FROM THE STREETS OF AGIP HAWKING SACHET WATER AND ICEBLOCK TO THE CHAIRMAN/CEO OF A MULTI-BILLION NAIRA COMPANY AND NOW, A GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE.

FROM THE STREETS OF AGIP HAWKING SACHET WATER AND ICEBLOCK TO THE CHAIRMAN/CEO OF A MULTI-BILLION NAIRA COMPANY AND NOW, A GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE.

We are inspired by Moses Siloko Siasia's life:

Who says there is no light at the end of the tunnel? Then, you are yet to meet with Moses Siloko Siasia, the standard flag bearer of the gubernatorial race in Bayelsa state under the People's Democratic Movement (PDM). It was not a smooth ride for Moses, no, not at all. The road was rocky and thorny but with diligence, determination and focus, there is always light at the end of every tunnel.

Indeed, dreams do come true.

Moses lost his dad when he was barely an inchoate child, with his widowed mother all that he had left, only few would boast of an easier upbringing. At 11 years of age, he had to sell sachet water and ice block on the street to assist his mother and his othe siblings to surmount their predicament at that time. He was virtually a street vendor.

Moses Siasia was uncomfortable with poverty and in his determination to change that status; began as a teenage to be enterprising selling ICE BLOCKS in order to survive and assist his poor windowed mother. He also indulged in manual jobs and over time has gone on to build one of Nigeria’s most successful business enterprises-the MOSILO GROUP.

Moses in a statement said: "I saw poverty but I told myself I wasn’t going to give
myself to crime. I lived in an environment where we had no food, no toilet. I almost lost my life but God intervened. I looked after myself. 17 years ago, I was in the
streets of Port Harcourt hawking oranges and selling Ice block but, at that time, I told myself I wasn’t going to be subservient to my situation; I was going to work hard because I believed there is a deposit of potentials in me."

Could the story be thesame for every child who grew up in the slums and creeks of the impoverished Niger Delta region? How many people have had to give up on their dreams because they were simply asked to be realistic? With real life stories such as Moses's, lives and lives would be touched for the better in our state. Moses also stressed that it wasn't an easy ride at all, not for him or for any other person out there. In his words: "from that humble background- I washed rugs, planted flowers. Today, the story is different. I have built a
business of a group of companies, we have interest in various sectors, and I have employed many persons, mostly youths. Mosilo Group is a leading name in energy services, real estate, agriculture, marine services among others". Mind you, all these was made possible with a lean budget.

Having had his childhood in the Niger Delta region and experienced firsthand some of the sufferings of the people in that region, especially the young ones, Siasia was determined to change it and upgrade the lifestyle of the people, especially that of the young persons. Driven by this passion to help upgrade the psyche of the young people and provide a platform for self expression, Moses Siasia founded the Niger Delta Young Professionals (NDYP). This group was amongst other thing established to solve the identity crisis that confronted the young people of
the region through exposure to the global methods of doing things.

The NDYP became the group to organize the first ever Economic Summit for young people in Niger Delta region, which was hosted by Governor Godswill Akpabio in Akwa Ibom State. However, seeing a need to integrate and provide same opportunity for all Nigerian youths irrespective of region, Moses Siasia successfully orchestrated the metamorphosis of the NDYP into what is now known as Nigerian Young Professionals Forum, (NYPF) to create room for all Nigerian youths to get on board the platform and benefit from its numerous empowerment ventures.

The NYPF was founded amongst other things to empower young people, by creating jobs and encouraging them to take a more active role in politics and social economic issues. In his own words, Moses stated that "We started what is called the Nigeria Young Professional Group and, in two years, we are in 15 countries; we are the only youth group in Nigeria that is registered in the United States of America and United Kingdom and we are about finalizing our registrations with the United Nations." Today, NYPF has successfully established a network of young professionals from over 13 countries around the globe, with summits held in London, New York and many other cities. NYPF has a membership of over Ten Million Nigerian Young Professionals and is open to
everyone from all geo-political zones across Nigeria, including Young Nigerian Professionals living in Diaspora.

In 2014, Moses made a strong statement, he saw the marginalization of the Nigerian youths in politics, in leadership. They were relegated to the background and so In Moses words, "I founded the group to give voice to the youths. Some of the elite are not interested in the youth. They would not give the younger generation the chance to lead. They would continue to come up with strategies that would further undermine us and ensure that the youths do not speak with one voice". when his NYPF organized an International Youth Conference with the theme, “National Integration & the Quest for Purposeful Leadership" in Abuja on the 9th of
August 2014, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GCFR), the Minister of Finance and Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and eight other Ministers were in attendance.

Moses Siasia, Having being raised in poverty, has shown tremendous interest in ameliorating the sufferings and plights of the less privileged. Over the years, in an individual capacity, Moses Siloko Siasia has provided jobs for numerous young Nigerian's, especially those from Bayelsa
State.

