Why we still pay workers’ salaries despite low allocation – Gov Ben Ayade

Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State has said that despite that he collected only N4.3 billion from the Federal government as federal allocations, he has been able to pay workers in the State. He disclosed this shortly on his arrival from Abuja at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar.
He said, “As you all know, we got N4.3 billion in the last three months as federal allocation, an indication that it is impossible for us to pay salaries, but we have continuously paid salaries, for which my colleagues embrace me and say, ‘you are a magician because we don’t know how you are doing it”

“Cross River will not only pay salaries, we will construct the superhighway and the deep seaport” and on where will he get money to construct the super highway project and the deep sea, Governor Ayade said “funding the project would not be a problem. Please leave that to Ayade”
He added, “Impossibility actually is a giant coward, but for sure, and surely, when you bring the intellectual architecture into it, impossibilities will disappear” and stressed “We are creating a new economic structure that will redefine Nigeria and take advantage of the huge mineral resources that we have in the Middle Belt of the country. We are heading for an explosion and what Cross River will be in the next three years, you will never believe it”

Lauding critics and detractors who did everything to frustrate the project, Ayade said: “By so doing, they made us to go to the drawing board to bring the best of our most celestial intellect, put it on course to ensure that this works”

According to him, “For those who thought that it was impossible to get an approval for the superhighway, for those who fabricated stories that the whole idea of the superhighway was intended to go into deforestation, they will see construction work that will start”
Insisting that he was never daunted by the delay in approving the EIA, he said: “I wasn’t daunted because as a professional, I knew we were within the time frame, but because it was already overtaken by political clowns, we started having a different impression”
Ayade, however, said: “We must put God at the centre of all of it because it is only God who knows our heart, knows the purity, commitment and the accumulated prosperity that will come with this project. I am also sure that it is at the behest of God that it came on the day it did.

“I must single out President Muhammadu Buhari and the Acting president, Yemi Osinbajo for keeping faith and seeing the deep vision of the project. The Federal Ministry of Environment also deserves a pat on the back for painstakingly going through every single correction and coming out with an approved document to kick start the project.”