‘Jonathan tried to kill me’ | 7 things we learned from Timipre Sylva’s interview

As the Bayelsa governorship election scheduled for December 5 approaches, Timipre Sylva, who was in 2011 the governor of Bayelsa before getting ousted, is running under the flag of the All Progressives Congress.

In a recent in-depth interview with Vanguard, Sylva bared his mind aplenty and here are 7 things we grasped.
1. Stop asking Sylva if he forgot anything in the State House.
A lot of questions have been asked as to why Sylva is running again for the governorship of the state. Sylva explains thus:
“Anybody that asks that question is ignorant. I left Bayelsa State Government House unwillingly and all Bayelsans know the circumstances under which I left, and, since then, no other opportunity has presented it self for me to re-contest for that office. This is the first opportunity and so I don’t know why anybody will ask me if I forgot anything.”
2. Goodluck Jonathan wanted to kill him
Sylva recalls his brouhaha with Goodluck Jonathan subsequent to his leaving office and exile. He makes startling revelations about attempts on his life by the former president.
“The former President set the scene for his exit from office by bringing  war to his home. He started the fire and he didn’t start the fire in any other place, he started it from  home. After I was removed from office, I went on exile and, when I came back, I was arrested many times. They never left me alone, they wanted to kill me, they wanted to jail me, they wanted to do everything to me.”
3. Sylva would have gotten his second term before now
The APC flagbearer is very confident of Bayelsans’ love for him. He claims that if he was allowed to re-contest after his truncated tenure, he would have reclaimed the governorship mandate of the state.
“The people of Bayelsa would have given me a second tenure if I had been allowed to contest but I was barred from re-contesting that election. Today, those people who barred me from contesting that election are no longer in office, so the Bayelsa people have the opportunity of choosing their rightful leader and that is why I have presented myself.”
4. Governor Dickson is a liar and a bush-man
Sylva addressed his description as a ‘guy man’ by the current governor, Seriake Dickson.
“I wonder what Dickson means by a ‘guy man’ but I think I am a typical Bayelsan. Dickson is just a disgrace to himself and I don’t know what he meant by ‘guy man’, but everybody knows  Dickson is a bushman. That is why he doesn’t have that self confidence, that is why he calls me ‘guy man’. He is ‘country-man’ and I am ‘guy man’. You also raised the issue of debt burden. I really wish he could be truthful. Unfortunately people are full of lies.”
5. Sylva claims he didn’t leave any abandoned project behind
Governor Dickson has alleged that before his exit from office, Sylva had lots of unfinished projects scattered around the state, including a proposed airport.
“That, to me, is the continuation of my opponent’s frustration and paranoid. When I came into government, there were a lot of ongoing projects, and I did not call them abandoned projects. Every government starts a project and if  it doesn’t  finish such project, the incoming government finishes it. Banquet hall was one such project, it was started by Alamieyeseigha. I completed it. The treasury building was another I completed. The judiciary building, the library, I completed them. The way I left office, nobody would have thought I would  have completed all those projects because I left in the middle of my tenure. I wasn’t given time to complete the projects. When Dickson leaves now, he will leave a lot of projects also uncompleted.”
6. Sylva is the real Ijaw patriot, not Dickson
“In a way, I agree with the governor that the election is not about me or about him, but it is about Bayelsans and about the Ijaw people. But when you take it further, youcan see the state of mind of the man we are talking about. He is confused. I had said  that none of APC or PDP is an Ijaw party, they are national parties. What canhe do for the Ijaw nation on his own? What can he possibly or what can Bayelsa, on its own, do for the Ijaw nation? Nothing. The person who loves Ijaw people must take Bayelsa to the centre and this is what is going to improve the lot of Bayelsa people. So, if we are talking ofIjaw patriot, I consider myself one and, I think, today, that some well-meaning Ijaw people are quite happy with me because they believe that without me, there would have been no link with the centre, there would have beenno bridge-builder.”
7. Jonathan pushed him out of PDP
Sylva sees Jonathan as part of the forces that pushed him off his governorship seat as well as frustrated him out of the PDP.
“And I had no answer to give them. Now, I was pushed to the wall, I was pushed out of PDP. I didn’t leave PDP, I was pushed out and they were very joyful about it. Now, I saw an opportunity to find a roof over my head in the APC and  the Lord crowned our effort. Now, the former President is history. If he had brought everybody together, I mean put his own house together, Amaechi (former Rivers governor) wouldn’t have left probably, I would not have left probably. In 2011, we all supported him but, unfortunately, he himself and those who were around him felt we were no longer needed.  Jonathan lost the election and the people of Bayelsa must move on.”

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