Bayelsa State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson on Tuesday expressed
displeasure over the absence of federal projects in the state,
particularly in the area of road infrastructure, in spite of the state’s
decades of contributions to the economic wellbeing of Nigeria.
Governor Dickson made the assertion, when a delegation of the Senate
Committee on Works, led its Vice Chairman, Senator Clifford Odia paid him
a courtesy visit in Government House, Yenagoa.
While lamenting that, Bayelsa has the least kilometre of federal roads, he
pointed out that, the Federal Government has utilized resources from the
state and the Niger Delta to develop major capital cities in the country.
According to Governor Dickson, crude oil terminals in locations such as
Brass in Bayelsa, Bonny (Rivers) and Forcados (Delta) where oil is lifted
daily are not accessible by road.
To this end, the Governor called on the National Assembly to spearhead the
on-going efforts on restructuring the country to achieve an equity, peace,
stability, justice and sustainable development.
His words: ‘’You have seen for yourselves. All you have talked about is
the Yenegwe-Kolo road which has been on the drawing board since the time
of Gen. Yakubu Gowon, even before the civil war. Let me use this
opportunity to once again, remind the Senate of the pitiable situation of
our people and to draw attention to that and see what the National
Assembly can do not just by way of exercising your powers of
appropriation, but more fundamentally, to support the on-going calls for
the re-organization of our country to make it more equitable, stable and
peaceful. ’We all want a united, big and strong Nigeria but a Nigeria of
truth, justice and compassion because if we don’t take the right step to
make a peaceful change possible now, a generation is coming up that may
make violent change inevitable, which is not what we want.’’
In his remarks, Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Works, Senator
Clifford Odia, said they were in the state to inspect all federal
projects, with a view to assessing their level of completion.
Senator Odia, however, expressed dismay over the poor quality and slow
pace of work on the dualization of the Yenegwe-Kolo road project, which
has achieved just a dysmal 47%, even though, it was re-awarded since 2009.
He said, ‘’We are here to inspect federal roads in Bayelsa and we have
been able to visit a few of such roads. We visited the site of the
dualization of the Yenigwe-Kolo road and what we found there to say the
least, was very embarrassing. That project was awarded in 2009 but only
about 47% of the project has been completed and the quality of work done
falls below standard.’’
Senator Odia assured that, the committee would institute a panel to
investigate the structural integrity of the road and ensure that
provisions are made for the Nembe-Brass road in the 2018 budget.