Eulogy for a visionary: The return of Ben Ayade by Barr. Victor Egba

Today, the skies over Calabar whisper again: for a son returns home.

At the Margaret Ekpo International Airport, not merely an aircraft will land,
but a legacy wrapped in intellect, courage, and compassion will touch down.

And perhaps, Ayade will fly on the wings of his own ideas; that brilliant boy from Kakum, on board the state-owned airline, the brainchild of his own administration.

I can almost imagine the intellectual storm within his mind, the quiet pride of a thinker who once dreamt and then built.

Son!

Professor Ben Ayade, the philosopher-king of Cross River politics, returns not as a man of yesterday, but as the enduring architect of tomorrow.

He dreamt when others doubted.

He spoke of “Food on the Table” not as a slogan, but as a creed; Acovenant between governance and humanity.

He saw hunger not just as an economic challenge, but as a moral injustice.

So he fed not only mouths, but dreams.
And in the quiet corners of Obudu and the bustling streets of Calabar,
households felt, perhaps for the first time, that government was not a distant idea, but a heartbeat in the home.

Ironically, his Food on the Table policy, once dismissed and criticised by his fiercest critic Agba Jalingo, has proven prophetic.

Today, that same Agba Jalingo stands as a contractor for politicians championing conditional cash transfers, bowing, perhaps unconsciously, to Ayade’s political foresight and grasp of the real issues of governance in Cross River State.

In the end, even his detractors have found themselves caught in the current of his ideas, a testament that time, not noise, is the final judge of vision.

He sought to industrialise Cross River,
not with noise, but with vision: toothpick production using our local materials, pile and pilon factory exploiting our rubber, the Cargo Airport_driving the sector and connecting the markets, the Teachers Training Institute, factories, rice mills, garment hubs, each one a testament that the Cross River child, too, could create, compete, and conquer.

But perhaps his greatest industry was human capital.

For Ayade believed in youth before it became fashionable.

When others saw inexperience, he saw ignition.

He opened the corridors of power to the young and from that bold experiment emerged two shining stars: Dr. Betta Edu, who rose to national prominence as a Minister, and Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong Jnr.,

whose brilliance in the red chambers affirms that Ayade’s trust was never misplaced.

Ayade taught that power is not age, but purpose.

He dared to hand the sceptre to a new generation and in doing so, redefined the meaning of political mentorship.

Today, even his fiercest rivals,
including Senator Jarigbe Agom,
have come to walk the road he first paved the path toward a united APC in the South South, the path of vision over venom.

For history is stubborn: it bends toward truth, and in that truth, Ayade stands not as a partisan warrior, but as the Godfather of Modern APC Politics in our region, the first to believe, the first to build, the first to bridge.

So as Cross River receives him once more, let every youth remember his words:

“Ingratitude is a sin.”

Let us not forget the hands that lifted us when our voices were faint.

Let us rally, not in flattery, but in fidelity,
for honour is the debt we owe those who dreamed before us.

And so, to Ben Ayade: the Digital Governor, the Industrial Philosopher,
the Political Stoic, we say: Welcome home.

The seeds you planted have taken root.
The young you believed in now carry the torch.

And though times have changed,
the story of your courage remains etched in the conscience of Cross River.

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