By: Eugene Upah
Young political hustlers from the Central Senatorial District should stop spearheading a ‘natural leader’ narrative for the North.
When I asked one of them this evening to identify the leaders of the central and south, he didn’t hesitate. He named Senator Liyel Imoke, Governor Clement Ebri and Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) for the Central. For the South, he listed His Eminence the Obong of Calabar and Governor Bassey Otu.
I then questioned why he refused to apply that same rationale to the North. Afterall, if his criteria are based on holding high public office, the North currently boasts a sitting Deputy Governor, a former Governor and several Senators. The hypocrisy was so irritating that I had to close the conversation and shut him out.
Unless such a person is a monarch of the standing of the late Uti JD Agba or Ntol Adima, no one can simply wake up and claim the title of natural leader for an entire region full of intellectually sharp, independent minds.
It is my right to choose who leads me.
Historically, the late Senate President Joseph Wayas and the late Paramount Ruler Uti JD Agba were accepted as leaders and custodians of the North, even while Professor Ben Ayade was Governor. That was a natural, organic recognition of authority and we see this elsewhere.
In Akwa Ibom State, despite Governor Umo Eno and a sitting Senate President, Obong Victor Attah remains the undisputed, number one statesman of the state.
Chief Rufus Ada George, a former Governor maintains a similar stature in Rivers State till date.
Beyond Yakurr, the Obol Lopon and the Paramount Ruler of Abi are naturally, widely seen as revered leaders of some sort in the Central Senatorial District.
These are men whose decades-long pedigree grants them political acceptance even across party lines.
It is only in Northern Cross River that some young people attempt to implant ‘natural leaders’ on people who are neither monarchs nor current office holders and want to force them upon us.
We will not accept an imposed leadership. Full stop.
