LAGOS NOVEMBER 25TH (URHOBOTODAY)-Leaders from the Delta State North Senatorial District have pledged to engage their counterparts from other zones towards making the emergence of the governor of the state in 2015 from the zone a negotiated exercise. They also identified agriculture and a strong industrial base as critical factors for sustainable development of the state.
In a well attended strategic conference in Lagos at the weekend, stakeholders from the academia, political class and royal fathers outlined the road map to the election of a governor of Delta North extraction in 2015, noting that a large array of competent, educated and experienced leaders were available to take the state to greater heights.
They stated that even though equity dictates that governorship of the state should shift to the zone, concerted efforts must be made to negotiate a consensual emergence of an Anioma candidate as governor of the state.
At the conference organised by ASDEV 81 Club, at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of Lagos, the leaders also agreed that the process of the emergence of a governor from Delta North must not be acrimonious. In effect, they endorsed a proposition that whoever emerged as the candidate from the zone should be backed unconditionally by all persons in the running for governorship.
Recalling the virtues of the late Dennis Osadebey, pioneer premier of then Midwest Region, who laid the foundation for the modern Edo and Delta states, the Anioma leaders vowed to give Delta State a leadership that would be fair, progressive and unwavering in weaning the state from dependence on oil revenue under the Delta Beyond Oil initiative of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, governor of the state.
Uduaghan, who was represented on the occasion by Chike C. Ogeah, commissioner for information, had called for support for the national conference proposed by President Goodluck Jonathan, noting that the present constitution has stifled competitiveness among the states and stunted the country’s growth.