In this piece, public affairs analyst Francis Agbo highlights reasons why Bayelsa State Governor Deriake Dickson deserves second term.
Can anything good come from Nazareth? Most students of Biblical history fondly remember this popular rhetorical question the Jews in the Bible asked, in the face of the messianic exploits of Jesus of Nazareth. Indeed, before Jesus Christ, nobody reckoned with Nazareth, a small exclave until His ministry turned Nazareth to a mecca of sort and hence the question.
Like Nazareth, Bayelsa, a creeky small state; the smallest of the 36 states in Nigeria is very rich in natural resources especially oil and gas. Curiously, its oil and gas deposits have arguably become a curse to the people rather than a blessing! While the state bled to near death under the reign of Governor Timipre Sylva between 2007 and 2011, the ruling elite wallowed in luxury; stealing of public funds had become the rule rather than the exception! Cultism, crime and criminality walked with two legs untamed and residents slept with one eye open.
In the build up to the 2011 general election in Bayelsa State, bombs were detonated and the state which prides itself as Jerusalem of Ijaw Nation was thrown into a petal of blood. Consequently, Bayelsa State was always in the news for the wrong reason and the general consensus at a time was that Bayelsa cannot be rescued from the backwaters. This even forced Comrade Mike Igini, the current Resident Electoral Commissioner in Edo State to declare Bayelsa, a failed state.
The 2011 governorship election in the state was shifted to 2012 following a Supreme Court verdict in a suit brought before it by Sylva in a bid to elongate his tenure, following the nullification of his 2007 election by the tribunal and subsequent victory in the re-run. After over four years of his misrule, the same Sylva sought re-election at the 2012 governorship poll but the PDP had become more sensitive. Sensing that Bayelsans would reject him at the polls, the party disqualified him in the primary election which threw up Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson as PDP governorship candidate and won with about 90 percent of the vote in a highly competitive election.
Since February 12, 2012 that Hon Dickson has held sway in the Creek Haven as governor, the narrative about Bayelsa has changed. Tagged Restoration Agenda, Dickson who was member representing Sagbama/ Ekeremor Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives and Chairman of the Justice Committee has left no one in doubt that it would be business unusual!
Upon assumption of office, the Countryman governor who hails from Toru-Urua, a tiny community in Sagbama Local Government, summoned the uncommon courage, 18 years after the creation of Bayelsa State in 1996 to redefine the governance culture, cleansed the Augean Stable in the state and offloaded the N332 billion debt burden incurred by the Sylva administration by redeeming the sum of N232 billion, making the state the least indebted in the federation.
The governor inherited a whopping sum of N1.685billion, being the budget the Sylva government claimed to have used monthly to run Government House, Yenagoa which Dickson reduced to N685million and now to N200m following the economic depression. The predominance of ghost workers in the civil service bloated the monthly salary wage bill of workers put at N6billion, the second after Lagos State which the Dickson government has cut to N4 billion through staff audit, thereby saving money for the state. The governor granted autonomy to the Judiciary, making it possible for the third arm of government to receive their allocation on the first line charge. The Police officer turned governor, outlawed kidnapping/ cultism and made them punishable with death. So far, the governor has walked the talk so much so that ordinary Bayelsans now call him the ‘‘talk na do governor,’’ meaning a governor who makes, keeps and fulfills his promise.
The governor then proceeded to sponsor an executive bill (Transparency& Accountability Law) that makes it mandatory for the governor to, on a monthly basis render account of stewardship; the accruals and expenditures of government in a Town Hall Meeting where the people ask the governor questions, he provides answers. Call it citizen governance.
The governor also enacted the Compulsory Savings Law, which makes it mandatory for him to save money for the state. The savings became handy in the wake of the current credit crunch as the money was deployed to meet the strategic obligation of government. At a time when neighbouring oil producing states with low salary wage bills but with more federal allocations are owing workers salary and pensioners, Dickson has kept a clean slate!
Having laid the legal framework for the government by signing these bills into law, Dickson, popularly known as Countryman governor because of his strong connect with the grassroots started implementing his lofty free and compulsory education in primary and secondary schools because he inherited a comatose educational system. In the last three years, N24billion has been spent on the building of over 30 model first ever boarding secondary schools across the 24 state constituencies, building of 400 primary schools with headmaster/ staff quarters across the state. In addition, free textbooks, uniforms, sandals, bags, and writing materials are distributed to pupils and students. Government is also responsible for the payment of WAEC, NECO, and JAMB forms fees for students. And above all, a teachers training institute to train and re-train the teachers has been built and equipped with cutting edge technology. Significantly, government under the watch of Dickson has spent N7billion on sending hundreds of Ijaw speaking Nigerians, particularly Bayelsans to the best of universities abroad on graduate, post-graduate and doctorate degree scholarship.
The good news today is that the Bayelsa education story has changed for good. According to a policy think tank, the African Health, Human and Social Development (Afrii-Dev), Bayelsa has gone from the bottom of the ladder to having the lowest rate of illiteracy among male Nigerians. In 2013, the state had the 6th highest pass rate among Nigeria’s 36 states with 51 per cent pass rate. In 2014, Bayelsa State jumped two places ahead to become the number four best performing state with a pass rate of 52.83 per cent as 34, 242 students scored five credits and above, including Mathematics and English.
