TOGETHER IN PDP WE CAN REBUILD OUR FUTURE: ACCEPTANCE SPEECH OF CHIEF BARR EZENWO NYESOM WIKE CON; PDP GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATE RIVERS STATE. DECEMBER 8, 2014. Protocol, I am deeply humbled and elevated by the electoral success achieved today at this State Congress of our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It is unique and special that you have found us worthy to be entrusted with the enormous responsibility of flying the flag of the Party by electing me Governorship Candidate in the 2015 elections in Rivers State. I dedicate this victory to God Almighty who made all things. It is a victory for democracy. It is a victory for all of us who toiled day and night as foot soldiers of the PDP in Rivers State. I congratulate especially, all my fellow aspirants as worthy gladiators and hereby publicly invite them to join hands with us in the great tasks ahead; the task of ensuring total victory for the PDP in Rivers State; the task of ensuring the reelection of His Excellency President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in whom we are all well pleased and committed to the cause of his victory at the polls in 2015. On my honour, I offer the olive branch to all combatants in the struggle to recover for the PDP and indeed all Rivers people, the stolen mandate currently in the hands of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Rivers State. We shall and we should work together and very assiduously to recover what is rightly ours. We have come a long way in the struggle to restore democracy in Rivers State and especially against the forces of impunity and anarchy. Since 1999, Rivers State has remained a safe haven for the PDP as the party has always maintained enviable record of being the highest stronghold of our great party in all elections in Nigeria. Then came the era of rascality and impunity. The era of the attempt of the forces of evil to desecrate, denigrate and disrespect the office and person of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The same doctrine of impunity has cost Rivers State dearly. Today, the Rivers State Government has made itself a person-non-grata in the comity of States in Nigeria. Through self inflicted injury, Rivers State Government carries an air of rebellion and isolation. It enjoys a pariah status. Rivers State, the Treasure Base of the Nation and epicenter of attraction in our Federation has attracted unnecessary enmity, dishonour and rejection by most public authorities. From being active participants in the Nigerian project, we have been turned into passive observers. The sacred institutions of statehood which give meaning to democracy and good governance are clinically dead. The House of Assembly from whose hallowed chambers the lawmaking process and effective representations of our people, guaranteed by the constitution, ought to flow unfettered is now a museum piece under lock and key. The members of that august body are now in disarray with a handful squatting in the Government House and blowing the Governor’s muted trumpet. How about the Judiciary? The virus of impunity has infested and has been deliberately injected into the temple of justice and for the first time in the history of Nigeria, a supposed democratic government has put the judiciary under lock and key. What an irony! Today, crime and criminality go unattended because the courts in Rivers State are padlocked. The prisons and police cells swell daily with inmates awaiting trial and suspects whose minor offences ought to have been handled by the courts cannot obtain justice. Civil processes cannot be filed and thousands of legal practitioners and their clients completely put out of business. Can we quantify the losses being incurred by the citizenry? Is this the kind of democracy we all fought for? There is today complete infrastructural decay. Most communities have become inaccessible while potholes and refuse dumps ignominiously compete for space across the various Local Government Areas of the State. Public utilities have completely failed and remain unattended. From Omoku to Oyigbo; from Mbiama to Okehi; across our riverine communities, the decay is palpable and the cries of the people are like fine arguments made to the deaf and dumb. The feeling of despair is too obvious to be ignored. Yet the Government in office prides itself with non-sustainable projects that have gulped huge public funds. Worse still, most of our public projects have now been sold to cronies of government. Look at the monorail project; it is like a journey without maps. It is a failed project. Look at the health institutions and look at all the so-called projects including the ones for television shows especially around Elekahia and public relations destinations for selected dignitaries in named locations often along the major high ways from the Airport to the City. It is all window dressing. We need to work together to rebuild our once beautiful Rivers State. I urge you all not to weep. I urge you all my brothers and sisters to put on your working clothes and commence immediately, the process of rebuilding our great State. This we shall do first, by recovering it from the grip of its present poor handlers. We must achieve this through the ballot box. The NEW RIVERS VISION 