By Ebere Levi
The fluid political situation in Bayelsa leaves Timi Alaibe at a vantage position for power. All eyes are on him. He is a man who could be king. And for this, he has turned a beautiful bride.
Timi the Bride
But Timi is a bride with a burden of enormous pressure on his shoulders.
The ex NNDC managing Director, ex-All Progressives Congress, APC chieftain and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the party’s governorship aspirant in the November 2019 Bayelsa governorship election, has a big political decision to make and, fast too.
Senator Duoye Diri won the PDP ticket for the election. Timi kicked and went to court. He insisted he was the rightful winner. Like Timi, many within and outside the state rue that Governor Diri was imposed on the PDP by former governor Henry Seriake Dickson.
However, at the end of the guber polling, both Timi and Diri had leveled up as losers for against all expectations, APC’s David Lyon beat the PDP candidate at the election to become governor-elect.
Twist and Turns
An eleventh hour judicial twist on 13th of February abbreviated Lyon/APC’s victory dance as the Supreme Court annulled his victory on the account of forgery, on the part of Lyon’s Deputy Governor elect, and promoted the defeated Diri to the governorship seat, introduced a nerve-wracking twist to Bayelsa’s political turf.
Lyon was sinless but his deputy, Senator Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo was the sinner, according to the apex court.
Thus, like Siemens twins, Senator Degi-Erenienyo’s sin consumed Lyon.
APC’s soft spot for Timi
Though the APC has asked the Supreme Court to review its judgement sacking Lyon, the party is not putting all its eggs in one basket.
A competent party source confirm that if the February 26 review of the judgement ends in the re- validation of Diri’s governorship, the APC will then intensify efforts at a comeback through the backdoor via the Timi route.
Said the source: “Our party sees a compensation for the nullification of Lyon’s victory through the Alaibe prism. If we fail to get our mandate back through the apex court, then we will vigorously support Alaibe to wrestle power from Diri through the courts.Timi will return to us”
Timi is ours – PDP
The PDP is equally treating the ex- NDDC boss as a priceless jewel. A party chieftain in Yenogoa, the Bayelsa state capital, confided in the magazine that Timi Alaibe is critical to the stabilization of the Diri governorship.
“We can’t afford not to court him.We can’t afford to treat him with levity at this time.We all know that Timi’s sole reason for returning to the PDP after a spell in the APC was for the PDP governorship ticket. He wants to be governor and its within his right. So, he is ours, he is one of us. We are trying to make him see reason why he should drop the court case and support governor Diri”, the party chieftain said.
Tough Decision
Alaibe is being courted left and right. Juicy carrots are being dangled before him. He is under severe pressure to take a decision: Should he discontinue his court case against the emergence of Diri as the candidate of the PDP in guber election, integrate fully into the PDP family and join hands with the new governor to move the state forward, or should he on the alternative, press on with the case with the prospect of supplanting Diri as governor in the event of a court victory?
The Dangling Carrots
The magazine has it on good authority, that shortly after the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, proclaimed Diri winner of gubernatorial election following the apex court’s nullification of Lyon’s victory, both the national leadership of the PDP and Bayelsa chapter of the party started reaching out to Alaibe with one plea: Drop the court case.
In asking him to discontinue the case, a number of offers, it has been learnt, were made to Alaibe.
Among such offers, The source was told, was for him to nominate Commissioners and other political appointees of his choice for critical offices in the Diri administration.
Alaibe is to also to nominate Chairmen and Board members of juicy government parastaltals.
There is equally a hint that he was given a strong assurance that he would succeed Diri, and that the party would work to ensure that no other person gets its nomination ticket at the end of Diri’s tenure except Alaibe.
However, this magazine could not establish whether the ” tenure” in question is first or second tenure.
The Dilemma
Sources close to Alaibe claim that the PDP governorship aspirant is in dilemma as to how to navigate himself out of the competing interests piling pressure on him without causing serious injury to his political future.
“He is on a tight rope and walking on a landmine at the same time”, one of the sources said.
It has been gathered that if Alaibe spurns PDP’s entreaties and pursues his court case to a logical conclusion, and in the end still loses, the party would extract a pound of flesh by treating him like a leper.
On the other hand, the APC is urging him on, according to insiders, with the understanding that if he triumphs against Diri and becomes governor, he will punish the PDP for denying him the ticket in the first place by defecting to the APC.
“This way, APC would have recovered its mandate, even if it is not Lyon holding it.That is the arrangement but he ( Alaibe) must be firm and not yield to PDP pressure”, an APC source stressed.
This magazine was further told that the APC is also making promises of political appointment at the federal level to Alaibe should he fail to unseat Diri through the court provided he cross over to the party.
February 26th to Decide
This Magazine has been told that the outcome of the Supreme Court’s review of its ruling on the Bayelsa governorship slated for February 26 will decide Timi’s next move.
“From all indication, Alaibe’s interest in the case may naturally wane if the apex court’s review restores APC’s Lyon.This is because even in the event of the court eventually declaring him the rightful PDP candidate, he will still not be governor, with an APC governor in place
However, if the apex court re-validates Diri’s governorship, I don’t see Alaibe sheathing his sword. He will fight to the end because he too could be made governor if the matter gets to the Supreme court”, the magazine was informed.
