Bayelsa is the latest state in the Southsouth geopolitical zone inching closer to joining the All Progressives Congress (APC). In fact, the defection is concluded. The state Governor, Senator Douye Diri and almost his entire Peoples Democratic Party’s political family will soon hoist the APC’s flag at the Creek Haven, sobriquet for the Government House located at the Onopa area of Yenagoa, the state capital.
They have already taken the first step. Governor Diri translated the process from a dream to a reality when he formally announced his resignation from the PDP during the recent state executive council’s meeting. It was a bold move. All his cabinet members aligned immediately with the decision. The entire eight local government chairmen of the state joined him in dumping the party.
The Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Abraham Ingobere, who has been leading the second arm of the government since June 6, 2023, as the seventh Speaker in the Assembly’s history, was in attendance when Diri announced his resignation.
Ingobere and 13 other members of the House toed a similar path and immediately abandoned the PDP. In fact, 14 members of the PDP and two members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the House of Assembly also resigned the membership of their parties. The Bayelsa House of Assembly already has five members of the APC, who also accepted the decision of the governor.
Therefore, out of the 17 PDP lawmakers in the House, only three persons, identified as Godbless Oyinke, Ted Elemoforo and Wisdom Fafi, reportedly refused to follow the body language of the governor. They are said to be staunch loyalists of Diri’s predecessor, Henry Seriake Dickson, who is also the incumbent Senator representing the Bayelsa West Senatorial District.
Of course, as expected, Dickson and Senator Benson Agadaga, who represents Bayelsa East Senatorial District, where the former President Goodluck Jonathan hails from, held tight to the PDP. But Kombowei Benson, who represents the Bayelsa Central Senatorial District of Diri, took his action a step further. He did not just resign his membership of the PDP; he also immediately announced his defection to the APC, and his letter was read on the floor of the Senate.
Indeed, there is no need to doubt the political destination of Diri and his intimidating number of followers. They are heading for the APC, internal harmonisation to fully admit them in the party, which is currently conquering unbelievable territories, is ongoing. Before his resignation, it was gathered that Diri was asked by the national APC to inform Dr Samuel Ogbuku of his plan to join the party.
Unknown to many, Ogbuku, who is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is seen by Villa as the leader of the APC in the state. He currently holds the yam and the knife. The pioneer leader of the party and former Governor Timipre Sylva has since been displaced from his roles as the Bayelsa party leader following his failures to resolve his differences with the Presidency and the national party.
Sylva was reportedly caught pants down working against the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Sylva, who was the Minister of State for Petroleum as at the time Tinubu was the candidate of the APC was accused of joining the failed grand plot and conspiracy to frustrate the chances of the party at the poll by among other actions creating artificial petroleum scarcity the same way the former Central Bank of Nigeria’s Governor, Emefiele enabled nationwide naira scarcity through his naira redesign policy.
Therefore, Ogbuku, who has warmed himself into the hearts of the Presidency and the national party, was said to have assumed the leadership of the party in Bayelsa. Everything coming from the APC to Bayelsa reportedly passes through him. He earned the ears of the President through his performance and his unique political engagements. While Sylva has never had direct contact with the President since he assumed office, Ogbuku has maintained constant touch with Tinubu and the leadership echelon of the APC.
Without mincing words, Ogbuku holds the key to Diri’s move to the APC, and with the door already opened for him by the NDDC boss, the governor and his entourage will soon take their rightful place in the broom party. It was gathered that while Sylva has played no part in the ongoing major political event in his party, Ogbuku is said to be harmonising positions of leadership in Bayelsa APC with the governor.
After the ongoing internal harmonisation, the national APC is expected to dissolve the already factionalised Bayelsa APC and set up a technical committee which will midwife a fresh APC Congress in the state. Diri is expected to announce his defection to the APC after the dissolution, which sources said was a matter of days.
Why will Diri abandon the PDP? While some persons, especially the critics of the governor, keep asking the question, others choose to ask: why won’t he dump the PDP? In fact, there are compelling reasons the governor should follow his colleagues in the geopolitical zone, such as Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State and Pastor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State, to jump ship.
PDP is currently a sinking ship. It has been torn apart by a prolonged internal crisis, and its leaders do not seem to have a solution to the imbroglio. The leaders of the PDP, out of selfish interest, egoism and lack of personal sacrifices, allowed the empire of their party to crumble.
