The Bayelsa Development Initiative (BDI) has appealed to the electorate to listen to the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi and demand competence.
The group urged the people to do so by voting out incompetent politicians in the forthcoming Nov. 11 governorship election.
BDI recalled that Obi was in the state recently to inaugurate the campaign office of the LP’s Governorship Candidate, Udengs Eradiri and to hold a town hall meeting.
According to BDI, Obi had lamented the underdevelopment in the state, saying that Bayelsa is the second poorest state in the country after Zamfara State in spite of the abundant resources in the state.
In his tweet after the visit to Yenagoa the Bayelsa State capital, Obi, former Governor of Anambra State had said:
“I and the National Working Committee of our Party, led by Barr. Julius Abure, were in Bayelsa State for the Presentation of our gubernatorial candidate Engr. Udengs Eradiri, and his citizen’s charter.
“I felt a sense of pain driving from Port Harcourt through East-West Rd. I am tempted to conclude that Nigeria has not been fair to the Niger Delta region considering its resource contribution to the nation.
“Bayelsa State is the second poorest state in Nigeria with an 88.5% poverty rate. That should not be the position of the State where we discovered oil for the first time in January 1956.
“Bayelsa is one of the states where we get the mineral resources with which we develop our nation. It was in Oloibiri, Bayelsa, that Nigeria first discovered oil in January 1956. Bayelsa should be one of the most developed States in the country, but due to bad Leadership, the state and the entire region is desolate.
“We must begin to rid our nation of all forms of bad governance and corruption that have held us down, and begin to deliver good governance to the people.
“I urge the good people of Bayelsa to support us in moving the State in particular and the nation in general, from consumption to production. That is the way to build the New Bayelsa, and ultimately, the New Nigeria of our dreams. I hereby restate my belief that with our kind of leadership, a new Nigeria is POssible. -PO.”
BDI in their statement yesterday, Sunday, by its Secretary Michael-Sam Rodamini, noted that Obi was emphatic when he said that with the wealth that had accrued to Bayelsa, the state had no business with poverty.
Rodamini recalled that Obi classified Eradiri among the wealth creators and advised the people to vote for “wealth creators and not wealth sharers,” adding that there was nothing left to be shared again.
He said: “The questions are, who underdeveloped Bayelsa? Who stole the commonwealth of the people? The answer is not far-fetched.
“From 1999 till date, those who have been kneeling on the progress of Bayelsa and suffocating the state’s capacity to breath the refreshing air of development are in both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“Most of the so-called political leaders in these two parties are wealth sharers according to Peter Obi.
“They have shared the wealth of this great state among themselves so much that there is nothing left to be shared again. They have shared the destinies of our children,” the statement read in part.
The group regretted that past leaders squandered, diverted all the monies meant for healthcare, quality education and quality infrastructures.
“They are back again to continue in the business of profligacy and plundering of our commonwealth.
“We recall that the LP Candidate, Udengs Eradiri, told the people on that day Obi visited that it was time we rose to challenge these people.
“Yes. We need to challenge them to protect the future of our children because all they care about is their comfort and that of their children.
“If we love this state, this coming election provides an opportunity to rescue Bayelsa and revive the dreams of the state’s founding fathers”, BDI ssid.
Rodamini insisted that Eradiri had proved himself to be the credible alternative needed by the people to rescue Bayelsa and put the state on the pathway of progress and development.
He said: “The coming of Obi and the presentation of the LP flag to Candidate Eradiri have quelled all the insinuations and doubts about his candidature and his seriousness towards the poll.
“The events have also proved that he has a clear agenda to develop Bayelsa.
“We have perused his PEAP agenda and we are satisfied that candidate Eradiri stands poles apart from what those other parties are offering.
“He has a clear vision of what to do and how to deliver this state from the shackles of underdevelopment and poverty,” Rodamini stressed.
