By Akpan David, Calabar
Workers at the Cross River Basin Development Authority, (CRBDA), on Friday marched round the premises in protest, cautioning the federal government not to appoint politicians in future as managing directors of the authority.
They demand that only technocrats should be appointed to head the management of the Authority.
The workers came under the banner of Nigerian Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers Union to express their anger, saying the politicians do not quite understand the workings at the authority like the longtime technocrats that have gone through the ranks.
Some of their placards had inscriptions like, “CRBDA needs a career civil servant”, “Politicians do not understand the vision of CRBDA”, “Hon Minister, please do not allow CRBDA to die” and so forth.
Chairman of the union, Comrade Jospeph Etim spoke with journalists, maintaining that their intention was not to fight or dictate to the Federal Government what to do but as those running the Authority on a daily basis, they are well placed to know what will bring about effective management of the place.
“We are not against anybody but we are for the better management of CRBDA which has for some years now been reduced to a squalid environment where the vision and mission of what the place was set up to be has been misplaced or at best destroyed ”
Etim stated that the workers are appealing to the Federal Government and the Honourable Minister of Water Resources Alhaji Suleiman Adamu to assess the state of the Cross River Basin Authority before making another appointment so that the place will not die completely.
“We the workers are making a passionate appeal to the Minister of Water Resources, who personally flagged off a farm at the Basin Authority last year to come and see the state of the farm. No crop was planted in that farm and the place is completely covered with weeds. We know that if it was a civil servant who is at the helm of affairs in this place he would have the fear of losing his job or messing up his career so please, let him consider our appeal”.
The workers who came out in their numbers said the CRBDA has many irrigation projects situated across the two states of Cross River and Akwa Ibom which the Authority covers but none is functional.
“There are irrigation projects in Obubra/Wakande, Ogoja, Ijegwu/Yala, Obudu and the CRBDA took over the Cross River Songhai Farm at Itigidi and thousands of cassava stems were heaped there but none was planted and the place is now a grassland. We certainly cannot continue like this except we want the place to die completely”. Etim stated
According to the workers, if properly managed the CRBDA has the capacity to produce food to feed south- south states and even for export and called for a proper appraisal of the state of affairs in the authority before a new management is appointment.
Mr Jackson Udo, the Public Relations Officer said the Executive Director is a civil servant and cannot speak to the press.
