Efio-Ita Nyok|27 May 2016|5:50am
Cross River State Green Police is the brainchild of the Sen. Prof. Ben Ayade led administration of Cross River State. It was inaugurated Thursday 26 May. Basically, its job description revolves around being 'an anti-deforestation task force'; thus in his address yesterday, His Excellency the Governor was reported to have said, 'for every single forest, God has put in it medicine, food and everything mankind needs, hence the need to protect and manage the forest jealously'.
All through the while, beginning from the inception of this government in 29 May 2016 until yesterday, both in government and private circles, the initiative under review had being referred to as 'Cross River State Green Police' or Green Police, for short. However, yesterday while addressing the crowd Governor Ayade introduced a new metaphor which is anticipated to be troubling and an easy prey for critics. The narrative is 'Volunteer' —Cross River State Green Police volunteer or Green Police volunteer for short.
Lexically, a 'volunteer' is understood to be, 'a person who does work without getting paid to do it'. Put differently, Cross River State Green Police are volunteers. What could His Excellency have meant by this linguistic turn —'Green Police Volunteers'? When I inquired from my sources it was discovered that even the media aides to the Governor didn't know how to demonstrate their skill around the Ayadean narrative: so, instead of Christian Ita, Emmanuel Ulayi, Eval Asikong, Solomon Asha, Paul Ojeka, Nakanda Amboni Iyadim, etc to have sat down to first to decide whether they were to allow the new metaphor fly or otherwise, they went ahead to publish the word. Didn't they observe that it was a potential controversial concept for which they may be less prepared to do battle with critics of the government?
Now, let's get down to deliberating on the political ramifications of the new lexicon. First, considering that the inauguration of the Green Police three days short of Ayade's first anniversary as governor of Cross River State suggest Ayade may not really have been prepared to inaugurate the Green Police —we all know HE wants to include this as a make up to his achievement in one year, something worth celebrating! Is Ayade indirectly telling Cross Riverians that since this was not my perfect date, then your remuneration is yet to be settled. That is to say, you may not have been fully co-opted into the state civil service which by implication suggest your salaries will not be paid as at when other staff of Cross River State Civil Service are been paid. Could that be the reason why HE emphasised thus yesterday: 'your salary is going to be a good salary, because you are the men and women who will toil to provide oxygen for everybody else'? Assuring them that' none of the volunteers will earn less than N25,000 monthly', according Special Assistant Emmanuel Ulayi.
So, we wish to know: Are the Green Police volunteers members of Cross River State Civil Service? Or, are they of humanitarian services? If yes, were they given letters of appointments within which the date of commencement of their appointment, job description, and salary, etc were expressly stated? If no, why? If yes, I want to say that is commendable. Going by the latter it implies the concept 'volunteer' may just be one of Ayade's linguistic extraneous creations! But, going by the former, then the Green Police officers are really volunteers in Ayade's holdings. Then, they should prepare for less happy days of nonpayment of their salaries, a feature local government, CUDA, etc staff are already dealing with albeit unpalatably.
My suggestions are thus, in view of the troubling note the metaphor 'Green Police volunteer' introduces, I therefore suggest that the controversial term be expunged from the phrase. Green Police is enough; but, Green Police Volunteer is controversial almost already. However, if Christian Ita insist on an adjective, then, initiative is better —Green Police Initiative; instead of Green Police Volunteers.
Secondly, in the inauguration of yesterday His Excellency was also reported to have said: 'Cross River State has decided to take the initiative by ensuring that we start afforestation and maintaining a clean and green world'. Again, the idea of 'clean world' is vague. That the present administration has failed woefully in the area of waste management is glaringly obvious. Is Ayade telling us that the Green Police is an idea weaved to replace CUDA staff who sweep our city every morning? Could that have been the reason why His Excellency's uniform was made to resemble that of the Boys Scout? Are the Green Police will fully volunteering to manage our waste? This and many more questions are begging for answers.
These questions of mine should constitute food for thought for HE Governor Ben Ayade, Commissioner for Climate Change and Forestry, Dr. Alice Ekwu, and Chief Press Secretary and Special Adviser (Media) Christian Ita.
Efio-Ita Nyok
Is a Blogger & the Editor of Negroid Haven