“I thank all of you who have contributed to the purchase of these forms, your money will not go in vain,” he said.
Ayade said, “Great Nigerians citizens, I come before you not as a politician but as a system purifier. I understand the challenges of this country and that as Ph.D student, as somebody who is a professor; I have an intellectual potency to my professorship.
“As a senator of the federal republic, I had 41 bills, the highest in the 7th republic.
“As a governor, I met a state that had a gross debt profile of over N382 billion – a state that was declared insolvent before I became a governor; a state that was classified as a state that had failed and as a state that cannot pay salaries.”
He said, “I met a judiciary in total comatose – 13 months of strike without work. When I was sworn in, I was told I would be stoned after two months because we cannot pay salary.
“But today, I have been in office for seven years and I have not defaulted on salary or pension. People may not realise why I am putting myself forward- if I can run Cross River State sometimes with zero allocation, sometimes with N25 million…with a population of 4.2 million people.
“How would I have run a state where I cannot borrow, where I was completely fixated, I ran a state with bare knuckles, empty palms and I can drag the state to success…a state that never defaulted.”
The governor said, “Enough of politics, if this country is sincere, let’s ask everybody, let’s go to every state – show us what you have done- it will not be on Tik-Tok, it will not be on television. That money I will spend on live coverage on television I will use it to pay salary.”
(Daily Trust)
