MOSES SIASIA HAS CHANGED THE PARAMETERS OF BAYELSA STATE POLITICS.
The mise-en-scene of the December 5 election (5/12/2015) in Nigeria
is a place no discerning minds would acquiesce for his inchoate progeny
to be nurtured if one had the means to procure a better livelihood for
his progenies. Bayelsa state, a state popular for its jewel below and
yet so difficult to transform to the Dubai of Africa, with a population
of not more than two million people, a particular man has a case with
the anti-graft agency of 50 count charge bordering on stealing and money
laundering, yet the people still wake up to hunger and starvation on a
day to day basis. A state notorious for its alacrity of teenage
pregnancy and under-development as you could see several bridges called
monkey-bridges in the capital, leading to road-less and street-less
houses and homes that immensely compare with the best ones anywhere. By
the way, monkey-bridges are tiny “lanes,” for want of a better term, of
tiny sticks or stilts the people make in order to get to their houses
with no link-roads. Of course in the majority of places they are
surrounded by swamps – in fact, you are not wrong to call them swamp
houses or swamp homes. And the revolting swamp smell can make good blood
bad blood! I am talking of Yenagoa of a civilised, modern world of now
un-hollow people now made hollow by hollow leaders who preach the
needful – the horrible word invented by stellar-less Stella –
transformation agenda that transforms the masses further and further
into the culture of penury and pauperisation. Hell! Bayelsa is a jungle.
Not too erstwhile, I was at a radio house where I shared some of the
solutions to the challenges we Bayelsans are faced with, as a people.
Because no one in his right mento compis would dare talk about the
problems of the state again, we are jaded with the too many problems
already and it is hightime the we began to proffer solutions to the many
evils that has besetted and bedeviled us. We are not suffering from bad
leadership, what we are suffering from as a people is far beyond our
pensive understanding but the total basterdized and abuse of our psyche
by the fortunate few who have decided to run our own state carte
blanche. Thesame people we gave our mandate. Among the many respite
suggested was the need for re-orientation and revaluation of our people
as well and sensitization and reassessment of our processes. Now that
the period of the public's rambunctious cry is gradually paving way for
another electioneering process which has been characterized previously
by political violence, intimidation, victimization and financial
inducement, Bayelsans should take a moment to mull over some pertinent
issues. Only recently, as a people, we have witnessed political parties
go into the foray of character assassination, circumstantial ad hominem
and committing the straw man's fallacy rather than proffering solutions
and tendering plans on how to salvage our dear state from this pitiable
condition as the legendary image of the Nigerian urban poor is still
written on the faces of street urchins, okada-riders, civil servants,
students, hawkers of wares, traders and sellers in Bayelsa state.
Not only have we been denied so many things as a people, we have
also be denied fundamentally, our right to choose our leaders which is
in contravention of Section 14 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, because I dare to say that an election
characterized by the afore-mentioned attributes would be anything but
peaceful. There is indeed, the need for a change. The call for this
change have been made by concerned citizens who like the Biblical dream
of St. Paul, have been calling out to an unknown but certain Moses to
come to Bayelsa and deliver them, and Saturday (7/11/2015) definitely
brought smile to the faces of these concerned demanders of change as
they all witnessed a young vibrant and dynamic man who has never held
public office before, nor embezzled public funds, neither has this young
man made the rounds for soiling his hands with blood, or taking
cocaine, leading the charge of the new order as he took his fizzled out
but determined supporters to the streets of yenagoa in a rally seen to
the opposition as a school parade, because they understand that the
modern day saviour would not induce people financially even if the money
was there to dole out to people to come out and support him, hence they
erroneously thought the rally was just for the few righteous and sane
ones in Bayelsa but to their greatest chagrin, the crowd was mammoth,
and on the spike of that march was the deliverer himself, Moses Siloko
Siasia, the face of the neo-politicking in Bayelsa. Moving away from the
paradigm of character assassination, name calling, thuggery and
intimidation politics that has gotten really deep to the
sub-consciousness of these innocent Bayelsans, it would take sometime
though, but with such an impressive rally like that witnessed two days
ago, the city-cum-people of Bayelsa, no doubt will awaken to the neo
consciousness. What the opposition should consider is that a determined
and motivated few can perform wonders more than a docile and uninspired
many as I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep, but I am
afraid of an army of sheeps, led by a lion. Bayelsans keeps saying "we
will eat their money, and vote our conscience."
The primitive attitude of Bayelsans was manifest on the faithful day
but His Ecxellency was too dogged not to despair. He led his men to the
streets with what he had, the little he could afford. Moses indeed have
changed the parameters of Bayelsa state politics as electioneering and
campaign period is no longer seen as a means to enrich one's self but a
period that calls for re-assessing the governments performance and
balancing the cost of voting with its benefits.
Indeed, beyond the vultures who has milked us dry as a people and
waiting to feed on our remains so they can bury our cadaver's at the
Hero's Cementary along the Sani Abacha Express way, there lies a young
man in whose hands the future of our progenies and posterity is secured.
One who has committed the requisite class struggle to see the needed
change meets his people. Bayelsans should rally behind him because you
do not supplant the old with the new by applying the old modus opernadi,
hence you loose all credibility.
Aluzu Ebikebuna Augustine
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