THE governorship candidate of the Grassroots Development Party of Nigeria, (GDPN), in Kogi State, Mr. Dele Bello-Williams, said his intent to run for office of the governor was to rescue the people living in the state from a fate “worse than death”
“If you have a conscience and you watch a people live a fate worse than death, then your spirit must be on the verge of being broken. However, I stand today to say that all hope is not lost,” Bello-Williams said in an interview with newsmen in Lokoja.
“Being a witness to crushing poverty lived by people across a small pond from solid mineral production platforms, and being a witness and also a recipient of complaints from various quarters that family members continue to die untimely due to accidents triggered by the hardly motorable state of Kogi roads leaves me with a feeling of despondency.”
He said the feedback he received encouraged him to embark on “journey to rescue Kogi State from state capture that has impoverished the majority of our people and made the state a huge joke”.
The GDPN flagbearer, while lamenting the level of developments in the state despite being a rich solid mineral area, said his government will focus on growing the state economy, infrastructure. Education, health care, youth and women empowerment if elected governor.
“Kogi State receives very huge allocations from the federation account, yet extreme poverty exists in the State. Little of these fiscal transfers from the federation account that enter the state circulate in the state,”
“In Kogi State, my conscience kills me some more with the death from avoidable causes of every man, woman or child, due partly to poor healthcare in the State,”
He assured people of promoting and instituting good governance, fighting against corruption and run an inclusive government.
“Studies show that the monies enter state coffers and bolt out. If the velocity of the money is such that it touches a few more people even briefly, prosperity will visit many presently poor and it will consolidate with the thriving few,”
“Our youths are not the leaders of tomorrow, but of today, and they are our future. They will be appointed to play key roles in our administration.
He noted that his motivation to join this race to rescue Kogi State “from the rot” was not for personal interest but for the masses.
The renowned scholar, who urged the INEC to create a level playing ground for all party candidates, called for debates on television programmes, town hall meetings in the three senatorial districts, campuses and markets among aspirants to state their vision and policies to improve the state.
Bello-Williams, who is a renowned business and economy scholar said why he choses to pick his running mate, Alhaji Sulaiman Muhammed from Ibaji Local Government Area of the state, was according to him, the most neglected LGA by previous governors.
