By Samuel Oyadongha & Emem Ido

THE race to the exalted Creek Haven, the  seat of power of Bayelsa State government, certainly favours the incumbent governor, Henry Seriake Dickson of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

If the flurry of endorsements from the party hierarchy that have come his way in the last couple of days is anything to go by, it is as good as saying the party ticket is already a done deal for the Toru Orua born politician.

Reuben Okoya, a protégé of former President Goodluck Jonathan rumoured to have been the latter’s anointed candidate to govern the state if Jonathan had won the last presidential poll last Wednesday withdrew from the  race. The action was  indicative of the former president’s support  for the governor.

Commanding height

The PDP having been at the commanding height of affairs in the last 16 years in the riverine state,  has a strong presence in the 105 wards of the state.

The party controls the eight local government council areas as well as 21 of the 24 members of the state House of Assembly.

The governor by virtue of coming from the ruling party,  has the advantage of a large assemblage of political appointees who will work for him.

To some party members, the  election is essentially a PDP versus APC or ‘we and them’ contest with many indigenes seeing the election as another opportunity by the political rivals of the Ijaw nation to again humiliate the race after sending their most famous son out of the Presidential Villa.

Dickson before his surprise emergence as governor in 2012 had been chairman of the state chapter of Alliance for Democracy, former state Attorney General and House of Representative member. He essentially rode to power on the goodwill of the power brokers in Abuja and the state.

He was like the proverbial figure whose palm kernel was cracked  by benevolent spirits. With Sylva ousted from office through the judiciary and barred from seeking re-election by the Abuja forces, Dickson went ahead to become the fourth elected civilian governor of the oil rich state.

Dickson came on board at a period when governance in the state was at its lowest ebb, with the people disillusioned with the sorry state of underdevelopment.

Conscious of the mood of the state, he was able to play on their psyche as he took the sobriquet:  “Countryman Governor” and “Talk Na do Governor”, ostensibly to endear himself to the people and garner support and goodwill from the grassroots.

He wanted them to see him as one of their own, having come from an obscure background. Dickson immediately swung to work on assumption of office, and within a space of two years; the state became a huge construction site, with various infrastructural projects ranging from roads, public buildings among others littering the state.

Dickson’s enthusiasm for development in his first two years  greatly endeared him to the people.

To assert himself, he capitalised on the shortcomings of his predecessor. First, he sent packing the infamous security outfit codenamed “Operation Famou Tangbe” known for its notoriety and alleged extra-judicial killings and alleged state-sponsored terrorism and replaced it with a more people friendly “Operation Doo Akpoo”.

Landmark projects

Similarly, he stepped up the construction of the three senatorial roads, landmark projects which were started by former President Goodluck Jonathan when he was governor of the state but almost left abandoned by Timipre Sylva. Today, some communities which hitherto could not be reached by road are now motorable.

To his credit, Dickson has also tackled the inefficient civil service with the introduction of clocking aimed at checking the menace of ghost workers and the culture of absenteeism, a development that has helped reduced the state wage bill.

Though the odds favour Dickson as the incumbent governor, he needs to do more to convince the people on why he should be re-elected given the public perception of his stringent fiscal policies.