By Ayebaitari Joe
In the past few days, the Bayelsa State social media space has been inundated with comments by Janus-faced Dr. John Idumange drumming up support for Governor Douye Diri and his administration.
Knowing the antecedents of the self-styled ‘Dr’ as a master of double-speak, it is apposite to sound a note of caution that Idumange’s sugar-coated comments be treated with a large dose of pessimism.
Early in the first term of the Diri administration, the smooth-talking, cerebral Idumange became aggrieved when it was obvious he had been ignored in appointments by the governor. He suddenly became a willing tool in the hands of an Abuja-based Bayelsa politician while pretending to be a whistleblower. He was the enforcer of a vile plot hatched to unsettle the then-new administration in the state.
Idumange’s first misguided battle cry against Governor Dir was over a frivolous allegation of corruption in the disbursement of a N1.5 billion CBN loan to farmers in Bayelsa. He falsely accused some top officials of the government of sharing the fund.
When he was eventually invited by the police and charged to court to prove his allegations, Idumange jumped bail. To date, he remains a fugitive.
From his hiding, the ignoble gadfly continued pretending and parading himself as the conscience of the ordinary Bayelsa people. He made other bogus claims about loans obtained and the indebtedness of the Diri administration.
None of these allegations proved to be true when the state government responded to them with the facts and figures. But, as a man set on a mission to destroy, Idumange kept on dishing out falsehoods about the administration.
His frustration fully unfurled during the governorship campaigns last year when he despicably swallowed his vomit to team up with the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Chief Timipre Sylva; a man he had so much of open disdain for.
At that point, he lost what he had left of his already sullied reputation in the minds of discernible Bayelsans. As it turned out, hiring Idumange even did more damage to the Sylva campaign with tales of internal wrangling and allegations of mismanagement of funds.
So, it will be correct to observe that the recent about-turn of the shameless demagogue was borne out of a self-serving, survival instinct and never for altruistic reasons. The wheeler dealer always looks for the highest bidder. Now that he has been used and dumped by his two Abuja political financiers, he seeks a new haven.
Idumange has no scruples as long as somebody can pay for his meals. Such a man cannot be trusted. The governor must therefore be wary of dining with a dual character; a man with the animalistic tendencies of a chameleon.
