In the words of Alexander Hamilton, United States Secretary of the Treasury, “The people alone have an incontestable and inalienable right to institute government and to reform, alter, or totally change the same when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it”.
The above simply explains the position of the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Delta state, Olorogun Barrister Kenneth Gbagi, why the church should be at the forefront to canvass for the right leadership to be put in place.
Addressing the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Bomadi, His Lordship Most Rev. Hyacinth Oroko Egbebo, on 15th December 2022, in his office, the Catholic devotee blamed the church for shying away from politics and governance.
The former minister of state for education called on Christians to rise to the divine mandate given to them in Isaiah 9:6 to lead Nigeria and particularly Delta state especially as 2023 general election draws near.
Gbagi noted that politicians in the past took advantage of Christians’ inaction in politics to give the state and the country wicked leaders.
The SDP gubernatorial candidate advised Christians who are yet to collect their Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVC) to go and collect them to be able to vote in God-fearing leaders in the 2023 general elections.
Gbagi said: “The church has a huge responsibility and a blame because the church allowed itself and the followers to remain at the back seat. In my own capacity, the church needs to wake up to its responsibility.
“SDP for your information, was the party Olorogun Felix Ibru won election in Delta state and that is the party in which MKO Abiola won election in the entire country.
“There is a social movement. We have said and I repeat before Your Grace, that this government is going to carryout exactly what we agreed, that we are going to give all our children free education.
“We will start by paying all our youths that are not employed today N30, 000 because it is the duty of government to create an enabling environment for children to come out of school and get jobs.
“Today, the children in Lagos, Rivers and Ogun states are not hustling for jobs like the children here who are jobless. It is because we gradually grew ourselves out of government and nobody is saying anything, the government just carry on.
“If you ask the governor of the state, how many youths do you have in Delta state, they don’t know. The church must wake up. You cannot see somebody who has a criminal recording and we say we are voting the person into power, all you get at the end of the day, is anarchy.
“Because the person doesn’t have the entrepreneurial mind and ability to change the situation. Why will sensible government not develop this port even if you make it a gas/diesel port or a port to transport petroleum and fuel from here to the other parts of the world.
“Once the economy starts moving, that is when you have a government. You can produce cottage industry here and ship things to Ghana and do a lot of things here that will generate income and employment for the children of this area.
“If you take every local government in the state, God has so endowed us and I tell everybody that Delta state is the richest state in Nigeria, in everything God has given to us and far richer than 42 countries in the world.
“But we have not been able to get it right by bringing entrepreneurs, people who understand industries. Look at all the industries that were here. When the white man made Bomadi as a port, it is because of the sensible survey that the port will bring investment, employment and development to the area”.
He lamented that the Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa-led administration is comfortable with the small federal government allocation that comes to the state, saying “even before the money comes, they have shared it”.
The biggest industrialist in the state warned that unless it is gotten right this time, it would spell calamity to the state.
The renowned Criminologist noted: “if a man who went to school, couldn’t do it and he is contemplating a man who didn’t go to school at all, then you can imagine what is going to happen. All the man is seeking is third term arrangement and that is why he is spending all the taxpayers monies for which he would have used to build schools and create industries”.
Earlier in his remarks, Bishop Egbebo lamented the sorry state of infrastructures, dwindling standard of education in Bomadi and the lack of school teachers in the area.
“This is a place where there is no tertiary institutions and even the primary and secondary schools, there are either one or two teachers.
“It is like we have done something against the government of the day so we have been forgotten. Not only the government of the day, we have been so eternally forgotten.
“And so, our people will be served better by somebody who has a heart for the people and who can make things happen.
“We are majorly the reason, the Ijaw extraction here are referred to as oil producing state and yet we see nothing here. No electricity, no good drinking water and no good education.
“We hear rumour of tertiary institutions springing up here and there, very close to each other but no one here. And so, we pray that as you come to campaign, you will factor all these things into your own programme”, he appealed.
