OPEN LETTER TO DISTINGUISHED SENATOR JARIGBE AGOM JARIGBE, SENATOR REPRESENTING C’RIVER NORTH SENATORIAL DISTRICT

…A Cry from Igede-Edii in Yala 2 Constituency

By Kadiri Abraham

June 14, 2025

Dear Distinguished Senator Jarigbe,

This is not a letter borne out of bitterness, but one shaped by long years of silence, neglect, and hope. As an indigenes of Igede-Edii in Yala 2 Constituency, I have watched your mid-term strides with cautious admiration. In a political landscape often clouded by rhetoric, your bold posture and purposeful leadership have offered a glimmer of hope to many in Cross River North. For this, I salute you.

Yet, hope—like light—is only meaningful when it touches even the most remote and forgotten places. Igede-Edii in Yala 2 Constituency, sadly, remains one such place.

Despite being a peaceful and historically significant community, Igede-Edii has endured years of developmental exclusion. We have been loyal at the ballot box, patient in the face of abandonment, and silent through successive political cycles that have failed to acknowledge our existence.

The evidence of this neglect is glaring:

-Our roads are impassable tracks that mock the idea of connectivity.

-Our schools are shadows of learning spaces, forgotten by time and policy.

-Our health centers, where they exist, are ghostly structures without personnel or supplies.

-Access to electricity, potable water, functional markets, or any basic government service remains a distant dream.

And yet, in all this, we have remained patriotic. But patriotism without justice is merely endurance. And even endurance has its limits.

What deepens our pain is not just the absence of development, but the apparent politics of exclusion that governs project siting across Cross River State. The pattern is familiar: those who lack political godfathers or high-profile proxies are pushed to the periphery. Development, it appears, follows connections—not need.

Igede-Edii has suffered not because we lack brains or numbers, but because we lack a voice in the corridors of power.

Those who have paraded themselves as our representatives are nothing more than political nomads—drifting from party to party in search of personal survival rather than communal progress. They are loud in self-praise, but silent where it matters most.

Let it be known clearly:

They do not represent Igede-Edii.

They do not speak for our people.

They have spoken too long on our behalf, and said nothing of worth.

But times are changing. A new consciousness is awakening in Igede-Edii. We are organizing, educating, mobilizing—and come the next elections, we shall no longer reward silence or spinelessness with votes, especially for those who take us for granted. I confident this is not just my voice, but the cry of a typical Igede-Edii man.

Dear Senator, this letter is not only a lament—it is a call.

A call to justice.
A call to inclusion.
A call to history.

You have the rare opportunity to stand apart—to be the first senator in recent memory to pay attention to the people of Igede-Edii, not because of what we can give, but because it is the just thing to do.

We are not asking for favors. We are asking for fairness.

We invite you to visit. Walk our roads. Speak to our elders. See, firsthand, the resilience of a people long ignored. And let it be that during your tenure, Igede-Edii began to breathe again.

Let your legacy stretch beyond the urban applause. Let it echo in the most neglected corners of your district. Let the story of your service be told in the lives you touched—especially the ones nobody else thought to care for.

We write this not in bitterness, but in belief.
We believe you can hear us.
We believe you will not forget us.

The true test of representation is not in the stadiums you fill or the billboards you mount, but in the number of forgotten communities you remember.

We are ready to partner for development. Are you ready to remember us?

Signed:

Abraham Kadiri
Concerned Indigene of Igede-Edii
Yala 2 Constituency, Cross River State

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