Efio-Ita Nyok|5 February 2016|3:17am
'Having the resources for a project, does not necessarily amount to success, but putting in place the right people with firm grasp of managerial and administrative competence will save us from much grammar' -Onabe Edward on 3rd February 2016 at 11:15pm
Onabe Edward is the founder and administrator of Cross River foremost and most influential online sociopolitical group, to wit, Cross River State Coalition for Change(CRSCfC), the Coalition for short. This social media group measures public sentiments concerning public administration and has conversely been employed to condition public perception of public policy. It is with regards to the latter position that critics has peddled the idea that Edward's CRSCfC has been compromised into a propagandists instrument especially with the appointment of one of it's administrators, Declan Genesis-Ogar, by Gov. Ben Ayade, who is reputed for undoing the membership of critics of the state government who are members of The Coalition.
Cross River Garment & Textile Factory(CRGF), Garment Factory, for short is one of Gov. Ben Ayade's projects aimed at industrialising and providing employment for the women folk of the state. His Excellency, Sen. Prof. Ben Ayade had promised at the inception of his administration last year, that he would complete erecting the factory within his first 100 days in office. Ayade didn't only fail but also failed in convincing Cross Riverians on why he couldn't meet his target especially when he said that the rains of last year frustrated the efforts of his administration in that regard. But critics like Ifere Paul have objected Ayade on the grounds that, the governor being an Environmental Science expert was supposed to be aware of recent cheap technology called Weather Seeding that would have artificially manipulated weather conditions around the site of the GF located at GEJ Bypass, Calabar.
Another puerile attempt by the present administration was to conduct interviews for intending workers in the GF. Until now the names of those who were successful at the interview is yet to be published despite agitation from sundry quarters. At a point, media aides to Ayade said that equipments for the GF had arrived Lagos, and that the GF was 90% completed. But, research suggests otherwise, that the GF was only complete 90% on Facebook and traditional media houses! Even in online media and social media platforms, it wasn't 100% complete! Hmmmmm.
The teething question is, what is responsible for the apparent failure of the complete execution of the GF considering that all the equipments are handy? And interviews have already been conducted. Onabe's response above is quite incisive. According to him, managerial and administrative incompetence is what is responsible for the characteristic failure of the GF.
This managerio-administrative dimension to the full execution of the project compelled me to find out which construction firm and engineering services consultant were responsible for the job, led me to discover that there was no construction firm nor consultant but an individual who is responsible for the project in the person of Frank Ayade, the so-called defacto governor of CRS -a characteristic case of nepotism in action. And the interesting thing is that, Onabe's statement 'but putting in place the right PEOPLE with firm grasp of managerial and administrative competence'(capitalisation is mine) gives a tip off. The Garment Factory as well as numerous other projects by the present administration revolves around persons and not sound corporate best practices. We have SERMATECH reportedly owned by former governor Liyel Imoke, LEOPHINA reportedly owned by Gov. Ben Ayade, etc.
My recommendation is that His Excellency Gov. Ben Ayade should save himself of the ongoing and well anticipated embarrassments by operating the truth vested in the managerial principle that says that 'a system is more likely to succeed when PRINCIPLES and POLICIES are objectified over PERSONS and SENTIMENTS'.
Contrary to Onabe's suggestions that 'Ayade may need my services to coordinate and facilitate speedy completion of the long overdue garment factory', the Chief Executive Officer of the Cross River State should employ the services of a managerial/administrative firm with a reputation for such services to do the job instead of 'nepotically' ceding the contract to a friend, brother, ally, etc. However, if Onabe Edward has a firm or certification in this regard, he should be considered. Anything short of the foregoing, I would advise that Ayade runs far away from Onabe.
Efio-Ita Nyok
Is a Blogger & the Editor of Negroid Haven
