YOUR Excellency, allow me to congratulate you on the 200th session of the Bayelsa State Executive Council. It marked a defining moment for making definite declarations. Thirty years ago, no one would have imagined that the cabinet of an oil producing state called Bayelsa would convene two hundred times, and you would be presiding at the helm of affairs. Time has proven that it is your portion, and the least you can do is to live up to expectation.
I am taken by the confidence of your pronouncements, and the authority behind your words. In particular, I am glad that you gave a frontal response to a matter of topical interest. I have been trying to understand what Donald Duke meant when he described you recently as a local champion. At first, it sounded to me like beer parlour babble, and I wondered if you guys ever shared beer before, but I know you don’t drink beer, and I doubt if Donald Duke does.
Then it occurred to me that perhaps he was referring to your heritage as an Ijaw man, and your exploits as an agile wrestler in your younger days, long before you became Governor. But where was Donald Duke when you were cultivating your skills in Sampou, and how could he know you at that time? Again, it occurred to me that he might have been comparing you, in a subtle way, to Daniel Igali, the famous Olympic wrestling champion who still holds his unassailable place as your hardworking Commissioner for Sports.
Donald Duke might mean that, compared to Igali, you are a local champion. But then, we are not even talking about wrestling here. We are talking about public etiquette and diplomatic use of language by someone who has held high office in times past, and is currently campaigning for relevance in times present. On both scores, Donald Duke fell below par. He should have known better than to dismiss you with a careless backhand as one anonymous fellow.
He should have known better than to make such pejorative references to my Governor. He had no business trying to diminish a man who has served Nigeria in the House of Representatives, a man who still goes by the appellation of a distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a man who occupies office as the incumbent Governor of Bayelsa State. Donald Duke deserves all the flack that has been thrown in his face since his intemperate utterance.
Clearly, he did not get his bearings right. In my honest opinion, Your Excellency, if anyone has a right to speak about the coastal road under construction, you do, precisely because Bayelsa holds the Nigerian coastline in place. As a matter of fact, Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State should be a consultant to the project in question, given that his credentials in the construction of roads and bridges over swampland has come as a revelation. It stands him out in a position of distinction, with specific regard to fulfilling the dreams of the founding fathers of Bayelsa for dependable senatorial roads that traverse all of the state.
I can vouch for that, Your Excellency. You have done what Alamieyeseigha could not do. You have done what Jonathan could not do. You have done what Sylva could not do, and you have done what Dickson could not do. That’s the unique achievement of your government. You have done what your predecessors could not do. It is the singular plus for which your government would be remembered in the annals of our local history, long after you have left office.
In the enduring eyes of history, your immediate predecessor, Dickson, is remembered for building the only overhead bridge in the state capital and constructing the Bayelsa airport. Sylva is remembered for opening up the state capital with internal roads. Alamieyeseigha is remembered for establishing the first university in Bayelsa, for constructing the major roads in the state capital, and for his resource control advocacy. Even more remarkably, Goodluck Jonathan is remembered for rising from the office of Deputy Governor to becoming the first President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to emerge from the Niger Delta.
That is the sum of the Bayelsa story in the last thirty years across a scoreboard of five sons of the soil. Donald Duke needs to have this profile in view, take into account the trophies of Bayelsa at home and abroad, understand the uses and abuses of the expression local champion, and hold his peace. How local can the Ogoja boy get? What makes him think that Tinapa is not local to Obudu hills? I still wonder.
What amazes me in this whole skit is that the untoward verbiage is coming from a son of the Niger Delta himself who has served as Governor of Cross Rivers State. Here we are talking about the development of the Niger Delta, and the kettle in Calabar is calling the pot in Yenagoa black. Come to think of it, how did Donald Duke become Governor of Cross Rivers State, if he is not a local champion in his own right?
Your declaration at the two hundredth session of the Bayelsa cabinet is timely. A jester should be called by his name when he shows himself to be one. Stay committed to the aspirations of the swamp dwellers, Your Excellency. Be true to the ideals of the grassroot denizens. It takes a local champion to overcome the tribulations of a local people whose bounties continue to feed the nation. Continue to do what is right in the eyes of God, even if it means answering the prayers of the dispossessed, like that retired civil servant denied of his hard-earned portion.
As for Donald Duke, I have no doubt that, one of these days, his namesake in America, Donald Trump, will call him nothing but a local champion in search of local champions. Have a jolly good day, Your Excellency.
