Battle for the Soul of Bayelsa

Segun James writes that the fight for the soul  of Bayelsa state during the forthcoming governorship poll in November, 2023 will be fierce and intriguing as the battle has began in earnest.

For some palpable reasons, the impending battle for the governorship election in Bayelsa state is not just about ambition, but that of political survival and dominance and a battle for the soul of Bayelsa.

The second slant to the election is that it will be more of a flexing of political muscle between the incumbent, Senator Douye Diri and former Governor, Chief Timipre Sylva, a situation that will make the battle very fierce and intriguing.

The Bayelsa election is very crucial to the country. The state is important to the economic well-being of the nation and houses many strategic economic infrastructures.

It will be the first election, along with that of Kogi and Imo states, to be held under President Bola Tinubu. Thus, how this elections are handled will certainly set the tone for what to expect in other elections.

Although the stage is set for a battle royal in Bayelsa state for the governorship election, the battle is principally between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), and on the fringe, however, is the Labour Party.

Ordinarily, politics in Bayelsa state is centered around individuals and not the party they belong to. Since most people belong to the PDP, elections in the state were always within the PDP and whoever emerges the PDP candidate wins.

That was the situation until the political upset of 2019 when the APC won a highly disputed election. But the court returned the mandate to Governor Douye Diri, who, not surprisingly is today called the miracle governor.

Politics in the state is intriguing and action packed. The two major gladiators are formidable and have the capacity to deploy the resources to contest in a very hostile environment.

However, the three candidates are former members of the PDP and each of them has enough foot soldiers to go the whole hog.

Bayelsa is an unusual state. It is 100 percent riverine, sits squarely on the delta, and one of the few fairly homogeneous states in the country.

Politics in the state revolves around individuals and not the party they belong to.

Ordinarily, the belief in Bayelsa state is that the race for the governorship is between the PDP and the PDP.

The major candidates at a glace

Douye Diri

Since he entered office as the Miracle Governor, Bayelsans have prided Diri as the “talk-na-do” governor and an achiever who more than any other governor before him has practically turned the state fortunes around in terms of developmental projects.

This has held him in high stead among the people despite the fact that he came to power through court’s pronouncements.

According to Mr. Godfrey Nazuan, a member of the PDP, the Governor by a deliberate and determined deployment of a  combination of legislation, policy, decisive and clear headed leadership, faced head-on the state of insecurity he met, and has made the state bandit-free in the last four years.

Nazuan said cultism and drug-fueled murders, kidnappings and militancy are all a thing of the past in the state.

Within this period, Bayelsa is now practically one of the safest states in the federation, a situation which makes it a safe haven for investment, he further stated.

Diri’s emergence as the governor is nothing short of a miracle, hence, the appellation the Miracle Governor. In a surprise upset, the APC candidate in the election who had been declared winner, Mr. David Lyon, was stopped from assuming office, barely 24 hours before he was to be sworn into office.

The surprise ruling of the Supreme Court which upturned the election of Lyon ensured that Diri was sworn in as the Governor.

Since becoming the governor, Diri has spent his time proving to the people that he is capable and has tried to earn their trust.

One critical area which the state needed badly is infrastructural development. The governor has always claimed that the goal of his administration is to hit the shores of the Atlantic Ocean with roads since this is where the wealth of the nation comes from.

According to data, only 47 percent of the state’s communities are motorable. Diri said he intends to get it to 70 percent by the end of his second term in office.

Since coming to power in February 2020, he has advanced the three senatorial roads started by previous state governments in conjunction and cooperation with interventionist agencies like the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to almost completion. These roads, the Governor insisted, will ensure that over 400 communities and villages which are in the deep backwaters of delta are accessible.

He said he intends to hit Brass Island in the Bayelsa East Senatorial District, a strategic city on the fringe of the Atlantic Ocean where the Brass LNG project and the Brass Fertilizer project are located by the end of his first term.

Also work on the Sagbama-Ekeremor-Agge road in the Western District, a distance of over 110 kilometers where a deep seaport project is on-going is almost completed.

The third flank of the project is the Yenagoa-Oporoma-Koluama in the Central District which houses the agricultural belt of state. Works on this project has also reached advanced stage and Diri is expected to tout these projects as part of his achievements.

The Governor believes that governance is a continuum and that all projects left uncompleted by his predecessor must be completed at all costs. He has practically lived up to these promises.

Right at the inception of his administration, Diri had declared a state of emergency on the educational sector; and today education is free from primary to secondary schools in the state.

He has also made significant improvement in the health sector.

These are some of records he’s counting upon to do the magic for him as he goes for a second term in office.

Advantage

The 2022 flood that engulfed the state which is the flood basin of the Niger Delta afforded Diri the opportunity to prove to the people not only as a caring Governor but also a man of the people. While the federal government was busy trying to determine what to do in view of the devastation wrought across the states and communities along the River Niger, Diri quickly seized the initiative to evacuate the people at the low-lying areas to upper grounds, he wasted no time in setting up camps for the several thousands of refugees who had lost properties to the raging flood waters.

Unlike the 2012 flooding, the 2022 flood was particularly devastating cutting off the state from the rest of the nation. But undeterred, the Governor immediately activate the state’s emergency management system which waded into the needs of the people.

Disadvantage

The belief is that one of Diri’s advantages is also his one of his major disadvantages. The Governor does not believe in frivolities, unnecessary spending and unmerited giving. At the political circle in the state, this is his only disadvantage. Most politicians who want political patronages without working for it have found the Governor as hostile and rigid.

Timipre Sylva

Former Governor Timipre Sylva who was the immediate past Minister of State for Petroleum Resources is the candidate of the APC in the November election. But will he be able to take advance of the last upset?

This is a question that will only be answered by how he plays his politics.

To most people in Bayelsa state, Sylva is a Diaspora Bayelsan as he is resident in Abuja and very faraway from the reality of the situation in the state. They believe that he should not have presented himself as the APC candidate. To them, since leaving office as governor, he has no legacy to point to and that the people’s memory of his time as governor is not very good.

To them, although Sylva may have survived various political prosecutions, but his loss as the governorship candidate of the APC in the 2015 election to Governor Seriake Dickson should have told him that he is no longer wanted by the people.

This is his second attempt at contesting the governorship since leaving office as governor in 2011. Will he be second time lucky? Only time will tell.

Advantage

He was a former governor of the state, hence, he has self recognition.

He singlehandedly brought the APC to Bayelsa state and has remained its leader despite the fact that the party now has several factions.. He is also said to have a deep pocket while also banking on federal might to prosecute the election.

Disadvantage

Sylva is said to belong to the school of thought that everyone has a price and what money cannot buy, more money will. However, most of his ardent followers have deserted him as they accuse him of using and discarding those he does not need at any point in time.

The APC under him is divided and many party faithful have left the APC for him. The people are angry that what he brought to the state as palliatives after the floods were only distributed to his only faction of the APC thereby shortchanging the Senator Heineken Lokpobri and David Lyon-led factions of the party, instead of the people that were actually impacted upon. This, they say, is a flaw in his politics and greatly have impact on the election.

Udengs Eradiri

This is the first time Eradiri will be contesting the governorship. He was a former president of the Ijaw Youth Council and a former member of the state cabinet under Dickson. He later fell out with Dickson.

However, he is very popular among the youth who see him as one of them. Although his political antecedent is nothing to write home about given the formidable credentials of his opponents and the war chest at their disposal, the belief is that he could be a surprise element in the election.