Siasia has an ongoing scholarship scheme funded from his private earnings, with the mandate to help as many a child as possible, who cannot afford the cost of education, to get an education. Siasia is determined to eradicate poverty from the lives of any young person he encounters. Moses is of the opinion that if as an individual he has provided a good life for numerous young Nigerian's, if entrusted with public resources he will do much more.

Siasia was in 2014 tipped to become one of Africa’s Economic Leaders by the Choiseul Institute for International Politics and Geo-economics, and in September 2015, he is nominated alongside Champion Igali as the only two individuals from Bayelsa as "People Who Inspire" by a Spanish Organization.

Having seen the suffering and heard the cry of Bayelsan's, Moses has decided to bring succour to the people of his homeland by vying for the position of a Governor in Bayelsa state. According to moses, "After consulting with my family and friends, and based upon the tremendous outcry from my home state for help, I have decided to run for the office of Governor of Bayelsa. For far too long, my people have suffered from political oppression! Despite being one of the wealthiest states in Nigeria, with an abundance of natural resources, Bayelsa has one of the highest unemployment rates in Nigeria. Our children do not have modern schools or tools to educate them. Our students abroad are stranded without resources to complete their education. Our infrastructure has been neglected resulting in dangerous impassable roads, lack of potable water,
and basic human hygiene. Our older citizens have been abandoned and left to die in poverty and poor health. Our young, internationally educated young
men and women have been denied the opportunity to run for office, and told that “the office of the Governor is not for boys”. Young citizens of Bayelsa who today seek change are being threatened and intimidated for speaking up against the current regime. Fear mongering and intimidation has no place in Bayelsa and the time has come to end this madness and take back our state from lying, thieving, self-serving politicians.

Considering his age, Siasia’s achievements are most
humbling. To think that he grew up in a state of squalor and he is just 35 years old with so much going for him, is mind-blowing. If the people of Bayelsa state must begin to experience the dividend of democracy, the new face of leadership must be embraced and Moses stands as that face of leadership that will bring about the total liberation of the State from the claws of bad leaders.

Aluzu Ebikebuna A.
New Media Coordinator, Moses Siasia Campaign Team.
07068639696

BAYELSA ELECTION AND THE POLITICS OF PROPAGANDA

A NEW HOPE FOR BAYELSA STATE

BAYELSA ELECTION AND THE POLITICS OF PROPAGANDA

Propaganda is part and parcel of conscientisation. Talk, they say is cheap. It is even cheaper when it is issuing from an unstable and desperate mind. And in the infantile emission of such cheap talk, the consequences or costs are neither considered nor adjusted to be in tandem with public good. For such people, if they can hew out political capital from such
indiscretion, then it would have served their nefarious agenda. There are certain times when silence is golden, especially if you do not have an enviable track record of your own.

Since our outgoing governor was handed down the herculean job of steering the state in trust for the good people of Bayelsans by Bayelsans on the platform of a party that was erstwhile, the largest party in Nigeria, in a bid to save face from the monumental mistake Bayelsans made in the last gubernatorial election, has thrown all cautions to the wind, the incumbent and his predecessor who is also a guber candidate have been busy in the market lately, recruiting professional liers to their fold to sway the mind of the gullible few and create an illusory impression in the minds of Bayelsans that a government who has failed to deliver the dividends of democracy to his people for the past years is suddenly a darling and an indefatigable sympathetic leader who holds his people close, like a bear hug. The same governor who addressed the Swali market women once and said "whether you vote for me or not, I will rig the election," three (3) weeks to election, some of us are now beginning to understand the responsibilities and duties of a governor. He just sandfilled the swali market road of recent and he is massively organizing Town Hall meetings, giving N500,000.00 for every Town Hall he visits, the same man who said he will not share money in his administration.  Propaganda they say is the sister of politics, the weapon of mass seduction because to inform is to influence.

Lately I have been reading comments, from friends and others, saying one thing or the other about the candidate of the other parties, some of these unverified claims (lies) have been said over time and now, it seems they are true. “One person’s propaganda is another person’s truth”.  On the surface I agree, but a deeper look at propaganda exposes a huge difference between what is, and what they want us to believe. If one is not careful, propaganda can lead to defamation of character as enshrined in section 374 of our Criminal Code. But that singular provision shows a legal laxity to the restrain of what these professional liers churn out of their mouth daily to feed the public's ear with. If people are made to swear to an affidavit before publishing or saying something about someone via any medium, then we'll have a plethora of criminal case of perjury in our courts and so many people would have been convicted already.

Yesterday, after going on a sensitization exercise to Swali Market, I missed members of my crew (Moses Siloko Siasia volunteer's team). I took a Tricycle (keke) to Imgbi junction where a saw a plethora of my age bracket gathered at a newspaper stand, I decided it was a good opportunity to sell my Principal's candidature. The mindset exhibited by my generations reeks callowness and infantility and is reflective of what you hear in different circles of APC and PDP supporters in the state. You hardly hear any meaningful articulation of what their party’s candidate is bringing to the contest, other than the fact that he has been in government for as long as anybody can remember, coming from the APC, you hear things like "Dickson must not return, he has eight (8) wives already, he wants to marry all our sisters." The PDP is not different, they proffer reasons why we should elect Dickson such as "Restoration must continue, we are tired of Operation Famoutamgbe (OFT)" Ironically, this fact, which their supporters consider a strength, is what most people think is one of their weaknesses – they have been part of the problems of the past, which the present generation and Moses Siloko Siasia the leader of the positive change movement is trying to correct.

