By Solomon Adams

PRESENTLY, Bayelsa State is under a situation of suspended animation characterised by eruption of violence particularly in the politically fertile Southern Ijaw Local Government Area. The December 5 and 6 2015 governorship election was, indeed, declared inconclusive following tension between the two major political parties, the APC and PDP, and the polls in the Ijaw area rescheduled for January 9, 2016. While the mutual finger-pointing war continues, the Joint Task Force which was responsible for security during the polls has alleged complicity on the part of the PDP and the state governor, Seriake Dickson in the violence that torpedoed the election.

Of particular note in various reports was the visit by the Governor Dickson to the peculiarly volatile town of Oporoma , the local government headquarters of Southern Ijaw during the election; it is claimed that the appearance of the governor at such critical moment exacerbated the tension. Closely following the chronicles of events prior to the election, it was obvious that the historical stakes and political consequences of the 2015 governorship polls in the South-South state were phenomenal ; that both Timipre Sylva of APC and Dickson of PDP were going to engage in a fiercely contested election based on profound and painful antecedents. In fact, some analysts see the Bayelsa election as besieged by surreptitious echoes of a national contest as being the home state of immediate past president Jonathan. The former Nigerian leader is said to be deeply (and justifiably) invested in the victory of PDP and Dickson. It is, however, wrong for commentators and observers to leap to the conclusion that the state which produced the former president and has been a PDP stronghold for more than a decade will ipso facto stay PDP.

There is a curious psychological deficit to such a frame of mind as it suggests that the people of Bayelsa State are exempt from the momentum and imperatives of political sociology. It would seem that Bayelsia State was being profiled as being permanently mortgaged or leased to one political party in a relationship evocative of feudalistic servitude; but this is 21st century democratic Nigeria where the citizenry are to free enter into social contract.

In Bayelsa, analysts and drum majors who are predicting a PDP victory may not be reading the political thermometer and the pulse of the people in Oporoma and elsewhere correctly.

File: A Voter being Accredited by an INEC Official at unit 18 Ward 6 Amarata, Yenegoa during the Bayelsa State Governorship Election. Photo: Nwankpa Chijioke

Undoubtedly, both candidates are worthy opponents, but Sylva has endured a remarkably long regimen of political trials and tribulation in which only a Spartan character can survive. As a former governor, he went through nullification of a 2012 gubernatorial contest and all through the judicial process before getting cleared, he has also been through tribunals examining matters of corruption and getting vindicated at the highest level of the judicial crucible; Sylva is said to be indefatigable in the pursuance of any cause he considers just irrespective of the formidable obstacle in his path.

Some of the travails he, Timipre Sylva underwent were allegedly cultivated by former president Jonathan , it would , therefore, be unimaginable for the ex-president to see his home state under the rule by the very party (APC) that defeated him at the national level and even more so to see someone he considers a bitter antagonist as the flag bearer of that party. And intensely enraging for the PDP and Jonathan in this case is the fact that Sylva was one of the founding architects of APC in Bayelsa. Perhaps, the unmatched durability of Sylvia’s courage is of a premium political asset to the electorate of Bayelsa.

But far beyond all of this, the people of the state cannot be magically shielded from the wind of change blowing across the nation; like their fellow compatriots, they are engaged in rigorous assessment of the records of those seeking their votes. The electorate who are the ultimate sovereign are disposed to raise questions relating to the catalogue of abandoned projects and several unfulfilled promises under the watch of incumbent Governor Dickson.

Of very sad note, according to reports, is the abandoned Okaka Housing Project which was almost completed under Sylva. Governor Dickson for very strange reasons neglected the project, and then commenced a Phase 3 opposite the housing project which he again abandoned. To the PDP and Governor Dickson, Bayelsa State is treated as their remote fiefdom hence the road linking the state with the rest of the country has not been paid its due attention despite the potential economic benefits.

The same style of poor economic management is symbolised in Dickson’s failure to take the necessary step to full completion and commissioning of the only ultra-modern hospital in the state. To this end, let the people of Bayelsa weigh their option between stagnation and change.

The people of the oil-producing state may be seeking a new direction in their affairs, to join efforts with Sylva whose principal resolution is to uplift Bayelsa as one of the fastest developing geo-political entity in this country, to sensibly invest the benefits of oil due to the state and simultaneously galvanise a process of diversification of the economy in line with best global ethos and practices. The road to progress in Bayelsa State will not come through political ‘militancy and thuggery’, but through the reasoned discourse and arguments that will be presented to the people and the free choice they exercise on January 9, 2016.

*Mr. Adams, a public affairs commentator, wrote from Yenogoa, Bayelsa State.