WHY IS SENATOR OKOWA POPULAR ? The closer the election, the clearer it becomes that this is the most important general election since 1999. In that distant year, Deltans voters were offered a choice between a dictator and a raggedy, disparate caboodle of crusaders for democracy on the other. They chose the caboodle mostly because they had learned the hard way what losing democracy meant. This time the choice increasingly appears to be between the past and the future, between an old idea of delta and a new one. Those selling the old idea, in their different ways, are the old capitalist looters who banded together last week as anointment and endorsements brigades makers of governorship candidates . What is the old idea of Delta ? It is the one bequeathed to us , whereby we have created Delta as she is today. A land in which a vast infrastructure of politicians, officials, clerks govern badly an angry and restless populace that no longer understands why basic needs are so hard to meet. A land in which young people demand to know why the sons of officials and politicians live like billionaires while they hunt desperately for jobs in a market that in the past 10 years has dried up. So crony capitalism is a favourite catchphrase with the praise singers lot, without them noticing that this is always a creation of the state. In the eyes of praise singers, it is corporate Delta that is to blame. What is most depressing is that if you talk to leaders of the parties in the old Delta club, the solutions they offer are no different to the ones we have already tried. In their campaign speeches, they talk of building car plant in Warri and , poverty alleviation schemes and empowering women. On corruption, the war against is a ‘new’ idea that has been around for 54 years. They know that they offer nothing new, so they throw in dark references to the man they most fear and loathe . senator Okowa . The reason why they fear and loathe him is because his popularity, according to recent polls, has increased dramatically despite repeated attempts by the old Delta club to remind voters that he is that and this, Okowa is only out to develop Anioma. What they seem not to have noticed is that his popularity has increased because he has succeeded in selling voters a new dream of Delta. In a sales pitch to businessmen in Warri last Thursday, he offered a detailed account of what his priorities will be if he becomes Delta state governor . After making it clear that he believed that Delta’s strengths were “democracy, demography continued…and demand” and its weaknesses were serious deficits of governance, trust, morality and hope, Senator Okowa made the case for what he thinks can be done. He said nothing could improve without “good governance”. He did not say in so many words that by this he meant massive administrative reforms, but used anecdotes from his health care policy in the senate to make this point. Then he talked of needing to improve “the quality of life” for the average Deltan. It was vital to make Delta a state in which young people could live with hope and dignity, he said, and for this they needed jobs and the amenities that remain mostly unavailable to rural Delta. Electricity, clean water and a standard of living that could be described as a standard of living. He said, “We need in rural Delta to keep the soul of the villages but provide people with the utilities and services available in urban centres.” He reiterated that he saw urbanisation not as a problem but as an opportunity. What touched my own cynical soul to its core was his suggestion, when talking of healthcare, that we pledge to make Delta clean and sanitary by the 2016 anniversary of Deltas birthday. Okowa said, he will work hard to convince Deltans of the importance of sanitation and hygiene. In modern terms, Okowa emphasised, the benefit would be a huge reduction in Delta’s healthcare bills, because it would shift the emphasis to prevention from cure. He talked of many other things and in talking of them made it sound as if there was no reason at all why they could not be done. Listen to the whole speech on YouTube and you may discover the real reason why Okowa leads the race to become Deltas next governor. He offers hope in a time of deep despair and he offers a dream of prosperity at the end of a decade when the Deltas economy has sunk to its lowest ebb in recent memory. The old Delta club offers only ‘poverty alleviation’ to people sick to death of poverty. Am rooting for Senator Okowa as next governor of Delta state because i dont trust anyone with a learners licence to run Delta state of millions of people.He ( Senator Okowa ) has not only survived but thrived against Herculean odds. He is the most-legally scrutinised and targeted politician today. Currently Senator okowa is the best candidate for governorship . As an independent, my vote is for him! (Not by default but by positive preference). We cannot have a person with a learners licence trying to drive the state at the cost of more than 2 million plus
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 12:42:22 +0000
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