Those, considered the pillars of the party, who should have murdered sleep to seek an end to the crisis, are busy groping around and seeking other platforms to actualise their political ambitions in 2027.
Besides, with the party engulfed in endless legal battles, people are afraid that the party may be barred from contesting the forthcoming 2027 general election; a similar scenario played out in Rivers State against the APC in 2019.
It was gathered that Diri’s decision to join the APC was borne out of his desire to protect the political and economic interests of his state, especially as the festering PDP crisis has crept into his state. George Turnah, an ally of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Chief Nyesom Wike, has been dragging the leadership of the PDP with the governor’s camp casting anxieties and uncertainties in the state.
Even the governor captured the reason for his resignation when he declared: “Today, I have formally resigned from the PDP for very obvious reasons”. Most people believe that the governor’s veiled reference to “very obvious reasons”, was only pointing to the intractable raging dispute in the PDP that has defied all possible solutions and has rendered the party impotent, hopeless and helpless.
Undoubtedly, Diri’s resignation and his ongoing move to join the APC will affect the political trajectory of the state. Bayelsa has been governed by the PDP since 1999, when the late Diepreye Alamieyeseigha took over the mantle of leadership. It ranks as the only PDP state in the South-South that has secured the highest political position in the country under the party. It produced Dr Goodluck Jonathan first as the Vice-President and later as the President of the country.
But despite the fortunes the state enjoyed on the platform of the PDP in terms of political positions, Bayelsa remained grossly underdeveloped. Jonathan’s presidency brought no tangible development to the state.
The Senatorial roads never received significant attention; the capital city, Yenagoa, was so underdeveloped that Dickson, who was the governor for eight years, described it as a “forest capital”. The number of local government areas was not increased as it remained eight under Jonathan.
The state was so underdeveloped that even Jonathan, as a President, then had no good road to access his Otuoke village and other communities in his Ogbia Local Government Area. Dickson was so pissed with the woeful performance of Jonathan that he referred to Jonathan’s Presidency as wasted six years. While addressing his people on one of the days designated to commemorate the feats of the late Isaac Adaka Boro, a governor, Dickson said: “Ijaw wasted six years at the Presidency”.
But observers discovered that some form of tangible development has crept into the state since Diri’s second term, following the economic policies of the APC national government led by President Tinubu. Tinubu has also incorporated inclusivity and political engagement of stakeholders in his government, dealing fairly with all the governors in terms of revenue and resource redistribution.
With more money accruing to the governors, Diri has been able to confront the Senatorial roads from all fronts; build new Yenagoa city and take advantage of the decentralisation of the power sector by Tinubu to embark on an ambitious 24-hour power generation project through turbines, among others.
Therefore, with his administrative style of accommodating all interests, Tinubu is said to have made the APC attractive to all, especially the governors.
In fact, Diri’s resignation from the PDP has dealt a deadly blow to the rumoured plot to enrol Jonathan into the forthcoming presidential race. There is no doubt that Jonathan’s popularity has waned since he left power in 2015 and preferred his global ambassadorial peace roles to taking an active part in politics.
With no home political support base, general perceptions of his failures when he was the President, as well as Diri’s looming move to join Tinubu in the APC, it becomes a political suicide to venture into any presidential electoral contest.
To avoid embarrassment, such a move could tarnish his image, many well-meaning leaders from his state have been calling on him to bury the dream. Immediately after Diri dumped the PDP, a former member of the Federal House of Representatives, Israel Sunny-Goli, told Jonathan to bury the thought.
He said: “People have been speculating about him contesting the next election. I believe Jonathan will not make the mistake of contesting for the 2027 elections as speculated by political jobbers because the odds are against him. “
Jonathan’s rumoured ambition was reportedly said to be the reason why High Chief Government Ekpomoupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, visited him in Yenagoa at the weekend. Though Jonathan said the visit of Tompolo, who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Tantita Security Services Limited (TSSL) in charge of pipeline surveillance contract in the Niger Delta, was to discuss some issues arising from the operations of the company, it was gathered that Tompolo came to give him reasons why he should not think of returning to the Villa much less contesting against Tinubu.
Besides, Diri’s dumping of PDP will soon turn the state into an APC-controlled state, with whatever is left in the PDP and other parties acting as the opposition. Hitherto, the APC was the only party providing opposition in the state. Other parties have been the appendage of the ruling PDP. Diri’s movement to the APC will temporarily destroy every form of opposition in the state, pending their regrouping in another party.
