Within 100 days of Governor Jonah Jang’s second tenure he has pointed his team towards a new direction for the crisis ridden state but the sectarian divide in the state ominously overlooks his every step.

By Taye Obateru

WITH 21 commissioners and 20 special advisers, Governor Jonah Jang’s team seems poised for action. Indeed in preparation for the task ahead, the governor and other top officials of government had a “strategic thinking retreat” at the Obudu Mountain Resort in Cross River State from August 16 to 21 where they brainstormed on the task ahead.

At the retreat, a review of the 10-point agenda of the administration for the first tenure was done while details of the “three-pillar policy” which will be the focus of the administration for the second tenure was also presented to participants.

Governor Jang was in his elements as he ran through the thrust of the three pillars which are: Human Capital Development, Infrastructural Development and Financing Options. He explained that the policy seeks to ensure the utilization of the creative potentials and abilities of the people for improving the way things are done and attention paid to impact assessment; address the state’s infrastructural deficit by concentrating on physical and organization structures needed for accelerated growth and development and the adoption of a sustainable economic model that would guarantee fair generation, distribution and allocation of resources. If the communiqué issued at the end of the retreat which was tagged “The Obudu Re-affirmation” which emphasized placing the collective interest of the state above personal or parochial interests is upheld by those concerned and forms the thrust of the administration, the next four years might hold much hope for the state and her people.

However, the ghosts of crisis and workers strikes which dotted the first tenure of the Jang Administration still loom large in the state. Despite repeated assurances by the governor that the security outfit approved for the state known as “Operation Rainbow” would end the recurrent crisis in the state, the peace of the state have been disrupted by attacks on some villages by hoodlums capped by the Sallah violence which swept through the state capital last week.

Similarly, the protracted strike by workers in the state’s tertiary institutions which started during the first tenure has spilled into the second tenure lasting about eight months. For a government that has always mouthed commitment to educational development in the state, the seeming inability to resolve the impasse has not been good public relations for the administration.

But a ray of hope glistened just as this peace was being written as the Elders’ Committee put together to intervene in the impasse succeeded in persuading the workers to suspend the strike while negotiations continue. The committee headed by former Governor Fidelis Tapgun which was put together at a Stakeholders’ Meeting convened by Governor Jang is hopeful that it would be able to resolve the matter completely within four weeks. This will, no doubt, be a big relief to parents and students of the institutions and even the government.

Just as this positive development was emerging came the commencement of another strike by civil servants in the state over the non implementation of the new minimum wage law. The strike which began on Thursday September 1 was still on at the time of this report. Notwithstanding these hiccups, many people in the state are hopeful that the administration would get over these initial headaches and focus on delivering on her promises to the people.