The Donald Duke South-South Solidarity Group strongly condemns the reckless and contemptuous remarks recently made by Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State, in which he dismissed the presidential ambition of His Excellency Donald Duke as a joke.
Governor Diri lacks the respect, courtesy, and moral standing to pass such a judgment. He is in no position to belittle a man of Duke’s stature, experience, and proven record.
In seven years in office, Governor Diri has distinguished himself only as Nigeria’s most travelled governor. He has not spent sixty consecutive days in Nigeria. He has travelled more than any other governor in the federation — more than the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and more than the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Sports, Tourism, or Investment. While the people of Bayelsa languish, he has turned the state’s resources into a personal ₦100-billion monthly bazaar for himself, his community, and his circle of friends and associates.
He is not Donald Duke’s mate. Unlike Duke, who governed with presence, focus, and accountability, Diri is an absentee governor who has spent more time outside the country than inside it. He is running a government without vision, direction, or purpose.
The people of Cross River still remember Donald Duke for the landmark policies and projects he implemented as governor. Elected at the young age of 37, Duke delivered enduring infrastructure and reforms that remain relevant and functional more than twenty years after he left office. What will Bayelsans remember Governor Diri for? Failed turbines he commissioned with fanfare that never worked? White-elephant projects that wasted taxpayers’ money? Fraudulent roads and bridges inflated for personal profit? Or the continuous squandering of ₦100 billion monthly on frivolity, foreign trips, and personal excesses? Duke built lasting legacies without such windfalls. Diri has squandered his on nothing of substance, except travelling and junketing around the globe.
It is therefore an insult of the highest order for Governor Diri to call Donald Duke’s presidential bid a joke. Diri clearly needs rehabilitation. He is a disappointment and a disgrace to Bayelsa State and the entire South-South. How does a state that has produced distinguished leaders such as Dr Goodluck Jonathan, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, Alfred Diete-Spiff, Timi Alaibe, Melford Okilo, and, in contemporary times, Senator Henry Seriake Dickson, Dr Igali, and other prominent sons and daughters, settle for someone of Diri’s calibre? Bayelsa deserves better than a primitive, local, uneducated individual driven by greed.
We are not surprised. The manner in which Governor Diri has treated Bayelsa leaders, including those who helped him into office, is a clear testament to his lack of character. His attack on Duke shows he has no standards. He is known for betraying those who assisted him.
He should wait until he leaves office and see whether he will possess the stature and relevance that Donald Duke still commands more than two decades after leaving power. Only then will he know whether he can amount to anything politically at the local or national level.
Governor Diri travels with his harem and beauty queens while the people of Bayelsa suffer. He is an absentee governor without focus or vision. Donald Duke is doing what Diri himself should be doing: criticising the President for the diversion of the coastal road and fighting for the interest of the South-South and Niger Delta. That is a fight Diri has abandoned.
Instead of holding the federal government accountable for its failures in the Niger Delta, he is attacking Duke to curry favour from the Presidency. This is classic sycophancy to cover his well-known corrupt activities, which made him defect to the APC. Unlike Diri, Donald Duke never bought houses, estates, or hotels, nor invested taxpayers’ money around the globe to become the richest man in his state.
The unprintable things he said about Donald Duke are hereby condemned in the strongest terms. Governor Douye Diri is a disgrace to Bayelsa and the South-South. Bayelsa is today the worst-governed state in the region and in the entire country. No sane governor in Nigeria will commit close to ₦500 billion in his local community while citizens suffer. Duke developed Cross River and built landmark projects. Diri should continue to enjoy his uninterrupted eight-year holiday at the expense of the poor people of Bayelsa and leave Donald Duke alone.
He should focus on governing his state rather than insulting a former governor whose record he cannot match.
We are preparing for a major rally in Bayelsa and other South-South states against Governor Diri’s recklessness.
Signed:
Amb. Simon Ugbong
Chairman
Diepreye Amadein
Vice Chairman
Christopher Osaretin
Secretary