Allow me to wish you a happy birthday in arrears, Your Excellency. A few days ago, I came across a portrait of you as a young man, and could not help but wonder how time flies. Looking at a younger version of you from many years ago, it is worth thanking God that you turned 66 years old this month. I couldn’t show up at your anniversary party only because I was not invited. Even so, I wish you many more jolly good years to come.
I have missed chatting with you, Your Excellency. How are you this morning, in body and in spirit? How is your beloved family? Welcome to a brand new day. You remind me of the days when you used to serve as Commissioner for Sports under the governorship of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. You remind me of your resolve to cultivate the youth for a future harvest of prosperity. Looking at this picture of you, in fact, nobody would have guessed that this handsome guy would be the first son of Bayelsa State to undertake the construction of a 25,000 capacity stadium in Yenagoa, the state capital.
That’s a gargantuan project, Your Excellency, and it will take quantum billions to build. But, then, you are resolved that our state should host the next National Sports Festival in Yenagoa before you leave office as Governor in 2028. You repeated that sentiment at the recently concluded edition of the festival in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, when you went to cheer Team Bayelsa to victory with a promise to host them to a befitting banquet, if they returned with an impressive haul of medals. You have already counted the new stadium as one of your legacy projects. That’s a noble aspiration, come to think of it.
I have a strong feeling that you conceived of the idea when retired Navy Captain Omoniyi Caleb Olubolade – God rest his soul – celebrated his 70th birthday anniversary in Yenagoa on the last day of November 2024. He would have been the perfect guest of honour at the formal commissioning ceremony of our new stadium. Alas, he would not be there three years from now to enjoy the honour.
What a loss. He was so proud of the sports complex he built, Your Excellency, and you know it. I know it too, in my official capacity as his biographer. He felt fulfilled that the sports complex he constructed almost 28 years ago served six successive governments, including yours. That, in fact, remains his signature project.
Anyway, nobody would have guessed, many years ago, that you would be the hard-working son of Bayelsa who would connect Yenagoa, our state capital, with the three senatorial districts by road. None of your predecessors could think of building a nine-storey high secretariat complex that is bound to dwarf our pioneer governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha’s best effort at providing office space for l workers in the state.
It is a welcome idea. It is bound to change the skyscape of Yenagoa. My only prayer is that the new secretariat can be maintained more than the two-storey structure Alamieyeseigha built, and I hope that Mai-Rua, the itenerant water merchant, will not be there to convey water in jerry cans to the ninth floor of the new secretariat. That would be utterly embarrassing, to say the least.
In many ways, I have been holding brief for your government, Your Excellency. I have been making excuses on your behalf. Many respondents I chatted ith tend to think that my epistles get to your attention, one way or the other. They wonder why the state government is taking so long to repair internal roads in the capital, four months into your fifth anniversary in office. I keep telling them that it is on your priority agenda, and that you will get there soon.
Please don’t disappoint me, Your Excellency. Repair the bad roads. Even my car is off the road now because it ran into a mammoth pothole and shuddered into silence. Do well to cover the potholes on every single internal road in Yenagoa and bring some dignity to your government. Nothing is more dignifying than getting down to do what people say you cannot do. If they say you cannot provide light, give them light. If they say your government cannot reticulate water into every home in Yenagoa, prove them wrong.
Many roadside commentators are saying that you are reluctant to repair internal roads because they were built by an opposition government. Guess what I told them? I told them that you are not like that. You are a good man. You don’t hold political grudges over and above the provision of basic infrastructure. Governor Douye Diri is a reasonable man. He believes in service to the people. He is sensitive to public opinion, and he will do it. He will cover all 6,666 potholes in Yenagoa. That is what I keep telling them every day.
I tell them that you are a performer, approximating a miracle worker. Only recently, you gave evidence of your performance by driving 25 kilometers on the new road leading from Nembe to Brass. Who would have thought that anyone would drive on a tarred road to Kiberi, a mangrove settlement on the outskirts of Nembe, and board a boat from there to Twon-Brass, cutting travel time by one-third? You did it, rerecognising the economic viability of opening up the eastern flank of the state to development. I have a jolly good reason to give you a big thumbs-up in that regard. Go ahead. Finish the road and prove the naysayers wrong.
I cannot close this conversation, Your Excellency, without telling you that I had cause to wonder about my identity recently. Was I no longer a son of Bayelsa? Am I laying claim to false credentials? Is it true that, once upon a time, I used to be speech writer to two Governors, one of whom became the President of Nigeria? Did I, or did I not, edit the state newspaper for four years? Was the identity card given to me as a pioneer civil servant of Bayelsa State a fake one? If not, why would anyone question what a court of competent jurisdiction has verified after five years of litigation?
These questions came to me when I received notice that the state government had appealed against the ruling of the Industrial Court, given in my favour one-and-a-half years ago. I told my wife that you were not aware of this latest development, and she said it was possible.
As a noble daughter of Kolokuma-Opokuma in her own right, she argued that her brethren are men of their words. When they make a promise, they keep it. She was referring, of course, to my meeting with you on 17 October 2024, and your directive that I should bring a one-page letter for you to endorse.
Besides, I have it on good authority that many respectable and influential opinion leaders are calling on you to intervene in your capacity as a governor with an executive fiat, to withdraw the appeal against the ruling of the court, and sort out the embattled civil servant. Let me add my voice to that resounding call, Your Excellency.
Fifteen years is a long time for a man to endure deprivation. Even Jacob laboured in the vineyard of Laban for 14 years before he could marry Rachel. The labourer deserves his wages, says the Scripture. Consider the faithful devotion of this particular civil servant in the early years of Bayelsa State. Consider the record of performance established by the same civil servant in question, in and out of government. More than anything else, consider the children.
I couldn’t help but commend you for giving support to two small scale business proprietors recently, amounting to over N700 million, one earning N500 million, and the other over N200 million. Government is well advised to encourage local enterprise, yes. The gesture proves you to be blessed with what Shakespeare calls “the milk of human kindness”.
You do have a sense of sympathy, a good measure of compassion and fellow-feeling. For that reason, I enjoin you to remember this son of Bayelsa who has been denied his pay 15. His portion is not up to N100 million naira. It is not beyond you to reconsider your objection to the ruling of the court and act in his favour, if only for the sake of the children. Ultimately, I enjoin you to remember that, in the famous words of Dr Patience Goodluck Jonathan, ‘there is God’.
