Assembly Election: My Antecedents, Integrity, Leadership Quality as Councilor for 6yrs will Count for me – Hon. Karibo
Hon. Wilson Karibo is the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Ahaoda West Constituency of Rivers State, in the forthcoming Governorship and House of Assembly Elections scheduled to hold on March 18, 2023. In this interview with Okemsinachi Green Mbah in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, Hon. Karibo talked about his intentions and priorities if elected, plans to tackle the issue of flooding and why the federal government must provide enough security for voters and INEC officials during Saturday’s election.
Excerpts
The presidential election has just been concluded with a winner announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). How would you describe the entire electoral process?
The people came out enthusiastically and massively to vote because people believed that their votes will be counted based on the Biometric Verification Accreditation System, BVAS, and all the publicity INEC did. So there was so much trust and hope. People came out, casted their votes but at the end of the day, people were disappointed because what we experienced especially in Rivers State where there was hijacked materials in some places and some places to upload results was difficult. Later people were seeing mutilated results. In Rivers State, people are not happy. I pray it doesn’t cause voters apathy. But ordinarily, people are ready to vote if they are sure their votes will count.
The Governorship and House of Assembly elections is just a few days from now and the credibility of the INEC has been questioned. Do you have confidence in INEC so far?
So far, I want to believe maybe, INEC will do better. I heard the INEC chairman say that the BVAS will work and all that; we will work on the lapses. So, I just believe maybe, INEC will do better. This time around, it will be more credible. I believe so.
Nigerians have been subjected to unprecedented hardship because of the new naira policy and all that. What is your take on that?
Ordinarily, I think with the new naira policy, it would have been good if we have proper planning and if the people were properly sensitized too. Cashless policy is good. It helps to checkmate like vote buying, kidnapping and other social vices. It would have been good if Nigeria were prepared. I think the masses were not well informed, they were not really prepared the way it came. Now, there is cash crunch especially in the villages, so many persons don’t have an account, the market women don’t have an account, the ordinary person don’t know how to do transfer, the market said they don’t want to take transfer. That is just the issue but if the people have been sensitized enough and properly, I think by now, even the market women will have an account or know how to do transfer, it would have helped. Ordinarily, I believe the policy is good but the implementation that is where we have an issue.
What of the issue of the Point of Sales, (POS) operators charging very high rate for withdrawal?
Yes. The POS operators, you know Nigeria, most people want to take advantage. Because of the cash crunch, they want to take advantage of the situation. But also, what of the banks that are selling the cash? How did some people get access to the cash? They said they buy from the banks. So it is the corruption in this country. Sometimes, you have good policy but along the line, you see people sabotaging it, want to take advantage of it such like this. If not, if what the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said they have pumped that amount of money, then the money suppose to be in circulation. If the money is in circulation, POS man won’t have this opportunity to charge that unimaginable charges for you to withdraw money.
You are the APC candidate for House of Assembly election coming up on Saturday, what do you think makes you different from the other candidates in the other political parties?
One, I am more experienced because I was the leader of Ahaoda Legislative Council for two tenures; six years. And the legislative council is basically the same thing we do at the House of Assembly, just that this is at the state level. So, I was a legislator at the local government level for 6 years. I have that experience of law making, representation, checking the executive. So I have that experience. Second is integrity. In my locality, I was born there, I grew up there; we know ourselves. So the people know me to my house. The know the integrity and character that I have more than the others. And I am more popular. I have been a caretaker chairman of the council and when I was caretaker, I touched every community in my local government, every community, no one community was left out within 3 months. So I am more popular. I have an edge over every other person, I am more prepared, I have more leadership experience. I have been the youth president of Engenni Youth Assembly before I even became a councilor. So in leadership, I have more experience; in the legislative business, I have more experience; character, I have more rating. I am more prepared and I think I am more suitable though I agree that it is God that gives position.
Peraventure you are been elected, what will you do differently from what others have been doing before now?
First, representation. I will represent the people more in that I intend holding town hall meetings quarterly. In my LGA, we have 3 zones; Enganni, Ubie and Ugbudiya. I will be holding town hall meetings quarterly in each of the zones. With that I will always be having the fillers of the people and making them participate in governance. Whatever thing we discussed, policies of government, I will let them know. What are their own contribution? If we want to pass a bill, before public hearing and all that, I will get their own views so that whatever I am saying there, will be their views. I will make their voice count through me and I will make sure that, like here we suffer flooding. In fact that is one of the major things I will present before the floor of the house, so that the executive arm will have to as a matter of urgency, look at how we can solve this perennial flooding we are experiencing here. In all, I will always be around with the people so that they will have a feel of government.
You mentioned about the issue of flooding, a situation especially here in the Niger Delta where every year we experience flooding and government is assumed not to have done much for the people in terms of opening the canals and drainages, sure protection as well as dredging of the rivers. Aside from the passing of bills, what other measures are you going to take to also address the issue of flooding?
In the house, I will push that the government build IDP centres. We will look at the high lands in this our area and make sure we build IDP centres. We will look at the population of the area, take a study of them, look at the high lands and build IDP camps that can contain the number of people we project that can be displaced. Yes we know it is a natural disasters and it won’t be something that can be taken care of immediately. So we will look at the palliative and things that can be done to alleviate the suffering of the people while working on a lasting solution. Because for us to have a lasting solution, it won’t be just the government, the federal government too we will look at if they can build some dams that can also control the flood waters that flows down to this Niger Delta region. So those are the things we will look at but on the immediate, we will try to build IDP centres. Then on time, we will start preparing to make sure that food items, drugs, whatever palliative we know that can be on ground, we won’t wait till the flood comes, then we start working. No. We will make sure that we have state emergency agency and local government emergency agency. In fact I will encourage even communities to have those kind of agency within the communities too. You know in different areas, different communities, they have different peculiarities. We will collate all those information starting from the villages to the local government to the state. All that will help us in planning for the flood that might come. That will help us to alleviate the suffering of the people while working on ways to see how they can get a lasting solution. We will also look at the different canals, some canal definitely will be shallow, so they have to remove the silt on those canal for free flow of water. Then the Orashi River; I think those are the things we will push so that they will dredge the Orashi River. When the Orashi River is deep, with the volume of water that will come, it can take large volume of the water so that even if the flood comes, it won’t be as devastating as we had in this last flood that came. Those are some measures we have to look at and push as a legislator that the executive arm should do or put in place.
How would you react to the issue of security especially in the forthcoming governorship and House of Assembly elections?
Yes. I want the government to beef up security. From fillers we are getting, the opposition they are planning to disrupt the election especially in my strongholds. If you go round my local government, I am more popular. My support base is across party. Like I told you, I have been in leadership positions for some time now and my antecedents are counting for me. So they are trying to disrupt the process because they know they wouldn’t win especially in ward 1, ward 2, ward 3, ward 4. We have the fillers that they are planning all that. So want the security agents look at those areas as flashpoints and make sure there is enough security for the people, for the INEC staff and voters.
About Author
