We made some mistakes in our first coming, says Sylva

BAYELSA State Governor-elect, Timipre Sylva, whose victory was re-affirmed by the governorship election re-run on Saturday, spoke with reporters shortly after he was declared winner on challenges facing his administration, and declared that his main pre-occupation is to continue from where he stopped. MOHAMMED ABUBAKAR was at the Presidential Lodge, Yenegoa venue of the briefing. Excerpts:

WHAT scuttled the peace initiative you started before your first outing was nullified?

It was quite unfortunate that the peace process got jolted because of the annulment of the election. But luckily, the acting governor was already a member of the administration as Speaker. He was familiar with some of the things that I had done because I was also close to him and we took some of the decisions together. He was able guide the process in a way that it was not affected significantly. I would say that it wouldn't be difficult for me to kick-start the whole process all over again. Nothing really has happened in Bayelsa State negatively since I was away, so I think it is something we can easily salvage.

How do you see your victory?

I receive it with mixed feelings. Naturally, I'm very happy about it. It is splendid to be back here. But at the same time, it is challenging and humbling because when I saw the massive support and the genuine love from the people, it really challenges me. In fact, I told my wife the other day that my problem was how to cater for these teeming supporters; it is really a challenge. The only thing to do is to keep delivering the dividends of democracy, infrastructure and manpower development.

The peace agreement you signed with militants is for a year, which is fast coming to an end. What is going to happen after the expiration of the one year? There are fears that some of them are getting ready for a showdown. How do you intend to handle the situation?

I can assure you that there will be no more attacks. When you are used to a different style and the new one is paying off, you will not want to go back to the old style that gives you bad image, will you? I do not believe that they are ready to go back to the previous ways of doing things because they have seen that the previous strategy of kidnapping expatriates did not give them anything, any mileage. So I think that as far as expatriate kidnapping is concerned in the Niger Delta, that chapter is completely closed.

As for pipeline vandalism, if it is related to militant attack, that is also over, except the recent one that was related to community relationship with oil companies and so on. Those ones would take time and the companies will have to re-strategise and re-focus their relationships with the various communities where they operating.

What will be your attitude to the opposition, particularly, the Action Congress (AC) governorship candidate?

The first thing I will tell him is to advise him that it is against African tradition to be brandishing a broom day and night. So I would just advise him to drop the broom and come under the umbrella (PDP), because that is really where he belongs.

Secondly, he should look more into what we are doing in Bayelsa and begin to key in. If he has anything to offer as a person and as a party, let them come and look at what we are doing and key in so that they can contribute their quota. As far as I am concerned, that is the only thing I expect of them, nothing less.

How would you describe the election proper?

I am a proud beneficiary of a very transparent, free and fair election. Every Bayelsan has said that this is the best election they have ever had, and I'm very proud that I'm the beneficiary of the election. Of course, this poses challenges to me and I'm ready to deliver the dividends of democracy to Bayelsans.

When you were temporary out of power and based on what you did as governor then, what did you see that you would like to do differently now?

Yes, I saw something definitely, and I keep saying that there is no way you can run a state like Bayelsa for about 10 months and run a perfect government. I saw clearly that we didn't run a perfect government. But perfection can only be ascribed to God; we cannot ascribe perfection to ourselves. I saw that we made some mistakes. Our emphasis was mainly on infrastructure development, but you can also understand that. Coming into Bayelsa State, and this state is just 11 years old; it was like how do we create the infrastructure base for the state to kick off immediately? For me it was a passion, it consumed my attention and maybe I didn't look at the political side, leaving all the judicial processes to my assistants and commissioners. I said 'look, you guys should handle these' while my attention was clearly and completely focused on the infrastructure development. We can see the gains of that, but of course we have also seen that it has disadvantages as well because if I didn't pay complete attention to that and neglected the area of politics, I may probably not have had my election annulled.

When the election was annulled, I said one thing very clearly, which has come out to be true today. I said I saw the annulment as man's judgment and that I await God's judgment, and today, God's judgment has clearly shown that I have been vindicated.

What programmes do you have for the people in your new outing?

I already ran a short-lived government and we had got to a point where we were getting to cruising speed, and then they shot us down. Now we have to kick-start the engine and take off. But the beauty of this one is that we are going to take off from where we stopped. We are going to make sure that we pay more attention to politics and the judiciary this time around.