Bayelsa: Why I’m in the race to replace Dickson – Deputy gov

Ahead of the November 16th Bayelsa governorship election, an aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the  Deputy Governor of the State, John Jonah said his driving force is passion for service for the people.

The Deputy governor who made the disclosure Thursday when he collected his Expression of Interest and Nomination forms at the party’s national secretariat, Wadata house, Abuja, added that his years of tutelage in the restoration family, experience, passion for service and desire for infrastructural development places him above other aspirants for the Bayelsa government house come November 16.

Johan said he would consolidate on the gains made by the governor of Bayelsa State, Henry Seriake Dickson and that he will not bring any radical departure from the policies of the restoration administration which he is part of.

He said, “The main driving force is passion for service, a very great passion for service in delivering development for our people and where necessary stand and speak for our people”.

He debunked the allegation of crack in the restoration family just as he disagreed that some external forces were sponsoring candidates in the restoration family to create rancour among members.

According to Jonah, “There is no crack, if there is anything there is cohesion within the restoration family. People were expecting that by this time the governor will bring one candidate and say this is my candidate, and in fact they are speculating that others would not be allowed to show interest and they will be forced to just withdraw. That could have brought cracks, but in the thinking of the administration collectively and we have to note that it is not just the governor, we felt that those that have interest and with capacity to administer the state should show interest and we proceed from there.

“Secondly if somebody is sponsoring from outside to destabilize the cohesion within the restoration administration I don’t think those of us are aware of that. That hasn’t come to our notice. We have a way of resolving differences within the restoration administration in-house, that is very very unlikely.

“But know that we must have different ways of solving the situation. Certainly you don’t expect everybody to be happy even if we are brothers, we may have separate ambition and we have different ways to go about it but for now that isn’t to my knowledge”.

“Governor will not hand over to me, things will happen. It is not a book that someone will say I have handed over this book to you, no. That is why we are here. If it is as simple as that, we wouldn’t be here and we will go for primary’s. If it pleases God that it is my turn, I have the capacity to carry out this functions, I have the passion for it and I have the experience for it and luckily for me, I have the opportunity to understudy somebody. So I think, if it pleases the people of Bayelsa, it is Bayelsans that will decide and if given the responsibility I am very prepared for that job”.

On his relationship with the governor, he responded: “As a military man, you have only one command at a time. There is no ship that will have two captains but some deputy governors may not know that by virtue of their upbringing and training.

He continued “I have done the work of deputy several times before coming to this state and I know how my deputies reacted to me and that is the conduct I brought to this place and that is why you have not heard of any friction. If you don’t want to be a deputy then you leave”.

“I will not do something different but there must be a way of fine tuning thing here and there because however perfect you think you are there are something to be done.

“If you love the state you will not change the vision,  we will develop infrastructure. We have set all the basic foundation there, all we will do is to start building from there”.

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