Traditional rulers in Calabar Municipality said they expect no miracle if a successor of the current administration of Cross River State emerges from the same party.
The incumbent, Governor Ben Ayade, defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.
The Paramount Ruler of the Municipality, HRM Eta Eteta, stated this when the PDP governorship candidate, Senator Sandy Onor, visited the traditional rulers as part of his campaign tour of the 18 local government areas of the state.
Eteta said that the present situation of things in the state did not portray it as one where people from both within and outside the country prided as a place to visit before now.
He, however, said that if the plans of Onor were implemented to the letters, the state could reclaim its lost glory.
He said: “We have heard all the good things you have planned for the state and we acknowledged your contribution to the development of the state.
“Calabar is now a shadow of its former self.
“People no longer want to visit Calabar again like in times past.
“Calabar used to be a place known as come and rest, but it’s no longer like that.
“Dirts have taken over the city and we pray for it to end.
“If the man on seat is not doing well, how do you expect the carbon copy of him to do well?”
Eteta noted that the locking up of the traditional rulers Secretariat by the Calabar Municipal Council was an affront on the traditional institution.
He said that they had to relocate venue of the meeting as a result of what he described as “unmitigated embarrassment.”
He said: “This meeting ought to have taken place at our Secretariat, but all the traditional rulers were locked out and we don’t know the reason.
“Thank God for those who gave us chair to seat.
“Is that how we would have received our visitors?
“Please, let it not happen again.
“This is very unfair to traditional rulers.
“Whoever has the keys should release it to the secretary of the traditional rulers.”
Earlier, Onor had told the traditional rulers of how he plans to enthrone good governance in the state.
He also promised to restore the traditional institution to its pride of place.
