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By Oweigha Julius
This is not about Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities but about two Governorship primaries ahead of the November 11th governorship race to Creek Haven and the candidates thrown up by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), incumbent governor, Senator Douye Diri and the All Progressive Congress ,Former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva.
Though, other political parties such as the Labour Party (LP), the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) have produced their own flagbearers, candidates of PDP and that of APC remain the two top contenders.
The forthcoming election means so much to the people and so, will base their support or otherwise on the capacity and antecedents of the two leading candidates on offices held previously.
The people will equally ask them, how well have the candidates supported or otherwise compromised the Peace, security and development of the people?
Given the pedigree possessed by the PDP and the APC, and of course the candidates, the people are already judging the duo of Governor Douye Diri and Chief Timipre Sylva from position of service in the last three years.
While Chief Timipre Sylva’s areas of assessment is becoming a mountain to climb with misgivings being expressed over his decision to vie for the Governorship seat after years of Eldorado at the Federal Level, and the protracted protest against his emergence, Governor Douye Diri’s performance in office in the last three years is visible to the electorate and the generality of the people of the State.
It was then no surprising that Governor Douye Diri emerged the sole candidate in the Governorship primaries held in the state and attended by all stakeholders of the PDP including the immediate past Governor and Senator representing Bayelsa West Senatorial district, Senator Henry Seriake Dickson.
It was clear enough that Senator Diri emerged from a very transparent PDP Primaries conducted by a panel headed by Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State.
The same cannot be said of the emergence of Sylva from the disputed Governorship primaries of which process is now being challenged by at least two of the APC aspirants. David Lyon and Festus Daumiebi described the APC primaries as a fraud and that no election held in any ward as prescribed for direct primaries. For APC under Sylva, it’s all about controversy.
They have both rejected the outcome of the election, alleging that the process was marred with irregularities and compromise.
Indeed, a tale of two primaries; one conducted with no rancour and the other marred with irregularities. One united all PDP members and the other divided the party with impunity.
APC in Bayelsa State remains under the sole ownership of Timipre Sylva and his machinations are just to hold firmly on to the party structures.
The people of Bayelsa are not with him on this failed governorship journey.
A simple governorship primaries could not be conducted in a free and fair manner. What manner of leader is that.
For the people, the message is, Not Again and have rejected Timipre Sylva!
Oweigha Julius is a Yenagoa based public commentator
