Timi Alaibe, a former managing director, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), has said that he has both private and public sector experience as prerequisite to successfully govern Bayelsa State.
Alaibe, one of the 21 aspirants for the governorship ticket of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), made the claim during an interactive session with the Federated Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Bayelsa State Council in Yenagoa on Saturday.
During the interaction which was broadcast live on four radio stations in Yenagoa, he appealed to delegates to Tuesday’s governorship primary election to give him their votes as he understands the “thematic problems” of the state from his time at the NDDC.
He promised to address the challenge of development of critical infrastructure in all sectors in the state by consolidating on the achievements of Governor Henry Seriake Dickson and adding value to them.
Alaibe who described himself as a private sector man in politics said he would tackle insecurity in the state by taking the guns off the youth, giving them the right orientation and reintegrating them into the society to enable them contribute to the development of the state.
He stressed his resolve to tackle economic issues in the state by leveraging on his experience as a banker, growing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and boosting employment and internally generated revenue profile of the state.
Alaibe asked Bayelsans to give him one year to address the problem of poor power supply and ensuring 24 hour electricity supply to the state through putting the Etelebu power station to work, and increasing electricity generation to 1,000 megawatts in the course of his administration.
According to him, his government would introduce and implement a gas to power programme as well as a power to wealth programme to tackle poverty, while stressing that one of the cardinal agenda of his government is human capital development.
He also promised to establish a job house to take data of unemployed graduates and source for jobs for them even outside the state, create a 25-year development plan aside the short and medium development plans for the state.
The aspirant further pledged to address gender issues, develop sports infrastructure, noting the importance of sports as an avenue for job creation, among other things.
Meanwhile, following the ruling Friday of the Bayelsa State High Court sitting in Yenagoa which granted an interim order restraining the All Progressives Congress (APC) from adopting direct primary for the rescheduled August 31 governorship primary, the party has slated the exercise for Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
Lanre Issa- Onilu, APC national publicity secretary, in a statement said: “In deference to a court order, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has shifted the date for the Bayelsa governorship primary to Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4, September, 2019”.
Samuel Ese, Yenagoa and James Kwen, Abuja
