Bayelsa State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate Senator Douye Diri has intensified his mobilisation for the November 16 poll across the eigth local governments. Allen Ibiba-Harry examines his manifesto, strengths, weaknesses, and prospects and constraints of his ambition.
Since he emerged as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the November 16 governorship election in Bayelsa State, it has been a flurry of activities for Senator Douye Diri.
He has been crisscrossing the state to feel the pulse of the people, mending fences and urging a sense of renewal, preaching his gospel of prosperity and assuring the populace of a new dawn of purposeful leadership. He has literally been on a voyage of selling his political values, pragmatic revival and hope of victory.
From that momentous event at the Peace Park in Yenagoa, where a tumultuous crowd of party supporters and admirers welcomed him to the state, following the issuance of his certificate of return In Abuja, which he also presented to the people at the occasion, to the myriad of subsequent outings of significant political proportion and bonding with the people, Diri has been upbeat about being the rallying point in the PDP.
He is lucky to have such broad spectrum of adroit supporters, whose loyalty transcends political affiliation to the PDP, but a keen sense of their reality and convictions that the senator representing Bayelsa Central in the Senate is a candidate of choice for the greater interest of the state.
The PDP candidate has been effusive in his praises and commendation to the people who, he repeatedly said, were the real winners of the primary election that thrust him to the gubernatorial stage on September 3.
The crowd at the Peace Park reception which was witnessed by key leaders of the party, including the party chairman, Cleopas Moses , Speaker of the House of Assembly, Tonye Isenah, PDP BoT member, Remi Kuku and some of the aspirants who lost to him at the primary election was unanimous in their endorsement of Senator Diri even with such remarkable explanations.
In the words of the Secretary to the Government, Kemela Okara, a co-aspirant, “We all know as a party that we organised a very free, fair and credible primary election on the 3rd of September. As one family, we have voted and as one family, the man who is our choice is our brother, Senator Douye Diri. So many said it was not possible for our party to organise a primary with so many aspirants. They were speaking of all kinds of doom, but throughout the process, when we picked up our nomination forms, there was no rancor, there was no division, there was no bad blood. Everything we did was based on one objective: that the best among us should emerge.
“We knew we were going for a primary that had never happened before, we knew that as a state, we had never come to an end of a proper transition, we knew that like other states around us we had never done this before. But one thing was clear to all of us and that was that the unity of our party was sacrosanct and all the things we did was in the best interest of our brothers and sisters that make up not only Bayelsa State but the entire Ijaw speaking areas right from Ondo to Akwa Ibom State.
“ We knew that this was a litmus test and that is why we are gathered here united solidly behind our brother. So we are solidly united, there are no division amongst us, we went to a keen contest and the best man has emerged. We are solidly behind him”.
Other aspirants at the event, including Chief Benson Agadaga, Olivia Tari and David Alagoa, also endorsed the candidate and that the other aspirants who were unable to attend the reception had similarly called both Governor Seriake Dickson and the candidate to pledge their support.
A contestant, Keneibi Okoko, while congratulating Diri, noted that “after due consultations with my team, I have formally visited the winner, Senator Douye Diri, to personally congratulate him on his victory. I have also been in touch with my brother, Chief Timi Alaibe, to support our great party to success”.
Okoko clarified his position in an interview, stating: “Sometimes, if you don’t win and you have a way to help the party, do it so that whoever has won can learn from those things you suggested because no man is an island. That is why I was able to concede to Senator Douye Diri and congratulate him because in as much as I felt I should have won, he has emerged the winner. The best thing for me to do is to join hands with him and make him a better governor. Not to think of, oh I lost, I must fight him or move to another party. No.”
Okoko, who called for politics of substance rather than that of desperation added: “It must not always be about ourselves and our vision. It cannot be. The country or this state cannot move forward if we continue that way”.
The PDP candidate has subsequently taken the cause of reconciliation to other aspirants including Dr. Nimibofa Ayawei and Hon. Konbowei Benson who lost to him at the primaries. He personally visited them at their respective homes where he called for unity, a message of hope and assurance which was well received by the aspirants as they pledged their total support to work together in the interest of the party.
As charity begins at home, Senator Diri has also visited his maternal home in Ayamasa in Ekeremor Local Government Area where he was received with fanfare by the family members and the entire community. In his address, the candidate enunciated his vision for a new and prosperous Bayelsa and the inherent possibilities which, he said, would facilitate development across board and provide answers to many of the teething socio-economic issues in the state.
The people Diri of their unflinching support, stating that being their son, they would vote massively for him at the election. The situation was not different when he visited his town, Sampou, where he got a rousing welcome and prayers by the elders of the community as they gave their blessings.
