Don’t Appoint Politician As New MD –C’River Basin Devt Authority Workers Tell FG

Cross River Basin Development Authority, CRBDA, workers have demanded  for a technocrat to administer the Authority, saying they don’t want a politician.

The workers under the aegis of Nigerian Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers made their position known recently when they moved round the premises and adjoining streets at Ikot Eneobong in Calabar with placards bearing inscriptions such as “CRBDA needs  a career civil servant not a politician”, “Politicians do not understand the vision of CRBDA”, “Hon Minister, please do not allow CRBDA to  die” and others. 

The union Chairman, Comrade Jospeph Etim, who spoke with newsmen, said the intention of the workers is not to fight or dictate to the Federal Government what to do but since they are the ones who run the Authority day-to-day, they are well placed to know what will enthrone effective management in the place.

“We are not against anybody but we are for the better management of CRBDA which has for some years now been reduced to a squalid environment where the vision and mission of what the place was set up to be has been misplaced or at best destroyed,” he said.

He further said the workers are appealing to the Federal Government and the Honourable Minister of Water Resources, Alhaji Suleiman Adamu to assess the state of the Cross River  Basin Authority before making another appointment so that the place will not die completely.

“We are making a passionate appeal to the Minister of Water Resources, who personally flagged off a farm at the Basin Authority last year to come and see the state of the farm. No crop was planted in that farm and the place is completely covered with weeds. We know that if it was a civil servant who is at the helm of affairs in this place he will strive to do well because he would have the fear of losing his job or messing up his career so please, let him consider our appeal,” he said.

The union’s Secretary, Mr Kingsley Essien, said that having witnessed the management of the CRBDA over the years, “we have observed that career civil servants are better placed to handle the affairs of this Authority than outsiders who hardly understand the vision this place was established to achieved”.

The workers said the CRBDA has many irrigation projects situated across the two states of Cross River and Akwa Ibom which the Authority covers but none is functional.

“There are irrigation projects in Obubra/Wakande, Ogoja, Ijegwu/Yala, Obudu and the CRBDA took over the Cross River Songhai Farm at Itigidi and thousands of cassava stems were heaped there but none was planted and  the place is now a grassland. We certainly cannot continue like this except we want the place to die completely,” Essien stated.

The workers also said if properly managed the CRBDA could produce food to feed South-South states and even for export and called for a proper  appraisal of the authority before a new management is appointed Mr Jackson Udo, the Public Relations Officer said the the tenure of the Management Board of the Authority ended on Wednesday and “We are waiting for the Federal Government to make a pronouncement. The  junior workers are just expressing their wish.”