‘Zoba 🇳🇬🇨🇦

Over the weekend, I visited my home state of Bayelsa and my community Toru-Orua the first time in a long while, precisely since the funeral of our late Deputy Governor Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, my loyal brother and mentee. After returning to Abuja from the funeral, I became deeply engrossed in the registration and building of the NDC, a process that has occupied much of my time over the past months. I was pleased to be accompanied on this visit by our Presidential Candidate, His Excellency Peter Obi, CON, who spent the entire day and evening in Bayelsa with his entourage, including the Director-General of our National Campaign Council, Mallam Ibrahim Abdulkarim. I thank our National Chairman, Senator Moses Cleopas; members of the National Working Committee; our State Chairman and members of the State Executive Committee; local government and ward chairmen; and all party members and leaders across the state. I particularly appreciate the Chairman of the State Elders’ Caucus, Dr. Osusu, and the Bayelsa West Caucus Chairman, Elder Suru Oyarde, alongside other caucus members. I thank the state campaign coordinator, Prof. Opuala Charles and all the members of the campaign team. I also thank all our candidates, including our senatorial and National Assembly candidates and the 24 House of Assembly candidates, for mobilising in large numbers to receive us at the airport and accompany us to the party secretariat, where I was overwhelmed by the mammoth crowd. We subsequently commissioned our state secretariat. From there, we proceeded to my country home in Toru-Orua. I am grateful to the Chiefs and elders of Sagbama community for their warm reception and gifts. I equally thank the people of Bolu-Orua and Toru-Angiama, my paternal ancestral community, and all the communities along the route that came out in large numbers to welcome us. My special thanks go to the Paramount Ruler of Toru-Orua, the chiefs and elders, the youths, women and party faithful across Bayelsa and beyond. I thank our Rivers State Governorship Candidate, Dumo Lulu-Briggs; South-South state chairmen and other party leaders from neighbouring states; and everyone who contributed to the success of the visit. I also thank the security agencies, musicians and media organisations that covered the events. During my remarks, I introduced our presidential candidate to the people of Bayelsa and urged them to support and vote for him, as he is contesting on the platform of the NDC our party. I also called for a minute of silence in honour of the late Deputy Governor Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, with whom I discussed the NDC after I decided on its formation. Just as I also mentioned it to the current Governor, advising him not to decamp to the APC. I called on our people to honour the legacies of our political forebears, especially Harold Dapabiriye, founder of the pre-independence Niger Delta Congress; and His Excellency, the late Chief Melford Okilo, elected the first preindependence House of Representatives on the platform the NDC; Isaac Adaka Boro; Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha; and Pa Edwin Clark, among others. I also discussed the formation of the NDC with our leader and father, His Excellency President Goodluck Jonathan. The NDC represents a long tradition of political leadership founded on the struggle for equity, justice and an inclusive Nigeria. Our forebears understood that advancing the interests of our people also required building bridges of trust understanding across the country. This is the tradition I have inherited and the responsibility I consider it my duty to sustain. I hope the younger generation will embrace this legacy of service, service with conviction for the betterment of all.

I expressed confidence that Peter Obi will win Bayelsa and urged our people to vote for all NDC candidates, from top to bottom. I firmly believe that the NDC will win massively in Bayelsa, across the Niger Delta and throughout Nigeria. I made it clear that the APC has nothing to offer Bayelsans; nothing to show in terms of roads and bridges and infrastructure. Despite the enormous resources generated from our region, we continue to lack the critical infrastructure that our people deserve. Everything in our state and our region was done by the PDP. The APC has done nothing for our people and intends to do nothing. Our region also remains inadequately represented in important federal appointments and positions, civil and military. The APC rewards Bayelsa with only half ministerial positions, after which they send them to jail. I therefore urged our people to reject the APC at the polls. I also spoke about my years of nurturing political leaders and the deliberate considerations behind my decision on succession in Bayelsa. Given the peculiar challenges of the Ijaw nation and the Niger Delta, we agreed the next government after mine should still be led by a product of the Ijaw nation, someone who has been involved in the Ijaw movement, to continue to fight and defend us against the oppressive forces holding down our people and others in Nigeria. I also wanted to enthrone fairness amongst Bayelsans irrespective of voting strength of individual local governments. These considerations led me to the choice of the current Governor Douye Diri who was my principal Executive Secretary, my Deputy Chief of Staff, a House of Reps member, a Senator and later a governor, all sponsored by my system. This is why I have always been against the decision to surrender our state, our hard-won victory, particularly with all my sacrifices and pains at a great cost, both personal and political. Our victory was donated free of charge to the APC, making all of us overnight, to be opposition members in our own state, in a government we formed, in a governorship I crafted, and an administration we worked hard to put in power. Every single one of the people in the current government was nurtured and supported for years by me. To make it worse, for the past seven years it has been pettiness, wickedness, propaganda, lies, deceit, blackmail, envy and greed. People are dismissed, sacked and impoverished, to strangulate and blackmail the very people who paved way for them into power. The APC never defeated me and they have never won Bayelsa on the ballot. I have been the obstacle stopping them from winning Bayelsa since 2015, even with the defeat of the PDP at the center. But the man I brought, believed and trusted with the future of our people donated the state to the APC and now treating me as a political opponent to engratuate himself to the center—the very people I defeated, without bringing about any benefit to our people from the APC-led federal government. For a long time, I deliberately refrained from speaking extensively about these developments because of my love for our people and the need to preserve peace and prevent a crisis as it happens frequently in other states. So I deliberately stayed away without any interference, no demands or pressure on the government I helped to install. To you my people, I understand the hardship, intimidation, harassment and dismissals from appointments that you have had to endure. However, the time has come to make our political choices and positions clear. I urge everyone to remain peaceful. No one should attack, threaten or abuse anyone. As I said, children may deny their father, but fathers do not deny children. The governor is still my person, my brother, my compatriot and our governor. But he is now someone I disagree with, as he and the people in his government are wrong with the direction they are taking our state to.