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Fresh political tension is building in Cross River North as former Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, is said to be warming up to reclaim the senatorial seat he lost in 2023, a move that appears to be unsettling the district’s political balance ahead of the 2027 elections.
The unfolding drama follows last week’s surprise defection of Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
Jarigbe currently represents Cross River North in the National Assembly.
Recall that there were insinuations that Ayade was ‘allocated’ the governorship on a platter of gold in 2015 when the then Governor of the state, Sen Liyel Imoke reportedly manoeuvre political processes to accommodate him as his successor.
Jarigbe first won the senatorial seat in a December 5, 2020 by-election, defeating Dr Stephen Odey, Ayade’s preferred candidate at the time. Though the victory was fiercely contested, the court eventually affirmed Jarigbe as the rightful winner.
In the February 25, 2023 general election, he again defeated Ayade, who ran on the APC ticket, polling 76,145 votes to Ayade’s 56,595.
Political observers now say Ayade’s renewed interest in the seat may have prompted Jarigbe’s defection to the ruling party, a move widely interpreted as strategic positioning ahead of 2027.
Apparently worried by the defection of Jarigbe to APC with possibility of thwarting Ayade’s or another’s senatorial ambition, in a strongly worded commentary titled “The Ominous Cloud in Cross River North,” Emmanuel Unah, a journalist and political aide to the chairman of Yala Local Government Area, warned of “dark clouds hovering” over the district, accusing certain politicians of plotting to “reap where they did not sow.”
Unah, who is believed to be speaking the mind of Ayade’s loyalists, wrote that those who “socketed the state to the centre” through their efforts and sacrifices deserve to partake in the benefits of that struggle, and not have them “usurped by those who have relished theirs.”
He further argued that political fairness requires adherence to order and hierarchy, stating: “In politics, there is a queue. Anyone who comes in must stay on the queue from the point he joins.”
Unah is not the only voice cautioning against new entrants taking senior positions in the APC.
When Ayade defected from the PDP to the APC in May 2020, the same platform that had given him the governorship, about 95 per cent of his cabinet members moved with him.
Their defection instantly revitalized the then–struggling opposition, but it also triggered resentment among foundation members, as Ayade’s loyalists quickly took control of key party structures and appointments.
Many original members, who had sustained the party through difficult years, complained of neglect and exclusion.
At the South-South APC constitution review meeting held in Calabar last week, some of these aggrieved members demanded that new joiners should not automatically be favored for appointments and leadership positions.
They further demanded that a proviso be inserted in the constitution to favour older members.
Responding, the state APC chairman, Alphonsus Ogar Eba, a beneficiary who defected alongside Ayade, and members of the constitution review committee, acknowledged their grievances, assuring that their concerns had been duly noted.
With both Ayade and Jarigbe now in the same political camp, analysts predict a fierce internal battle for control of the APC in Cross River North as 2027 approaches.
This contest will likely redefine the district’s political landscape.
2027: Jarigbe, Ayade’s senate ambition stir political storm in Cross River North
