Three years into the life of his first term in office, Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State says his administration has remarkably fulfilled the promises he made to the people of the state during his electioneering campaigns.
Speaking on a special media chat with the Africa Independent Television (AIT) on Thursday, the governor noted that, the restoration government under his watch has recorded significant progress in areas such as infrastructural development, education, security and reforms in the governance structure and the public service of the state.
He said, through determination and fiscal discipline, the present administration has completed some critical infrastructures, including the first flyover project in the state, the Ogobiri/ Toru-Ebeni Bridge, dualised the Hospital, Diete Spiff, Road Safety and Water board Roads in Yenagoa, while several other ongoing projects such as the dualization of the Isaac Adaka Boro Expressway and AIT-Elebele road have reached advanced stages of completion.
According to Governor Dickson, work on the 17-storey five star Tower Hotel initiated by President Goodluck Jonathan as Governor of the state, is also underway, even as he reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to redouble its efforts to ensure that the Bayelsa International Cargo and Passenger Airport is put to use before the end of the current year.
Giving a scorecard in the education subsector, he explained that, the government has built over 400 primary and post-primary schools replete with state-of-the-art facilities, including head teachers quarters, in addition to a sports academy, language and music schools as well as teachers training institute.
Continuing, the governor disclosed that, over a thousand scholars are pursuing various courses at post-primary, graduate and post graduate levels, both within and outside the country under the state scholarship scheme.
On how much the administration’s vision has been actualised the Bayelsa State Governor said, ” The ‘Restoration’ slogan over the years has assumed a real life of its own and it is no longer a mantra as you put it. It started as a vision and an aspiration in terms of where we want our state to be. In most of the areas, we wanted to effect corrections and I can gladly say here that, three years down the line, anybody going to Bayelsa will see clearly, the reality of restoration in all the critical sectors of peace, security, reforms on the governance process such as the transparency initiative and all the associated mechanisms, where we publicly account for every naira and kobo, that comes into the coffers of our government.
“We have also made some far-reaching investments in the areas of infrastructure and education. Roads, bridges, including the first flyover, hospitals and several schools have been built. This is in addition to the scholarships we have given out to so many of our people, who are now studying in prestigious educational institutions across the world. So, restoration generally encapsulates our vision in terms of how we will bring about prosperity, development and guaranteed security. As we speak, Bayelsa is one of the safest places to be, because of the security network we have put in place in the state.
Governor Dickson, who attributed his achievements to divine grace and the support of Bayelsans, stressed ” if they didn’t buy in, all these fundamental changes that we have brought about couldn’t have happened. As a matter of fact, what is happenning in Bayelsa is a revolution”.
“There is nothing I said in my inaugural speech, that I’ve not done anything about. I said Bayelsa and the Ijaw nation will be different after me. That has already started happening. The only challenge is how we can consolidate and make that change irreversible, he added.
Daniel Iworiso-Markson
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Bayelsa State