Why Niger Deltans must vote out idol, visionless, voiceless, ill-willed and armchair representatives at both state and national assemblies
By GbaramatuVoice Editorial Board
It is an open secret that Niger Delta as a region has serially suffered what development professionals describes as Island poverty-that is, poverty in the midst of plenty. What is however of great concern to GbaramatuVoice is the fact that this underdevelopment occurred not solely because the executive arm of successive administrations in the country were not willing to bring about a democratized development to the region. But, largely because majority of the lawmakers elected to represent the region at the legislative arms of both state and federal levels are neither committed to the lawmaking ethos and dictates nor patriotic to enacting acts that will provide policy direction and roadmap for sustainable development of the region or holds Mr. President or the state Governors from the region accountable for their misdeeds.
This orchestrated failure (or is it an oversight?) by these armchair representatives at the State Houses of Assembly, Federal House of Representatives and of course the Senate, explains why the region is currently gropling and confused, politically divided and economically devastated.
From Bayelsa to Delta, Edo to Rivers, Akwa Ibom to Cross River, this sorry story is the same.
More specifically, aside from the politics that laid the groundwork, as well as kept this ‘atrocities’ going, there are many reasons in the newspaper’s view why these representatives behave the way they do – particularly why they formulate deformed policies and enact acts/laws that breeds poverty and underdevelopment
First and very fundamental, most of these lawmakers from the Niger Delta region are brazenly unaware that a lawmaker is primarily and constitutionally meant to project laws that will change policies that affect the lives of the people and not actually to award contracts or pick contracts from the government as presently witnessed across the region.
The above weakness is further exacerbated by absence of requisite qualification by representatives and existence of money politics in the region.
To explain this fact, it is a common knowledge that majority of the people that have represented, representing or lacing up their shoes to represent are in applied sense of the word, not qualified to be there.
But in one way or the other, they bought those positions. They bought that office from their political party. And having spent so much in getting that position, when they get to the office, the first thing they look into is not lawmaking but how to recoup the money that they have spent and not make laws that will benefit the people.
GbaramatuVoice view this development as impolite and unacceptable!
Thus, as the nation braces up for the 2023 general elections, the newspaper holds the opinion that such state of affairs must come to a stop. There should at the very least, be a shift in paradigm.
As an incentive, GbaramtuVoice calls on Niger Deltans to vote out with immediate effect and without mercy, these idol, visionless, ill-willed and armchair lawmakers angling for re-election.
This is not the time to consider political party affiliations. All Niger Deltans must view poor representation as an evil wind that blows nobody any good.
The region must this time around go for representatives that are well grounded with the rudiment of enacting laws, individuals that are both development and masses focused, those that understand the process of lawmaking and are trained in that field.
Niger Deltans must not rely on those who seek election into the legislative arm and then start learning from the scratch. They (Niger Deltans) must, as urgent importance reject those seeking re-election without any justifiable evidence of performance in their previous tenures.
This is the time to elect as representatives, Niger Deltans with very high pedigree, people that have what it takes to give quality representation.
The newspaper calls on all to vote out lawmakers that will go there to act as the conqueror and take the people who have voted for him to become the conquered people. Niger Deltans should elect as representatives someone who will not be doing constituency project based on personal ‘conviction’ but based on the need assessment- someone who will identify that there are gaps in constituency and those gaps need to be filled. That is a kind of representation that Niger Deltans must elect in the forthcoming election.
Above all within this critical moment, the Newspaper calls on Niger Deltans to shun the temptation arising from Christmas rice that they will soon present to you people. Remember, you will never get more than two or five cups from them and you cannot eat this forever. It will be foolishness to accept five cups of rice with some packets of noodles and suffer for the next four years.
Another urgent imperative to be avoided is instant gratification syndrome. It is time to say no to their N2,000 presented on the election day. You must vote your conscience and develop the culture of defending your votes.
They (Niger Deltans) must do this not for political reason(s) but for the survival of the people and development of the region.
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