In a tweet, Diri later recounted his experience: ”I thank the elders of my community, Sampou of Kolokuma/Opokuma LGA for the warm welcome and spontaneous outpouring of prayers. Nothing can be greater compared with the blessings of our fathers and the show of support for my ambition. It was indeed a moment of honour.”
Such optimism was also the rendition of the people of Amassoma when Diri visited the ancestral home of the first civilian governor of the state, the late Chief DSP Alamieyesigha, to present his vision and solicited support to actualize the vision by voting en masse for the PDP in the next election. Similar interest also necessitated his meeting with past and present councilors and many women groups which turned out to be a worthy engagement as all concerned both at Amassoma and the various political entities rose with one voice by acclaiming Senator Douye Diri’s candidature as pragmatic and best for the party ahead of the November governorship election.
Along the line, the candidate extended his visit to the family of a deceased PDP chieftain in Nembe, the late Lady Karina Inemo and attended the funeral service of the late Mrs Modupe Amaegberi, wife of the Executive Secretary of the Bayelsa State Students Loan Board. They were solemn moments when Senator Diri had to express his condolences and empathy with the two families.
The mood in Diri’s political camp was, however, enlivened by the cheering news from Abuja that the Election Petitions Tribunal had dismissed the petition filed by Festus Daumiebi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenging the election of Douye Diri as senator.
In the judgement delivered in Abuja, the tribunal held that the APC candidate could not sufficiently prove his case of being the winner of the Bayelsa Caentral senatorial election which was held on March 9, 2019.
It described the petition by Daumiebi as lacking in substance and afformed Senator Diri as duly elected.
In his reaction, Senator Diri said it was expected as the whole suit itself was baseless and frivolous.
Yet, the candidate has been forthcoming on issues of policies and development in the state. At an interactive session with reporters at the NUJ House in Yenagoa, the state capital, Diri spoke eloquently on expectations from the people, like building on Governor Seriake Dickson’s efforts in educational development, infrastructure and his massive project of economic revival which, he said, would help to create many good jobs especially for the teeming youths in the state. He hinged his economic agenda on industrialization, diversification with agriculture and aquaculture as pillars, sports and tourism. This is the essence of what he calls “Prosperity for All.”
He also spoke the relationship between the level of development in the state and revenue allocation, electricity generation and the blackout, civil service reform and the challenge of reviving sports in Bayelsa State as he promised to proffer solutions when elected governor of the state.
While he did not believe Bayelsa was getting enough from the Federal Government, which, he observed, had affected the level of development, he would want a situation where true federalism operates in the country and the respective states control their resources and pay royalties to the centre.
“If Bayelsa is given so much by the federal system, why are we having only 13 percent and then, we are crying over that 13 percent that is nowhere near the challenge of development of the state, considering our terrain and our environment, that we have 13 percent out of 100 percent given to us. We should be talking about controlling our resources and paying taxes to the Federal Government, that is the practice worldwide.
“Nobody goes to sit down with their plates at the end of every month to collect what they call federal allocation and that federal allocation is used to develop other parts of Nigeria and here we are struggling and abusing ourselves with 13 percent. So, I want to urge you to join me in the crusade for the abrogation of the Land Use Act because that is what has deprived the Niger Delta of its own wealth and if that is done, then, we can be asking ourselves how much do we have? How much have we put in, in the development of Bayelsa State.”
On the electricity situation in the state, the candidate blamed the existing laws on how a state would have to get authority from Abuja before carrying out such action like independent electricity as he held the Power Holding Company of Nigeria responsible for whatever blackout being experienced in the state. Diri, however, promised to tackle the issue headlong when elected governor as he would also give due attention to the development of sports.
He said: “The scenario in the concurrent legislative list is that the state government can also approximate power to have their own electricity but because they are all controlled from the federal , you need to go and talk to people in Abuja to do something in your state. If you want to have an independent power plant you need approval from Abuja, those are the things wrong with our federation and those were the things I stood for in the green chambers…that’s the kind of country we are Into and we must understand all of these things so that you know that the power situation is actually not from Bayelsa here but we will try to begin to get the approvals that they want us to get from the national and try to see how we can bring in independent power project the way Okilo and others did when they were governors. And I am sure even this administration was fighting to settle discussion on bringing in more independent power project, you know we are sitting on gas in Bayelsa and all the major oil companies will engage them to the point that they will support us in the state and my government will productively go into looking out how we can bring in more independent power plants and solve the problems of darkness not only in Yenagoa but also in our local government headquarters in our various communities.”
Senator Douye Diri, born on June 4th 1959 to the family of A.J.M Diri of Kalama-Owinari compound in Sampou community in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State is a man of history. A graduate of the University of Port Harcourt, Senator Diri was the founding National Organising Secretary of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), former Commissioner for Youths and Sports, former member of the House of Representatives and currently senator representing Bayelsa Central.