Category: Politics

Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State buying groundnuts by the roadside shop when taking a stroll across the city of Calabar

We celebrate Leaders from other climes for simplicity as signs of good leadership, but blind our eyes to these same attitudes when demonstrated by some of our leaders.

Governor Ayade had done some remarkable things, including street walks, when He is seen speaking to Cross Riverians, even buying and eating groundnut from road side vendors.

Some few days back, the Member Representing Bekwarra, Obudu and Obanliku in the Federal House of Representative, Hon. Legor Idagbor was seen at Effio-Ette Round about buying Banana for himself in a simple short.

Sometimes I wonder why Nigerians will go abroad and take pictures of themselves shopping on the streets of these cities but while in Nigeria, we feel such attitudes send no message and add no value to our positions as leaders.

Only ‘Wrong Attitude’  can make a man buy Banana from Nigeria on a street in London and feel proud to take pictures for the world to see, and refuse to see that too as important doing it in Nigeria to showcase our values.

Ayade and Legor, we say thank you and keep doing Nigeria proud in your attitudes.

“What we do not appreciate will depreciate.” To grow our economy, we must appreciate our own. You cant have soil for Rice and Import rice and expect growth. Recession is all you get.

By Inok Solomon

How many Politicians and Employees of Government are happy with the situation of their stocks, bonds, and mutual funds in pensions schemes and retirement benefits? Non of course! Capital gains, compounding interest are all nonsense to compounding inflation.

Today, most people spend a lot of time learning how to earn money. We go to school to get a high paying job, spend years working at the job to earn money, do their best to save it. Invest into Capital Gains ventures instead of simple cash flow. And today, all find themselves in financial crisis.

It is more important that we know how to spend our money, not just earn or save it. People who spend their money wisely will always be more prosperous than those who save their money wisely. Our civil service society save money wisely and grow poorer by day. Today, we are worst hit by the economic crisis due to Inflation.

By spending,  means investing or converting money into long lasting value. The rich understand that in today’s economy, you cannot become wealthy by sticking your money  under a mattress or even worse, in a bank.

We need to know how to spend our money on assets that retain their value, provide income, jobs, adjust for inflation, and go up in value, not down.

A good study of Governor Ayade’s programmes since inception in May, 2015, point to value added, job creation,  anti inflationary, income generating and self sustainable.
From the Garment Factory targeted to one basic needs of man, clothing, inflation can not stop us from wearing clothes. The Deep Sea Port,  no inflation and economic crisis will stop importation and exportation of goods and services at the sea port. The Rice City for food production can’t be stopped by inflation because man must eat. The Calapharms for Medicine production, we can tell no time, not even war can stop man from taking medications. The superhighway,  movement of goods and services including man can’t be stopped by inflation.
These are all investment potential areas that take advantage of crisis periods.

Some critics depended on Bailout Funds so much because they lack the simple knowledge of money. “A Bailout is used when the rich want the taxpayers to pay for their mistakes or their fraud.”

We need no job security but financial security. The difference between financial security and financial panic can be as simple as knowing the difference between capital gain and cash flow.

Inflation eat one to death and the other survive inflation. Its pays to focus on cash flow rather than capital gains because the more we know how to control cash flow the more our capital gains increase, and so our financial security. And it is easier to invest for cash flow during a financial crisis.

It is vital therefore, for us all to start thinking on how to spend on investment rather than invest in savings. Ayade is creating the enabling environments.

By Ifere Paul

Reliable information from government house sources revealed that a man from the UK who is from Creek Town in Calabar arrived Cross River State with a business portfolio that will attract employment of over 5000 people but the governor turned down the offer.

The guy, name withheld who came to construct an oil refinery in the State was asked by the Governor to pay 11 Billion Naira for the hectares of land he requested that the government to provide for him.

According to the guy, the refinery would have about 10 modular refineries located in one place. The man announced that the production capacity would have been more than the refineries in Port Harcourt, and would have put Cross River State on the nation’s map as oil production hub.

The man is shocked that a governor who travels around the world seeking for MoU abroad would actually turn down investors with genuine interest in the development of the State.

The man concluded that Governor Ben Ayade is a con artist.

By Solomon Inok

Chinua Achebe in His book “The Problem with Nigeria,” stated that, “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.” He somehow blinded creative  thinking, but  challenged the young generations to not only jump into conclusions rather to xray His statement and build more reasoning for our time.

 Judge Troward, opened my thought line to xray if truly our problem is “squarely a failure of leadership.” Judge said,  “if we regard the fulfilment of our purpose as contingent upon any circumstance, past, present or future, we are not making use of first cause. We have descended to the level of secondary causation, which is the region of doubts, fears and limitations.”

Then the words of my great Mentor, Robert Collier, further pushed questions into my head, He opiened that, “When you are in need and creditors are hounding you on every side, what they may do is not the important thing. They are mere secondary causes, the result of conditions or circumstances.” He advised, “You must get back to the first cause – SUPPLY.” And that first cause lies in the thought pattern,  just as the first cause of a house lies in the thought pattern of the architect.

“There is nothing basically wrong with the (Cross River) character, yes! There is nothing wrong with (Cross River) land and climate or water or air or anything else, yes!” But Cross River problem is not the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility,  to challenge of personal example.”

The problem with Cross River and indeed Nigeria is that, “We have been kept ignorant about the subject of money and how to make Money.”

