By Akinjide Aina, Abuja
Except Southeast political leaders immediately intervene after reading this story, Anambra will be represented in the yet-to-be-constituted President Bola Tinubu’s Cabinet by a Cross Riverian.
Highly placed party and Aso Rock sources have informed this magazine that Cross River state’s former Commissioner for Health, who is the current National Women Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Dr Betta Edu has been handed Anambra’s Ministerial slot.
Dr Edu and her benefactor, former Governor Ben Ayade are reportedly in a fierce contest for Cross River’s slot.
The former Commissioner is insisting that she deserves to represent Cross River in the Federal Cabinet, having delivered the Central Senatorial Zone of the State to the APC during the Presidential and Senatorial elections whereas her former boss, Ayade, not only lost his Senatorial zone, Cross River North, to Peter Obi’s Labour Party, but also lost his Senatorial election to the PDP candidate, Senator Agom Jarigbe Agom.
“However, to solve the Edu- Ayade debacle, the APC National leadership, and the Presidency have decided to leverage on Edu’s faint Anambra bloodline to cede the State’s slot to her”, an APC source privy to the arrangement told the magazine.
Dr Edu’s father is Igbo from Anambra state while her mother is from Yala in Northern Cross River. The APC National Women Leader is married to a man from Ibalebo in Abi Local Government Area in Central Cross River.
However, Dr Edu whose Igbo name is Chimaobi, has consistently done everything within her powers to conceal her Igbo connection.
She neither speaks Igbo, nor identifies with the Igbo Community in Cross River.
Dr.Edu often describes herself as a Yala woman who became an Abi woman by marriage.
And indeed, she represented Abi Local Government in the Ayade Cabinet as Commissioner.
When the APC zoned the position of National Woman Leader to the South-south geopolitical zone, Dr. Edu, noted for her oratory skill and flawless use of the English language, contested for it and won, beating her rival, another Cross Riverian from the same Central Senatorial District as herself, Barrister (Mrs) Mary Ekpere.
One of the youngest Commissioners in the Ayade cabinet, Dr. Edu, was a student union leader at the University of Calabar where she studied Medicine.
Before she was appointed Health Commissioner in 2019, Edu was the Director-General of the Cross River State Primary Health Care Development Agency (CRSPHCDA), and Special Technical Adviser to the Governor on Cross River State Privatization Council.
Apart from her Medical degree from the University of Calabar, Dr. Edu holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Public Health for Developing Countries from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK, and a Master of Science Public Health in Developing Countries from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK, and Doctor of Public Health from Texila American University.
