From TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State, Princewill Dike, has described the party’s governorship candidate in the forthcoming election, Siminialayi Fubara, as a man of action.
Dike, who is the Secretary, New Media Directorate of the PDP Campaign Council, told the state All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Tonye Cole, to face his criminal charges in court and leave Fubara alone.
Dike was reacting to Cole’s invitation to Fubara to address Rivers people on radio or television promising to foot the bills.
He said: “Nothing can be more hilarious, or should we say, ludicrous than that public dramatisation. Must everybody be loquacious? Does speaking on radio or television make a good political leader?
“Unlike Cole, Fubara is a man of few words, but action filled. The Great Abraham Lincoln of evergreen memory asserts that ‘actions speak louder than words’. Back home, our own Kongi, Prof. Wole Soyinka, in the Lion and the Jewel, opines that the strength of the lion is not in its mien, but in the tail.”
Dike said instead of chasing shadows, Cole should dissipate his energy explaining how he became a billionaire and furnishing details of how he used his company, Sahara Energy, to purchase state’s assets such as the Olympic Hotel, the gas turbine among others, at the expense of the people.
Dike said: “Is Cole oblivious of the self-imposed moral baggage on him by that shady acquisition; which in itself has made him not fit and proper to superintend over our commonwealth?
“Should he be balloted for, need one be a Jewish Prophet or Nostradamus who saw tomorrow, to prognosticate that our commonwealth will be converted to his personal estate?
“If he does not explain to Rivers people what happened to those assets, he will remain a painted sepulchre with a rotten thing inside, in the public perception of him.”
Dike further argued that Fubara remained poles ahead of Cole in popularity explaining that while the APC candidate is an alien, his PDP counterpart is a thoroughbred Rivers man.
He said: “Fubara grew up here, had all his schoolings here, worked here, retired here, joined active politics here. A Port Harcourt home boy, a grassroots fellow.
“By that singular fact, Sim understands Rivers people far more than Cole who ingresses the state only when he is foisted on his party by Amaechi for the gubernatorial contest.”
Besides, Dike said Fubara had an added advantage over Cole following the excellent performance of the state PDP under Governor Nyesom Wike.
Dike said: “Governor Nyesom Wike’s infrastructural renaissance speaks volume and has become a loud speaker of campaign for Fubara. Rivers people are interested in Fubara continuing and consolidating on Wike’s giant strides, the achievements they have seen and touched.
“Cole is, therefore, struggling for acceptance and popularity in Rivers State and as such, has resorted to doing to Fubara what the Ubima would say: ‘If they have nothing to say against a beautiful person, they tell him to go and bathe’.”