All we hear is, “Money is dirty.” “People with money are greedy.” Businessmen are crocks.” “The love of money is the root of all evil.”

We are confused about money,  even those  who have lots of it. Robert T. Kiyosaki sum it up by saying that the confusion about money causes the majority of our world’s problems.

Look at it this way, most frightening and disheartening is that many of the people who handle large sums of money, bankers, stockbrokers,  administrators and politicians, are often the most confused,  yet pretend not to be.

If you doubt this, just look at the fiscal condition of our banks, savings and loan associations, government and businesses.  It is hard to deny that where you find a lot of money you will also find a lot of confusion, greed, and unfortunately,  evil.

Rev. Ike,  a Southern Baptist preacher says: “it is the lack of money that is the root of all evil.” The first lesson we need to learn is that money itself is not evil. It is simply a tool, just as a pen is a tool. You can use a pen to write a love letter and also use it to write a letter or a memo firing someone. The thing that makes the difference is not the object, but the motives of the person handling the money.

I believe today, we have a leader, just as we have gotten leaders in the past. Their motives in using money take us forward or backward. Governor Ayade, our leader today, is putting so much in place to address the subject of money. That it is not how much money you have, but how well and productive you make the money be. It is no doubt therefore, that all His projects have common bearing, “teaching people about money and how to make Money.”

Why does our educational system do such a poor job of teaching us about money? Why did our teachers resist teaching about it, and why are our children teachers still resisting?

Why do people who should know better continue to support the old myths that there is something inherently dirty about money? Could it be that the people running the schools have never learned about it themselves? If that’s true, we desperately need to make some changes. Directly or indirectly,  our continued ignorance about money is causing long term damages to generations of people.
The negatives critics  in the state, the rumour mongers, the failed politicians and all should understand that the principles of making money are surprisingly simple. You don’t have to be intelligent or well educated to be rich.

Most of us know at least one wealthy person who is neither educated nor smart. Igbos in our communities are in large numbers. In fact,  judging by the number of poor people with Ph.Ds, higher education must actually be a hindrance to financial success.

Governor Ayade is building a future Cross River, where people will know about money and how to make Money. TINAPA is all about spending money, but we must make money to spend money. The Garment Factory, Superhighway, Deep Seaport and others are all institutions of well designed lines to understanding money and how to control money.

A state where no civil servant  salaries for a month, keep people  jabbing themselves, is proof of poor knowledge about money.

By Solomon Inok

Is our current economic crisis just an accident,  a one off event? It is hard to say to some, but some will quickly blame it on the past administrations. Can those in power solve our current economic crisis?  Many hope that once a leader is good as in having good leaders, situations will change. But we have gotten leader  who gave their lives fighting to change things, yet the world hardship mostly on the poor keep on.

When we look at crisis like one writer sees it, “Change screaming to occur.”  That therefore, means you and I must change instead. We can not wait for Obasanjor, Jonathan or even Buhari to Change and make final corrections to our future if we refuse to change and be agents of change.

It is not Political leadership that keeps economic crisis away, but our basic knowledge and understanding of the four things that keep people poor;

• Taxes,
• Debt, 
• Inflation and Retirement. 

Leaders control  the world economy via the banks, governments, and financial markets, a situation that has been going on for centuries and will continue to go on as long as humans walk the earth. The truth is that, those who understand the rules of money will keep being at the top.

Those we call leaders, those we wait for to make the change, conspire by the use of these factors to take our money legally. The conspirators know how to make use of these forces to keep themselves rich through policies formations, while the very forces make others poor.

They know a different kind of rule. As a saviour, Governor Ayade came in with a knowledge based approach, with rules, these rules, many are yet to come to term with. That if we want to  financially change our lives as a state, we will need to change our financial rules.

We need to as a matter of fact, start learning about taxes, debt, inflation and retirement and how best we can use them to our advantage.

Following the Governor’s policies closely, there is no doubt that all are directed towards increasing our financial education and changing our approach to money, creating an environment that will keep us profiting  from the forces of taxes, debt, inflation, and retirement,  not be  victim of them as the case has shown from time past.

Today, the word, ‘Bailout Funds,” is so enticing to the ears of many Nigerians. Saving our banks and state government from complete bankruptcy.  Too much debt and not enough cash to meet the debt. As the financial crisis is spreading, millions of people lost their jobs,  homes, their savings,  their scholarship  funds, and retirement funds.

Mostly, not lost as in the monies not being there, but the value of the monies save can not meet what it was saved for. Even Lagos State today, fear they might be next in the economic bankruptcy hit.

 Ayade government is working hard to move us out from just balancing a checkbook, speculate about stock market,  save money in banks, invest in a retirement plan for long term. In other words, taking us out from only turning our money over to the rich, who claim to have our best interest at heart, but cannot increase the value of our savings during crisis. He is creating investment opportunities for both the rich and the poor.

We see Bankers and financial planners only when we are employed, never in schools or during periods of no jobs. They are only agents of the rich and powerful. They come not to educate but to recruit future customers.

Cross Riverians,  we must stop going to school only to get a good job, work hard, pay taxes, buy a house, save money, and turn over any extra to the banks. We must start investing and building strong financial bases that will stand turbulent periods.

We must begin to think of going to school to learn how to create jobs, use money to make money and become sure of our future through our efforts, skills and talents.

We cannot change waiting for bailouts!!!!!!!!Y