It was fireworks of ideas, issues dissection and policy advertisements by candidates of five political parties during the Kristina Reports’ Legislative Debate for Bonny Constituency that held in Bonny on Wednesday, March 8, 2023.

In what appeared as a competitive contest to represent Bonny Constituency in the Rivers State House of Assembly, candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC); Dabota Jumbo, National Rescue Movement (NRM); Maxwell Green, Labour Party (LP); Tammy Abusi, as well as the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); Victor Oko-Jumbo, and Felix Isinye-Hart of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) all took turns to individually demonstrate how they had better plans for the Constituency.

The Debate, which held at the Executive Lounge of the Bonny Chamber of Commerce, in Abalamabie, Bonny, was a 90 minutes’ hybrid event with live broadcast on Facebook and Google Meet, hosting a cumulative engagement of over 5,000 participants.

Publisher and CEO of Kristina Reports, Godswill Jumbo said the Debate was organized Kristina Reports in conjunction with the Bonny Kingdom Chamber of Commerce and Industry, also known as Bonny Chamber with support from the King Perekule Palace, Bonny Local Government Council and Evomec Global Services Limited (EGSL) in Bonny Island, Rivers State.   

On hand to moderate the debate were eminent personalities with impressive antecedents comprising of the Chairman, Editorial Board of Kristina Reports; Dr Ibituru Pepple, the Medical Director of St. Peter’s Clinic, Bonny; Dr Peter Arome, and the Proprietress of Tamvina International School, Adata Bristol, assisted by the Master of Ceremony, Victor Abibo Jr, a Senior Lecturer at the Bonny Vocational Centre, Bonny.  

The candidates, in their various responses to questions advanced to them, unveiled the plans they have for their would-be constituents covering critical areas such as Education, Health, Infrastructure, Capacity Building, Social Capital Investment in driving legislation, and projects contemplation, execution and sustainability, amongst others.

The APC and PDP candidates, Dabota Jumbo and Victor Oko-Jumbo stated that being very confident of victory for their party’s gubernatorial candidates, Tonye Cole and Sim Fubara, respectively, they would leverage the close relationship they have with them to attract high end and beneficial projects to Bonny.

Maxwell Green of the NRM opined that his antecedent of social impact through community projects would serve as a boost to scaling up to higher social investment through legislation; just as the ADP’s Felix Isinye-Hart said social re-engineering through qualitative projects for his people would be his priority, while Labour Party’s Tammy Abusi promised that beyond legislation and constituency projects, she would provide accountability templates for measuring her performance.

Speaking on behalf of the organized private sector, the Director General of the Bonny Chamber of Commerce, Constance Nwokejiobi urged the candidates to hold onto their words as a bond with their would-be constituents, admonishing that any of them that wins eventually should take into cognizance the strategic place of Bonny LGA in the economic profile of Nigeria and pursue big budget interventions that would reflect the huge contributions of the area to the nation’s economic wellbeing.

“Bonny provides three per cent of Nigeria’s GDP, a quarter of Rivers State’s revenue, amongst high end other economic benefits to the nation, so, I think it is important that these prospective legislators take that into account and go for big budget projects and interventions.”

“When you look at what Bonny Island alone is contributing to the economy of Nigerian and you come here and see that the reality on ground does not reflect such, it makes you sad. Whoever among them that wins should ask for what is commensurate with what Bonny is giving and attract projects that would transform the island and make it what it should be.”

In an interview, candidate of the Action Democratic Congress (ADC), Amie Allison called for sincerity in ensuring the elections were peaceful, free, fair and credible, noting that despite several and repeated assurances by the authorities, a lot of anomalies were still happening, condemning attempts at rigging the election certain politicians.

On his part, President of the Bonny Graduates Forum (BGF), Awoiyeala Allison said there were several issues that needs to be addressed if Bonny was to develop and progress, namely, unemployment, CSR implementation by the multinationals, mapping of the investment opportunities in the area and involvement of Bonny graduates in governance.

Also speaking, President of the National Union of Bonny Students (NUBS), Kelly Banigo asserted that students are critical stakeholders in the society and should be accorded their rightful place in the scheme of things, calling on the relevant authorities, especially, the candidates vying for the House of Assembly seat, to look into issues affecting students at various tertiary institutions, particularly, the Federal Polytechnic of Oil and Gas, Bonny, where he said many students were yet to graduate after completing their term of studies.

Jumbo said the debate was part of Kristina Reports’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) aimed at providing the House of Assembly candidates vying to represent Bonny Constituency in the Rivers State House of Assembly in the 2023 Gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections “an opportunity to market their legislative blueprint, social impact vision and constituents’ engagement plan.

He said Kristina Reports, as a watchdog of the society, partnered with the Organized Private Sector (OPS) represented by the Bonny Chamber to avail the candidates a platform to engage their would-be constituents, pointing out that “whatever deliverables the eventual winner was going to bring to the people would be properly structured by the business community to make it sustainable and maximally beneficial to the people”.  

“As a media house, Kristina Reports holds the interest of the community paramount, so, we are not just following the events, we want to take the lead in shaping society and contributing to providing the right leadership in the society because when you get the leadership right, everything else falls naturally into place.”

“This is the first of its kind; and Bonny is the first to take the lead to hold a legislative debate as it has not been recorded anywhere in Nigeria before now.”  

Highpoint of the event was the symbolic hand joining for peace by the candidates indicating their commitment to ensure the elections were peaceful, free, fair and credible and group photos shortly thereafter.