By Ifeoma Ikem
The Nigerian Guild of Investigative Journalists (NGIJ) has said that the outcome of November 16 governorship elections in Bayelsa state confirmed the findings of her Governance Assessment (GA) tour in the state.
NGIJ in a statement issued on Monday and signed by the Public Relations Officer of the Guild, Adeyemi Obadimu in Lagos, said highest numbers of respondents to their questionnaire on assessment of Seriake Dickson administration in Bayelsa state hinted that they will vote All Progressives Congress (APC) during the governorship election.
The guild revealed that 4140 out 9322 respondents representing 44.4% hints on their readiness to vote APC during Bayelsa Governance Assessment tour in September 2019.
”We administered 10,000 questionnaires during our governance assessment to Bayelsa state in fulfilling the guild mandate of rooting for the truth and 9322 respondents return the questionnaire. One of the questions in questionnaire is: Which party do you think will win the forthcoming governorship election in Bayelsa State?
”4140 respondents representing 44.4% of total respondents to NGIJ survey tipped All Progressives Congress who currently main opposition party in Bayelsa state to win November 16, 2019 gubernatorial election while 3972 respondents (42.6%) feel the ruling Peoples Democratic party will win the poll and 1210 are rooting for other political parties participating in the poll.”
The result of Bayelsa Governorship election declared by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on November 17, 2019 therefore confirms NGIJ findings in Bayelsa.
Recall that INEC declared APC Governorship Candidate, David Lyon who polls 352,552 votes representing 68.3% of 516,371 total valid votes winner while PDP candidate garnered 143, 172 votes representing 27.2%.
The guild noted the poll result tagged with view expresses by thousands of Bayelsans during the assessment tour to the oil rich state.
The overall findings of Nigerian Guild of Investigative Journalists assessment of Governor Seriake Dickson’s administration through inferences from the questionnaires and interactions with different stakeholders revealed that PDP government in the state has improved on education, health and security.
However, Power Supply and Rural development still suffering from lack of attention from the state government.
The Guild however advise all Political office holders to focus more on people’s oriented programmes and projects and be transparent discharging their responsibilities, noting that Transparency and Trustworthiness are key component of leadership, and nothing builds trust faster than keeping the commitments they make.
The statement added that, “Leaders who fail to keep their commitments quickly lose loyalty and support that their follower was willing to offer, more importantly that power belongs to the people.”