By\u00a0Idang Alibi
\nAlmighty Father, it is you who commanded us to pray. You said that since
\nwe cannot help ourselves and there is nothing that is impossible for you
\nto do, we should learn to address our petitions to you over any matter
\nthat we ourselves and others cannot help us to solve. It is in obedience
\nto that command that I have decided to publicly talk to you over a matter
\nthat threatens the very destiny of the over 3 million children of yours
\ndomiciled in Cross River State.
\nAbba Father, the matter has to do with the plan of Governor Liyel Imoke to
\ngo to what they literary and metaphorically call the bond (slave\/ servant)
\nmarket to raise a loan of 40 billion Naira on behalf of the beleaguered
\npeople of Cross River State. What the man wants to do with that money for
\nthe people of the state is not very clear to all well-meaning people. He
\nsays it is for \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc\u00e2\u20ac\u2122on-going projects\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 but many are skeptical. They
\nthink it is actually for \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc\u00e2\u20ac\u2122on-going political project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 or for
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u02dc\u00e2\u20ac\u2122impending send-forth party\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. But what is very clear to all is
\nthat if Governor Imoke succeeds, it would spell monumental disaster for
\nthe good people of CRS.
\nFirst consider this fact, Lord: CRS is the third most indebted state in
\nthe federation after Bayelsa and Lagos. While the other two have the
\nability to discharge their obligation to creditors over a course of time,
\nCRS does not seem to have any such ability. Its oil wells have
\ninexplicably been given to its well off neighbour. And then there is no
\nindication of any creativity on the path of those governing the state to
\nhave any regenerative investments to enable the state to pay off its debts
\nand meet other governmental obligations. For the state to now borrow more
\nmoney looks to some of us like compounding a very unpleasant problem. How
\nwill CR get itself out of this morass, if Imoke\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan is not urgently
\nfrustrated and rendered naught?
\nSecond, we hear that the governor is so bent on getting that humongous
\nloan that he has been desperately persuading members of the state house of
\nassembly, local government chairmen, councilors and other opinion leaders
\nto support his plan. They say he is inducing them with promises of money
\nand other good things. Lord, this makes some of us the more suspicious of
\nhis intention and the more desperate that his plan fails. If his motive is
\nnoble, will it not be clear to all? Will he need to persuade people with
\nmoney or promise of it to see the rightness of his cause?
\nThird, and more disturbingly, we also hear that the governor said he came
\ninto office and inherited a huge debt from his predecessors so it will be
\nokay if he also leaves a huge debt for his successor. Ancient of Days,
\neven if the man did not voice out this sentiment and is only a concoction
\nfrom the imagination of his \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcdetractors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, his intention fits perfectly
\nthat thinking. Baba, Governor Imoke has been in power now for seven years,
\nseven months and seven days. What plans does he have to change the
\nfortunes of CRS that he could not think of and act on for those many moons
\nthat he now thinks he can do in the remaining five short moons of his
\ntenure?
\nThe governor is now a lame duck. And we have entered a critical election
\nperiod in which governance has taken a distant back seat while politics
\nand endless politicking has taken a front seat. It will be so from now on
\nuntil after elections in February next year. Even after elections,
\nincumbents like Imoke whose tenures have expired will be busy preparing
\nhanding-over notes to successors. When will Imoke have time to use that
\nmoney well for the present and future glory of CRS? If there is a felt
\nneed which Imoke has identified which requires borrowing money to finance,
\nwhy not leave it for his successor? Why try to tie the hands of a
\nsuccessor and mortgage the future of 3 million CRSriverians? Lord, you are
\na God of love and kindness. Is what Imoke planning for (against) CRS
\nwickedness or love?
\nThe I Am that I Am, I am taking this my heartfelt petition to you because
\nwe are a docile and a largely self-seeking people. In other lands,
\nImoke\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s questionable plan is the type that will cause hundreds of
\nthousands of concerned and discerning citizens to pour on to the streets
\nin sit-tight protest until the plan is announced shelved. But here, even
\nthose who know the evil that Imoke\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan portends for the good people
\nof CRS will not even volunteer a feeble opinion against it for fear of
\njeopardizing their own personal political or economic survival. We are a
\npeople who keep silent even when a noose is being maliciously tied round
\nour necks. Like lambs to a slaughter, we bear every threat to our lives
\nwith some kind of strange equanimity.
