With a pledge to be a servant-leader to the people of Bayelsa State, Mr. Timi Alaibe, the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the state, recently flagged off his gubernatorial campaign.
One good aspect of Alaibe’s candidature is that he would help Bayelsa State gain the change it it has overdue required. Bayelsans blessings and votes will launch him into the Government House in the April 2011 elections, hereby this change would be.
Alaibe had in several fora offered himself to serve the people, and Nigerians at large. But Bayelsa State in the present administration of Mr. Timipre Sylva has been fingered with gross mismanagement of potentials of the state and doesn’t blink to redress all the misfortune of the state.
That Timi Alaibe resigned as President Goodluck Jonathan’s adviser on Amnesty Matters, is a part of effort in enriching our democracy. And his immediate genuflection from the PDP and joined the Labour pParty to pursue his ambition to become the governor of Bayelsa State, is not bad, either.
What is bad is the raging political campaign of calumny in the state against Alaibe since then. Series of explosions rocked a political rally in Bayelsa since Alaibe declared for this intention. And one wonders ‘who is afraid of Timi Alaibe in Bayelsa State?’
People like Dora Akunyili, the former Information Minister, from Anambra State resigned from Jonathan’s cabinet and immediately distanced herself from the ruling PDP, to run for the Senate on the platform of APGA, yet nobody has heard any roof-rofo in that state concerning her genuflection. Why Alaibe?
It is not Alaibe’s fault that he resigned from the PDP, but observers have said that the PDP is growing unpopular; Alaibe has said that he has confidence in Jonathan’s leadership prospects and that Nigerians should vote Jonathan.
Whatever was the reason Alaibe joined the Bayelsa State gubernatorial race, it is a well defined political stride that must work. Even if Alaibe returns to the PDP after becoming Governor in the April elections, the happiness is that the change has come.
Without mincing words, not only the Bayelsans, but majority of Nigerians knows that Alaibe is powerful. This could be the fear of some people who are showcasing their weakness in arranging planned havoc against him in the state.
Alaibe can never be a crook, even that his staunch opponent is not officially using this word to characterize him. The people of Bayelsa State have reasons enough to believe that this man will be their Messiah, because he has not disappointed.
Alaibe truly deserves their votes because of his leadership style. He is a political bigot peddling and wheeling power to which he has the right for the people. Bayelsans should now bless him for the replacement of the alleged corrupt government, which has built a strong vault of virus of treachery.
It will do Bayelsans moral justice to allow this principled Alaibe to hold the office of the Governor of Bayelsa State.
It is very sad that while opponents of Alaibe are looking for anything, just anything, to rope him into loggerhead with Jonathan, they have said that Jonathan is losing grounds because of the resignation of Alaibe from Jonathan’s government.
This is democracy. And in democracy the freedom to associate rests with the individual, which Alaibe has the fundamental rights and should be allowed to enjoy the same.
