Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his running mate, Joshua Maciver, in the recent Bayelsa State governorship election have expressed disapproval of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s comments regarding the election results.
In response to the victory of fellow Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member and incumbent governor Douye Diri, Jonathan stated that he would have relocated his mother from Bayelsa to Abuja if the APC had emerged victorious.
Sylva took to X (formerly Twitter) to voice his dissatisfaction, stating, “Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s statement is unfortunate. I sincerely hope he was misquoted. Let me just quote our respected Wole Soyinka: ‘you can take the hippopotamus out of the swamp but you cannot take the swamp out of the hippopotamus.”
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Similarly, Maciver criticized Jonathan’s endorsement of Diri in a statement, describing the former president’s action as “unstatesmanlike” in a state where he should have played a non-partisan fatherly role to all candidates and parties during the political season.
Maciver argued that Jonathan’s comments openly portrayed Bayelsa State as unsafe and insecure, an assertion he believes should not have been made by a former President. According to him, the former president’s words have cost him the respect of all true followers of Sylva.
Jonathan had revealed last Friday that he had planned to relocate his aged mother out of Bayelsa State if the governor had lost in the November 11 governorship election, citing concerns about the safety of his family members who had been victims of kidnapping in the state. He also emphasized the peace and reduction in kidnap cases during Diri’s tenure.
