Gov. Ayade Expresses Delight Over Proposed Demolition Control Bill

Governor Ben Ayade has expressed delight over a proposed demolition control bill designed to rehabilitate and add beauty to the city of Calabar and other existing cities. While commending the idea of rebranding the cities, the governor warned “Our Demolition Control Bill will have a human-face and would provide alternative. The focus is not to disorganize my people but to add value. If you place the city and the people l will go with the people, if you place beauty and livelihood, l will go for livelihood”

Excerpts on Governor Ayade’s views on the proposed Demolition Control Bil;

‘The meeting and indeed the presentation we have just received is focused on rehabilitating, rebranding and renewing our entrance to our new cities and our existing cities. The idea of this concept is that we have been given a commitment that we are going to take Cross River State from third world to first world in four years, and that commitment will come in so many ways, ethical change, attitudinal change, improvement in living standards, change in environmental perception and a better governed state .

So the journey starts with the physical presence of change, that’s why we are happy to receive this report. It is critical to know that, if you take from the beginning of Tinapa junction, through the 8 miles, coming to Calabar city centre, it is key that we have a different approach. We are happy to hear the dualization of Tinapa junction up to Odukpani Junction, getting to Ikot Ekpene.

We have a team in place, in the next few months this team will focus on defining, beautifying and changing the looks of Calabar as we enter into the carnival season, inspite of the challenges of little financial resources. So at this point in time when we have to change the environmental landscape of Cross River State and Calabar, demolition will be involved, removal of some unapproved structures will certainly be involved.

There is an executive bill that will come from my office going to the State House of Assembly, to have a demolition control bill. I don’t believe that the desperation to make a state look beautiful is to compromise the means of livelihood for our financially challenged people. Now for those our citizens who are financially challenged and in desperation to make a living and have found themselves in our corridors and right ways, it is our responsibility under the development control unit of the Ministry of Lands to have that checked, but in the process we have tolerated them from passivity and allow somebody to raise an illegal structure on the right way, it becomes the duty of government to be responsible for the relocation of that person.

So the demolition control bill allows you to demolish a building only after you have provided an alternative, and to me it is African, it is sensitivity to yearnings, pains of the poor people that you don’t demolish a roof over a human being when you have not created an alternative place for him to go to. Even if the structure is illegal, if government had done their job, development control wouldn’t have allowed that illegal structure in the first instance.

So because you have slept over your rights and have allowed the man to build the structures, you have by law ceded the land to him. So if you must take that land, it is your duty to provide an alternative. So the demolition control bill, which I believe the House of Assembly will expediently push and pass so it comes back to me for assenting into law, will make it mandatory for you to only demolish a house on the condition that you have provided an alternative for the person, be it structured, illegal or not.

Therefore your task is going to be very difficult, how to beautify a place with an illegal structure that must be taken out, yet you must provide a roof before you take it out. That is the delicate and complex nature of this law which you have a duty to manage. So for me it is a delicate and charismatic balance between beauty and life, between value and culture, it is a warm embrace between societal sensitivity to the most critical mass of our people who are financially challenged. To ensure that while trying to make a city beautiful, we don’t compromise their means of survival. To ensure that government is sensitive to the yearnings of the downtrodden. We must enforce your right within the limits of moral law, which detects by our own aforecentric politics that the love for your neighbour, providing a shoulder for the weak to lean on, is a critical requirement of African culture.

So this government derives its morality from the norms and culture of Africa. It is against that background that I insist in carrying out your processes, for every citizen building that must go down; it requires the approval of the governor. For any permanent structure, no matter how small, it can’t go down except governor approves it and the governor can only approve it if government has provided another roof for the person.

Cross River State must live as a civilized state, to show that beyond the powers and authorities that the office confers, God in His own infinite mercy confers also the powers to dispense love and care. So in carrying out your job which is very tedious, dealing with asking people to carry their stalls, shops and filling stations that are close to the road to shift, it is a very complex challenge. I don’t want a mechanistic, physical or brutal effort; I want a civilized, diplomatic effort that truly shows that Cross River State is leading as a civilized state.

In all of these efforts, I am desperate to see a change. So the perception of Cross River State is also a vitality to encourage and serve as tonic for investors to come in. So your work will be the beginning of a signature that will encourage people to come in to invest in Cross River State. So I expect that you prioritise your program and come back with a working timetable for my approval, upon which work starts.

There is a small market by the right hand coming in from Tinapa, going into the Calabar city, which is an ugly site, but also I have noticed that a lot of women go there with their small produce to sell. When we are encouraging people to go back to farming and agriculture, chasing them from a place where they bring their Plaintain, Banana from their villages to sell because we want to make a park or a greenery out of that is a moral burden I can’t carry. I can’t stand the horrible look of that sight. Moral conscience will tell you that, if we know that demolition control bill is coming, why don’t we create/find a delicate balance. I think we should be desperate in finding a new market that we will build in haste, without dislocating them from their customers. The focus is not to disorganize my people, but it is to add value to the city. If you place the city and the people, I will go with the people, if you place beauty and livelihood, I will go for livelihood.’

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