It has become necessary to put in the right perspective and in its truthful context events ahead of the Bayelsa State gubernatorial election in the face of the half truths and outright falsehood that are being circulated in a section of the media. Nowhere is this falsehood more evident than in a write-up, purportedly, authored by one Ekiyo Warmate and published in the Leadership newspaper of November 30, 2011. As is the general run of such shady petty mudslinging, the author, in the article, made a hanging assertion about Governor Timipre Sylva, allegedly, coming to equity with unclean conscience.The article, titled 'Sylva: Going to equity with stained conscience,' was not only an arrogant neglect of the fundamental issues surrounding the Bayelsa State governorship issue, it was a crude effort to tarnish the good name of the governor. But it failed on all fronts, of course, as the people of Bayelsa State know better and stand solidly behind their governor.Warmate conveniently ignored the fundamentals. 'A hitherto innocuous party affair to choose a candidate for the February 2012 gubernatorial election in the state is now a subject of deep controversy, name-calling and even blackmail by an uncouth tribe of traducers bent on clinging on to power at all cost and with whichever means.' One natural question that flows from this clearly incoherent assertion is: Who invented the so-called controversy and who are those calling names to try to rationalise their irrational steps'Every Bayelsan and indeed, all Nigerians now know the source of the spanner that was suddenly thrown in the works of the hitherto smooth-sailing Bayelsa governorship race. Everyone ' except, perhaps, Warmate and his principals ' knows that the so-called Peoples Democratic Party governorship controversy, which Warmate is quick to refer to, was invented from outside Bayelsa State by those bent on subverting the wishes of the people and abridging their fundamental human rights to freely choose their leaders without the uninvited interruption of some godfathers.Like the Bible says, the evil-minded man runs when nobody is pursuing him. Those who were bent on subverting democratic choice in Bayelsa, afraid of the indomitable Ijaw and Bayelsa spirit of resistance to anything unjust, resorted to the spineless option of militarising the state to provide a cover for illegality.Warmate made a laborious but vain effort to hide the fact that the controversy introduced into 'a hitherto innocuous party affair to choose a candidate' was the vehicle through which those bent on cracking down on democracy intended to push President Goodluck Jonathan's candidate, 'by whatever means,' against the wishes of the people. But Sylva, a firm believer in the rule of law and justice, has chosen the path of honour in approaching the courts of law to separate the truth from the confused mixture of lies, ignorance, mischief, and misconception being heaped on the Bayelsa governorship question.Those half-hearted efforts to cover the truth have failed to cower the courageous, yet peace-loving, people of Bayelsa State, as the people have found nothing against their governor.Warmate's article, expectedly, was infested with the incurable ailment of failure to follow its assertions through. This has been the general plague of all the anti-Sylva diatribes. There is now a fatigue of unsubstantiated and unsustainable rants in the media on the governor.But Sylva has remained at peace with himself and the people of Bayelsa. He has left those who nurse a morbid fear for democracy and justice to run amok with impunity and continue to get their fingers burnt.By saying in his article, 'For now, the officers of PDP have spoken. After carefully examining all the factors on ground, they have decided in their wisdom that the interest of the state and party will be best served if Sylva is stopped from contesting the primary election, the security reasons not withstanding,' Warmate leaves no one in doubt about his membership of this ignoble club of justice and democracy haters. The question for Warmate is: Who are these officers of PDP that have spoken in a process boycotted by all Bayelsa PDP members in the National Assembly, all members of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, all the local government chairmen and councilors, and eight of the 10 members of the state executive committee of PDP' If the speech being referred to in Warmate's garbled piece was the one made by Bayelsa people during the illegal primary of November 12, then, it is clear to even the most apolitical onlooker that the people spoken against Warmate's principals, those for whom he is trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to vilify Sylva.At the heart of the Bayelsa governorship saga is the refusal by a clique of anti-democratic elements to acknowledge that democracy is an arena where people are given an equal chance to express themselves through the ballot box ' as opposed to guns and impunity. It happened in the ancient Greece, the same people that gave the modern world the concept of democracy. It does not matter if a tiny set of selfish transactional leaders do not like the face of a candidate, what matters is whether the people want him to be their leader or not. The presidential hawks, for selfish and parochial reasons, had wantonly denied the people of Bayelsa State this right and seeing their plans backfire, they have resorted to cheap blackmail, innuendos and outright falsehood on the pages of newspapers to perpetuate their inordinate ambitions.It behoves all Nigerians to join the democracy-minded and peace-loving people of Bayelsa State in calling for justice and the right of the people to choose their governor. For all Nigerians, it is important to see the undemocratic happenings in Bayelsa State as a microcosm of the fate that may await democracy in the larger Nigerian society if they are allowed to stand. This should be our focus ' not the irrational attempts to rationalise irrationality, like Warmate and his co-travellers have embarked on.'Okpoebi is the President-General of Bayelsa Democratic Front, Ovom-Yenagoa
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