Dickson working to make Bayelsa one of key business hubs in Nigeria -SSG

Can you give us an overview of what the restoration government of Governor Seriake Dickson has achieved in the last five years plus?
Henry Seriake Dickson, our glorious governor, is actually a positive phenomenon.

He ascended to power in 2012 when the situation in the state was horrendous. First, in the education sector, we had no single boarding institution in the state.

Then, the service culture of the people or lack of it – the civil service was peopled by non people. What Governor Dickson faced when he came was unimaginable, so much that the wage bill was over N6 billion every month.

It was as if Governor Dickson was thrown into the deep end of the pool. He was struggling. We had agriculture which was not happening, we had the health sector that was virtually moribund and our health institutions were dead institutions.

We had the abysmal lack of or failure of infrastructure. No suitable road or bridges, no proper public facility or building. That was the profile of the state at the time he came on board.

How then did he tackle all of these?
The very first thing Governor Dickson did was to declare a state of emergency on education and he went on to attack the problem by building schools and schools in virtually every community in the state.

The evidence is there for all to see today. He also embarked on an elaborate programme of scholarship awards and sent several of Bayelsan students overseas for good education.

He also embarked on ambitious infrastructure development – building roads and roads and in that connection, he built the Toru Ebeni Bridge, which is the longest bridge in the whole of Niger Delta that links Yenogoa to Southern Ijaw and all that.

Now, the terrain in the state is so inhospitable, completely different from the people who are very hospitable; in Bayelsa, in order to build a road or a house, first, you have to create the land upon which you have to build the house or the road on.

A good example is that Governor Dickson is well on the way to connecting Sagbama with Ekeremor and the entire span of the road is swamp. So, how do you build a road there? First, you create the land.

For several months now, the best and largest dredgers in West Africa are there working day and night – pumping sand because you have to pump the sand before the stone base, reinforcement and the final asphalting.

This ought not to be the responsibility of a state government because the project is massive; some other entity, namely, the Federal Government should have been responsible for it. Dickson is doing it and doing it with remarkable aplomb.

However, the good news is that I can tell you with full confidence that by December, people should be able to drive, even if it is on the sand filled area with stone base on the road down to Ekeremor from Yenogoa.

Do you know the significance of that? The significance is that today, somebody from Ekeremor who wants to go home will first drive to Patani in Delta State, go to Bomadi Waterside and then board a boat to Ekeremor; so you can imagine that kind of convoluted movement.

And Governor Dickson said, ‘I will have none of it and I am going to make it happen for my people to drive freely to Ekeremor from Yenogoa’.

And with that done, the next is Aggey and arrangements are already on for that to be done. You may not be aware that Aggey presents a wonderful opportunity for the establishment of a deep sea port.

Now, what is the significance of a deep sea port? Let’s go to Lagos – Apapa Port is not a deep sea port and that is why very large vessels anchor very far – some 20 miles – away from Apapa port and then the trans-shipment of the content of the vessels with smaller ships.

In Aggey, the depth of the water is about 400 meters and can take virtually all types of ship. In the oil and gas business, you have what they call (VLCC) very large crude carriers and you can have VLCC anchor in Aggey.

So, we are looking at establishing a deep sea port in Aggey; we have entered into a protocol with some Chinese interest who are committed to investing some good money for the development of the port and it is hoped that when that is done, Aggey will become part of the nerve centre of commercial business in Nigeria, Onitsha, will be just a stone throw if you make a road there.

So it opens vast business opportunity and development for our people. So you have Aggey deep sea port with a road connection, we have Gbarain gas field which houses trillions and trillions cubic feet of natural gas which is being flared everyday to our environmental agony and anguish.

Now this gas is going to be utilised to service a power hub where we are already putting in place gas turbine and by the time the project is completed Bayelsa will be able to deliver electricity to the whole of West African sub-region 24/7. That is the capacity that we have.

It is said that Nigeria has so much gas relative to oil and the way they put it by the experts, is that Nigeria is a gas province with some oil in it. So, all this talk about oil we have been involved in since 1956 is nothing compared to the gas deposit we have in Bayelsa – Bayelsa State houses 40 percent of all the gases we have in this country and that is massive.

And we want to use it for the betterment of our country. In that immediate vicinity of Aggey, we also have eco-industrial park and I tell you our governor is ultimate marketer and orator.

When our governor went to OTC, he was besieged by various potential investors and he told them of the possibility of investment; that Bayelsa is the headquarter of oil and gas in Nigeria. He told them ‘come to Bayelsa and invest.

