Apotheosis of Lyon’s Grammar -By Festus Adedayo

The press and the social media have made mincemeat of the newly elected governor of Bayelsa, David Lyon, on account of what they called his unmitigated “murder of grammar” while addressing State House correspondents after he met with President Muhammadu Buhari last Tuesday. Hitherto unknown Lyon, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had risen from political obscurity to dwarf Duoye Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the governorship election in Bayelsa state.

At the press conference, Lyon was reported to have said, “Today is one of my great day of my life. The great people of Bayelsans have spoken their mind by taking time to vote for our great party APC. It’s indeed a welcome development because in our own campaigns, we give to them, when being elected and swear in, we give to them security and development; it is our key agendas.” He also went on to reportedly say, “And with support of Bayelsans, they have made it possible. Today, on behalf of my APC leaders, I promise Bayelsans we will serve them, not Bayelsans to serve us. We also to promise we will respect leadership. Respect leadership is key to us. And today, their vote has been counted and the people of Bayelsa will be respected. I’m sincerely grateful to our father the president of this country, for his fatherly advice this afternoon. As one of his son in APC, I thank you very much we Bayelsans will not disappoint APC.”

With due respect, I think this is a product of our obtuse fascination with intangibles at the expense of the tangible elements of governance. I doubt if Bayelsans would be bothered about Lyon’s grammar more than his performance in office. They had just voted out a lawyer’s lackey to vote in a man who is said to be sparse in the construction of the English grammar. If it is possible, Lyon should speak his native Bayelsa language in his four years in office, so far he would not advertise the same drunken sailor theft of government’s money and the disdain which is the credo of elected officials’ relationship with their people.

Lyon should please ignore the criticisms, surround himself with very cerebral commissioners, special advisers/assistants and other aides and aim at showing that his certificate is immaterial in the quest to change the very embarrassing status quo that he met. If at the end of his tenure, Bayelsa still remains in the doldrums, that is when Lyon would have presented as a calamity in the administration of the state. Certainly not on account of his grammar because it only lifts him to an apotheosis, where he can walk where angels feared to tread.