The Cross River State Government has disbursed ₦250 million in self-enhancement entrepreneurial grants to 500 retirees from the state civil service, as part of efforts to empower former workers and promote financial independence post-retirement.
Each beneficiary received ₦500,000, with the funds specifically aimed at helping retirees start sustainable business ventures to supplement their monthly pensions.
Speaking during the presentation of cheques, Governor Bassey Otu emphasized that the grant was not intended for daily upkeep, but to boost economic engagement among the beneficiaries.
Represented at the occasion by his deputy Rt. Hon. Peter Odey, the governor charged the beneficiaries to see the gesture as an opportunity to embark on self-sustaining business ventures to complement their monthly pensions.
The governor also announced plans to present a bill to the state House of Assembly for the establishment of Senior Citizens Development Centres in Calabar, Ikom and Ogoja local government areas, to sustain the programme.
He charged them to ensure that the grant is put to judicious use, stressing that the N500,000 grant per beneficiary was capable of taking care of a small business that would keep them busy instead of remaining idle while awaiting payment of pension.
A beneficiary who retired from the state fire service, Madam Ako Essien praised the state governor for his love and compassion to them.
Essien pointed out that beneficiaries were initially skeptical about the sincerity of government to extend such gesture to them when enrolled for the three months training.
She explained that while waiting for the grant after the training programme, she carried out a business survey and decided to set up a poultry feed shop.
Beyond contributing to making laws for the administration of the country as a whole, beyond drawing attention to, and raising “matters of infrastructural emergency” in his representational catchment, Abejide has had to personally and practically confront the hydra of pain and agony-inflicting situation of roads, bridges and drains in Yagbaland. He was hitherto revered among his constituents, for offsetting the bills of external examinations undertaken by final year students of senior secondary schools across Yagbaland. This responsibility he indeed philanthropically assumed, before his induction into the national legislature in 2019. While not abdicating this responsibility, while concurrently helping to strengthen the hands of his kinsmen in artisanal, vocational and agricultural pursuits, Abejide has metaphorically ventured where angels feared to tread.
The condition of roads in Isanlu the headquarters of Yagba East council area which doubles as the cultural and political convergence hub of Yagba people across three local government areas, has been very troubling over time. Previous governments at the level of the state have attempted remediation of sorts, of some roads in Isanlu, many of which have been threatened by gnawing erosion through the years. Local government authorities have, at best, been unresponsive to these challenges, and have demonstrated a crass lack of imagination. This is often put down to the fact that theircresources are always ever hijacked by, and dismembered as dessert on the tables of power mongers at the state capital. Abejide has moved to build the access road to the *Isanlu Town Hall,* a prime event centre in the town. It has been completed, commissioned and opened for public use. He is equally rebuilding the road linking *Kajola* in Isanlu and the *Obada* market. Drainages are being emplaced as we speak.
Abejide dared the virtually impossible in February this year, when he flagged off the serially forgotten, yet all-important, 60 kilometre *Igbagun-Ijowa-Isanlu* road, which links over a dozen communities in the agrarian heart of Yagba East council area. As a school teacher upon completion of the National Youth Service Corps, (NYSC), in 1986, my first posting was to Ponyan one of the larger communities in that part of Nigeria. I travelled severally on that route which seemed to me and to many, like the end of the world in its pristine relegation. Especially if you’d been previously pampered by glimpses of difference-making infrastructure in our towns and cities. The administration of Ibrahim Idris who governed Kogi State between 2003 and 2011, made an attempt to build the road in its reign. The cosmeticity of the effort, however, was speedily manifest in the rapid collapse of the road to minimum vehicular exertion and the first burst of rain.
Leke Abejide has proceeded to knock on the doors of the federal government, to enable the initiation of work on the project. The road will equally benefit kinsmen of Yagba people in contiguous Ekiti State, *Omuo-Ekiti* for instance, being a shouting distance from Igbagun. The sum of N60 Billion has been earmarked to ensure the construction of a road which will remain optimally motorable in decades to come. Fiscal releases will be made by the federal government, consistent with milestones achieved in the construction process. Apart from Igbagun the take-off point of the project, Yagba communities like *Alu, Oranre, Ife-Olukotun, Ponyan, Agimi, Jege, Ejuku, Imela, Oke-Agi, Takete-Isao,* and the terminus on the *Ijowa-Isanlu* stretch of the project, will be major beneficiaries of the visionary effort.
Abejide is mindful of the imperative of extending his exertions in infrastructural development in the Yagba country, to Yagba West and Mopamuro council areas, which are also under his legislative jurisdiction. He is drawing from the same pool of resources as his other colleagues in the federal congress, a situation which necessitates prioritisation of projects, subject to the availability of funds. He intends to proceed to the *Odo Ere-Igbaruku-Omi-Odo Ara-Ogga-Ogbom* road in Yagba West, for which a preliminary N4Billion has been set aside. The *Ogbe to Egbe,* and the *Egbe-Okoloke-Isanlu Esa-Okunran* roads, all in Yagba West, are also on the cards. The *Okeagi to Ilai* as well as the *Orokere-Takete Ide* roads in Mopamuro are being assessed to enable the articulation of authentic and implementable bills of quantities.
For a legislator who is the sole member of his political party, the African Democratic Congress, (ADC), in the 460-member national assembly, being a “political orphan” can be substantially debilitating. But Abejide is doing so much already, even the circumstances. He has striven to convert this seeming handicap into a source of strength. Two years into his second term, he is retaining his position as Chairman of the House Committee on Customs and Excise. He has mastered the ropes of cooperation and collaboration with colleagues, irrespective of political affiliation. He knows his way around ministries, departments and agencies, (MDAs), with whom he regularly engages so as to sustain multisectoral advocacy for the needs of his constituents. Where necessary, he deploys his acquaintances with sections of the country, notably the core North where he schooled and worked for several years, before his years in his present brief, all in the service of his people.
*Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), is an Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Abuja* 
