By Emeka Alex Duru
Exactly two months ahead, November 16, Bayelsa State voters will be heading for the polls to elect a successor to Governor Henry Seriake Dickson. Many political parties in the state, are taking part in the exercise. The race is however, a straight fight between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC). The PDP is fielding Senator representing Bayelsa Central in the National Assembly, Douye Diri in the contest, while APC is running with David Lyon, a businessman and oil magnate.
In emerging the PDP candidate, Diri polled a total of 561 votes to beat 19 other aspirants. The closest to him was the former Presidential Adviser on Niger Delta Affairs, Timi Alaibe, who scored 365 votes. Lyon polled 42,138 votes to beat five other aspirants in the primary election of the APC.
Both represent the two rival tendencies in contemporary Bayelsa politics. Diri is believed to be the preferred candidate of Governor Dickson, for the Restoration Caucus in the state chapter of the PDP. Lyon, on the other hand, is seen as a choice of the Minister of State for Petroleum and former Governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva.
On two occasions that Dickson and Sylva had clashed over the governorship of the state, the former had triumphed. The senator is thus, banking his campaign on the consolidation of the Dickson governance blueprint. Besides, he is not a stranger in the Bayelsa politics. As a former teacher, Ijaw activist, sports commissioner and member of the House of Representatives before his current position as a senator, he can be said to have seen it all in the state. In the senate, he is not a bench warmer.
In aspiring for the highest office in the state, the senator has laid out his agenda. He has, for instance, promised to give education in the state a boost and involve more Bayelsans in the economic activities of the state. Diri pledged to sustain the tradition of the Dickson administration in many respects.
He said; “When we took over in 2012, the policy thrust on education came about because there was a lacuna in our educational sector. So the governor declared a state of emergency in that sector.
“I believe to a large extent, he has ameliorated most of the gaps that we discovered when we came into power. For instance, Bayelsa State was about thirty something (position) in all national examinations. But today, Bayelsa is among the first ten. That has been achieved to a level. I will continue with it and ensure that we go higher.
“Next will be the economy. Our local economy is neither here nor there. The sitting governor has tried to bring in solutions in agriculture, trying to look at our comparative advantage and I intend to build on that. I want us to have a local economy where our people will be directly involved. Today, the number of Bayelsans involved in economic activities is low. That will be one of our policy thrusts while not forgetting the issue of security. No government can thrive and do well without security”.
For Diri, walking on Dickson legacies, will lessen the drudgery of the work, if eventually elected. Supporters of the governor, reckon with the Bayelsa International Airport which received its first commercial flight on February 14, as among those legacies. TheNiche learnt that the project which was executed at the cost of about N60 Billion, was in fulfillment of the promise by Governor Dickson, in 2012, of bringing the world to Bayelsa and vice versa. This is in addition to what they celebrate as his prudent management of the state’s resources.
Through Dickson’s televised monthly briefings on the revenue and expenditure profile of the state, he is said to have earned the admiration of many on issues of transparency and accountability.
Reports also credit his administration with giving the state’s infrastructure and social service sectors, huge uplift, in keeping with his pledge on inauguration, seven years ago.
Among the exciting areas in this consideration, is the compulsory health insurance scheme in the state, created by law and a fund into which deductions from civil servants and others who subscribe to it are paid. The state government, our reporter learnt, also supports it by putting up to five per cent of the state’s monthly Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
The education sector which has seen Model compulsory boarding schools spread across the state plus Constituency Secondary Schools and creation of Educational Development Trust Fund, aside other interventions, rank among the enduring engagements of the administration. These are aside other programmes of the government in areas of roads, housing and human development initiatives of the administration.
Diri has pledged to build on these and do more in further extending the frontiers of development in the state. On the surface, he is as good as getting the office. This informed his demand on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be an unbiased umpire and the security agencies to be professional during the election.
“We have a fight ahead of us but I don’t see our opponents as being so strong on ground to defeat the PDP. If we have a free, fair and transparent election, the APC cannot win even a councillorship election in Bayelsa State. It is all the hype about federal might by using security apparatus to intimidate or using INEC to write results.
“Our appeal is that the security agencies must be professional. INEC must remain an unbiased umpire. If there is that fair playing field, the opponents are neither here nor there to contest in this election. “
But the APC candidate is hardly a push-over. With the so-called federal might on his side, he poses a threat to the senator. The dissension in the camp of Alaibe on the outcome of the PDP primary, is also an issue, analysts believe, may cost Diri much if not properly handled before the election. Reports, during the week, indicated that the erstwhile presidential aide might be heading for the courts to challenge the primary. How this is eventually managed, may go a long way in determining or affecting Diri’s chances in the November 16 election.
