The 2023 Bayelsa State Deputy Governorship Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Great Joshua MacIver, has finally dumped the party to join the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Maclver, who is the leader of the IzonTukpa Movement, officially resigned from the APC on Friday in Yenagoa during the party’s 99th SEC meeting, where he officially received his membership card from George Alab Turnah, the Bayelsa State Chairman of the PDP.
Citing his reason for moving to the PDP, the former APC Chieftain maintained that he defected to the PDP because Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State, who defected to the APC from the PDP, didn’t carry most of the people he met on ground, including himself.
He disclosed that the governor was working with just about 5% of the people he met in the APC, leaving the remaining 95% behind.
Maclver revealed that in the remaining weeks and months, more people will leave APC to PDP, disclosing that Governor Diri has not empowered anybody in Southern Ijaw.
He said,” Most times, when I see what is going on in my state, I feel bad. We are not lucky to have good governors like other states. The biggest problem in my state is about leadership. Not that we don’t have the resources. We have the resources to develop this state to any level we want, but the biggest problem is greed.
“Most times, when somebody becomes a governor, the first thing he thinks of is how he will be the richest person in the state, not the name he wants to make. And most times, I’m surprised at how leaders will prefer to be rich rather than have a good name because a good name and a good reputation outlive you.
“No matter how many houses you have, the ships you have, the cars you have, the day you die, if you are not careful, if your children are not well trained, it’s always difficult for your children to maintain your riches
“So, chairman, the problem of Bayelsa is something that, as vibrant young people, we can come together and take care of. Don’t be discouraged because the governor has defected. Whether you like it or not, PDP is more on ground than any other party. The people who defected are the governor and his appointees, not the people in the villages.
“The last election, we know what we passed through to make sure we win that election and believe me, with this defection, there was a press release I issued, and I said before the governor’s defection, we had two factions in APC, and that is nothing but the simple truth.
“The two factions, one faction was like 95% of members. The other faction was just like 5%. At times, even the 5%, some would say it was like 3%.
“And when the governor defected with his people, he decided to work with the 5% and believe me, being a running mate in the last election, that 95% that he decided to abandon, 90% of that 95% would defect to PDP.
“They all have to stop it, but if you are not a leader, you are not a leader. So they will not be able to stop it. Then, when he defected from PDP, he defected from PDP with not even up to 10% of the old PDP members because in our Izon land, the only way you have influence in somebody’s life is when you play a major positive role in the person’s life.
“I look at Southern Ijaw, I have not seen anybody the governor has empowered, not even one person. So the governor cannot decide for anybody in Southern Ijaw what the
person needs to do. It’s not possible.
“Believe me, PDP in the next few days, a few weeks, a few months, the chairman and his team will be ready to receive those who are ready to join the party. It will be like a tsunami. I don’t want to put the names out there so that they don’t try to promise them their fake appointments.
“So since the human capital development in this government is zero, that means he doesn’t have control over the people. So believe me, we should stand together, and it’s my prayer and not just a prayer, it’s something I’ve taken as a responsibility.
“Working with our chairman and other leaders, it’s important that we produce some Assembly members. My plan, if God approves it, is to start from my local government, Southern Ijaw, the plan is to win all four House of Assembly seats and to win the House of Reps. In Southern Ijaw.
“As an opposition party in the state, it’s not possible for us to win all the seats, but we’ll look critically at those places where we know it’s possible. So to me, out of the 24, we should do something reasonable, if possible, we get the majority of them because we are more on ground and it’s not just mere saying, it’s something that is doable. If we put our minds together and decide not to betray ourselves.
“Politically if I’m not supporting you, your drink I will not take it, your money I will not take it and all of it. So, as a people, let’s come together as one family that has one ideology and one goal, as the chairman said, to reclaim our mandate. So if we decide to move in, if we decide to work with that mindset, it’s something we can do convincingly.” He assured.
Speaking earlier, George Alab Turnah, the Bayelsa State Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, had assured that the mandate of PDP in the state is to take back power in the state, adding that all the projects that were commissioned by President Bola TInubu recently were all PDP projects.
Turnah hinted that the party has started the e- registration, calling on all in the various communities to go and register.
“We have started the e-registration process. We are working constantly and vigorously to ensure that people get registered. And we have seen all the assurances from our leaders that the PDP is ready.
“In Bayelsa, we are committed, and our commitment is to take back our mandate because some people are with our mandate elsewhere, and we will not allow it. And again, Bayelsa, for too long, has been too backward.
“We are willing to raise a crop of leaders in the next cycle of elections that will put the state first before every other consideration. We need to create wealth, we need to generate employment, and we need to develop soft institutions that will support the people.
“We need to care for the elderly, we need to give hope to the low, and we need to raise people from the bottom to the top. A whole lot that needs to be done.
“And we are also preparing. SEC has also approved our preparation for the primaries. It’s going to be direct primaries, so it’s a whole lot. It’s going to require a whole mass mobilisation of our people because the idea is that once our candidates emerge from the people, it’s going to be as good as the election being done. So, we are moving on.
“You can see that the party is strong. We lost one of our pioneer executives, and today we have reached a party resolution naming the state secretariat building after the late Suobere Appah, who was a huge stakeholder of this party.”
The high point of the 99th SEC meeting was the appointment of Great Joshua Maclver as Board of Trustees Member to represent Bayelsa State at The National level of PDP.
