OFONIME UMANAH
About three years ago, when the immediate past vice president, Prof Yemi Osinbajo visited Bayelsa State to perform the ground groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the connecting road to Oporoma, headquarters of the Southern/Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, he did not believe that the miracle could happen.
He did not believe that it was possible to have a bridge across the river and link Yenagoa with Oporoma. At least not by the government of Bayelsa State, considering the huge cost involved. But he had to do what he had to do-perform the ceremony and then leave.
But when he was invited by the same government to commission the same road, his spirit left him by the time he saw the road and the bridge. He did not recognise the place again as he was driven across the bridge into Oporoma.
Being the pastor that he is, he could not hide his feelings. He had to confess, that three years ago, when he was there to flag-off the construction, his belief was that the governor, Senator Douye Diri was going to play politics with the project, because to him, it was a very ambitious project to be handled by a state like Bayelsa.
He got it wrong. Today, vehicles can drive from Yenagoa to Oporoma- a feat that was not possible from the beginning of creation. Diri has shown how serious he was, ab initio, about connecting the entire state by road. It started barely two years after he got into office, when the state executive council approved the construction of phase one of the Nembe- Brass Road, another ambitious project. The man was ready to confront the mangrove swamps, tear them open and bring out magical roads. By June 2022, the bulldozers roared and the mangrove swamps surrendered. A few years later, Diri must have concluded that with courage, the so-called difficult terrain was surmountable. He tamed the swamps and bulldozed his way and stamped his name in the history books as the man with the Midas touch on roads construction.
It is even said that Diri has done more critical roads than all other governors in the state put together. The federal government has since agreed to take over phase two of the project to ease the burden from the state. This is the same road that the federal government did not think was possible to achieve. It was first conceived by the Federal Government in 1943, but was abandoned because of the same impression, that it would be difficult to construct because of the terrain, even with its strategic economic importance as the corridor that links the rest of Nigeria to one of the most valuable oil assets in Africa, the Brass Terminal, previously owned by Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) and now Oando, was not enough motivation to attempt to construct the road.
Even the presence of a son of the soil as minister of state, petroleum, Timipre Sylva in the federal executive council did not make any difference.
Today, Diri beats his chest, like the agama lizard, to tell the world that he has fought a good fight and ha given his people what they deserved. According to him, the construction of the Nembe- Brass Road was a ‘’testament to his administration’s determination to connect hitherto unreachable riverine communities by road, despite the state’s difficult terrain. He was once quoted as saying that “I feel accomplished. It is one thing to have the vision and another thing to have the will to do it.
“Being a Bayelsan, the importance of this road cannot be overemphasised. This is what the people have been yearning for, and I’m satisfied that the people are happy about the project. On funding, we have never disappointed the contractor, and I believe they will not disappoint us. By the time the road is completed, it will reduce cases of sea piracy.”
