Bayelsa West: We Need Our Best In The National Assembly – Group

 

 

 

………We must stop rendering our region voiceless.

………A faulty leadership selection process will retard our progress.

The Bayelsa West Indigene, Abuja Chapter, has commended the elders and critical stakeholders of Ekeremor Local Government Area for exercising the courage to initiate a redefinition of the polity of the region.

The scribe of the group, Mr. Peremobowei Konobra Wilson, speaking in Abuja on behalf of the leaders, said the move by the elders and critical stakeholders in Ekeremor Local Government Area as contained in the communiqué dated Tuesday 27th July, 2021 in Yenagoa was informed, timely and in the right direction.

In his words, ‘it is very instructive at this critical point in the history of our country for every region to read between the lines in order to appreciate the quest for regional dominance being advanced by a certain region in this country. Presenting our best at the national level is not a matter to be treated with levity.

By the best, we do not mean any person handpicked based on zoning or an arrangement of political compensation. We are of the position that emphasis should be placed on wealth of experience, courage, capacity for networking especially those of the rank of former governor, deputy governor and speaker and deputy of any House of Assembly.

Unfortunately, we have observed with dismay how representatives selected through compensatory or other faulty means, are relegated to the ‘observatory zone’ of the assembly. An act in all fairness that is not the fault of such representatives but a simple deficiency in experience that was overlooked.”

He further said that the National Assembly, which is saddled with the awesome responsibility of authoring the script that governs the affairs of the country, like every other institution, deserves nothing but experienced and competent representation.

He further urged those aligning with the mischievous and false notion that the National Assembly is a retirement ground for former governors to desist from such negativity.

According to him, the wrong impression is being propagated by those who are either absolutely clueless about the workings of the National Assembly or are deliberately running an evil agenda to keep some regions voiceless.

He lamented that the PIB as passed didn’t favor the region that most needed it because the few who could speak for it were outnumbered.

Still lauding the leaders for accepting and choosing to align with a more sustainable leadership selection solution, he urged that candidates with the people’s interest must be preferred to those with only political interest.

Mr Wilson said, “It is futile to send our soldiers armed with catapults to battle in the National Assembly against opponents wielding automatic weapons’.

He urged the political institutions in the region to deliberately work on providing the platform and conducive environment for the deliberate grooming of legislators while aligning with the communiqué to select experienced, tested and ranking representatives as opposed to arbitrary selections through zoning or compensation.

The group urged all the youths of the region to resist any divisive tendencies as the elections are not holding any time soon giving everyone time to carry out more productive ventures.