Special Adviser to the Bayelsa State Governor on Inter-Party Relations, Barr Jackson Ebi Suokiri says the Governor Douye Diri’s prosperity administration has positively impacted on the lives of Bayelsans and the state in all ramifications.
Suokiri gave his ratings of the governor during an interview with newsmen in Yenagoa, capital of the state.
The governor’s aide, who also bared his mind on the relationship between the Diri administration and other political parties existing in the state, maintained that,but for the All Progressives Congress(APC) which had for reasons best known to them alone,all other political parties with visible presence in the state have a cordial relationship with the prosperity government headed by Governor Douye Diri.
He pointed out that following the governor’s commitment to political inclusiveness, all the 18 known political parties by the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) with exception of the All Progressives Congress in the state have been receiving monies as part of their running cost through his office from the state government.
Against the backdrop of recent insinuations that defectors from the opposition parties to the PDP in the state have not been accorded their rightful nomenclature in the state government,the Governor’s aide noted that these allegations were borne out of the figment of imaginations of opposition elements, advising, however, that those who recently defected to the PDP go back to their various wards and work for the victory of the PDP.
“It’s not everybody that can have an appointment at the same time at the state level. This government has been opened to all defectors, but if as a defector you accuse the government of not having given you an appointment,you better go and get registered first as a party member from your ward and then work for the party and then recommendation will come.”
“For infrastructure,we can say that the governor has done much and that he has shown the political will to fast track development in the state. But,people must understand that even as the governor has recently celebrated his two years in office, the number of years he has actually spent working is just about one year,” he said.
“Remember he had over 40 cases instituted against him by the oppositions in the state. And just after vacating these cases which were distracting him from focussing on governance, Covid-19 came. So in essence all you’ve seen him commissioning and doing were done in just one year. Governor Diri has the general interest of Bayelsa at heart”, he added.
Speaking on the victory of the governor when he would contest for a second tenure,the governor’s aide hinted that he would win landslide,saying the Governor has performed even above the imagination of the opposition parties,just as he stated that information available to his office from the public is that the governor and his team have done well in the past two years.
“The Governor is constructing the senatorial roads. One from Ayama Ijaw to Oporoma, headquarters of Southern Ijaw Local government area, he is constructing another one from Aleibiri to Ekeremor, headquarters of Ekeremor LGA and he has just approved the construction of the Nembe-Brass road in the Eastern Senatorial district of the state.
“Tell me who would not vote for him in his second tenure? Apart from these road projects, the governor inline with the Sustainable development goals (SDGs) is paying salaries promptly,he is executing more and more impactful projects and programmes in the state”, Suokiri noted.

By: Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa