I can say that Ben Murray-Bruce is the most Articulate and visionary governorship aspirant in Nigeria today.

He has is a successful entrepreneur and can turn around the state of Bayelsa State and make it the Dubai of Africa.

It is possible.

Orikinla:

I can say that Ben Murray-Bruce is the most Articulate and visionary governorship aspirant in Nigeria today.

He has is a successful entrepreneur and can turn around the state of Bayelsa State and make it the Dubai of Africa.

It is possible.

na only dubai?what about silicon valley.

Maybe ajibutters like donald duke and bruce are probably better leaders than the ajikpako's like Tinubu, Obasanjo, Jonathan etc

lol, does Ben Murray Bruce have a native name?

Orikinla:

I can say that Ben Murray-Bruce is the most Articulate and visionary governorship aspirant in Nigeria today.

He has is a successful entrepreneur and can turn around the state of Bayelsa State and make it the Dubai of Africa.

It is possible.

He should contest under APGA.

@OP, I think you're right. I listened to him and he made a lot of sense.

Yes Bruce makes a lot of sense and I think Bayelsa is ripe for a change, d incumbent can lose @ d primaries, I don't know if Bruce, Alaibe and Sylva were cleared, but if all are cleared then its possible 2 have Alaibe nd Sylva cancel themselves out while Bruce takes d day, but I'll advice that if he loses @ d primary he shld remain, there is nothing 2 gain by optin out, he shld hav started frm outside d pdp initially!

I agree!


Probably why they made up the crap about him not qualifying, as he had dual nationality.
Hope they will not succeed in disqualifying him.

He's already rich so I doubt he's going into it to rip the people off.
Hope he succeeds.

Negro_Ntns:

lol, does Ben Murray Bruce have a native name?

Many ND people have no native names (a shame really), but it deducts nothing from the man. He is a great candidate, but I fear he lacks the machinery.

Was this not the same man that was sacked from NTA for awarding contracts more than once for the same projects?

Mr Murray Bruce may be articulate but I am not sure he is clean.
His record at NTA left a lot to be desired and immediately after leaving that organisation Silverbird gallerias started springing up all over the place.
Not saying he is corrupt,but it needs looking into.

Before nw i hv nva seen him in a native attire, i luv him wen he speaks bt people like him dnt win PDP primaries atleast he is nt curropt n it only takes a curropt man 2 win PDP election, so i advice him to decamp to anda party so dt wen pdp feeds in d wrong candidate he will carry d day.

What has he done for bayelsa in the past?what investments does he have there? This man knows that nigeria is a place where anything goes and hes in the race to take his own piece of the cake.as far as i m concerned hes just a businessman who doesnt give a rats a.ss bout his people.

Many ND people have no native names (a shame really), but it deducts nothing from the man. He is a great candidate, but I fear he lacks the machinery.


@ You really don't know the reason behind the names of people from the niger delta, those names date back to in history during the slave trade and off course we all have family names which is retained thru generations but it does not mean that we do/cannot have first names that are indigenous.


@ poster Ben Bruce is a successful entrepreneur but I can't vouch for his competence in managing the resources of a state like Bayelsa with so much issues needing urgent attention (though might be an extension of the issues affecting the Nigerian state), but on the contrary there's no better candidate which is the bane on the Nigerian Leadership crisis. MOST COMPETENT PEOPLE DON'T CONTEST ELECTIONS (though for diverse personal reasons).

As long as he is able to manage all the companies and investments he has to the level they are nw, i thnk he is competent enough to rule a state where there would be much fund available at his disposal.,

Managing a company (which is just 1 in Ben Bruce's case i.e Silverbird group) is different from managing a state's resources because its a bigger task covering a wide range of issues when making every decision. His company is a one man affair and if anybody doesn't like his policies, u'll jst excuse urself. Mind u the ultimate goal of his business is to make Profit and that really is what he has been successful at.
I like the man, even had to work on a project with him but I'm just trying to make a point clear.

xtenxive:

Managing a company (which is just 1 in Ben Bruce's case i.e Silverbird group) is different from managing a state's resources because its a bigger task covering a wide range of issues when making every decision. His company is a one man affair and if anybody doesn't like his policies, u'll jst excuse urself. Mind u the ultimate goal of his business is to make Profit and that really is what he has been successful at.
I like the man, even had to work on a project with him but I'm just trying to make a point clear.

Isn't that why they they have commisioners, special advisers etal? Abeg talk something else.

