Ben Murray-Bruce declares for Senate, laments widespread poverty

 

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Silverbird Group, Mr. Ben Murray-Bruce, on Monday declared his intention to represent Bayelsa East Senatorial District in the National Assembly.
With his declaration, Murray-Bruce has the likes of Senator Barigha Amange, Clever Ikisipo to contend with for the senatorial seat.
Though Murray-Bruce is from Akassa speaking group of Brass Local Government where the senatorial seat has been zoned to, Amange cautioned recently that zoning should not be at the expense of merit and experience.
Ikisipo on his part said there was no zoning in the Bayelsa East, insisting that there was never a time stakeholders discussed zoning in the district.
Murray-Bruce said if his people believed in him and support his aspiration, he would ensure he sponsored bills to tackle poverty in the country.
He said, “I am running for the Senate because I am interested in the laws of our land; I am interested in
making change and I am not interested in business as usual.
“I have always been concerned about the poverty of the mind, about women who are not being protected, children who are being raped, men who are paedophiles, a society where there is no order, we must bring order to our society.
“There are too many poor people living under the bridge. Nigeria is too rich for people to be poor and Nigeria is too poor for the super upper class to be so rich. That has to stop.”
He regretted that most wealthy Nigerians were not paying their taxes, insisting that if they were paying their taxes, it would be rare to see an individual having three private jets.
He added, “If they pay their taxes, an individual will not have three private jets and the poor man on the street will have a chance to make a living. There is no way I will be a happy seeing my children go to private school and my staff do not have their children at school and cannot eat three meals a day.
“This society will explode and implode, there will be violence, there will be mayhem, unless politicians start thinking rationally.”