The title of this write-up may seem very intriguing and strange, but it is one notty issue that has continued to constitute constipation in the stomach of many Bayelsa people.
Like the Biblical story of the struggle for supremacy between Esau and Jacob in the womb of their mother, Madam Rebecca, one has been contending with how to commit the concept of who is a true Bayelsan or in search of a true Bayelsan to writing. The question of who is a true Bayelsan has become very pertinent in the development process of the state.
The history of the creation of Bayelsa State is never in doubt as a culmination of several years of dreams and struggle.
The struggle is not essentially to have a state alone but to have a homogenous Ijaw state in fulfillment of the long sought dream of the founding fathers.
One could recall the politics of sitting the headquarters which almost aborted the dream of the creation of the state, when every prominent Ijaw man of Bayelsa extraction wanted the capital to be at his or her backyard, but God in his infinite mercy and wisdom saw us through the birth of the historic baby called Bayelsa State.
For record purpose, like a pregnancy that was near delivery, when the writing on the wall became clear that Bayelsa was about to be delivered, Late Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu warned the Late Head of State, General Sani Abacha against the creation of the State, stating that it would amount to releasing the lion out of the cage. Late General Sani Abacha defied the warning and went ahead to announce the creation of Bayelsa State.
One was not surprised at Ojukwu’s reported opposition to the creation of the state. The history of the Ijaws have been replete with struggle for a common identity and resistance against oppression. The Ijaws have been in the forefront of the struggle for Niger Delta republic and the first ethnic group to take up arms against the Federal Government led by the legend of the struggle, Late Isaac Boro in what is referred to as the Twelve-Day Revolution.
Interestingly, the state was not only created fourteen years later, providence smiled on the people when a worthy son of the land, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan became the fifth democratically elected president of Nigeria and the most populous nation in Africa.
President Goodluck Jonathan’s ascension to power does not only mark the climax of the dream of the ordinary Ijaw man or woman but also marks the actualization of the salty sweats of our heroes of democracy. It also marks the coming to pass the prophetic statement of the best president Nigeria never had, Late Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo of blessed memory who prophesied years back that the enthronement of an egalitarian society will throw forth an Ijaw man as president of Nigeria. Just the same way Late Afro-American Human Right Activist Martin Luther King Junior dreamt of equal opportunities for all race in America. That dream came to reality when Barack Obama was elected president of the United States of America.
The emergence of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as President of Nigeria is obviously the handiwork of God and the fulfillment of that prophesy. That was why, apart from the 1993 annulled election of Chief M.K.O Abiola, the 2011 presidential election in Nigeria will go down in history as one election which Nigerians buried their ethno-religious persuasions to exercise their franchise by collectively queuing behind the son of a canoe carver from the creek of Niger Delta to become the president of Nigeria. This is a pan Nigerian mandate that no other Nigerian has enjoyed except Late Chief M.K.O Abiola. This is no doubt a no mean magnimity that will remain ever green in the sands of time and above all grateful to God and the Nigerian electorates.
But back home in Bayelsa, there have been a lot of contending issues that have become a virus that needs a surgical attention. This is the issue of core Ijaw and non core Ijaw in the geo-political configuration of Bayelsa State, whereby some group of persons claim to be more Ijaws than the others in the quest for survival particularly a state that pride itself as homogenous Ijaw State.
The same ethnic garments that have bedeviled the Nigerian politics and development in general have crept into the political fabrics of Bayelsa State. It may interest many Nigerians that the first opposition against the nomination of President Goodluck Jonathan immediately he was announced as running mate to Late President Musa Yar’Adua came from Bayelsa State. This is not a cheering news.
Some Bayelsa Ijaw Youth Council Leaders (IYC) protested against the nomination. These group of persons made it clear in a full page advertorial in ThisDay Newspaper, that president Goodluck Jonatha was not the choice of the Ijaw People.
The question again arose; who is the true Ijaw man? Or who is the true Bayelsa man? Is the question of who is a true Bayelsa man determined by birth through the red blood or through the white blood or through the blue blood? One thing is clear, some people are still wearing the thinking cap of the medieval era when a particular group of persons consider themselves of having the divine right of rulership to produce a governor or any other political office in the state. Ironically, the very people that oppose President Jonathan from Bayelsa State are the beneficiaries of his administration.
Sadly, the same characters have been importing the same sentiments over their definition of a true Ijaw man. It became so expedient that one was compelled to flip through a book, History of the Niger Delta by Ebiegberi J. Alagoa where the history of the Ijaw people is succinctly captured.
