transfer goods by installment to Calabar. The project will also help service land locked countries like Chad and Niger to move their goods easily from the Calabar port.

Ayade has already attracted  500 Million Euros from the Broad Spectrum Industrial Services, based on purely Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement with the government required to provide 25 percent Bank guarantee; just as a reputable Nigerian bank has already given its approval to the novel arrangement. When completed, the seaport is expected to generate an average N30 Million monthly. In 100 days, surveying, plotting and excavation work is ongoing on the over 260 kilometres Super High Way from the seaport to the northern part of the state. Advanced plans for the actualisation of the proposed state owned refinery is on as well as efforts to send talented Cross Riverians to be trained as pilots and other associated aviation courses and professions in Dublin in preparation for the construction of an airport to be located between Ogoja and Yala Local Government Areas of the state. In the area of security, a Five-man Security Committee headed by Brig. Gen Mannix Nyiam (Retd) and code-named “Operation Skolombo” was inaurguated.   The security committee has been provided with operational vehicles, attended and inspected the carry out o

Propelled by the unquenchable desire to bring about an attitudinal change favouring the employment of machineries/technology to enhance our production capacity, boost our economy and open a new vista of hope and opportunity directed at increasing our value chain the  governor  sponsored and signed into law the Cross River State Infrastructure  Development Law  for the development of the state. Thus, the state  has  become the first in Nigeria to do so. In 100 days, Ayade has sponsored a bill for the establishment of  Cross River State Sustainable Development Agenda Agency, a bill for Social Housing Infrastructure Development to ensure every Cross Riverian, no matter his/her social, economic and political status, is entitled to a decent house.

He has equally sent a bill for a law to protect our water frontiers; a bill to preserve our forests resources in accordance with the sustainable development agenda of the global community; a tax exemption bill to exclude the poor and the low income earners from taxation to ameliorate the conditions of the ordinary man in the state.  Out of a total of 15 bills before the current CRSHA, 10 were sponsored by Senator Ayade in 100 days .

In 100 days, Governor Ayade has  equally concluded an arrangement to build a brand new city to be called “Calas Vergas” in Calabar and 16 other modern estates in the 16 Local Government Areas where the dual super high way will pass as part of deliberate effort to lift the state infrastructure wise, draw oil magnates and other investors to Calabar and the state in general and then boost the overall economy of Cross River and lives of the people.

Outside the above stated achievements, the amiable governor has equally laid a rock-solid foundation that will turn the state into an economic hub in West Africa sub region  by sealing a pact with Chinese experts to generate a total of 90 megawatts of electricity from the Agbokim and Kwa waterfalls and the canalization and channelization of either Ikom, Itigidi and Calabar rivers, with each generating 30megawatts and the conclusion of plans to construct the Calabar Haulage City. Other significant achievements recorded by the Ayade administration within the short span of a 100 days in office include presentation of operational vehicles to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), restores the regular media parley with the press, restored the monthly impress to the press, provided the press with a brand new bus, restored the Correspondent Chapel to the Governor’s Office,, held meetings with members of  forests communities, and operators of quarries in the state plan to lift the ban on logging in the state and restore the concessional logging system, evacuation of refuse from our streets and introduction new refuse collection method as well as severally intervened on the Federal Roads to bring about palliative relief to the suffering motorists and other road users at Odukpani Junction and the Akpabuyo road.

All that have been achieved and those successes in the offing, Ayade had in his inaugural speech as governor stated confidently that they were achievable and the journey and action of this visionary leaders in the past 100 days has clearly shown that they are indeed achievable with the collective support from the people in the future as they have so far done.

“With our backs against the wall, we must dig deeper into the wells of our creativity and hew out a new pathway to greatness. In doing this, we must be guided by the immortal words of Dr Nelson Mandela that “ It always seems impossible until it is done”. Fellow Cross Riverians, we shall overcome the present bleakness and wend our way into the sunshine of a brighter day! As we clime this imposing mountain of HOPE, we shall widen our scope, broaden the horizon and sharpen our instincts for fresh and big ideas that will galvanize this great state to achieve its full potential and usher in a prosperous Cross River, where our people will live in peace and harmony with one another and with nature. We count on your prayers and support to achieve this”.

In one of his articles on the achievements recorded by Ayade so far and the need for Cross Riverians to keep faith with this man of destiny, Solomon Asha penned thus: There is hope for this once reduced to the back burner state and its people in the scheme of things in Nigeria, there is prospect for the students, the business class, government officials, the once shamefully rejected in our society, the poor, homeless, down trodden and the heavily bruised. There is hope even for our God given forests and the resources from them, hope for the remaining pristine forests of the state which made us the second largest after the Amazon forests, there is hope for the rare fauna, flora in them. Let us all exercise absolute faith in the sincerity of Ayade because his words and actions are driven by a humble past and a personality radiating with the fear of God and the love of mankind. Remember, it also faith which keeps the cosmic systems in their proper order and even cause us as individual human beings to walk and talk among others. Therefore keeping faith with the man who dares to take the course that will collectively cause us to deviate 360 degrees off the course of backwardness and under-development should not be an issue to debate about.

So far so good, it is a 100 days in office which have laid a strong foundation for the actualization of the gamut of developmental programmes well planned for the state by Ayade. 100 days is actually an insignificant number out of 1095  or 1096 days in four years of a tenure, but to a great mind like Ayade, it means a lot and he has gone ahead to prove that by the achievements on ground.

By Emmanuel Ulayi & Solomon Asha are media aides to Gov. Ayade of Cross River State.