They may be demonstrating what they were taught, being loyal disciples of their various Principals. But the Bayelsa I know is not a place where election can be won with propaganda. Our people may not have a long history of political and intellectual sophistication, but we are certainly not so politically uninformed as not to differentiate between what we hear and what we see. These political Goliaths are like a loose cannons, a disaster always awaiting to happen with no clear cut plan for the state. In what was orchestrated by some who are afraid of the aspiration of the PDM gubernatorial candidate, there was a little drama at the Government House yesterday in Bayelsa state where some unknown elements donning the customized garbs of the PDM went to the out going governor to pledge their loyalty to him, alleging that the incoming governor, Moses Soliko Siasia had withdrawn from the governorship election which is just in the offine is the height of baseless propaganda, it further goes a long way at showcasing how idle and bereft of novelty ideas our incumbent can get at times. A governor has more business to pursue than drilling hole in another party's ship. Some of us feel sorry for these parties the way they are carrying on with their propagandas and badmouthing because Bayelsans are not brought up in that manner. We are brought up to be civil, polite, humble and show respect to others. Decorum and propriety are among those things we imbibe as well as the teaching of the importance of unity and mutual understanding, no wonder Moses Siasia has always emphasized that what brings us together is greater than what tears us apart.

Moses Siloko Siasia have come to offer us the REAL CHANGE, with a clear cut plan on how to liberate our dear state, Bayelsans should go all out for the alternative come December 5. The people are jaded already and we want to try something new.

Aluzu, Ebikebuna Augustine
New Media Coordinator for Moses Siloko Siasia Campaign Team.

MOSES SIASIA HAS CHANGED THE PARAMETERS OF BAYELSA STATE POLITICS - Aluzu Ebikebuna Augustine

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

A GARGANTUAN STRIDE OF BAYELSA STATE POLITICS FROM POLITICAL IMPOSITION TO POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS

A GARGANTUAN STRIDE OF BAYELSA STATE POLITICS FROM POLITICAL IMPOSITION TO POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Dear Bayelsans, just like Fashola said "I have remained loyal to causes I signed to, I stand by my word." I have remained loyal to the total liberation of Bayelsa from this state of doldrums. The political violence, intimidation and victimization that normally characterizes our electioneering process is gradually paving way for a more matured psyche electioneering process.

By this write up, I am necessarily taking a swipe at political adventurism and adventurers. This is an individual's honest effort in an attempt to critically appraise the means of attaining leadership. Prior, it was clearly shown that the political processes of leadership recruitment have been totally bastardized and desecrated by political hooligans and desperado's. This is the foisting on the economic disadvantaged masses a bunch of criminals and opportunists who lacks the moral willpower and inner capacity to deliver the democracy dividends. This masses bears all the grunts in return as no succor seems approaching their direction.

Our elders in the existing political parties, ruling or not are all out for their own share of the proverbial 'cake'. On the moral scale, they too are compromised by self centeredness and a naked and primitive acquisitive propensities. Two of the Bayelsa state contestant bears eloquent testimony to this fact.

Apart from being an iconoclast, a renegade and a hopeless pessimist, I have risen above the morass to project a vision for the future. A vision that locates the political redemption of the state in the hands of a 'new-breed' politicians imbued with a clear sense of a mission. In the new order, such distracting elements nepotism, chauvinism, money power and manipulation are seriously de-emphasized. Indeed, there is an emphasis on grassroots mobilization and political enlightenment of the masses so they can make intelligent choices in political arena. For a revamping of the system, the old should be supplanted with the new. It should be noted however that the cause of all progressive movement world over have always been helped and propelled by men and women who themselves are members of the privileged class who commits what I call 'class suicide' becomes effective instrument to push the revolution forward. These men and women relinquish all the benefits accruing to them for being part of this privilege class to champion the cause of the common man.

Moses Siloko Siasia and Irene Digitemie Opuene have come to offer us total liberation, freedom and the real change. They have come to offer us an alternative, so that no more shall the plea of being caught up in the dilemma between the Devil and the deep blue sea avail us. This team has committed the requisite class suicide to catapult Bayelsa to a higher level. And this time, I see Bayelsans taking a conscious step to ensure the actualization of this vision and the taking of the gargantuan stride from political imposition to political consciousness as the youths and women which constitutes the bulk of the majority are beginning to ask questions, certain relevant questions begging for timely answers.

A vote for Moses Siloko Siasia and Irene Digitemie of PDM the party with the torch logo, is a vote for freedom, a vote for liberation and a vote for light.

Aluzu Ebikebuna A.