In February 14, 2012 when Henry Seriake Dickson took over the mantle of leadership as the fourth democratically elected governor of Bayelsa State; the story of his emergence was received with spontaneous jubilation across the state. The jubilation did not come as a surprise to those who had followed with keen interest on the selfless public service profile of the governor.
Apart from his years of avowed sense of commitment to the cause of the Ijaw struggle while he served as the National Legal Adviser of the Ijaw National Congress; he had also served as the state Attorney-General and commissioner for Justice as well as member of the House of Representatives, the Green Chamber of the National Assembly with Positive impacts on the people of the state.
So, the question about his competence and the great expectations to service delivery was never in doubt. Inspite of these great expectations, there were some misgivings about how far he would drive the ship of state, given the enormity of challenges of developing the state, couple with the failed promises of successive administrations particularly politicians who are known for their failed promises in this part of the world.
The plethora of challenges range from the poor state of insecurity, infrastructure deficit and the comatose state of education to the grim indices of good governance and so on.
As seemingly overwhelming as it is, Governor Seriake Dickson made it loud and clear to any one that cares to listen; that the days of few individuals feeding fat on the commonwealth and at the expense of the development of the state were over.
In the area of peace and security, he inherited a worrisome situation where the twin problems of cultism, kidnapping and pipeline vandalism was the order of the day. Realising the fact that no meaningful development can come by without peace and security. Governor Seriake Dickson warned those indulged in criminality to steer clear of the state, noting in what he described as the days of environmental terrorism and criminality were numbered in the state.
The Government swung into action by drawing up a definite security architecture, adopting the stick and carrot approach in nipping the problems in the bud.
For example, on the issue of cultism and kidnapping, government rolled out the anti-cult and kidnap law with stiff penalties to curb the ugly situation.
In the same vein, government promptly offered amnesty to cult members to either renounce their membership otherwise made to face the full weight of the law.
Also, besides the setting up of a security response outfit called Operation Doo Akpor who are strategically stationed all over the state in curbing crime; government acquired highly sophisticated Security Gadgets to track down possible Security threats and respond to those in distress.
The security conscious restoration government further revived the moribund community based policing outfit called the Bayelsa Volunteers by recruiting young men and women and trained them to complement the conventional security forces in the business of intelligence gathering and fight against crime.
Today, there is a huge sigh of relief about peace and security pervading the landscape. It is therefore no overstatement to state the obvious that Bayelsa has become one of the most peaceful and secured states in the country and as a matter of fact a tourist delight and investment destination.
This is the changing narrative the Dickson led administration has brought to bear in the development process of the state; an achievement which even his ardent critics have largely conceded. And this is how things ought to be.
In the area of Education, without mincing words at his first tenure inauguration, governor Dickson declared a state of emergency in this critical sector. Believing in the universal aphorism that education as a light, remains the first tool and the only tool to galvanize any sustainable development.
To this end, he invested huge resources by embarking on massive rehabilitation of schools at UNESCO standard and making sure that functional education is put in place for the children and youths of the state whom he places high premium as leaders of tomorrow.
A good number of Bayelsans have been offered foreign and local scholarships to study professional courses with the strong commitment towards shoring-up the human capital development index of the state.
Just as Dr Walter Russel, a foremost contemporary development philosopher would say: ‘‘ in vain we build the city, if we do not first build the man’’
It is in line with this fine spirit of building the mind of Bayelsans with the hope of liberating them from the state of ignorance, poverty of the mind as well as mental slavery, that he took the bold initiative for the first time in the history of Bayelsa state to build fourteen brand new equipped Boarding schools across the three senatorial districts in a state where there was no single Boarding school when he took over.
This is borne out of the strong desire to groom a new generation of leaders and servants fully equipped to confront the challenges of developing the state.
Moreover, besides concerted efforts to secure accreditation of a good number of courses at the state owned Niger Delta University by investing in the infrastructure concerns of the institution. The restoration government has established another citadel of learning called the African University under the public private partnership arrangement, to complement the human capital development drive of the already existing state-owned Niger Delta University.
In addition to that, the commissioning of the Ijaw National Academy about two years ago by Prof. Wole Soyinka at Kaiama with state of the arte facilities point to the conscientious commitment of the Dickson administration towards deleting Bayelsa State from the contemptuous map of Educationally Less Developed States in Nigeria.
On general infrastructure, the construction of road network across the state received a major attention.
