Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Ahead of the 2019 general election in Delta State, a governorship aspirant on the platform of Action Democratic Party (ADP), Comrade Frank Ufuoma Esanubi, has vowed to retire politicians between the ages of 60 and 70 from the political scene in the state.
Incumbent governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and perennial governorship candidate of opposition parties in previous polls, Great Ogboru are among those on Esanubi’s proposed retirement list.
The 40-year-old aspirant and a player in the nation’s oil sector who spoke during an interactive session with members of Asaba Correspondents’ of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) said the older generation has paid its dues, adding that the 2019 election provide the platform for the younger ones to relief the older ones the burden of leadership.
“They are elder statesmen in their own right. They have given themselves to the service of this state, and by extension to Nigeria. It is not by coincidence that the retirement age in public service is 60 years or 35 years in service. This means that it gets to a particular age when you no longer have the strength needed to deliver on the job.
“And these are people in their sixties, and they are our fathers. To be honest, they have been around for this long because they thought before now that there were no younger people to step up and take over the mantle of leadership from them. Now we are here to relief them of the burden of leadership.
“They have done very well but with what we are putting on ground now, we are serving them retirement notice. We will still continue to go to them for advise. They say that what an elder sees while sitting down, the younger ones cannot see while standing. That pre-supposes that the elder should spend more time sitting down because of old age,” Esanubi stated.
Asked if he has the experience to govern the state, Esanubi who is the deputy national president of PENGASSAN said: “In terms of experience, there are some experiences that we do not even need at all.
“Those that have held political office till date, the experience that they have shown that they have is the experience of looting, stealing our common pulse and mismanagement of funds and that is all they have to show for us for the time they have being in politics. We do not need experience to succeed in government.”
He chided successive governments in the state for allegedly presiding over the relocation of companies from the state, insisting that government’s should be interested in intervening in businesses by bailing out ailing companies.
While agreeing that ADP was barely one year old, he disclosed that it was formed in June 2017 but “I will also tell you that it is the fastest growing political party in Nigeria. Within one year of our existence, we have offices in the 36 states of the federation. In Delta State here, we already have our presence in the 25 local government councils.”
He further revealed that the ongoing discussion to form a coalition of over 30 political parties in the country, the ADP “is one of the five parties that have been shortlisted which will finally end up been used as the face of that coalition, it is only a matter of time, the announcement will be made.”