Former military head of state, General Yakubu Gowon, and former Secretary-general of the CommonWealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, during the weekend, commended Cross River State governor, Senator Ben Ayade, for winning the Vanguard Governor of the Year Award.
Gowon and Anyaoku made the commendation at the award ceremony which was held at the Convention Centre of the Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.
General Gowon who urged other governors to emulate Governor Ayade’s welfarist policy said: “I say well done to Governor Ayade as I want all other governors to follow his example by taking care of their civil servants because civil servants are the custodians of any good work any governors or even president is doing.”
According to the former head of state, “It was because I paid attention to civil servants, and in return, they helped me implement my policies as head of state. For Ayade, I say weldone to him and I want others to follow his example not only by paying attention to the civil servants but the welfare and wellbeing of their people. Let the people be the ones to say thank you Mr. Governor. The gratitude of your people is the greatest thing you have.”
Voicing his commendation, Chief Anayaoku said: “Governor Ayade is clearly one of the best performing governors in Nigeria today. He has kept faith by paying salaries regularly to workers.”
Anyaoku who also charged other governors to follow in the footsteps of Ayade, maintained that “Governor Ayade is a performing governor and I’m glad to see that he was recognised by Vanguard Newspapers for the Award.
“I will want to encourage all the governors to emulate him and pay greater attention to the management of the resources in their states and to set the right priorities by developing infrastructure, welfare of their workforce and development of greater capacity for their internally generated revenues. They should also pay attention to agriculture.”
Similarly, former South West Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Bode Geroge, noted that “Ayade is a typical intellectual who works and knows at the back of his mind way back while he was a senator that the centrepiece of politics is the people and I’m so happy that he has portrayed that.”
According to George, “Governor Ayade has brough his intellectual capacity along with his political sagacity into governance of his state without tearing down anybody in his state. These are the kind of people that this country will need in the nearest future. He has respect for the people and there is no “gra gra”. I will always wish that the good Lord will continue to direct him.
“This is not the end, he will finish his four years and another four years and will go for much higher positions.”
He is one of the PDP strong governors and I am personally very proud of him.”