14092022

18 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2022
WE are pleasantly surprised that our
military and security agencies have
woken up, and are moving in the right
direction towards reining in the forces
behind our insecurity.
The continued onslaughts against the
Boko Haram Terrorists, BHTs, and their
Islamic State in West Africa Province,
ISWAP, allies, scorching of Ansaru still being attacked, unchallenged. The
bases in Kaduna forests and military Federal Government continues to
strikes on Bandit-Terrorist bases in the ignore the armed herdsmen terrorism,
North-West and Abuja precincts are thus lending credence to the accusations
very heartening.
of state condonation of their terrorist
Although we disagree with Minister campaigns.
of Information and Culture, Lai The latest commendable act, this time
Mohammed, who recently claimed “the by the Department of State Services,
worst is over”, we are solidly behind DSS, is the arrest in Egypt of Tukur
our armed and security forces in their Mamu, the self-acclaimed Abujanew
resolve to restore order.
Kaduna train hostage negotiator.
We are still waiting for a full Mamu is the publisher of Desert Herald
deployment against herdsmen and spokesman of controversial Sheikh
terrorists. Without this, doubts will still Ahmad Gumi, an unabashed advocate
linger as to the government’s sincerity for the Bandit-Terrorists of the Northin
solving our security challenges West and North-Central.
holistically.
Gumi, Mamu and some Northern
Many indigenous communities are governors have been playing unclear
Questioning of Tukur Mamu
roles since the upsurge of terrorism in
the North-West. At the height of the
bandits’ terrorism, when states like
Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto and
Kebbi and Niger became helpless at
their onslaughts, Gumi surprisingly
went into their dens in the wilderness
and became their mouthpiece and
proponent. These people kicked against
moves to get the Federal Government
declare the bandits as terrorists.
A governor was once quoted as
saying that while groups like the
Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB,
and Yoruba Nation wanted to break up
Nigeria, the Bandit-Terrorists whose
specialty was kidnapping for ransom,
were merely “transactional
businessmen”!
The Federal Government’s failure to
apprehend all these questionable
individuals and groups seemingly
promoting the activities of terrorists
baffled Nigerians and led many to
speculate “collusion” by senior
elements of the Buhari government.
Mamu’s arrest and questioning
represents an important turning point
in the Buhari government’s attitude
towards dealing with insecurity in the
North.
We hope this will not be a one-off
event, but a sustained effort to root out
terrorist sponsors, collaborators,
sympathisers and enhancers in
whatever form, no matter how highly
placed. This is the only right way to
tackle this problem.
Mamu must be thoroughly
questioned on how he became a
ransom negotiator, how he acquired the
military uniforms and huge cash
allegedly discovered by the DSS in his
house. Let the law take its course.
OPINION
In response to worried critics of a silent revolution
By KOLA OREDIPE
DEMOCRACY has given opportunities
for the participation of the citizens in
governance. It becomes inclusive when every
segment of the society plays one part or the
other to support the government of the day or
simply make constructive criticism. But when
such a criticism becomes abusive, such actors
are now worn the toga of unprogressive and
uncultured soul. That is the case with some set
of armed chair critics in Bayelsa State where
unfortunately, a lot of them had been part of
various governments in the state.
Today, many Bayelsans are aware that the
prosperity administration under Senator
Douye Diri, Governor of Bayelsa State, is very
receptive to genuine and constructive criticism.
In African homes, when a child becomes erratic
and showing signs of near dementia , parents
and loved ones on quick detection either seek
medical help or spiritual help. But when it is
discovered that he or she is being mentally
affected by unexpressed bottled up emotions,
they only allow it to be detected in choice words,
tone, and body language.
Governor Diri has become a victim of
parochial, selfish and demented criticism by
unguarded critics who operate in full scale of
ignorance on the social media space. The two
and half-year journey of governance in Bayelsa
and the appreciable achievements despite the
daunting challenges is not of interest to these
resenting critics, but a public show of
ignorance on the development dynamics in
the state is paramount to their confused soul.
On one hand, these critics have been diagnosed
as being part of the governance of the state in
the past as aides, but their unceremonious exit
has affected their judgement and develop
within their souls bottled up angst against any
administration their pay masters are not fully
in charge.