Having read that book, one could not resist the conclusion that the Ijaw man is bound by a common source of history rather than a common dialect; whether it is the Agadagbabou account or the Olodiama account or the Benin account or even the Ille-Ife account. What matters is that the Ijaw people share a common history of culture and a life of struggle. So one cannot just imagine the sentiment or the fuss about core Ijaw and non core Ijaw or the question of who is a true Bayelsan. Perhaps we may resort to hiring the services of a spiritual surgeon to unravel the question of who is a true Bayelsan, but that will be very ridiculous.
The truth, however, must be told that this unnecessary sentiment has become a dangerous virus that must be quickly nipped in the bud. If this is not done and allowed to fester, then, we do not need a prophet to tell us about the impending implosion.
This is where some of us are waiting to welcome President Jonathan and express our appreciation for giving us Governor Seriake Dickson who has put in place visible actions in eradicating that virus of discord. Bayelsans have been united more than ever before under his administration and as has given Bayelsa a new meaning as a people bound by a common history and destiny where everybody has the right to aspire to the highest office of the state whether you are a fisherman son by birth or a carpenter son or a president son, where everybody enjoys equal rights and freedom. This has become one of the cardinal achievements of the countryman governor.
One could recall, when Governor Seriake Dickson announced his intention to contest for the governorship election in 2011, the scores of opposition came from the governor’s senatorial district just the same way some Bayelsans did to President Jonathan in 2007. Today, massive development has engulfed the state which has shut up all the mouths of cynics.
A cursory look at the development profile of the state indicate that even the critics of the administration are marveled at the spate of transformation.
For example, in the area of road construction, Bayelsans saw for the first time in the history of the state the dualization of virtually all major and minor roads.
The popular hospital road which used to be a one-way narrow path has been fully dualised, with all the aesthetic beauty of street lights.
The construction of the first flyover in the heart of the state capital has become a cynosure, such that people who visited the state three years ago and back to the state are wondering if it was the same Bayelsa that was very rural in nature.
According to one Nnaji Amaechi, “Honestly I missed my way in Yenagoa, because of the structures I saw, I couldn’t believe it. Biko, the governor is trying Yenagoa has changed”.
The three senatorial roads under construction has become one of the selling points of the Dickson administration. These roads which are Federal government project had been in the drawing board for over forty years, until the state government breathed life into the project with a whooping life-line of N3 billion naira to facilitate early completion of the road for quick access to the hinterland of a state that is 75 percent marine. In the area of traditional rulership, he has given the natural rulers a pride of place by building a state-of-the-arte Traditional Rulers Council secretariat which has become a tourism site to behold. Until now the secretariat was like a makeshift structure made for tax collectors of old.
Another project that is critical to the economic concerns of the state is the construction of an airport at Amasoma, near the state-owned Niger Delta University. This project which has reached advanced stage will make Bayelsa the hub of commercial activities and investors particularly a state that is ranked high in the list of oil producing states in Nigeria and regarded as the heartbeat of the oil rich Niger Delta.
This is being complemented by the construction of a deep seaport at Agge in Sagbama Local Government Area of the state. Many people believe that the take-off of a seaport in a marine state like Bayelsa is long overdue. This is where lies the enthusiasm by a lot of people in the state such that many people have added “Mr. Infrastructure” as the governor’s middle name.
Moreover, in spite of the paucity of fund, he has been able to confront the plethora of development challenges facing the state. The true spirit of Ijaw nationalism runs through his veins and the entire gamut of his development architecture. As a matter of fact, he has given a new meaning to the question of who is a true Bayelsan. He has simply defined it in his development agenda as a people who have taken the bull by the horn to address the problems confronting them and reposition their image in the world map.
It is only a man with a character of ingratitude and sheer wickedness that will pretend not to see where the state was and where the state is, given the massive infrastructure that is dotted all over the state within the short period the governor has presided over the affairs of the state. This is indeed, how a true Bayelsan ought to be without the anachronistic sentiments of core Ijaw and non core Ijaw.
The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, should not lose sight of the development credentials of Governor Dickson who has restored the lost glory and pride of the creation of Bayelsa State.
This is where the PDP should capitalize on this shining testimony of good governance by ensuring that Governor Dickson continues the good work in Bayelsa State in the spirit of continuity and stability of the polity.
For the ordinary people of Bayelsa State the coming of Governor Seriake Dickson marks the high point in the history of the State as the triumphant entry of a man who came, saw and conquered the years of arrested development in the state.
