Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri has recalled how a former governor of the state, Chief Timipre Sylva once ruled out the possibility of getting a road to his village in Brass, as it was not viable and feasible.
Diri has also said that he is excited that Sylva, the APC gubernatorial candidate for the November 11 election in the state is now enjoying the Ogbia-Nembe-Yenagoa Road which construction his government could not see through.
But TNN could not get Sylva to speak on the issue. He has not been responding to Whatsapp messages or calls made to his phone. On Monday, TNN made another effort to reach him for comments on this and other issues, but he did not respond.
Diri made the revelation while speaking to a team of editors at his country home in Sampou, in the Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of the state, during the weekend.
Saying that he has refused to play politics with the development of Bayelsa State, Diri also said it took a committed heart to embark on the Nembe-Brass Road which his government chose to undertake, saying that he would be glad to see Sylva also drive on the road to his home, when completed.
The governor said it has been his style to be quiet while embarking on mega projects in the state. I’m one person who will not talk or speak like someone that will want to praise themselves and I am one person that will not praise myself. I remain quiet; silently I do the job that I’ve been voted to do.”
He said the opposition had always gone to town with the notion that his government achieved nothing. He said his decision to be quiet about his projects had been misinterpreted, hence his decision to begin to showcase them to the world.
He said after his tenure as governor, generations will remember his modest contributions to the development of the state. He said he was glad to embark on the Nembe-Brass Road, 60 years after the road had been on the federal government’s drawing board, noting that phase one of the road was seriously in progress.
This reporter was among the team from the Nigeria Guild of Editors that inspected the progress of work on the road. Diri said it was painful that “everybody forgot it(the road), including the whole son who became governor for five years who is now contesting with me(Sylva).
“In fact, in his own case he even said that that road is not economically viable when he was governor. And today, the road that is not economically viable from between Yenagoa and Nembe has been completed. He’s now driving to Nembe.
“Now, we have started this one to Brass, which is by the Atlantic Ocean. If any of you know Bonny, Brass is akin to Bonny. So if we get that road completed, we are actually going to the kind of blue economy by the Atlantic Ocean in terms of tourism and several other things that will attract tourists.”
