Governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Rivers State, Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, has declared that under his administration, those who disagreed with him cannot be declared as ‘enemies of the state.’
Abe, who made the declaration while addressing SDP stakeholders and his supporters at his residence in Port Harcourt, said the SDP is offering the people of the state an environment in which new ideas can thrive.
The governorship hopeful said: “Can you imagine if we have continued with that system where new ideas are not allowed to come up? Where new thinking is not permitted to grow? Where new ways of doing things cannot be explored and tested. Can you imagine where the world would have been today?
“The world is where it is today simply because ideas are challenged by better ideas and people are continually contesting and challenging established process to find better ones.
“I want to appeal to all Rivers men and women; what we are offering in the Social Democratic Party is an environment in which new ideas can stride, in which prosperity can take place, because we will look for the best.
“Allow things to compete and try to at any given time identify the one that best served the interest of our people. We cannot create a society in which people disagreed with us become enemies of the state and of everybody else, that is not the way it is.”
Abe, who has called on the people of the state to use the Christmas season to recalibrate, rethink and do things differently, described the yuletide as a season of repentance and forgiveness.
He said, “So, let us use this Christmas season as a season to recalibrate, to rethink and to do things differently. It is our prayer and our hope and our determination that the Rivers State of tomorrow will be a state that will be run by ideas.
“A state where ideas will compete and the best ideas will take precedence over bad ideas. A state that will make progress and will bring happiness and prosperity to Rivers people. We will have a better tomorrow.
“So, I really want to appeal to all Rivers people, that in this season of Christmas, in this season when we celebrate the birth of Christ, Christ is the symbol of love, Christ is the symbol of forgiveness.
“Christ is the symbol of tolerance, Christ is the symbol of kindness and compassion to another man, Christ is the symbol of sacrifice. It was Christ that give up his life, so that we can have life.
“We cannot today claim to be Christians and then we are promoting hatred, we are promoting violence against fellow Christians just because of politics. That’s not the way it should be, let us use this period of Christmas as a time of repentance, as a time of seeking new ways and better ways to do things. No matter how you are, you can be better,” he said.
