I have said it before. I repeat it here for emphasis. Bayelsa state is evidence that democracy is working in Nigeria. Bayelsa bucks many trends, burst myths, and throws up springs of evidence in terms of development. Truly, the cup is half full for Nigeria; not half empty. If in doubt, visit Bayelsa.

An addendum to this is that the incumbent governor, Senator Douye Diri, is a workman with undeniable workmanship evidencing the majesty and development-centric nature of genuine democracy. Last year, I visited Bayelsa in the company of some editors. We saw a state in a hurry to achieve modernity. Mega infrastructural projects including housing, roads, bridges, hospitals and schools, were ongoing. That was a couple of weeks to the election that returned Diri to government house for his second term.

A year later last week, from November 6^th to 10^th, a bigger crowd of editors was in Yenagoa. It was the 20^th edition of the Nigerian Guild of Editors’ annual flagship conference fittingly tagged the All Nigeria Editors’ Conference (ANEC). It was remarkable home-coming for Nigerian editors as the first ever ANEC was held in Yenagoa in 2004. And Governor Diri proved a great host.

The 2024 ANEC was a fellowship of ideas, a watering hole for national discourse, a feast of assortment of food which Bayelsa offers in lavish measure and a festival of fun accentuating the hospitable spirit of the state as well as its kaleidoscope of cultures spanning aquatic splendour to the energetic vibrancy of the upland dwellers.

The conference, themed: Economic Growth and Development Strategies in Resource-Rich Country, weaved through the vast swathes of economic opportunities in Nigeria; coursing through the treasures in the swamps of the Niger Delta region, the pastoral and sundry agricultural possibilities in the north; the huge deposits of solid minerals embedded in the bowel of the nation’s subsoil among others. The conference brought to the fore many stark realities: Nigeria is a resource-rich nation, but Nigerians suffer from a resource-curse with bruising poverty as its visible totem; some managers of the nation’s resource-hubs are either incompetent or selfish and in some cases driven by a combination of both, with a spicing of mischief.

The keynoter, Barrister Dele Oye, President, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, NACCIMA, was unsparing. He rafted through the waves of distortions and discontents that have defined the nation’s economy. He was bold to address the negative impact of corruption on the socio-economic being of the nation. He acknowledged the bold reforms of the President Bola Tinubu government including removal of the petrol subsidy, the payment of $6 billion in outstanding trade debts (leaving a balance of $2.4 billion unpaid), the increase in minimum wage, the implementation of a unified exchange rate, among others. He submitted that there was the need to critically assess whether these reforms are yielding fruits for the benefit of all Nigerians.

Oye was brutally frank. He worked the crowd of editors, charging them to stand as guardians of democracy, enablers of free speech and above all, to bring public officers to account to the people.

His words were measured for purpose. “As members of the Guild, you embody these theoretical checks on government and society, helping to shield our people from poor policies, corruption, and the abuse of power. The future is in our hands, and together, let us write the next chapter of Nigeria’s story; one defined by transparency, accountability, and transformative growth,” he roused the editors.

Governor Diri’s charge to the media was both cogent and compelling. ‘No media, no democracy’, he said. Diri heaped praises on the late General Sani Abacha for creating Bayelsa state on October 1, 1996. It was carved out of the old Rivers state, taking its name from three local governments of the old Rivers state: Brass, Yenagoa and Sagbama. The creation of Bayelsa brought development closer to the grassroots. It brought a cessation to the stereotypical referencing of Bayelsa as a one-road state. It has long ceased to be a one-road state. It’s now a multiple roads state, a tourist delight, and a state embroidered by the emblems of development and modernity.

With very little federal presence, Bayelsans have shown resilience and self-drive. In the last three months, the whole of Bayelsa has been cut off from the national grid. The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) attributes it to the destruction of two of its transmission towers in the Igbo-Oghene community of the state. TCN on Thursday, August 1, said towers T98 and T99 along the Ahoada/Yenagoa 132kV line were vandalised on July 29, 2024. But if the vandals and their sponsors thought they could cripple the Glory of all Lands, they got their algorithm of madness wrong. The people continue to flourish, businesses keep thriving on self-help devices: generators, solar power, gas and just about anything the human mind could contrive. The state resolutely refused to shut down.

Bayelsa is among the top four largest crude oil producing states in Nigeria. It’s a victim of oil spills and environmental degradation. It cannot boast of federal presence commensurate with the resources it contributes to the nation. Bayelsa has only 8 eight local government areas with a 2023 population estimate of 2,394,725 but Ekiti state with population estimate of 3,394,177 has 16 LGAs. How did they even arrive at that?  If LGAs are created according to population, as we are made to believe, then the math does not add up. And why does Nasarawa share same number of LGAs (13) with Ebonyi when Ebonyi has a population of 4,007,155 compared to Nasarawa’s 3,632,239 (2023 estimates). Incongruities that define Nigeria and Bayelsa is the biggest victim in a country where money is shared according to LGAs, not according to what each state contributed.

But no matter the ill-treatment of Bayelsa in the national equation, they have a working governor whose barely five years in the saddle has been a harvest of development. Diri is a working governor.