2015 is a programme of action whose central theme is our economic, infrastructural, administrative and human resource reconstruction, regeneration and redevelopment. Everyone has a part to play at the project site. It is a task that must be done! We acknowledge the multi-ethnic configuration of Rivers State. We respect the divergent views of all the segments of the state expressed by some of the aspirants and their supporters in the journey to today. Everyone is correct to hold views. It is natural that in a democracy, people must freely express themselves and canvass opinions considered important to them. Such opinions so freely expressed, sophisticate our democracy and strengthen us to appreciate others, the way they are. Our strength lies in our diversity and our complexity. Rivers State is a land full of institutions and traditions of many years of advancement and time-honoured civilizations, city states, kingdoms and chiefdoms. These institutions enhanced our identity as true Rivers people who have values, norms, customs and mores that are timeless and well honoured. Today, balkanization of traditional institutions has become a weapon of political oppression and reckless intimidation. We shall put a stop to this madness and restore sanity in our land again. We shall seek the path of honour and true reconciliation. I reiterate here, my earlier declaration in the course of this contest, that it shall never be a do or die affair. I promised that should any of you win this primary, I shall personally; lead the campaign as a devoted party member, to ensure electoral victory for the PDP. I also declared that should I win the contest, you all shall like good sportsmen join me to face the battle ahead and win in all the elections in 2015 for the PDP. After all, this is a race keenly contested and with only one man to embrace the tape of victory. In the course of this contest, a number of people, politicians, elders and opinion moulders amongst others poured some vituperations upon our persons. We consider these comments, criticisms and attacks on us as friendly tackles in the field of play. I hereby declare that I have forgiven them all. In the same vein, I apologize to all those we may have offended directly or indirectly through our comments, speeches and actions in the course of this struggle as we believe that in the process of a complicated surgery, as politics, nerves, arteries and veins may be affected by the surgical knife. However, the recovery and the healing process in the end save lives. In the name of God, please forgive as we have forgiven all those who may have offended us. Such reconciliation must be genuine. We seek to bring back everyone to the sheepfold and rebuild our once strong, virile, united political family. It is going to be a challenging assignment. But we have confidence in the ability of our people to discharge this onerous responsibility of true political reconciliation. It is the basis of our march to victory. We have therefore set up a Reconciliation Committee with the following as Chairman, Secretary and members. SEE ATTACHED LIST. The Chairman shall be at liberty to regulate its own proceedings. On our part, I shall personally lead the way to reach out to all our elders, compatriots in the exercise of achieving electoral success for the PDP. I shall create no boundaries and I shall leave no stone unturned in the process. I shall knock on all the doors of our leaders and offer the peace gesture. No one alone can win this battle, just as no man alone can savour the sweet incense of victory. Let us serve together to salvage Rivers State from the APC. I urge all our people to join this team of devoted party faithful to ensure victory for the PDP. I declare again that our mission is to ensure that no Rivers man or woman, neither ethnic nor any geographical location or enclave for that matter, shall suffer disaffection, discrimination or deliberate exclusion from the common wealth that providence and prodigally bestowed upon Rivers State. We shall, when we win and win, we shall in the name of God Almighty endeavour to recover our looted public resources including the retrun of the sold infrastructures built with public funds and currently pocketed by cronies of the outgoing government. We shall endeavour to build a harmonious Rivers State again, where no man is oppressed. We shall strive to maintain a robust relationship with the Federal Government led by our beloved brother, father, son-in-law and the Rivers man in every respect, His Excellency Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan GCFR. We ask God to grant this our one request, so that with peace and plenty, Rivers State that is already blessed, may blossom again. Come let us join hands, so that together we can, as brick layers rebuild Rivers State from its present ruins. And because it is in our God we trust, all the mountains, valleys and rough places of today shall be made low, plain and straight again and all eyes shall see together and glorify our heavenly father. God bless Rivers State. God bless Nigeria. Blessed be the hands that cast the lot that gave us victory today. I thank you all for your patience.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 14:49:53 +0000
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