Prominent leaders of Delta State have started speaking out on the prospects of 2023 gubernatorial ambition of former Minister of Education, Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi for the people of the state.
One of the respected leaders and renowned environmentalist, Dr. Newton Jibunoh, said Deltans would be fortunate to have the entrepreneur as governor in 2023, declaring that he would industrialize the state.
Jibunoh, aka Desert Warrior, and founder, Nelson Mandela Garden, Asaba, asserted: “From what I know, for what you have been and for what you have done, Delta state will be very lucky to have you as governor”.
He spoke, weekend, when the industrialist and leading Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), 2023 governorship aspirant visited him at his country home, Akwukwu Igbo, headquarters of Oshimili north local government area, to intimate him of his governorship project.
Jibunoh emphasized that the governor Delta needs after Senator Okowa is the one that knows what it takes to industrialize the state and advantageously, the state has it in Gbagi, who has the right connection to bring in fellow industrialists and turn the state to a gargantuan construction site.
The octogenarian who reassured the biggest private entrepreneur in the state of his support and that of Akwukwu Igbo people, noted: “You (Gbagi) have a partner in me, not because you are here amongst my people, but because I know who you are”.
Speaking further, Chief Jibunoh insisted: “We have to fix Nigeria, but first of all we begin to fix Delta state. Once you fix Delta state, the rest will come in because we cannot continue like this”.
He told the governorship hopeful that he came to the right place for the support he needs to become governor of the state come 2023, reiterating: “Gbagi has what it takes to change the narrative and I can tell you that he is a man of “integrity”.
Asked in an interview whether if Gbagi becomes governor he would be able to tackle the challenges, Jibunoh said: “well if I am not in the position to say that, I don’t know who will because our friendship dates back between 40 to 50 years.
“So, I am talking from experience of the person I know, interacted with and I have shared a lot of our problems in this country with. So, if I am not in the position to testify to that, tell the person who will?
“He has been a wonderful entrepreneur. I can testify to because I have seen and been to some of the things he has established. Things that touches the minds and souls of the people of this country. I have seen him get involved with the affairs of those things that we need that will be able to sustain the country and I think Kenneth Gbagi is a man I can do business with”.
Earlier, Gbagi told the king, Jibunoh, leaders, women and youths of the community, who treated him to a rousing welcome: “In this State called Delta today, I have what it takes to change the narrative positively.
My senior brother the governor, it is my prayers that he succeeds and I call on Deltans to support him so that he can finish strong. I say it every time, were we to have followed his footprint in the last 24 years, development in the state would have gone a lot faster and better than where we are today. But I appreciate the fact that he has taken it from where he met it to the enviable height that we are today.
“It is my believe, I will build on where he stops” just as he tasked the monarch to pray for the state to develop more than his ancestors left it for him, “join hands in prayers that as the governor finishes, he will handover to me so that we will continue with everything he has done after he has left plus what we know.
“Were it not for the person of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, a man of character that God brought at an auspicious time in 2015 to save the state, I do not know what would have happened to the state by now.
“I give it to my brother, he is a great administrator, that he is able to manage the state in its complicity and we are still talking as one, is a virtue I will learn from him. I do not have that virtue but he has it. What I have, he doesn’t have, what he has, I do have. Let join hands together and pray for him not only for him to finish strong but until he finishes strong.
I call on Akwukwu Igbo people and all Deltans to continue to support this marvelous administrator to finish much more stronger for the benefit of all of us. We have different gifts, I am an industrialist, who is going to commence industrialization of the state from where the governor will stop in 2023.
“Having waited for another Delta Central turn, governorship has gone round from Delta Central to South and now North, I do not need to come and convince Uncle Newton that I want to contest for governor. I can tell you that without equivocation.
“Obviously, this Delta that we are today is not the Delta of our dream. Uncle Newton, I have come to intimate you and to plead with you sir to speak out unless you want to leave it worse than you met it.
“We have a duty to change this land for the better and beyond where our parents left it for us. We owe Delta state the duty of making the place better than we were given.
Speaking about Jibunoh, the governorship hopeful said: “I don’t visit individuals as I have done today. He is a father figure, he is a friend, he is a man beyond the comprehension of Nigeria and he is a man with character as I believe I do have”.
“I believe very strongly that with what we have in Delta state, been bigger in size, population, raw materials and mineral wealth, in fact, bigger than 42 countries in the world, that we have what it takes to have surplus for all of us were we to be organised, coordinated and put ourselves together without deceit,” he added.
