How Vice President Kashim Shettima welcomed Bayelsa Governor to APC

The Bridge Across the Creek – By Vice President Kashim Shettima, GCON

There are moments in the life of a nation when politics transcends partisanship, when the call to service outweighs the colours of our sentiments, and when leaders answer to something greater than their affiliations. Today is one of those rare and redemptive moments in the political history of our nation.

Your Excellency, Governor Douye Diri, this gathering is a homecoming party for you. We are here not for a ceremony of convenience but for a celebration of your conviction. Yours is the story of a leader who has chosen the harder right over the easier wrong. Today, you have shown us that Bayelsa State has chosen the light of national integration over the shadows of political isolation.

The All Progressives Congress is the party of those who believe that progress can only be guaranteed when we stand together, when we answer the call of the people. And, in many ways, Your Excellency, your story mirrors that of your people. You have led with calm dignity, but beneath that calm has flowed a restless comitment to development, to unity, and to peace.

You have expanded roads to remote communities and assured them that they are not forgotten. You have built bridges where there were barriers. You have lit homes where there was darkness. This is what it means to govern with empathy. From the Sagbama–Ekeremor highway to the Yenagoa–Oporoma bridge, you have connected lives. From classrooms to clinics, you have proven that good governance is not about noise but about impact.

You are now part of a progressive family — a family that thinks and acts together. So, we welcome you into this fold to watch and support you as you champion what you have always done. From the health reforms that give hope to the sick to the schools that have opened the gates of opportunity to thousands of children, we are here to restore the confidence and dignity of those who have lost faith in government.

His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, has shown us time and again that politics is not war; it is the art of building bridges across rivers of difference. And no one understands this metaphor more profoundly than a son of the creeks who has built literal and political bridges across the waters of the Niger Delta.

So, Your Excellency, this, for us, is a political reunion with a progressive mind whose ideals have always aligned with the philosophy of our great party. We are not a house of strangers; we are a family bound by the shared belief that Nigeria can, and must, work for all her citizens. And we know you, Your Excellency. We know you as a builder — a builder of infrastructure, a builder of peace, a builder of trust, a builder of the Bayelsa dream.

Your Excellency, each of us here has come to assure you that you are home. You will not be judged by where you are coming from but by where you are going. Your arrival is not the depletion of the opposition; it is the confirmation of the pulse and constitutional clarity of Africa’s largest democracy—the freedom of choice.

My dear people of Bayelsa State, this moment belongs to you too. It is your faith in governance that has brought your Governor to this house of progress. This is about the roof over all our heads — the roof called Nigeria. We have found out, through experience, that no one prospers under a leaking roof. The house must stand strong, united, and inclusive.

So, Your Excellency, on behalf of our leader and President, His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR. the leadership of our great party, and the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I welcome you to a family that rewards excellence, a family that respects loyalty, and a family that honours service.

Welcome, my brother, to the house of progress. Welcome home to where your vision belongs.

May God bless Bayelsa State. May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.