Bayelsa state senator-elect Mr. Ben Murray Bruce spoke on
issues relating to accountability and transparency in
government. He said:
I have not criticised any government. I have not criticised
APC. I have not criticised PDP.
I have not criticised Goodluck Jonathan, neither have I
criticised Muhammadu Buhari. I have raised good
government issues and policy issues.
These are issues that I have raised all my life. Maybe these
people on social media have just discovered Ben Bruce but,
go and check the speeches I made two years ago, three years
ago, twenty years ago, even in front of President Goodluck
Jonathan to ascertain whether they are different from what I
am saying now; maybe they just discovered me. Go on
youtube and see my speeches.
The level of poverty and unemployment is devastating. We
need to focus on laws that protect the poor.
What is the biggest problem in Nigeria today? It is
consumption versus production. Our leaders are guilty of
consuming the resources of the majority.
What do we have for the poor – the millions of people living
on two dollars a day? And then you have governors in large
convoys, commissioners driving N20m cars, flying first class
in states that cannot pay salaries. The governors fly private
jets.
Commissioners live like kings. If three policemen guard a
commissioner, how many policemen do we have in Nigeria?
Less than 200,000.
$So who is policing the poor when they are being raped,
maimed and killed, their goods stolen?
In Bayelsa, sea pirates steal from boats. They steal N200,
N500, fishing nets; they attack people and rape their women.
There is poverty and frustration everywhere in the land. And
then people we voted into offices are living like lords.
Does that make sense? Is it legal? Is it ethical? Is it moral?
Can you justify that consumption behaviour because they
voted you into office? In most states, the only employer of
labour is government, the rest are jobless.
Some government officials will wake up one morning like
monarchs and dash money to the people on the street because
they see them as beggars.
You turn your people to beggars and you get scared that they
could kill you. Why won’t you live in fear?
What if you consume less and distribute what you have to the
rest of the people so that they can be happy and you can live
in peace?
It is a class war between the rich and the poor. I have said it
for 35 years and I am saying it again because it is worse
today.
Boko Haram in the North, militancy in the South-South,
kidnapping in the South-West and South East; raping,
paedophile, maiming and stealing everywhere, what does that
tell you? We have a problem in our hands and everybody
must be held accountable.
President Buhari, who I like, is leading by example. He is a
simple man and, because he is a simple man, I expect him to
appoint people who will live simple lifestyle, people that will
not consume the resources of the people.
As lawmakers, we will checkmate their lifestyle. I will remind
every minister and appointee of the need to live moderate
life.
I am fighting against the corrupt elite. I am 59 and you only
live once.
The worst they can do to me is to take me out, so what? When
the corrupt elite see me, let them know I am fighting them.
When they drink that bottle of champagne that can educate a
child, let them know I am fighting them. When they fly first
class with tax payers money, let them know I am fighting
them.
Let them know that I am totally against their lifestyle because
it is destroying the economy. We are broke, the elite deserve
to be fought and they should be ashamed of themselves going
by the way they live.
You go into government and fly first class but in your private
life, you fly economy. You go into government, one man
carries your phone, another opens the door of your car,
another carries your bag, another reads the newspapers to
you and you have ten policemen protecting you, what for?
Were you born to the world as a king and everyone of us
must worship you? They should apologise to Nigerians for
looting the treasury and destroying the economy.
We don’t have distribution of wealth in Nigeria but the
apportioning of wealth by the small minority and nothing else
for the poor majority. There is no wealth distribution and that
is why we don’t have the middle class. There are the poor and
the champagne drinking super rich


Source:www.vanguardngr.com/2015/05/buhari

all eyes will be on you in the Senate, Ben Bruce

i am beginning to like this man, if Nigeria's wealth is well managed and distributed, it will be a crime to be poor in Nigeria.