At the beginning of this dispensation in 1999, different governors had different administrative styles. While Donald Duke started out with 11 commissioners, Liyel Imoke had15.Gov. Ben Ayade decided to up the ante by appointing 28 commissioners, the highest in the history of the state and the entire country at the time. At a time, some of his commissioners did not have offices to operate and function properly.
He said, “coming from a government that has over N1trillion budget, where it can barely attain 10 per cent of that, I guess nothing should shock us anymore. With 39 ministries and a huge financial burden worsened by cost of governance, one wonders where this government is headed. At a time when the government should be cutting down the cost of governance and have a more targeted approach towards increasing the dividends of governance, we are just adding unnecessary weight to the system.
“The truth is that, we can’t be floating in our heads in space all the time. We have to get our feet on the ground at some point and face real life and the quicker this administration realised that the better for us. Already, so much time has been lost on frivolities and castle in the air style of governance.”
“There is nothing enterprising about the state. There is nothing industrious about Cross River State, no industries, even the small existing ones we have, have all left the state because of over taxation and when you say enterprise, what do you mean by enterprise? He has not been able to put anything in place to achieve industrialization of the state. So when he talks about industrialization, I laugh. When Lagos state talks about industrialization….