The ultimate decision rests on him leading the team, if Commissioners, Ministers etc have had their way dat easy, Naija for beta. We've had some of our best brains act in this capacities at different times so think of somethin else.

xtenxive:

You really don't know the reason behind the names of people from the niger delta, those names date back to in history during the slave trade and off course we all have family names which is retained thru generations but it does not mean that we do/cannot have first names that are indigenous.

Abeg, end dat gist. I too am from the Niger Delta.
Lets do ourselves a favour and stop naming our kids "Governor, Doctor, I thank God" and so forth, there is nothing like a good old traditional name and identity. Even white people don't answer names like "Ambassador."

There is every pride in giving a kid a traditional name.

All that glitters are not gold

All that glitters is not gold

I'm not a pessimist but not impressed by Ben Bruce ambitious vision. Nigeria 1999 constitution as drafted by few cliques who got some legal minds to put the documents together without the consent of Nigerians. In democracy a constitution is like a bible to christians. It puts the federal government the sole driver of major factors of development(power, security,Ports and airports).The implication of this accident of history is that there may be little or no development in the federating unit. no matter the amount Bayelsa has as allocation and IGR, it can't have power, security and access to ports to feed the commercial activities.In every country, government only provides enabling environment for private sector to thrive and create jobs.

Ben bruce, has not told us how connected he is with the grassroot,he has not let us know the political structures he has or any company he has in Bayelsa that demonstrated his commitment to alleviating people problem.Pdp as a party, though has a better spread,runs the risk of being seen as strange bedfellows in Corporation.

I do not have any grudges with Bruce, i'm never a politician but my candid opinion.

Then, you talk of character of a particular tribe,No matter the resources, or connections untill there is an innate drive for hardwork and excellence,his ideals will not see the light of the day.

Ben Bruce has not said anything an average Nigerian politician has not said, I will do this, I will do that without details on how he will do it. He even said he will dash people money without collateral.

although I respect his achievements in business, he built his empire on stolen money. Silverbird was only managing to survive before he had a government appointment (his most beautiful girl in nigeria was not even regular by then) but after he left NTA silverbird cinemas started springing up like redeem. He was was building NTA stations in every state capital, the contracts of which he handled through a proxy. He did a lot of things especially in the build up to COJA. OBJ had to sack him summarily. He now wants to handle Bayelsa treasury. I am sure there would be a silverbird cinena in every local government after just one tenure.

Ben openly defined and explained how he would execute his master plan for a new Bayelsa and it is practicable.

@orikinla, please kindly tell us the master plan and its practicability. I hope you will not mention the one about growing cassava in riverine communities.

ben bruce get ready politics in bayelsa is very dirty

As I said, I have nothing against Ben Bruce as a person but I can tell you he is not in touch with the grass roots. I have known him personally since his early days and I can tell you he does not like to identify with the lower class. He has lived in Nigeria most of his life, with just a few years in the US for higher education, but he speaks with an American accent as if he arrived from the US yesterday. I doubt he can speak his native ijaw language. I also doubt he has a house in his village or yenogua. If we are operating a proper system, he should be competing for governorship of lagos instead if Bayelsa.

@wirinet plz tell us whom u are supporting so can get u better, i see nothing wrong with Ben he will make a huge diffrence

No comments, until he wins and serve for 3 months

This is not about preference for one candidate or the other, its about reviewing the antecedents of Ben Bruce as against the challenges of the office of the Governor of Bayelsa state.

"I want to turn around my dear Bayelsa and its people and I know I have all it takes to do it. First of all, I need to build schools, two schools in every local government, in all the eight local governments, secondary and primary schools. Free and compulsory education for all students and one free meal a day for every child, a bus service to pick you up at a designated point and take you to school, so that parents won’t need to worry about transport to school; one meal a day and sports will be compulsory. All Olympics sports will be taught in the schools to keep you busy all the time.

“For the parents, I want to create $100m intervention fund to make it available as loans to the folks. It is a small state, it doesn’t have a very large population; we will set up classes to teach you how to use the money for the business you are in.

“You will go through a training programme. When you qualify, we loan you the money without collateral; we will get the communities to guarantee the loan. Just as the late Chief Obafemi  Awolowo did in the West, those cooperatives would guarantee the loan.’’

~ Ben Murray-Bruce

These are all juicy talks made by Politicians during campaigns, There is nothing here that has never been done in Nigeria but SINCERITY OF PURPOSE has made them all fail in the past. If these are the reasons u think he's the right candidate, then go and have a re-think. these statements are not out of the box, they're not from a deep thought process. . . . . . . . . . Pls let Nigeria go beyond these kind of shallow thinking POLITRICKS.