Cross River Leader Shift

01/10/2025

Happy Independence Day compatriots! Nigeria is not where we want but it will get there if our believe is matched by constant action despite seemingly unassailable contradictions, to make this nation fulfill its potential and destiny of greatness!! 🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬

20/12/2023

The politician is like a molecule, always agitated and in movement, searching always for a new alignment; seeking always to create a new reaction and to obtain a new state.

15/09/2023

14/08/2023

It is conventional in market driven economies that government is not a solution provider but an enabler; that government just needs to provide the enablers and get out of the way for the private sector to solve problems.

In the same vein, the regulatory role is expected to become more nondescript so as not to stifle creativity and enterprise. Market forces are supposed to drive everything in a self regulatory environment. I support this thinking but it must be implemented along with long term fiscal and monetary policies where all stakeholders are invested.

While you lampoon big government, it will be an unacceptable paradox if the government does not limit its appetites. We always knew that defending the naira with foreign reserves or borrowing to pay subsidies were not sustainable and getting rid of both items was the way to go eventually. It is now implemented and we are in the post surgery stage and this is territory where deft handling is required.

Succor has to be found to ease the pain on the citizenry and the destination pursued with vigor and discipline.

31/12/2022

It’s been a difficult year for most of the world, the war prosecuted by Putin and stoically defended by Ukraine propped by Westhern allies wrecked havoc on the global economy. Energy prices climbed and inflationary winds blew across the world causing fragility to most economies and disruption to established supply chains.

In Nigeria the subsidy regime threatened to implode and fuel scarcity drew up prices of petrol for vehicles, diesel prices threatened businesses and even banks had to review their working hours. Aviation fuel did not only become too expensive, it became hard to find and airlines cried out in despair and cost of flights keep going upward.

When 2021 was coming to an end and we were looking back at the disaster of COVID 19, one could not imagine that economic difficulties were approaching at the scale we have seen. It has been a difficult year where our currency devalued by almost a half and combined with floods prices of basic goods became prohibitive and I know everyone has felt the pain.

As we approach the year 2023, we can only hope for a better global system and the end to the war in Ukraine. So many in that country began the year 2022 as white collar workers or plumbers or farmers have all been turned to fighters defending their homeland yet many have sadly lost their lives.

In our country we have had a rise in crime in the middle of the difficulties. In the middle of this we have seen some improvements in infrastructure with the signpost being the second Niger bridge. Politically, I have been inspired to hear more demanding voices and the introduction of the BIVERS can only improve our politics.

We need a political system that respects the voter and I can only feel excited as we give more currency to the idea of the vote.

It has not been an easy year and many people including myself have had to make major adjustments to keep going. I open my heart and send love and best wishes for the new year 2023!

God bless 🙏

JUO

11/12/2022

The Pope’s voice cracked as he mentioned the suffering of the Ukrainian people and he trembled as he was forced to stop for around 30 seconds.

Read more: https://cnn.it/3Wmn64H

13/11/2022

A DATE WITH HISTORY: BOLA AHMED TINUBU

I have observed the events leading up to the 2023 elections with an eagle eye not just of a casual observer but a participant who has seen enough to conclude that Nigeria’s greatness shall come from evolution of competing forces but can only be sped up through what ordinarily should be the political standard but which unfortunately represents disruption; the active participation and idealism of Nigeria’s young.

Nigeria’s next President will emerge from a demography far removed from the millennials and Gen Z’s who have become very important in the equation because they represent how Nigeria will turn out in the next few decades. All the major aspirants are very well senior citizens and the outcome of the 2023 Presidential election will end with the election of no one below 60.

Now to Tinubu. My inspiration to join politics came from Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2010 when the Yaradua/Jonathan administrations commenced electoral reforms. Tinubu called on progressives to rise up in challenge of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). I was one of many who answered, I joined the Action Congress of Nigeria and contested as its candidate in the 2011 Elections to represent Obudu/Obanliku/Bekwarra at the House of Representatives, I didn’t get elected.

Shortly after the elections we (Cross River delegation) met with leader of the party Bola Tinubu and most members of the delegation spoke in praise of his leadership and quite favorably of the situation at the time. I was quite miffed and broke out and spoke of our not getting enough support from the party leading to the elections. It was at that point I saw first hand the power of Tinubu’s leadership qualities; he turned to me and apologized. He saw to it that Boss Mustapha who was then ACN national legal adviser was to help us through the post election processes.

I look at politics in a way a bit unusual and I have a strong sense of past events. I see my participation in politics as an obligation to do something which adds value to the political discourse. I have come to see that Tinubu is more deliberate than people realize. True leaders are that way. Following Tinubu feels like we are back in June 1993 all over again. Same state for VP, Muslim/Muslim ticket, go to Jos to begin, same campaign theme ‘Hope’.

History is playing out before our eyes and it would seem like the ghost of June 12, 1993 will finally be put to a fitting resting place on May 29th 2023!

15/12/2021

It is not that politicians fail to see when an ambition makes no sense, it is just the nudging of sycophants on an ego trip that has ruined one too many that is irresistible.

15/09/2021

The quality of the political discussion today is not one that instigates a logical mind or a passionate heart. We must bring a soul to the political mix.