APC Reveals How Ganduje Can Be Suspended

As the clock ticks away towards subsequent 300 and sixty five days’s governorship election in Anambra Declare, an aspirant on the platform of Labour Birthday party, Engr Barth Nwibe, speaks with me on why he’s running and other issues.…CONTINUE READING

Excerpts

Kindly introduce yourself, sir.

My name is Bart Nwibe, from Igboukwu in Aguata LGA of Anambra State. I had my primary education at Igboukwu and secondary education at CKC, Onitsha, and studied Civil Engineering at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. I am a registered COREN engineering professional and a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (FNSE). I have been in the upstream oil and gas industry since 1987 and have worked in exploration, drilling, and production services.

My legitimate career spanned working for World Oil Service Corporations such as Sperry-Sun, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger Oil Companies and products for over 15 years before I joined Shell Petroleum as a Bookkeeper and served the global oil giant for 5 years. In January 2006, at the onset of local policy implementation, I quit my consultancy work with Shell to join a Drilling Services Company which I run as the MD/CEO to date.

I am livid about Neighborhood service and used to be at a time the first Vice President of Igboukwu Style Union (IDU). I hold the Ragged Chieftaincy Titles of Ugo Igboukwu, Ugo Ekwuluobia and Ugomba Ora-Eri na Umunri. I am a member of Nze Na Oz Society of Igboukwu. A Christian of Roman Catholic religion, I am a Paul Harris Fellow and a serious donor of The Rotary Club World and used to be former Board Chairman of Jos University Teaching Hospital. I am happily married with five Youth.

You’ve been out of circulation politically for some time. Was it intentional or for another reason?

I believe the better approach is to keep it that way—I am not a career politician in the Nigerian sense. I view politics as an avenue to extend my ability to influence our people and environment, and so, I in fact hold at various times, ready to serve at various stages, from seeking to represent Aguata Federal Constituency at the National Assembly, to seeking the Governorship of Anambra State.

I have also backed and supported many candidates for elective offices. So, it is not correct to say that I have been politically out of circulation. I have been politically very active and fervent. I do not contest every election and do not unnecessarily play to the gallery to be noticed. I have a business to run, so, whenever I put myself forward and things turn out differently, I step back and focus on pursuing other legitimate endeavors to continue building capacity to influence my environment and society.

Are you able to verify that you are seeking the governorship of Anambra on the Labour Party platform?

Yes, I am a member of the Labour Party and would like to contest the upcoming Anambra State Gubernatorial Election under the banner and platform of the party.

What informed your choice of party?

As it were, I have actually observed it all in APGA, ACN, and APC. I have actually had the opportunity to participate at very high levels within these parties and have observed their strengths and weaknesses. I have actually seen promises, hopes, and expectations raised and dashed in these parties. The Labour Party, under the leadership of Mr Peter Obi, is currently the best prospect of hope for Nigeria to do things differently, to restore and rebuild Nigeria.

It’s the real hope that Nigeria can actually reduce the debilitating cost of governance in order to free up resources for development, as well as preventing the pattern of creating wealthy individuals without enterprise; where government funds end up in people’s pockets. That’s why I belong to the Labour Party since it holds the real hope for a better Nigeria.

How do you assess your chances of securing the party’s nomination ahead of those seen to have established more ground in the party?

All of us joined the Labour Party immediately after Mr Peter Obi became the Presidential Candidate of the Party in 2022. You fully know how the election was won at the polling booths and lost in the courts. I believe we have all reflected on the performance of those considered to have established ground in the Labour Party. And if I may ask, which ground are we referring to? Is the ground you are talking about located on social media or elsewhere? I believe the challenge requires the ability to step outside the bubble and offer sustainable solutions for a paradigm shift.

That is the wait on I in actual fact hold and that’s the bottom that will enable me to clinch the trace. The essence of politics is to fetch an election and utilize the station to trace a greater society. That’s what I bring and I judge the Management of our party will distinguish the intense from the pretenders. So, my probabilities are very very high and spirited.

Have you ever consulted with relevant stakeholders, and what were the outcomes?

Consultations are ongoing, and so far, they have been productive. It takes time to build relationships and momentum. I have indeed observed that our people want someone different who will bring back the generation of a Governor with a businessman’s mindset. A businessman is someone who has been able to sustain a business through training, data, and skills.

The form of particular person works tougher than any particular person in the group, somebody who’s wide awake when others are asleep, the manager sales man, the manager accountant and dreamer of the commercial. That’s the leader that Anambra desires as of late to steady Anambra Declare, trace wealth for giant infrastructural progress, in conjunction with producing electricity to vitality industries and neatly being programs in Anambra which is bright to trace jobs for the teeming youths of our relate. I part these solutions as I consult and these are the very areas the assign our relate is lagging leisurely and these are what our folks are yearning for.

