It was Chuck Swindoll who made the following remarks about courage. “Courage is not limited to the battle field or the Indianapolis 500 or bravely catching a thief in your house. The real test of courage are much quiet. They are the inner test, like remaining faithful when nobody is looking,like enduring pain when the room is empty,like standing alone when you are misunderstood”.
As the battle for who clinches the Cross River State People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Central Senatorial District Senate ticket gradually draws closer, the need for the Party to reward aspirants who displayed courage in its raw form shortly after the 2015 general elections cannot be overemphasized.
Aspirants who stood by the party when it seemed like it was the end of the party. Those who remained faithful to the ideals of the party when nobody cared anylonger. Those who who stood by the party during the party’s darkest days as well as those who mustard the courage to remain in a party that was practically collapsing before their very eyes all in a bid to rebuild it.
Those familiar with outcome of the last general elections and the high profile defections that followed in the Senatorial district will bear me witness that, the mass movement from PDP to APC was like the end of PDP in the district. Just when we were still consoled by the fact that the party still has a serving Senator, boom! The Senator again left,leaving a huge gap that needed to be urgently filled inorder to forestall further distingeration of the party in the zone.
It was in recognition of this huge gap that Barr Chris Agara came to the rescue even as a private business man having been on the background silently supporting the party’s programmes and activities. He came in not minding the huge financial and time burden the role would cost him and his business.
It is on record that he single handedly donated the sum of one million naira each to the six Local Government Areas that makes up the district during the last voters registration exercise to assist the party in those LGAs mobilize people for the exercise.
To his credit, peace has returned amongst the people of Adun and Okum in Obubra after years of lingering communal crises in the area. This is not forgetting the crucial role he played during the war between izzi community in Ebonyi State and some Obubra riverine communities in Cross River State where he mobilized security operatives to the area as well as personally visiting them shortly after the war with relief materials worth millions of naira.
His deep involvement towards finding lasting peace to the incessant crises in boki cannot be overemphasized.
As at today, the only functional 18 seater bus used by the the State working Committee of the Party for its activities was donated by Barr Chris Agara while also donating the sum of 10 million naira recently to them for the maintainance of the Secretariate.
Is it the two million naira he sometime this year released to stranded students of the Nigeria Defence Academy(NDA) of Cross River State Origin in Port Harcourt, the more than 200 students students of the University of Calabar who are currently under his scholarship scheme or the several financial assistance he is rendering on a daily basis ranging from School fees, House Rents, health challenges etc? The truth is that, even Barr Agara biggest critic within and outside the party agrees that he came when the party needed him the most.
Not many people who have never occupied government position will take up such a role yet he wholeheartedly did.
Don’t get it twisted. This is not saying that the party’s ticket should be conceaded to him in a platter. I am sure that is not what he wants either. I am only saying that such a man should at least be respected and appreciated by the party’s men and women if not for any other thing, for rising up to the occasion.
To be continued…
Richard Romanus is a public analyst, he wrote in from Calabar
