BAYELSA APC: FACTION OR NO FACTION?

BAYELSA APC: FACTION OR NO FACTION? 

Mum would have been my response to the mischief makers desperately courting attention, by laying claims to something that exists only in the figment of their warped imagination. But allowing falsehood to sail on, unchallenged, could only give it a semblance of truth in the court of undiscerning public. 

It smacks of outright mischief, for anyone to lay claims to being the leader of a faction of the Bayelsa state chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC. There is no modicum of truth in that claim. Anyone masquerading as a leader of any such faction or any group of persons parading themselves as executive members of a faction of the Bayelsa state, APC, are simply delusional!

For the records, the Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources for state, H.E Chief Timipre remains the leader of the party, while Jothan Amos and Eng. Alabo Martins are the caretaker and extraordinary committee chairman and Secretary of the party, respectively.  

With the above stated, let me delve into some the preposterous and unfounded allegations levelled against the Honourable Minister of state, Petroleum Resources, His Excellency, Chief Timipre Sylva, with intense asperity. According to these proponents of mischief, Sylva is engaged in anti-party activities. Really? On what basis really? Simply on account of having a cordial relationship with the Executive Governor of Bayelsa state, Senator Douye Diri! This exposes the profundity of their mischievous enterprise.

Should any sane Bayelsan at this point in time be canvassing for an acrimonious relationship between Sylva and Douye Diri? There’s a time to politick and there’s also a time for governance. We're well past the time of politick, it is time to govern. A development-focused governance requires all available hands on the plough. For the love of the state and it’s development, a synergy is required between the two illustrious sons of the state. How does this translate into anti-party? This is a clear case of giving a dog a bad name in order to have it hung. 

On the contrary, those hobnobbing with external forces to create a division in the party, by misinforming the public of a pseudo faction of the party, are the ones engaging in anti-party activities. 

Another frivolous claim from these folks is that, Sylva has channelled all the lucrative appointments to his Brass-Nembe people. This is really a sad commentary. A most unfortunate assertion. What makes it sad, is the ethnic dimension these desperate lots have employed, to achieve their nefarious aims. Torpedoing the party by all means possible, must be their aim, what could be more anti-party than this? 

From 2015 to 2019, Eng. Simbi Wabote, from Brass, was appointed as the Executive Secretary of NCMDB, while Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, from Ekeremor got a ministerial appointment, as the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. Julie Okah, from Southern Ijaw was appointed as the Director General of NAPTIP, Mrs. Gloria Izonfou, from Kolga, was appointed as a Federal Commissioner of National Population Commission and there are several other such appointments. Given Simbi Wabote’s background in the oil and gas industry and his sterling performance as the Executive Secretary of NCMDB, can anyone truly say his appointment and reappointment is undeserving?  With the exception of Julie Okah, other appointments are still subsisting. 

In the constituted board of the NDDC, which unfortunately hasn’t been inaugurated, Maxwell Okoh from Ogbia was appointed as the Executive Director of Finance, while Dr. Theodore Allison from Southern Ijaw was appointed the Bayelsa state representative. In the same NDDC, we had Professor Nelson Brambaifa from Sagbama and Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei from Southern Ijaw, respectively acting as the Managing Director of the NDDC. Gen. Paul Boroh, from Sagbama, was also the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme 

It appears to me that, what would have gratified those trying so hard to paint Sylva as a nepotistic person, is if he had relinquished his ministerial appointment for one of them to hold. In the first instance, Sylva should be commended for the foresight of joining the APC, when he did. A time when they all labelled the party "a Northern party", and treated anyone who has ties with the APC as one who has committed a sacrilege and deserves to be tied to the stake and burnt. Today, like vultures hovering over carcass, they’re busy struggling to benefit from what they all condemned yesterday. Sylva has always been fair-minded, right from his days as governor, he hasn’t stopped being fair-minded. 

While I admit that there are issues within the party, just as can be found with any other political party, it has not at any point in time degenerated to the point of having factional leadership. What ails the party at the moment is not intractable, it would be overcome as measures are already underway to resolve them. 

©J-AY-O

11:05:2021