From Joseph Obukata, Warri
Comrade (Chief) Sunny Ofehe, the governorship candidate for the Young Progressive Party (YPP) in Delta state, has explained why the general election of 2023 should favour his party over the All Progressive Party or the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He stated this while addressing party supporters and other candidates of the party seeking to unseat the PDP in the forthcoming 2023 general election.
They had gathered earlier at the PTI junction on their way to Iyede, his country home, where he was accorded a grand welcome upon his return to Nigeria from Europe.
While addressing a mammoth crowd of party faithful and supporters who had turned out in their droves, Ofehe said that the PDP and APC, the two major political parties in the nation, don’t deserve to have any of their governorship candidates elected to office in 2023 because, in his view, the political parties have failed the nation and its people.
According to him, the APC has performed appallingly poorly at the national level, given the state of the country’s infrastructure, particularly the roads, which are one of the fundamental things any responsible government should provide its citizens.
He claimed that while the PDP had failed at the state level, the APC had failed at the national level.
The Netherlands-based environmental rights activist said that elected officials who have held political office either through an appointment or an election and who have reached the pinnacle of their careers without having anything notable associated with their names as a commendable project should not be trusted with higher office.
“Those who couldn’t use their federal power to advocate for the improvement of the East-West road, particularly the Warri-Sapele-Benin expressway, should be paid back with zero votes in 2023,” he said.
“Whether they refer to it as a federal road or not, the Warri-Sapele-Benin expressway’s appalling condition is a vote of no confidence in the Okowa-led administration and the federal government.
“What should I be doing in Government House if as a governor I can’t muster the political will and resources to handle that road and improve life for my people?”
“Take a look at the ecological crisis that Nigeria is presently experiencing; the current flooding is a man-made crisis. The federal government was aware of what needed to be done and what went wrong, leading to the flooding of the entire nation, but they were either adamant or unsure of what to do, or better yet, they simply wanted to be cruel to the populace.
“It is high time for us to start holding our leaders and government responsible for their mistakes and shortcomings.
“If I am elected governor of Delta State, we will assemble the top construction firms to construct and repair our roads, and if it is a federal road, I will fix it so that it alleviates the suffering and distress our people experience along the route. If I’m stopped, I’ll sue the federal government, win the case in court, and then file a new lawsuit against them once the project is finished to get our money back. You cannot continue to fly and don’t want to see the suffering people passing these routes endure every day just because one federal agency says it is a federal road and allows your people to suffer because of this.
“Look at Delta’s debt burden and financial responsibility issues. In terms of the state’s resources and revenue, is Delta really doing well? Our internally generated resources are hidden, and our debt load is increasing exponentially daily.
“We cannot continue to deal with the ongoing problems that have driven our people deeper and deeper into a cycle of poverty and impoverishment and still rank among the top producers of natural gas and crude oil.”
“I frequently ponder why we are being so wicked to ourselves whenever I see the infrastructure that our current leaders tout for a prosperous state like Delta.”
“We must reclaim our state. In order to elect a credible governor, we must throw out the mediocrity that has clouded our politics of ‘turn by turn’. We must vote for a credible candidate, such as myself, who is aware of what needs to be done to create a state that will be the envy of other leaders by 2023.
Ofehe expressed delight at the reception he received from party members at the PTI junction in Effurun and Iyede, his country home in Isoko North council area, saying that their steadfastness, patience, and shared sacrifices of waiting in the hot sun for him to arrive further demonstrate their willingness to alter the narrative.
He expressed gratitude to party members and officials for their trust in him to bring democracy’s benefits to the people, promising to restore accountability in government if elected.
The governorship candidate had earlier received a royal blessing from HRM Isaac Ovieimo Okpakpor, The Oba (regent) of Iyede Kingdom, who referred to him as an illustrious son of the Kingdom at the monarch’s palace.