Recently, the Alliance for Good Governance Group in Lagos State organised protest through the two veritable electronic media of the AIT and Channels TV over the unlawful and undemocratic disqualification of the Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva from the recent PDP primaries in the state. Though cause of the political quagmire in Bayelsa State was that the incumbent governor failed abysmally to carry the people of the state to the promised land, it is sad that some PDP cabals have hijacked the entire political process which should have allowed its masses to decide who to rule them in the next political dispensation. Bayelsa State is endowed with crude oil and gas, yet, the people are living in palpable fears of excruciating poverty. The PDP at the state and national levels has since failed to meet the yearnings of the people of the state. Bayelsa State was created on October 1, 1996 by the then late Head of State, General Sani Abacha. The Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) never respected the rule of law and court injunctions which restrained the party from conducting its primaries in the state. The sitting governor has the political clout to contest the election eventhough the state is in the state of confusion. If Sylva was allowed to participate in the PDP primaries, then it is choice of the people not to vote him for second term but not party affair. The kind of politics played in Bayelsa may not be different from the last April polls during which many PDP governors were disgraced out of office. Although the likes of Ben Bruce of Silverbird TV and Chief Timi Alaibe, the former ACN governorship candidate who recently defected to the PDP who thought the ticket would be given to them on the platter of gold were unlawfully disqualified, they brought their political godson as the candidate of the party.PDP has not really performed well at the national level. The allegation that Sylva was threatening President Goodluck Jonathan during his ascendency to power last year and that he has not performed well is the handiwork of certain cabals who have not politically benefitted from Sylva while some said he was only glorifying the past projects of Alams and Jonathan and nothing more.The PDP leadership should be reformed even the PDP State Chairman was sacked from office. The opposition party was deceived to join the PDP but only to be dumped by the powers-that-be. Nobody is saying that Sylva has done well in his first tenure but he has been denied his political right by the PDP. The Alliance for Good Governance group is calling on Mr President to fix Bayelsa State as the national leader of the party.The Chairman of the Elders' Forum, Chief Diepreye Alamiesiegha, must do something to save the state from political turmoil. The PDP primaries in Bayelsa State have come and gone but the wishes of the people were betrayed in the sense that the masses were not allowed to vote for their preferred candidate. The emerging Governor of Bayelsa State must be a man who knows the feelings of the people in all ramifications. Honourable Dickson is also a good candidate but the people's voice must be upheld. What happened in Bayelsa State is a colossal lesson for Nigerians. It is high time we did not allow godfatherism to influence our choice of candidate for future elections. Sylva must wake up from his political slumber and fix the state with gigantic projects within a short time in order for his legacies to speak for him after he might have left office. Godday Odidi, President of Alliance for Good Governance Group,lives at 20 Oro Street, Ajegunle, Apapa, Lagos.
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