If the PDP survives the legal battle in court and defeats Wike’s faction, then the likes of Dickson and others still left in the PDP may rebuild it, while the faction loyal to Wike’s group may decide to join Diri in the APC, making the party numerically stronger. But if the PDP loses to Wike’s faction, Dickson and others may decide to join any other party, likely the African Democratic Congress (ADC) that former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar may choose as his political platform for the 2027 Presidential election.
Apart from the foregoing, Diri’s looming defection will nearly complete the political unification of the Southsouth geopolitical zone ahead of the 2027 general election. With Edo, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Delta, and now Bayelsa states in one APC, it was gathered that the process of bringing the Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, to the broom party has commenced. Already, 20 out of the 23 local government areas in Rivers are under the administration of the APC. Observers believe that the plan to make the zone speak in one voice in the 2027 election is a done deal.
Beyond the one-party rhetoric of Dickson as his reason for criticising Diri’s move, it was gathered that the former Governor believes that his political future will be more guaranteed as an opposition leader in the state. Dickson was a master of opposition politics in the state before he joined the PDP, and former President Jonathan foisted him on the people as their governor.
Already, his ambition to remain in the Senate is being threatened by the zoning formula in his senatorial district, which comprises Sagbama and Ekeremor local government areas, and any attempt to join the governor in APC amidst many contending interests may finally bury the ambition.
In fact, the general acceptance of Diri’s dumping of the PDP and his looming move to the APC showed that the governor did his homework well. He consulted widely. The slogan of most political bigwigs in the state, such as a former member of the House of Representatives, Warman Ogoriba, is “where the governor go, we will go”.
Both factions of the PDP in the state have since congratulated him. The Wike’s faction, controlled by George Turnah, bemoaned the development but accepted the resignation of Diri, saying the move was guaranteed by the fundamental human rights enshrined in the constitution. Turnah immediately summoned a meeting of members of the PDP caretaker committee in the state.
The other faction of the PDP, led by its state Chairman, Solomon Agwanana, immediately called an emergency meeting of its state executive committee and accepted the resignation of Diri. The committee acknowledged the democratic credentials of Diri, but affirmed its loyalty to the ideals of the party, insisting that its structures across the state were intact.
A former President, Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide, Engr. Udengs Eradiri, who welcomed the resignation of Diri from PDP and his moves to join the APC, warned against sidelining Sylva from the process.
Eradiri, who is also a chieftain of the APC in Bayelsa, appealed to Diri to first call a stakeholders’ meeting and use his influence and position as a governor to resolve the internal crisis rocking the APC in the state.
The former Commissioner for Youths and later Environment in Bayelsa, specifically asked Diri to unite the camps of former Governor Timipre Sylva and the Minister of State for Petroleum, Heineken Lokpobiri.
Eradiri warned Diri against succumbing to any pressure to sideline Sylva, the pioneer leader of the APC in Bayelsa, positing that leaving out the former governor in the ongoing negotiations would be counterproductive.
He said Diri was expected to bring his peaceful demeanour to the APC and to manage the differences in the party the same way he worked amicably with all the interests in the PDP.
Addressing the governor, Eradiri said: “I believe that your coming to APC is to come and also manage this emotion to the point where we will have one strong party because the day you join the APC, you will become the leader by the Constitution of the party.
“Former Governor Sylva has contributed immensely to the development of APC. All those people throwing stones at Sylva today were not there when Sylva was toiling and building this party. We were in the PDP, and we fought him to ensure that we had our way. But that strengthens the APC we have in the state today.
“Heineken Lokpobiri became minister, and he allowed these people to push him around, and he wants to assert leadership. It won’t work. There must be seeming respect for the man who had toiled and suffered for the foundation of this party. Sylva has supported a lot of people, including the Minister. You can’t just push him aside.
“We expect that you bring your peaceful demeanour to come and override these interests and lead it as a peaceful house. Bayelsa has a lot of benefits to derive from the APC if we are a strong, united family.
“We don’t want a situation where you come in and these individuals will begin to push you on one side to undermine Sylva and others, who hold the structure of the party. I am appealing to you to call a stakeholders’ meeting, engage Sylva, the Minister and bring this party together before your formal defection”.
