There is a buzz in the Dickson administration over its upcoming second anniversary. But would you say the ordinary man in the state has cause to celebrate like those in government?
I believe that Bayelsans have cause to celebrate. We have good feedback mechanisms from the ward level up to the LGAs, we also have strong links with Non Governmental Organisations and I can inform you that we have gotten good feedback. The underlining theme in the messages we have been receiving from our people is that power has returned to the common man. The people are impressed that Governor Dickson has results to show them for his concentration on uprooting corruption, anti-developmental issues and speeding-up infrastructural development. The people are witness to the fact that the current administration came into office under very challenging circumstances and a harsh political environment other less determined leaders would have buckled under. But I’m glad to say that regardless of the challenging environment in which this administration was berthed, it hit the ground running with Governor Dickson and his team constantly working on the socio-economic and socio-cultural restoration of Bayelsa by tackling headlong, issues that hampered the growth of the state such as corruption, insecurity, poor power supply and infrastructure deficit. Governor Dickson wasted no time in implementing his blueprint for rapid socio-economic development, tagged, the Restoration Agenda. This agenda which Bayelsans often talk about is targeted at restructuring governance and diversifying the state economy by creating a culture of transparency and accountability in government.
How exactly has the Reformation Agenda changed the lot of Bayelsans?
The high level of insecurity before this current administration came in caused the people to ask Governor Dickson to do everything in his power to restore sanity to the state. So, the first thing the governor did was to develop a holistic solution to the many security challenges which emanated mainly from past leadership failure, especially from a regime whose stock in trade was state sponsored violence, arson, cultism and all forms of brigandage. In tackling the security challenges, what government did was to create a comprehensive security strategy known as the Bayelsa Integrated Security Strategy (BISS) which re-engineered policing and law enforcement to emphasize intelligence based pro-active interdiction. It is a measure leveraged on massive community and public participation. Of course, government invested heavily in security technology as it could have in any modern society and the strategy has been very successful. Bayelsa State is now one of the most peaceful states in Nigeria. Having achieved security stability and restoring people’s confidence to go about their businesses, Governor Dickson moved swiftly to address the critical challenge of economic diversification. People often say Governor Dickson came to office prepared because he has never stopped preaching the sermon that the monthly allocation from the federation account will not be sustainable for fast tracked development and economic diversification in the long run, especially when we take into cognizance the vagaries of oil prices at the international market over the years. This is why he embarked on the development of two critical sectors, tourism and agriculture as alternative income earners and we are making steady progress.
You mentioned the diversification of the state’s economy through tourism and agriculture. But from what we hear from Bayesla, it seems that much has not been done with regard to agriculture especially when compared to tourism
Government has made lots of progress in the area of agriculture. You know tourism is much more glamorous than agriculture, that is why people hear more about it. This doesn’t negate the fact that government has moved the state forward in terms of agriculture. In Bayelsa the focus is on mechanized farming to facilitate massive cultivation and yield not only to feed our population but to export. In our calculation, agriculture is an intrinsic part of the future because of the high number of youths it can gainfully employ and the huge revenue government can make from it which will be used for development. We have been concentrating on the production of cassava, rice, fish, acqua-culture, banana and plantain in commercial quantities. We are building processing factories to develop the export content for our agriculture produce. An MOU with a Danish company has since been signed to process cassava on 359 hectares. So far, we have trained and still training thousands of our young people at the famous Songhai Farms in Porto Novo, Benin Republic. Governor Dickson’s goal is to create a wide pool of young people with skills in modern agriculture practices which would be taken back home to further develop the state. While some would be deployed to different farms in the state, others will form the nucleus of our Agricultural Training Institute and others assisted to manage their own farms.
A few other states have invested in tourism without recording a marked leap in their revenue. How will Bayelsa be any different?
I can only speak for Bayelsa and I will say that government took major interest in tourism because of the potentials it has in our state. Due diligence carried out by experts indicated that we can with proper management make much money from tourism even more than what we could ever derive from oil and gas in line with global trend where even America, the UAE and Europe are still racking -in billions of dollars through tourism. This is the thinking driving the New Yenagoa City, carved out of the state capital, which has a location advantage. We also have the longest coastline in Nigeria with some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. We want to further develop our historical heritage and the many tourist attractions in the state to welcome tourists into the state. We are getting international recognition that can only be given to a viable sector. A few months ago, UNESCO designated Bayelsa State as host of the maiden edition of the organization’s under water committee’s conference and it was held successfully. The challenge we have in Bayelsa is that of infrastructure but with our passion, continued massive investment and collaboration with other investors, government will turn the state to a tourism haven that can effectively make Bayelsa the Dubai of Africa.
What is Governor Dickson doing to make people stop calling Yenagoa a capital of a few streets?
