Senator Magnus Abe yesterday said that the movement that Peter Obi is moulding in this election should be acknowledged as his own contribution to Nigeria’s democratic experience regardless of the outcome of the 2023 election.
Speaking during an interaction with a selection of the clergy at City of David International Church, Elelenwo, Port Harcourt, the frontline governorship candidate in Rivers State stated that with the new Electoral Act 2022, power now resides with the people and not necessarily with any political party.
“I tell people that no matter what people say about Governor Peter Obi and others like him, they have, with their actions, shown Nigerians that political power is more than the political party, it is more than the building and the flag and symbol of the party. It is the people that is the power. And for that, if for nothing else, we must give them their due”.
Speaking further, Abe called on Rivers people to enter into a partnership with him so that they can own the kind of government they want in Rivers State and create prosperity
“In Rivers State here, I have come with a message to you people, that it is us the people of Rivers State that have the final say to decide the kind of government that we want, all we have to do is to agree among ourselves, that this is what we want, and if the most of us agree, that is what we will get”.
“That’s why I have looked at the situation, other people have gone to being their own partners, to come and rule us, and I said no, let me take my case to you, and ask you that let you and I form our own partnership, that partnership is what I have called project SMA 2023. If at the end of the day, we form our own partnership, and we outnumber them, when they count the votes, they count our own is more than their own, they will announce us because of you.
Now if your own partner heads the government and the government is your own partner, all the things that the other people have been getting when they put their own partner into the government that’s is what you will now get”
The state prospers when you prosper. Do you know that? No matter how rich the state may be, if you the citizens cannot make money, if you can not prosper, if you are not growing, if you are not upgrading is that a good country? Is that a good state? The state is good when you are making progress right?
“How does the government help you to make progress? This is what we are going to do. The first truth that we must all tell ourselves is that this whole thing the government is about money, the whole power of government is money, that’s how you pay the civil servants, that’s how you pay the security. How do we now do it so that the money is used to create an environment in which you the citizen can prosper? Is that not the challenge of government?
Abe charged Rivers people that to get a result they have never gotten before, they must do a thing they have never done before.