Former Petroleum Minister and All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Bayelsa, Timipire Sylva, has said Bayelsans are ready for change.
Sylva made the declaration on Friday in Yenagoa during the unveiling of the National Campaign Council for the election by the National Chairman of his party, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
The team is to be led by Gombe State Governor, Inuwa Yahaya.
Addressing the gathering of chieftains of the party and his supporters, the former Petroleum Minister said Governor Diri lacked the administrative capacity to turn around the fortunes of the oil-rich State.
The APC candidate expressed concern over the lack of stable electricity despite the abundance of gas reserves in the state which he noted was in trillion of cubic feet.
He said; “In April this year, I won the primaries for the governorship of Bayelsa and since then we have gone to work. We have put a lot of things in place. I want to assure you, Mr. Chairman that Bayelsans are ready for change.
“Since I was removed and denied from contesting for a fresh mandate by the former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan’s development, instead of moving forward has been moving backward.
“We are sitting on abundant gas reserves and yet we don’t have stable power. We are going to bridge that gap by giving stable electricity. The gas turbines here in Bayelsa have been sold by subsequent government.
“We can’t understand why the gas turbines were sold and today we are in bad shape because of electricity supply. Is this the way a capital city should be looking?”
The APC candidate further disclosed a six-point agenda which he said would go a long way to turn around the fortunes of the average Bayelsa electorate.
“We are bringing something new to the development of Bayelsa. I have a short term of four years but I have a six-point agenda: we are going to develop human capital, through education and empowerment as components.
“We must also develop infrastructure because we have seen the need. It will be very massive. We also believe that we must develop the economy to sustain the prosperity we are going to bring. We will develop the gas reserves which are in trillion cubic feet.
“The fourth point is agriculture, we don’t have land but we have a lot of swamp and rice dwell very well in swamps.
“Second, in agriculture, we will go into fishing tapping into our coastline. The Russians, the Chinese are here fishing. Everybody from the rest of the world is here except Bayelsans. Others are using trawlers, but we use canoes. Last on the agenda is security. We must secure Bayelsans.”
While thanking the national chairman of the APC, Sylva said he was confident of victory as he declared that the party has “picked a good product and we will sell ourselves. The government that we have today has no idea on how to move this state forward. We will make you proud with our victory”.
In his remarks, the APC national chairman who described Sylva as a good candidate however cautioned him to be vigilant on election day.
He said; “Our candidate had been a performing governor before and what he did was marvelous. He was Minister and former governor and with the six-point agenda that he has put in place, we are sure that the people will find him worthy of their votes.
“But you must be well organised, you must be disciplined and know the electoral law and the voting system.
“Don’t allow yourself to be rigged out. You must invigilate, you must follow up on election day. The team that we have put together, we believe can win elections, come November 11.”
He said the APC National Working Committee seized the initiative to inaugurate the National Campaign Council in the state capital in order to bring the party closer to its faithful at the grassroots.
. TheWitness