\nJehovah Rohi, our shepherd and guide, and Yahweh Shofteinu, The Impartial
\nJudge, please note this and guide us and also judge between the people of
\nCRS and Governor Imoke: Imoke\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s immediate predecessor Donald Duke
\ncreated a sort of Sovereign Wealth Fund to safeguard the future of
\nCRSriverians. A law was made forbidding the spending of monies accruing to
\nthis Fund unless members of the state house of assembly and other
\nstakeholders agreed. But when Imoke ran into a tight corner with regard to
\nfinance, he railroaded (induced) the legislators to amend that law to
\nenable him to address an immediate challenge with funds meant for the
\nfuture generation of CRSriverians. By this singular act, Lord, I do not
\nthink Imoke is a fit and proper person to take any loan on behalf of Cross
\nRiver State because he is not likely to do anything meaningful with it in
\nthis short period available to him.
\nJehovah Melpati, The Great Deliverer, please consider my plea and repair
\nurgently to the help of helpless CRSriverians. Deliver us from what many
\npeople regard as evil plan on the part of a man you ordained to govern us.
\nI call you a Godipulator because I cannot bear to say that you can
\nmanipulate things to frustrate evil or wicked plans. It is only men who
\nmanipulate things. Therefore, Godipulate things in the way only you can do
\nand thwart the plan of Imoke. His plan may be noble. But it is clearly
\nmistimed and if he succeeds the money will be misapplied and leave
\nCRSriverians worse off than when he happened on the throne.
\nJehovah Addonai, The Sovereign Lord, you said in your word that the heart
\nof kings is in your hands and you can turn it any which way you like. That
\nis why I have come to you on behalf of all CRSriverians to touch the
\nhearts of all those who may facilitate Imoke having his way and Godipulate
\nthem to soundly frustrate his plan. Touch in particular the heart of Dr.
\nNgozi Okonjo-Iweala or any other Federal official who is in a position to
\nlend approval to that loan bid. Cause them to take pity upon the people of
\nCRS and politely steer Imoke out of that path of people destruction.
\nJehovah Jireh, The Great Provider and Yahweh Ori, Our Light, you have
\nprovided bountifully natural resources for harnessing for the glory of
\nCRS. Cause your ray of light to shine on our leaders to know what to do to
\nmake CRS economically viable without recourse to mindless borrowing and
\nfrittering away. I thank you in advance for hearing my prayer and free the
\npeople of CRS from the debt noose because I know from your word that the
\nfervent prayers of the righteous availeth much.
\nJehovah El-Gibbor, The Almighty God, I know that some men who are embarked
\nupon taking the path of perdition are not easily dissuaded. Peradventure
\nyou choose for your own reason not to answer my prayer and Liyel goes
\nahead to take the ruinous course, this public petition of mine will stand
\nas a witness in my favour to future generation of CRSriverians. When years
\nlater one of my children says, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc\u00e2\u20ac\u2122but daddy, you surely understand
\nbecause you are a prophet, a town-crier in the order of Elijah, Amos and
\nJonah combined. When a man at the twilight of his reign took a loan that
\nhas mortgaged our own wellbeing, what did you say?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 I will present
\nthis written petition and say that I spoke when men better placed that
\nmyself to say something kept mute.
\nBut Jehovah El Nose, The Forgiving God, full of forgiving charitableness,
\nforgive me if the preceding lines contained any hint of my fear that this
\nprayer might not be answered. Why will it not be answered when I know you
\nas one who satisfies the good desires of his saints? Save your people Lord
\nfrom an ill-advised step that will consign them to slavery and penury.
\nYou frustrated the wicked evil plan of Haman the Agagite against your
\nchildren the Israelites in the days of King Ahasuerus of Babylon several
\nmillennia ago. Now your children in CRS are confronted by a plan that is
\nsimilar in intention- their social and economic annihilation. You who
\nwrought a great deliverance of the children of Israel, do a similar thing
\nfor the people of Cross River State today.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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