Ex-Niger Delta militant leader, Ebikabowi Victor Ben, popularly known as Boyloaf , has slammed President Goodluck Jonathan for not doing anything to benefit his home state, Bayelsa, describing the outgoing President as a disappointment.
Boyloaf, who spoke in an exclusive interview with Premium Times, vowed not to welcome the President back home after handing over on May 29, adding that the ordinary folk in Bayelsa is even more aggrieved about the way the President treated his kinsmen and may not get the hero’s welcome he may be looking forward to in Bayelsa.
He said: “To me, as a matter of fact Jonathan disappointed us. That is my own opinion. He disappointed us. To me, he disappointed us. He might be good to some people. There is nothing to tell if you get to my own state. We didn’t benefit. People like us did not benefit from his government. His government focused on one side. The Bayelsans did not benefit. It is only the Arugbos – that is Ondo State and Delta State – that benefited from his government. So, someone like me will not welcome him. I will not welcome him at all. The struggle continues.
“They ordinary people in Bayelsa are even bitterer than I am. Jonathan empowered many foot soldiers, the Niger Delta ex-agitators, and foot soldiers. But in Bayelsa, he didn’t empower people and that is the state he comes from.
On threats by some ex-militants to go back to the creeks if Jonathan does not win the 2015 presidential election, Boyloaf asked: Who will go to war? Is Nigeria for one ethnic region? Nigeria is for everybody. It is not for one ethnic region. When you want to oppress one region that is when the region will stand up for their right. But we are all Nigerians. Nobody will go to war. Who will go to war?”
On allegations that the North and the South West ganged up against Jonathan to wrestle power from him because of feelings of marginalization, Boyloaf insisted it was rather the North and the SouthWest that benefitted from the Jonathan administration.
“Did people from the South-South benefit? If you come to Bayelsa State, can you count how many people benefited? That is the president’s state. When the APC was going for campaigns, they made a statement that there is a town that they didn’t have light, and people said Otuoke. Then (Gov. Chibuike) Amaechi said “I didn’t mention name”. But can you imagine that in that place there is no road? You see, what Jonathan did was that he favoured the North and West.
Go to the Niger Delta and see. He favoured the North. He did Almajiri. Then go to the West you will see the railway, you will see all what he’s doing there. What is happening in Niger Delta? Nothing! It is better to go there and see things for yourself. Jonathan did not do anything for his people, for his region.
-DP
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