Despite their rants on the pages of social
media, Governor Diri and his prosperity team
have refused to be disturbed and are treading
carefully to raise a disciplined team to
complete projects, revive a new culture of
patience and inculcate a culture of service to
the people of Bayelsa across the sections of the
state. While the so-called “critics” are
displaying their foolery by claiming to have
worked for respectable personalities as “media
handlers” or “social media influencers” in the
past, the prosperity administration is known
and working towards finding the cure for their
anger by not encouraging nepotism, financial
recklessness by churning figures which don’t
tally with the reality on ground. The
administration will not also allow characters,
such as the road side critics, to distract it from
ongoing service to the people of Bayelsa.
The joy of the people of the state, across
political divide, is that Gov. Diri came through
a court process and divine intervention devoid
of political godfathers. He came through the
people in general elections who elected him,
affirmed by the court and crowned by the
Almighty God. That is why cleansing the
Augean stable, rather than probe which wastes
time and resources, is necessary. For the critic
that have clearly shown they have lost touch
with realities, Senator Diri, the fifth civilian
governor of Bayelsa State has, since he came
to power miraculously in 2020, revealed truly
a visionary man.
With a deep sense of maturity, rare patience,
simplicity and focus, Diri, like the famed eagle,
is uncommonly and incurably visionary and
deeply “aware” of his sense of mission to
humanity and strategies to deliver his
developmental agenda to the people. He is
Development is not about
newspaper, radio or television
propaganda but perception and
appreciation of physical
accomplished projects by the
people
visionary enough to remember his little
beginning from his country home of Sampou
in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government
Area of the State and now that he is governor
in a move to change the story of development
in Bayelsa State. Steadily, things are changing
for good and many citizens who never gave
him the chance now openly confessed “that
they were misinformed about the capacity and
personality of the governor”.
And now, they know better that Diri is kindhearted
and a good man who loves his people
across the eight local government areas. In
just two years in office, Governor Diri, has left
no one in doubt as to the direction of his
government of prosperity. He has touched
many lives positively through infrastructural
projects and various empowerment
programmes. The criticisms about
performance is absolutely lost to the sane mind.
Bayelsans are aware and can visibly see the
development pattern embarked upon by the
administration of Gov. Diri in last two and
half years. It is only a blind and confused critic
that cannot see. It is a normal decimal for
members of same gang that are united in
unexplained anger to engage in negative
campaigns whenever their paymasters direct.
How do they expect a governor that is a
product of people’s electoral trust and accepted
by all divide to be cowed by their claims of
“non-performance” and “sinking in bad
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leadership”. Gov. Diri has raised the bar in good
governance, security, infrastructural development
and peace. The state has moved from these
impediments that becloud our development,
cleansing the rot to place food on our table,
livelihood, security, peace and prosperity.
Development is not about newspaper, radio or
television propaganda but perception and
appreciation of physical accomplished projects by
the people. We are lucky to have a leadership
that abhors praise singers as sycophantic political
tools.
As a matter of pride, the popular Edepie/
Etegwe roundabout is a testimony of the
infrastructural upgrade within Yenagoa
through expansion and beautification work.
Also, over 50 internal roads within the state
capital were earlier rehabilitated before the
construction of 20 new internal roads. The
prosperity administration has penchant for
policy of continuity with inherited projects. So
much has been achieved in the areas of roads
and infrastructure, education, health,
empowerment, skills acquisition among other
sectors. Projects completed and inaugurated
so far include a 4.5 kilometre Igbedi road,
reconstructed Elebele bridge, section one of
the Igbogene- AIT Elebele outer ring road to
Okarki end, the New Yenagoa city road from
Onopa and the historic Nembe unity bridge
that connects Nembe-Ogbolomabiri to
Bassambiri. The audacious move by previous
administration to link riverine communities
to Yenagoa, the state capital by roads through
the three senatorial projects are on course. The
prosperity government has continued with the
construction of Sagbama-Ekeremor and
Yenagoa-Oporoma road projects.
Continues online:www.vanguardngr.com
•Oredipe is Director/ Coordinator, New
Media, to the Bayelsa State governor