One-time Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Mr. Timi Alaibe, was yesterday at the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Abuja where he revealed that he joined the Bayelsa State governorship race to provide a purposeful leadership that would meet the aspirations of the people.
Alaibe, who fielded questions from journalists after submitting his expression of interest and nomination forms, said he has never been a fan of the incumbent Governor of the state, Seriaki Dickson, but that loyalty to his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, was why he campaiged for him during the last governorship election in Bayelsa.
Noting that the people of Bayelsa were tired of “accidental and visionless leadership,” he declared that such was what made leaders in the state to purchase the nomination forms for him.
According to him, “You were here when the elders and leaders the state came to purchase form, asking me to contest for the governorship of the state. In answering that call and following my acceptance, I have come here to submit the expression of interest and nomination forms.
“We as Bayelsa people are tired of accidental leadership. We are tired of visionlessness and you know that I come with a lot of experience, goodwill, integrity and reputation. As one of the major oil producing states in this country, Bayelsa has not been able to see structured development in terms of infrastructural development and even in terms of environmental development as consequence of oil production.”
Elaborating more on why he supported Dickson four years ago only to turn against him now, Alaibe said: “I am a party man and that is what I have always been. I even have course to step down for people by following party directive those days, so I am a party man but in spite of how we try to support them, the leopard and his skin refused to change, you cannot give what you do not have”.
When asked whether he does not think the difficult terrain of the state might have contributed to the slow spate of development in Bayelsa, the former NDDC boss said such an excuse was not tenable as “there is no terrain challenge that cannot be resolved.”
While stressing that he was coming with loads of experience to transform the state, he said: “Is like talking about Netherlands, city of water, and you can see infrastructure development. If you know what to do, let us not use the excuse of terrain, that is deceit, that is not the problem. How does the excuse of terrain make you not to resolve the drainage problem in Yenagoa town? How does the excuse of terrain made you not to clear the refuse?
“It is leadership we are talking about, leadership with vision, leadership that gives direction, leadership that know critical issue of infrastructural development and empowerment, leadership that connect with the people, that is what is absent and that is what we want to fix,” he stated.
Comments