A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Bayelsa, Senator John Brambaifa, has stated that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party will lose the December 5 governorship election in the state due to the unpopularity of the immediate past President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
Speaking with reporters on Tuesday at the national secretariat of the APC in Abuja, the ex-senator claimed that Jonathan was unpopular even when he was picked as vice president in 2007.
Mr. Brambaifa said the ex-president’s poor performance while in office has added to his low rating even among his own people.
“I can tell you categorically that the former president from my assessment is not popular now and he was not that popular when he was even the president”, he said.
The APC chieftain also said Mr. Jonathan was not popular because he was imposed on the people of the South South region.
“If it were the people of Bayelsa or the people of the South-south that would have picked a vice president at the time, I don’t think the people would have picked Goodluck Jonathan because he was not popular and he didn’t have the capacity to be vice president at the time he was imposed”, he said.
Mr. Brambaifa further said Mr. Jonathan’s unpopularity was proven by his inability to win a second term in office.
“If we are saying that PDP is not popular in Bayelsa state, the unpopularity and the inability to perform maximally when Jonathan was the president is likely to contribute to the unpopularity of the PDP as at now”, he said.
Assessing the administration of Governor Seriake Dickson in the state, Mr. Brambaifa said the governor did not complete and commission a single project since his election in 2012.
He, however, challenged Dickson to tell the people of the state what he has achieved since his assumption of office.
“The performance of a governor is a function of how many projects he commissioned at a given time, is that not so?” Mr. Braambaifa said. “You want to go to Bayelsa for the three and half years that this man has been the governor? There is no one project, not one that has been commissioned, not one.
“I am not saying that he didn’t put his hands in doing one or two projects but it is a functions of how many project you commission that will determine you as a performing governor”.
Mr. Brambaifa said the PDP as a party was a victim of Nigerians demand for change after 16 years of “misrule”.
“I think that there is a wind of change in the country and the wind of change has caught up with the PDP as a result of poor performance of PDP government”, he said. “You know the masses can take it, but they cannot take it forever, when they take it to certain point they will revolt”.
The former senator said he was in Abuja as part of the preparations for the election in Bayelsa state, disclosing that the APC is expected to receive about 15,000 defectors across the state before the election.
