Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State has expressed confidence that he “will be next president of this country”.
Speaking shortly after he received his nomination and Expression of Interest (EOI) forms purchased for him by sons and daughters of Arewa Youths as well as other interest groups across the country’s six geopolitical zones, Ayade said he would replicate his successes as a state governor at the national level and help address the country’s myriad of challenges.
“I thank all of you who have contributed to the purchase of these forms, your money will not go in vain,” he said.
Ayade said, “Great Nigerians citizens, I come before you not as a politician but as a system purifier. I understand the challenges of this country and that as Ph.D student, as somebody who is a professor; I have an intellectual potency to my professorship.
“As a senator of the federal republic, I had 41 bills, the highest in the 7th republic.
“As a governor, I met a state that had a gross debt profile of over N382 billion – a state that was declared insolvent before I became a governor; a state that was classified as a state that had failed and as a state that cannot pay salaries.”
He said, “I met a judiciary in total comatose – 13 months of strike without work. When I was sworn in, I was told I would be stoned after two months because we cannot pay salary.
“But today, I have been in office for seven years and I have not defaulted on salary or pension. People may not realise why I am putting myself forward- if I can run Cross River State sometimes with zero allocation, sometimes with N25 million…with a population of 4.2 million people.
“How would I have run a state where I cannot borrow, where I was completely fixated, I ran a state with bare knuckles, empty palms and I can drag the state to success…a state that never defaulted.”
The governor said, “Enough of politics, if this country is sincere, let’s ask everybody, let’s go to every state – show us what you have done- it will not be on Tik-Tok, it will not be on television. That money I will spend on live coverage on television I will use it to pay salary.”
