By Emmanuel Obe
A governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party for the 2019 general elections, Mr. Soalabo West, has said that he is campaigning on the basis of equity.
In an interview with journalists in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, Mr. West, a lawyer, publisher and businessman, said government has not been able to address the issues of development in Rivers State since its creation because the resources of the state have not been equitably spread to address the real development concerns of the state.
“If you try to infuse equity, fairness and justice into all your decision making processes you will very likely deliver the dividends of democracy to the people. You will very likely deliver abundant life to everybody,” he said.
West is the only other aspirant of the PDP outside the incumbent, Governor Nyesom Wike, that has publicly declared to contest 2019 governorship election in Rivers State.
Below are excerpts from the interview:
“My name is Soalabo West. I am a lawyer with competencies spanning environmental law, energy, natural resources. I am actually quite good at concluding transactions.
“I am the latest gubernatorial aspirant on the platform of the PDP come 2019.
What is driving you?
“People always ask me why, why why? I have been around this all my life and what we see today is worse than what we saw before. And I think it’s just been progressive; it’s like a constant downhill motion for all of us. And the only thing that can stop that downhill proclivity is qualitative leadership.
What do you mean by that?
By qualitative leadership, I mean the type that understands the tears of the women in the creeks, the tears of the women in their farms; the tears of fathers who can’t get work at Trans-Amadi anymore; the tears whose loved ones are dead and the tears and hopelessness of people who are unable to make anything out of their lives because they live in Rivers State. I think I have got the kind of qualitative leadership ideas that can get us out of that quagmire.
You have been talking about equity. How does it play out here?
Many people have also asked me that why I anchor your campaign on equity first. And I said I am basically a social democrat at heart and I believe strongly on the equity, fairness and justice. Not necessarily because I am a lawyer but because that is the way I think.
So for me, the only way I can rule Rivers State is on the basis of equity. I think if you try to infuse equity, fairness and justice into all your decision making processes you will very very likely deliver the dividends of democracy to the people. You will very likely deliver abundant life to everybody in your state.
For me the kind of equity is like this. In terms of expenditure in a state, you want to make sure that you spend Rivers money on Rivers people across the entire landmass of Rivers State. You want to make sure that taxpayers enjoy the benefits of their taxes.

Barr. Soalabo W. West will Speaking live today on Nigerian Info 92.3 with Dayo Elusakin. Talking about issues and their solutions to champion his campaign for a "New Paradigm" for a better Rivers state. 6:00pm

http://thedailymetro.com/2018/09/04/rivers-pdp-ticket-i-am-running-on-the-basis-of-equity-soalabo-west/