For example, the dualisation of internal roads in the state capital, such as the Ait to Bayelsa Palm road down to Igbogene, the new Okaka road and other road network projects which are being described as the outer ring-road project have reached advanced stages.
These projects which are designed after the Nnamdi Azikiwe ring road in Abuja, capital of Nigeria when completed will reduce road traffic in the future.
Moreover, the coastal areas of the state dominated by marine are not left out. Works are in earnest to complete the three senatorial roads which have been in the drawing board over the years. When completed, these roads will afford the people to easily travel by land to their riverine communities, which was accessible only by river craft in the past.
No doubt, it will as well open up the hinterland for investors to harness the economic and tourism potentials that abound in the area particularly in terms of sea food and agro-allied products.
Already apart from completing the construction of the first Flyover in the state, government has completed the strategic road linking two Riverine local government areas in the state, that is, Amassoma in Southern Ijaw Local government area to Torugbene in Sagbama local government area.
This is in addition to the construction of a cargo airport at Amassoma and Deep Seaport at Agge area of the state which will definitely connect the economic potentials of the state to the rest of the world of investors.
In the area of agriculture, government is leaving no stone unturned to diversify its economy, by tapping into the rich natural resources that abound in the state.
This is to avoid the mistakes of the past whereby mono-cultural dependent economy was promoted at the expense of the state comparative advantages in agricultural endowments.
Happily, the government has began the process by establishing a starch production plant farm, aqua culture farm; revive the rice farms at Ofoni, Abobiri and Peremabiri as well as that of the state owned palm estates.
When revived it will go a long way to create employment opportunities for the army of unemployed youths in the state and serve as a huge source of revenue earner and to a large extent contribute towards enhancing the country’s foreign exchange bargain.
In the health sector, some modest achievements have been recorded. These include; the establishment of a world class Diagnostic and Toxicology Centre, the Drug Distribution and Storage Centre to check the circulation of fake and adulterated drugs in the state while efforts are in top gear to established Comprehensive Health Centres in all the LGAs in the State, to enable both the rich and the poor to access Primary Health Care Services.
Others are: accreditation and completion of hospital buildings at the state school of Nursing at Tombia, securing the accreditation of specialised programmes at the state-owned Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital for Residency Training, setting up of the Bayelsa state Health Services Scheme and Health village at Melford Okilo Memorial Hospital just to mention but a few.
On promoting good governance, the Dickson led administration was the first state in the country to put in place transparency mechanism, by initiating the Bayelsa State Transparency and Accountability law in 2012, making it mandatory for all tiers of government to publicly declare the monthly earnings and expenditures of their institutions to the people and government has remained steadfast to this article of faith.
This is in tandem with what former United States President, Barrack Obama told African Leaders during his visit to Ghana on the imperatives ‘‘to build strong institutions and not strong men’’
This is what governor Seriake Dickson administration has replicated in the state in accordance with international best practice.
Furthermore, the mind-blogging wage bill of over 7 billion naira it inherited was another critical problem that was given a frontal attack by the government.
According to governor Dickson and I Quote: ‘‘we shall undertake fundamental reforms of governance culture, to emphasize the transparency, accountability, due process and value- re-orientation – The days of enrichment without labour and funding the greed and avarice of a few at the expense of the development of our people are over’’ and unquote.
Besides breaking the tradition whereby revenue expenditure was shrouded in secrecy, government embarked on aggressive biometric exercise, with an eagle-eye screening process and blocked financial leakages and draining pipes.
These efforts which are in the overall interest of Bayelsans have yielded positive results. For example funds which were wasted and frittered away by few individuals over the years have been saved and ploughed into life transforming projects. And this has been translated into placing Bayelsa visibly on the map of development.
Apart from weeding out large chunk of ghost workers, the wage bill has been drastically reduced from over # 5 billion to about # 3 billion naira.
This is a no mean achievement deserving a huge pat on the back of Right Honourable Seriake Dickson fondly called ‘‘Countryman governor’’
It is indeed heart-warming to state that the Dickson administration has rekindled the hope of ordinary people and regained the waned confidence in governance.
As a matter of fact, despair and frustrations of mis-governance of the past have paved way to hope and sense of fulfilment under the Dickson administration.
Just like forces of light will always triumph over the forces of darkness, surely, with the good people of Bayelsa State standing on the progressive side of the people’s governor, the development light burning in the tunnel will surely prevail.
What the time demands are fervent prayers, total support and unity of purpose of the people. Certainly, Bayelsa will be forward ever and backward never again.