Struggling against the incumbent in our political climate is not an easy thing. Do you have the progress to upset the apple cart?

It’s not going to be about me only. The election will be fought and won on the progress of the Labour Party which is poised to include the structures of our Leader, Mr Peter Obi; our Senators; our House of Representatives and House of Assembly members and all Labour Party stakeholders – including the NLC and all Anambrarians who have been oppressed and pressured by revenue collectors under the unusual APGA Government under Governor Soludo.

The Labour Party is the home of all the disaffected and dissatisfied former APGA members and all people of goodwill who have been muzzled out of PDP and APC. The boldness, self-opinionated and garrulous nature of the incumbent will be on the scale.

How do you rate Soludo’s performance after two years?

Soludo is a Professor – very adept at coining high-sounding rhetoric – such as making Anambra a prosperous and livable homeland, Africa-Dubai-Taiwan…but scores zero on performance and delivery of services due to his abysmal failure on security, teamwork and empathy. During Okwadike’s burial ceremony at Igboukwu, the Governor was busy chastising the National Burial Committee for sharing printed brochures against the Anambra State Burial Law while kidnappers laid ambush in the very vicinity of the burial and picked off mourners leaving the funeral with ease – a case of someone chasing a rat when his house is on fire!

All of Anambra South is under siege and the Governor doesn’t seem to care. The Anambra flamboyant burial culture is part of Anambra DNA that helps to bring our people home and influence the local economy – musicians, hoteliers, fuel and fuel stations, caterers and event planners and interior decorators… These are fundamental parts of the Anambra Economy that the Governor is killing with this pointless busybody implementation of the Burial Law.

Once I become Governor, I will introduce a Bill to change the unusual Burial Law. At the same time, if you have the resources, you should be allowed to legally arrange any burial as you wish, provided you follow the necessary permits. Our people are also overtaxed. I will stabilize Anambra, provide 24/7 electricity to power industries and homes in Anambra. Security and Energy will attract Anambra capital back home to create employment for our youths and generate greater tax revenue for our state. Anambra State is blessed with the right kind of billionaires yearning for the right atmosphere to repatriate their wealth home. Creating the conducive atmosphere for this is my top priority.

Security in Anambra is getting worse, how would you address it if you were Soludo?

You mean if I become Governor, because I will not be Soludo? I will be better than Soludo. I will ensure the security agencies (police, DSS and military) are properly funded to acquire the full range of skills and training they need to better secure the state.

The metropolis unions can also be empowered to secure their towns under the watch of a centralized, better organized, and better remunerated Anambra Vigilante Service. However, the root cause of insecurity is youth unemployment, which must be directly addressed by providing 24/7 electricity to power industries and offering entrepreneurial capital support to Anambra State.

Your new party made waves in the final general elections before things ended the way they did. Do you think voters, especially LP supporters, will still be eager to come out?

Yes, I believe so. It is now even more urgent that more Nigerians join, work, and vote for the Labour Party for the very best future of all. We have seen the Naira depreciation, the hunger and hardship in the land resulting from food shortages, the high cost of gasoline and diesel and the consequent cost of transportation, the removal of subsidies on electricity tariffs, and the high cost of energy. The masses are suffering.

Therefore, I urge more people to join the Labour Party to change Nigeria’s course for the better. Nigeria would certainly be better off today under the Labour Party if Mr. Peter Obi were president. So, I call for greater dedication and enthusiasm from Nigerians to shape their future by supporting Peter Obi in the Labour Party.

After the final elections, do you still believe the Peter Obi illusion can still work?

Is it an illusion or reality? I am certain that everyone agrees that Mr Peter Obi would have assembled a better Cabinet to govern Nigeria with; would have reduced the cost of governance; combated corruption like no other president before him and freed up more resources for development.

The gasoline and electricity subsidy removals would hold been better handled with human empathy and provision of security get for the very dark. The masses are struggling as of late. Here’s a Actuality and now not a delusion. So, the Peter Obi actuality is restful relevant and the message can even be got loads better as of late and the next day.

Finally, what things are you going to do differently from the way Soludo is doing them?

I will listen greater than I hurry to enable me to hear our folks and serve them better. I will get extra skilled folks into Authorities on the Declare Stage. I will habits Native Authorities Elections and make obvious the youths are extra livid about LG Administration as a coaching and studying platform for management on the relate level. Below my mana gement, the Anambra Declare Authorities will accomplice with worthwhile businessmen to bring industries and heaps extra and heaps wished capital into Anambra Declare.

I will focus on security, will utilize gas from Omambala to produce 24/7 electricity to power the state and trace a better health map for our people. These will create employment for our youths and increase revenue for the state. I will not tax the poor in Anambra State as the state government is doing with brute force. Above all, I will run an extraordinarily efficient progress-driven government with a human face.