If you come and we judge you to be a serious minded investor with capacity, we will immediately allocate to you, in our industrial park, suitable land for your business and in 30 days, we issue you with appropriate land documentation.

Not only that, we will not just leave you alone. Tell us that you want to build a modular refinery; we are going to partner with you by putting in our own money as government.’ There is opportunity for all of us, there is no need for bickering and fighting; elections are over, let’s move on and develop Bayelsa.

That is the message of Governor Henry Seriake Dickson. He did that effectively and as a result, we are going to have investors flood here.

Are you not worried about the militancy?
Right now, Bayelsa has relative peace and security and our young men and women who hitherto were ensconced in the swamp will be employed in the petroleum industry.

Still talking about the coordinated effort, you may have heard, but I will not be surprised if you have not heard because of the coordinated effort at negative propaganda, that Governor Dickson is building an international airport that will be second to none in Nigeria.

As we speak, the runway is 80 percent completed. The terminal buildings are the responsibilities of some other persons. But we can’t fold our hands like prostitutes and wait for some other persons to come and do for us what we can do for ourselves.

So, construction of the terminal building is well underway. Now, what is an airport? The main thing is the runway for the aircraft to land and take-off. That one is there.

That is what Governor Dickson is doing for us; by the way, the runway is 3.5 meters long – longer than the runway of Port Harcourt International Airport. When completed the largest aircraft in the world can land there.

Bayelsa till now is still one of the educationally disadvantaged states in the country, was this the reason for the massive investment in education by the governor?
Before 2012 when the governor came in, we knew about the level of militancy and criminality in the state. The governor did his research and determined that these children of ours who are into these activities are misguided and they are pushed into it because of lack of education and after education, lack of job opportunity.

So, he said we must begin from the beginning. Let us rebuild our education system. He went on massive educational infrastructure development – building schools all over the place.

As I mentioned earlier, there was no one single boarding institution in the state. He knew the discipline that comes with a boarding school system and said we must bring back the good old days.

That is how the Ijaw National Academy came about and modeled after the great British School of Elton and so on. He went to the United Kingdom to head hunt an ace educationist, Mr. Charles Johnson, as the principal of Ijaw National Academy.

The Catholic Church seconded one of its priests to add spiritual angle to learning in the school. That is not all, to instill physical fitness and fortitude on the students, Governor Dickson approached the military and an army captain has been seconded to the school. The school is full boarding with a 1000 students. Everything from uniform to feeding is free.

How did the present administration contain the militancy and other criminalities which the state was known for?
We did that by singularly committing ourselves to the task and we shut our eyes to constitutional impediment.

Under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, law and order are the responsibility of the Federal Government but in practice, the country is so vast that the Federal Government cannot police the nation.
And so, Bayelsa State decided to embark on programmes that have helped in getting our youths off the streets.

Why is it so difficult for the government to address this recurring issue of non-payment of teachers’ salary especially that of primary school teachers?
It is unfortunate that despite the fact that everybody is aware that we have three tiers of government – federal, state and local government. Primary school teachers’ salary is the responsibility of the local government.

If you recall there was this problem that state governors were tempering with local government fund, that is wrong and they should stop.

And Governor Dickson said, ‘I will not touch your money but uitilise it responsibly’. But because they are a veritable tier under the constitution and there is a limit to what you want to do regarding fiscal issue that will not be misinterpreted.

As a matter of fact and by way of positive intervention, Governor Dickson has been bearing a lot of the responsibility of primary school teachers that is not our (state) responsibility under the law.

But things became so bad as a result of the crash of oil price which resulted in low inflow to the state from the Federation Account and we are no longer able to cope with primary schools teachers’ salary.

Having said that let it be made explicitly clear, categorical that Bayelsa State is not in default of salary of primary school teachers. Local government is in default; having said that, but because they are our people all the same, discussions are ongoing to see how the state can assist further in resolving the issue.

So that is what must be understood but miscreants, political jobbers and merchants of evil should refrain from painting the state government black because we are doing even more than our fair bid under the constitution.

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The good news is that I can tell you with full confidence that by December, people should be able to drive, even if it is on the sand filled area with stone base on the road down to Ekeremor from Yenogoa. Do you know the significance of that? The significance is that today, somebody from Ekeremor who wants to go home will first drive to Patani in Delta State, go to Bomadi Waterside and then board a boat to Ekeremor; so you can imagine that kind of convoluted movement.