Unlike before when Bayelsa was described as a one-road state, the restoration government of Dickson has constructed a ring road that links people from Portharcourt via Igbogene to the heart of Yenagoa without passing through the hassles of traffic gridlock. Before the economic down turn, Bayelsa was turned into a construction site and the people could see their money being judiciously utilized. No more capital flights! Many new roads have been built, several of them rehabilitated and dualized across the state while an audacious first ever flyover named restoration flyover has been built. Many of the contracts including the flyover were handled by Julius Berger. The crowning capstone of these roads are the dualization of the Isaac Adaka Boro Express Way in Yenagoa into three lanes, the Ogobiri/ Toru Ebeni bridge, the longest in the state connecting Sagbama with Southern Ijaw local governments , while the construction of the three senatorial roads- Bayelsa West, East and Central has reached advance stage. The Ogbia-Nembe road in Bayelsa East is worth mentioning here.
The contract was first awarded in 1973 and has since been abandoned until Governor Dickson came to judgement and paid the contractor off. When Timipre Sylva became governor, many had expected him to tar it and electrify the town since he hails from Nembe but he didn’t. Before now, Nembe could only be accessed by water. It is amusing that the same Sylva wants to return to Creek Haven.
A world-class diagnostic centre, and a drug mart named after the late Prof. Dora Akunyili have been built and billed to be commissioned this month. Today, there are referral hospitals in the eight local government headquarters of the state because there is a Dickson as governor. Aside these, the government has also constructed the followings: School of Tourism and Catering, school of music, four state secretariat annexes , Traditional Rulers Secretariat, multi-door Court built for Alternative Dispute Resolution, Government house clinic, Police Officers Mess, deputy governor’s residence, driving school, transparency plaza, government lodges, School of Language, Museum, all in Yenagoa and a host of others. Work on the football academy in Sagbama, in Sagbama Local Government, the NYSC Orientation Camp and Youth Development Centre in Kaiama and Sports Academy, both in Kolokuma Okpokuma Local Government Area have reached advanced stage, while an ultra-modern stadium has been built and put to use in Nembe City. An Ecumenical Centre in Yenagoa and a new government house are about to be completed in Yenagoa, all in less than four years.
A first ever Commercial Cassava Starch Processing Factory cited in Ebidebri in Sagbama with a value chain capacity of providing over 30 thousand job opportunities is about to take off in the state. Several rural communities have been hooked to electricity under the restoration electrification scheme. An airport on the Wilberforce Island, Amassoma meant to open up the state and make it a player in the Gulf of Guinea is under construction. The underpinning philosophy of Dickson’s development paradigm is that no Bayelsan child should go through the deprivation he suffered as a child and that is why education is free for all, so that there is no drop out; and that explains why all the nooks and crannies of the state are linked up through good roads and other social amenities, apparently to avert a situation where children would not have the harrowing experience of sighting a vehicle only at 18 years or so as was the lot of Dickson who had no idea of how a vehicle looked until he rounded off his secondary education and travelled by water to Patani, a town in the present day Delta State.
In line with his inaugural promise not to politicize the security of Bayelsans, the restoration government has invested so much in security, and the resultant effect is that Bayelsa is now, one of the safest and peaceful states in Nigeria. The peace that prevails in the state today is no happenstance. Government set up a security outfit named Operation Dooakpo which has helped to maintain the peace and respond to emergency calls within five minutes. Though there are pockets of crime in the state but any case of breach has always been contained. In 2013, Dooakpo was voted as the best African security outfit in South Africa.
The success story of Bayelsa appears to have taken the state to the world and the world to Bayelsa. Investors now throng to Yenagoa, the state capital to, in the words of the Governor, explore Bayelsa which the countryman once described as ‘‘the world’s best kept secret.’’ In appreciation of the rebranding of the state, several major national and global events have held in Yenagoa, the state capital. Chief amongst them are the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria, Miss Century, Fashion Festival, AMAA Festival, Global Jazz festival. Others are Economic Summit and the latest, All Nigeria Editors Conference. Interestingly, international figures like Reverend Jesse Jack, wife of Jacob Zuma, envoys and a host of others have also taken time out of their busy schedules to explore the heartland of Ijaw land.
What baffles me is that even though Governor Dickson remains the only governor who renders account of stewardship monthly to his people, set aside November 2 as Thanksgiving Day, gave full autonomy to the Judiciary, introduced full scale free and compulsory education, built a teachers training institute, instituted a social security of N5,000 for all aged, from 75 years and above, paid the salary and pension of workers without borrowing and without tempering with local government funds, he is yet to receive a commensurate encomium for his selfless leadership. Like him or hate him, Governor Dickson has clearly proved that good tidings can also come from Bayelsa, the Jerusalem of Ijaw Nation!
But if it were in other climes where re-election is predicated on track record, Dickson needs not to campaign to win the December 5 governorship polls because he has delivered on his campaign promise. But the governor needs to campaign hard to retain his plum job because the parasitic preservers of unearned privileges and serial governorship aspirants are bent on stopping his re-election. Their mission is to take power and return the glory of all lands to the days of the swarming locusts. But will the masses, who are beneficiaries of the Dickson’s revolution stand by the governor as they have always done?
