By David Owei, Bayelsa

Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, has applauded practitioners in the state for their supportive role in driving the development efforts of his Assured Prosperity Agenda.

Senator Diri gave the commendation on Thursday at the 12th edition of the Bayelsa Media Awards (BMA) 2025 at the Lady Daima Memorial Event Centre, Yenagoa, the state capital.

Governor Diri, who described the media as a veritable platform in strengthening modern democracy, commended its practitioners for effective reportage which has helped to foster a better understanding between the government and the people.

Represented by his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, he also described theme of the event: “Bayelsa First: Promoting Culture, Driving Investment Through Media,” as very apt and in alignment with his administration’s vision for the state.

He noted that BMA has become the pride of the state government in view of its efforts towards celebrating the best in the Bayelsa media industry as well as projecting government’s policies and programmes.

According to him, the ASSURED Prosperity Government is striving to actualize its mandate in ensuring sustainable peace and security, infrastructural development, good security, education, health, power supply and progress in other critical sectors of the local economy.

While congratulating winners of this year’s BMA Awards, the Bayelsa Governor said the event should serve as a source of inspiration to all media workers towards ensuring diligence and committment in their duties.

He however stressed the need for media practitioners to uphold the ethics of their profession given its central role in shaping public awareness.

His words: “I want the Bayelsa Media to define the subject matter for which we want Bayelsa to be first. As a government, we have agreed that there will be no negotiation about development: be it in infrastructure, peace and security, power, health, education, information dissemination, maritime and blue economy, agriculture.

“So we are marching deliberately and concertedly to what we want to achieve in these and other areas. In the area of education, we have seized the initiative and we are marching forward.

“As you are aware there is no tertiary institution that does not have a valid accreditation. That is why we are saying that there is no negotiation on education. In the area of health, our indices have turned around in the last one year.”

‎Delivering a keynote address, Professor Barclay Ayakoroma, said the theme of the event tagged “Bayelsa First: Promoting Culture, Driving Investment through Media”, highlighted the importance of culture, particularly language and food, which he described as a unifying factor.
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‎He noted that one of the surest way of propagating culture of the state is by engaging the media, pointing out that Ijaw music has failed to go international because it has not been properly promoted.

In his remarks, the Initiator and Project Manager of the Bayelsa Media Awards, Mr. Victor Binawari, commended the state government for its sponsorship of BMA’s last three editions.

According to Mr. Binawari, Presenter of The Year Award, the Report of the Year Award Newscaster, Reporter of The Year were sponsored by Governor in previous editions, adding that the governor approved the fourth category which was the News Editor of The Year Award for the Year 2025 edition.

Highpoint was the presentation of Exceptional Excellence to the state Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo as well as other media personalities.

Winners of the various categories of the SDD Prize 2025 include, Reporter of The Year, Print cum Broadcast which went to Mr Joseph Kunde of TVC, while Mr Irorofa Okutuatin of Radio Bayelsa.got the Best Presenter of the Year Award

Also, Mrs Tariere Nelson-Abali of Radio Bayelsa clinched the Newscaster of the Year Award, Jacobson Park of Golden FM got the Sports Programme of The Year, while Radio Bayelsa emerged Radio Station of The Year.

Pidgin Programme of The Year was awarded to Royal FM’s ‘E Make Sense Morning Show’ on Royal FM, Newspaper of The Year National went to Dailly Champion while Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) got the TV Station of The Year Award.

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