The Coming Anarchy in Bayelsa State: The Governor’s Response

This rejoinder to his article was forwarded to us by Sabella Abidde.

By Ebimo Amungo

Hello Sabella,

I was on the road to Abuja when I sent you my last mail through my Blackberry.

Anyway I think I can let you in on the governor’s thinking about the issue of a substantive Chief Judge for the state.

Frankly Gov. Timipre Sylva thinks the Yenagoa chapter of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, is being thuggish and small minded in insisting that Margaret Akpomiemie, the acting chief judge, be removed. I have heard him argue that the lady has been a Bayelsan as long as any person (11years) as she relocated to the state immediately the state was created. She gave her best years to the service of the state, paid taxes in the state and served justice to the people of the state with nobody mentioning then that she is from Delta state.

Gov. Sylva feels that the lawyers in the NBA are acting against the Nigerian constitution which guarantees every Nigerian’s right to live and work in any part of the country. Sabella, you live and work in America where first generation Nigerians has been elected mayors of cities and where a Kenyan decent might soon be elected president.

The governor insists that Bayelsa state must be accommodating to all for her to grow. Please note — Kate Abiri is only a recent excuse used by the NBA. The NBA had been against Akpomiemie for a long time.

Maybe, soon, the academic staff union of the Niger Delta University in Amassoma will insist that only Bayelsans should lecture at the university. That is not the way to go.

The NBA boycotting the courts over the matter is laughable and regrettable. Be assured though that the governor will make a pronouncement on the matter soon.

About Alamieyeseigha, Doukoru and Jonathan, your sources failed to tell you how specifically each has held the governor hostage. Dr. Edmond Doukoru is the governor’s mentor and ‘father.’ He is an accomplished man no matter how you look at it. His demands from the governor are mundane. I have heard the governor tell people how lucky he is to have a godfather who asks nothing of him.

As for Vice President Jonathan, please remember that he is the immediate past governor of the state and the political leader of the south-south. The governor is very respectful of the vice president, but more than that, the vice president is very respectful of himself and his office and carries himself as the leader he is — both in actions and deeds. There is mutual respect and friendship between Gov. Timipre Sylva and Vice President Goodluck Jonathan.

As for former Gov. DSP Alamieyeseigha, I am left at a loss as to how he can be said to be bothering the governor. Since returning to the state, Alams has conducted himself as an exemplary statesman lending his hand and advice to the governor on issues relating to peace and security in the state.

That Bayelsa state is today the most peaceful state in the Niger Delta and indeed the country is as much the effort of the governor as well as people like the vice president and Alams and other political stakeholders in the state including Chief Timi Alaibe and Sen. Brigidi who are lending their support to the governor.

Well Sabella, you seem to have a lot of sources who are keeping up to date on what is happening in Bayelsa State, but I wonder if your sources told you that there is almost uninterrupted power supply in Yenagoa these days, and that for the first time since the creation of the state the residents of Yenagoa celebrated Christmas with electricity.

I wonder also if your sources have told you that Yenagoa today is abuzz with construction of roads, specifically 46 road projects are now on in the state. Your sources should have let you know that Gov. Timipre Sylva’s desire to develop our human capital has made him approve scholarship for training abroad for over 100 Bayelsans for PhD programs, and many more for Masters Programs. 250 youths are about to leave for India for ICT programs and 11 youths for helicopter piloting training program in Florida, USA.

That is besides the tremendous effort Gov. Timipre Sylva put in to get almost all the programs offered in the Niger Delta University, especially the Law and Medical programs, scale through a grueling accreditation audit carried out by the Nigerian Universities Commission last November.

Did your sources mention to you that a campus of the Nigerian Law School has been sited in Yenagoa because of the efforts of Gov. Timipre Sylva? The campus is billed to take off in September 2008.

Sabella, your sources should have told you of the over 300 hectares of land that have been cleared in the centre of Yenagoa to host the Central Business District in conformity with the Yenagoa Master Plan and in a bid to turn the city into a modern Cosmo polis.

Sabella, rather than the anarchy you fear coming to your state, I state boldly that we have broken into a golden age of peace and development. Let me restate once again. “BAYELSA TODAY WILL SURPRISE YOU.”

Do have a good day.

Ebimo Amungo

Chief Press Secretary

To Governor Timipre Sylva