Less than 48 hours after Cross River State governor Bassey Otu made public his list of appointees, High Chief Ray Ugba Morphy, LEADERSHIP columnist and one of the appointees has exclusively informed LEADERSHIP that he will not be receiving salaries throughout the duration of the appointment as Special Assistant (SA).
He said he has indeed informed the governor that he would drive his new role without collecting any salary or emoluments from the state government. He said he was doing this borne out of patriotism and the need to contribute to the development of his state without asking for anything in return.
High Chief Ray Ugba Morphy, who was appointed Special Adviser, Skill Acquisition, maintained that, „as a senior citizen of this state, consistently committed to progress of our beloved state, I put on public record that I will function in this capacity to the best of my ability as a service to our people, therefore, i will work gratis! At this juncture of my life, I believe the renewal of Cross River and its upliftment should be the primary duty of all. I consider this appointment a call to service, not a call to feed on the lean resources of the state.“
Governor Otu, so far, is on the right, and he has assured me that skill acquisition will be a major plank of his administration,” he said.
Recall that Morphy, known for his direct approach to goal getting, resigned from former governor Ben Ayade‘s administration in 2016, as Special Adviser, Strategy and National Contact to the governor, in circumstances that bothered on principle. He is the son of the iconic I. I. Morphy, a traditional chief, foremost nationalist and patriot who until his death was the political leader of Cross River North.
LEADERSHIP recalls that High Chief Ray Morphy, a stickler to what is right and a top chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Cross River State, in 2022 resigned from the party.
His resignation was contained in a statement he released to that effect.
Stating his reasons for resigning, Morphy said Nigerians are traumatised and need a better presidential candidate than the “comedy of gaffes” that has been prevalent in the ruling party.
He said; “I am not sorry! I have lost many friends because they expected me to live a lie, they expected that I would, like them, condemn the APC misrule in private and hail APC in public. I do not know how to speak with a forked tongue.
“I am not sorry that I left APC where I had made intellectual, material and financial contributions, all in a bid to help secure better governance for ours!
“I realised after much effort that public good is the last thing on the mind of the leadership of the APC whether in government or out of it. Talking about public good to APC is like talking to a stone, so I took a walk. I am not sorry that I did what my conscience bids me to do.
“I cannot support a ticket that does not take into cognisance the diversity of our country. I am not sorry, that I happen to believe that this country needs better, indeed deserves better than the comedy of gaffes that the APC is trying to sell to Nigerians in order to further impoverish an already traumatised and despondent citizenry.
“I am not sorry, because I am a seeker of what is right and true. This is what we do, we stand with the truth and part ways with those who prefer lies.
“We stand with the public and part ways with those who see nothing wrong with the mass sufferings of the citizenry. I am not sorry that I stand for what is good for our nation.”
Before his resignation, Murphy served as an adviser to John Odigie-Oyegun, the former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
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