By the time outrage landed on the Winner’s Neighbourhood Platform, decades of work had already been done, brick by brick, gate by gate, garden by garden. Chief Victor Felix Idem has been part of this neighbourhood for nearly 30 years. The property managed by a company affiliated with Chief Victor Felix Idem had rules. Known rules. Observed rules. Residents followed them. Life moved on. And now following those same rules is being framed as audacity. Convenient for critics who ignored decades of labour, for those who prefer spectacle to substance, for those who believe presence without contribution is achievement.
22 years ago, Chief Victor Felix Idem landscaped Winners’ Chapel. Pillars rose. Gardens were laid. Every stone, every brick, every deliberate mark is evidence of intention and foresight. Where was the retired director then? Same streets. Same neighbours. Same neighbourhood. Silence. And now, suddenly, history must be rewritten to feed outrage. What changed? Nothing in the streets. Everything in the mouths of those who ignore labour.
For almost 30 years, Chief Victor Felix Idem has quietly empowered citizens of Cross River State. Over 1,000 scholarships granted. Opportunities created. Lives improved without headlines. Students empowered to pursue education. Doors opened where none existed. Young men and women who would otherwise have wandered the streets now walk to schools, universities, and lecture halls with confidence. And the retired director and the Secretary of the Association? Absent. Watching. Waiting. Ready to contest when enforcement finally met neglect. Observation without contribution is not vigilance. It is opportunism.
Hoodlums defecate openly across streets, drains, and corners of public spaces. Warnings ignored. Streets become channels for disease. Children step in it. Elderly endure it. Cholera, typhoid, diarrhoea are not abstractions; they are measurable consequences. Human waste seeps into soil, infiltrates water, threatens life. Hygiene is not opinion. Streets, gates, boundaries, gardens, these are the measures of order. Who pays when streets reek and drains overflow? The residents, the children, the aged. Civic discipline is tangible. Civic order is observable. The retired director and the Secretary of the Association complain about enforcement, ignoring the stakes, ignoring the risk, ignoring the evidence. Blocked drains, disease, trespass, threat to life, all dismissed as grievance.
Cross River State functions under Governor Prince Bassey Edet Otu. Streets repaired. Schools open. Public spaces maintained. Sanitation enforced. Citizens empowered. Discipline visible everywhere. Power demands responsibility. Leadership is measured in bricks, gates, drains, gardens, schools, not by headlines, volume, or the clamor of complaints. And still, some confuse absence with strategy, and critique with leadership.
Into this environment steps Prince Ntufam Hilliard Eta. Offices and honours accumulated over time. National Vice Chairman for South-South APC. Acting National Chairman during internal disputes. APC Presidential Campaign Council member. Chairman of NYSC National Governing Board. Grand Patron of Nigeria Union of Journalists FCT Council. Recognition assembled far from the streets he claims to serve, ask any resident in Calabar. Authority held in offices far from streets counts for nothing where people live. Titles collected in Abuja or in offices mean nothing in Calabar streets. Prince Ntufam Hilliard Eta criticises Governor Prince Bassey Edet Otu, whose streets, schools, and public spaces carry visible evidence of labour and discipline. Words do not measure leadership. Gates, drains, gardens, children’s steps, these do.
Governor Prince Bassey Edet Otu runs Cross River State with work that speaks. Streets repaired. Schools improved. Public spaces maintained. Citizens supported. Discipline enforced. Power is responsibility, not privilege. And yet, accolades collected far from streets are trotted out as though they substitute for results. They do not. Prince Ntufam Hilliard Eta can hold every office. Collect every honour. Display every accolade. None of it touches streets, schools, drains, children, or people. Action leaves legacy. Words leave echo.
The difference between presence and impact is tangible in the neighbourhood. Walk the streets. Look at the drains. Walk through the gardens. Count the children protected from disease, the elderly spared indignity. These are measures of governance and civic responsibility. The retired director and the Secretary of the Association offer loud commentary but leave no trace. One is forced to ask what is leadership if it cannot be felt where life is lived. What is influence if it does not alter daily realities?
The streets, gardens, schools, drains, and gates speak louder than any grievance, louder than any distant office in Abuja. Facts endure. Achievements remain. Attention alone does not change lives. Only persistent, tangible action does. Chief Victor Felix Idem and Governor Prince Bassey Edet Otu may not court headlines, but they have left footprints that the people feel and remember. Prince Ntufam Hilliard Eta may hold every title, collect every accolade, but the people of Cross River State will measure him by what they see, touch, and experience in their daily lives.
Decades of work cannot be rewritten by tweets or Facebook posts. Over 1,000 scholarships, hundreds of students empowered, streets cleared, drains maintained, gates secured, gardens cultivated. These are measurable outcomes. And yet, some will scream outrage over enforcement, over rules, over order. Chaos dressed as grievance is still chaos. Civic order is not negotiable. Leadership is not symbolic. It is observable.
The retired director and the Secretary of the Association may choose to observe from a distance, or to raise their voices in complaint, but those voices do not rebuild drains, clear gardens, or protect children. They do not empower students. They do not maintain streets. In contrast, Chief Victor Felix Idem has done all of this for decades, before public office, before attention, without applause, without spectacle.
Until society measures action by what is seen, felt, and experienced in daily life, rather than by titles, words, or office, applause will be given to absence, and silence will be misread as neglect. Reality will remain stubborn, and the streets will continue to speak louder than every grievance, louder than every title, louder than every critique offered from afar.