Without a doubt, the current administration recognizes the importance of building modern, relevant and durable infrastructure to facilitate development in the state. Despite the unique topography of Bayesla state which quadruples the cost of infrastructural development and makes construction work burdensome, the Dickson administration has a lot to show for its short period in office. As we speak, over 350 kilometres of roads across the state have been completed. Government has also constructed 15 bridges, over 50 public buildings and 2 flyovers. Dualisation of 18 roads and 2 outer ring roads are in progress while the secretariat for the Traditional Rulers Council inYenagoa has been also completed. The road linking the old and new campuses of the state-owned Niger Delta University at Amassoma is also completed. The governor is set to award contracts for the construction of 15 internal roads in Yenagoa. This will be replicated in all the 8 local government headquarters in the first phase of total rehabilitation and transformation of roads in the state for easy accessibility. The expansion and upgrading of many of the roads particularly in Yenagoa would, however, inevitably lead to demolition of some houses, not because they offended any town planning regulation but as necessary price to pay for the greater good of a modern city. The expansion of the Opolo-Imiringi road, for instance, necessitated the demolition of Governor Dickson’s personal house which is a demonstration of commitment to this cause. Among other on-going projects is the construction of the state archive, museum, language centre, new secretariat annexes, governor and deputy governors’ office complexes, modern police mess, rehabilitation of the Gloryland Cultural Centre and construction of the Government House Clinic, now close to completion. And of course, work is ongoing at the pharmaceutical storage and distribution centre, which when completed will be the first of its kind in Africa. To bring the quality of roads in the state to international standard, strategically located bridges will be built in the three senatorial districts in addition to the equally strategic construction of the Bayelsa airport and the Agge Deep Seaport. For Governor Dickson, the successful completion of these two projects will make economic diversification a reality.
Bayelsa like other oil producing states have often been accused of poor utilsation of the huge allocations they get from the federal government. Would you say that Governor Dickson has properly utilised the monies allocated to the state in the last two years?
Governor Dickson hosts the monthly transparency briefing where he accounts for the monies allocated to the state. It is a novel idea some said he wouldn’t be able to sustain and he has surprised them. Do you think his critics wouldn’t have told the world he is lying if he hasn’t been telling the people the truth about how their money is spent? Here is a governor that vowed to run a transparent administration and he has kept his promise to the extent that naysayers have nothing to prove him a liar. Moving from accountability to proper utilisation of funds, I will start with manpower development through agriculture, education and tourism. Proper utilization of our oil money has found remarkable expression in the education sector. With all the gigantic investments government is making towards economic diversification, there is the need for a concomitant availability of the requisite manpower to run these sectors especially in the future. A highly educated citizenry is also an important part of development. Looking ahead, the state government has made education free for primary and secondary schools in the state. Because of our level of development, we need to encourage mass education which must also have the right quality. Government is improving the quality of public schools in terms of infrastructure, teachers and their training and general welfare. We are about to complete the construction of 40 very modern secondary schools with boarding facilities across the state. Now, we have 140 PhD students and 300 Masters degree students on scholarship across the world and 250 in topnotch private secondary schools in Nigeria. All these Governor Dickson has done in less than two years of coming into government.
Youth restiveness caused by a high rate unemployment is also a major issue in your state. How is the Dickson administration dealing with youth unemployment?
Youth unemployment and the resultant restiveness is the reason government is conscious of massive job creation. We are attending to massive job creation through the diversification of the economy, like I mentioned earlier tourism and agriculture are major employers of labor. Government will also create jobs through developmental projects such as the Deep Sea Port at Agge. When it is ready, so many young people will be gainfully employed. Already the state government has signed an MOU with a Chinese company to construct rail lines from Yenagoa to Brass and from Yenagoa to Agge. The economic utility would be great in the envisaged boom in agro-business, trade and other commercial activities. The airport government is constructing in Yenagoa is equally vital to our economy as it will facilitate fast and convenient transportation of both tourists and those coming to do business in the state. In furtherance of our investment drive, Bayelsa State is relating and interacting with the global economy through the instrumentality of the Bayelsa Development and Investment Corporation (BDIC) which was established as a strategic enabler of market driven high impact business initiatives that would engender rapid development of state’s economy. The BDIC which has offices in South Africa and London and another soon in the United States, is recording major investment landmarks as we have in the MOU signed between Bayelsa Oil Company and Heritage Oil PLC in the United Kingdom which is expected to open vista of opportunities for the state. This is an area where the private sector could exploit for collaboration with our kind of forward-looking government to drive large scale growth and investments. That also explains why Bayelsa Oil Company through BDIC entered into agreement U.K based Heritage Oil to set up a company that can compete with AGIP and SHELL and if possible, buy over their assets that they are selling. Once we succeed with our plans, then we would have opened up another way of employing the people. But be that as it may, this government has done a lot to engage our youths.
For instance, the governor has directed that about 200 young women and men be employed to be part of the preservation of our forestry heritage and that has been done. He has also directed that more protocol staff be recruited and about 50 of them have been selected and they are going through the process of employment. Similarly, he has also directed that all medical doctors and medically qualified personnel should be employed because we have a shortage of medical manpower. More so, we are building medical facilities all across the state so we are going to employ more persons. Again, given the magnitude of construction work going on in the state, the governor equally mandated the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure to engage the services of all qualified engineers, architects, quantity surveyors and technical staff to strengthen the human capacity of the ministry in the area of supervision. Already, I know for a fact that the ministry is almost through with the process and very soon those who have been shortlisted will be employed. We have employed more teachers, about 300 science teachers have been employed. Unemployment is a monumental problem. No one state government can solve it overnight. We need to create the awareness that, not all youths need to be in government employment.That notwithstanding, what about the several appointments that this administration have given to youths in this state.I dare say that and I stand to be corrected, that no government has involved the young people of this state in the running of the affairs of this state more than what we have done like the appointment of Senior Special Assistants on Youth Development matters, Youth Development Committees and so on but we also realize that even these appointments are not enough.
Ultimately, we want to encourage our youths to employ themselves and in turn be employers of labour. To this end, we are coming up with various programmes by which we can support people who have good business plans to be involved in small and medium scale enterprises.