Secretary to Bayelsa State Government Kamela Okara is a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant. He spoke with reporters in Abuja on his ambition, his chances at the primary and issues that will shape the November 16 poll.Victor Oluwasegun was there.
You were a two-time commissioner in Bayelsa State. What were your achievements in office?
For me the most important achievement as commissioner was the development of the State industrial policy in partnership with United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). This has given us the blueprint for our industrial take-off on a massive scale. The other very important achievement we had during the time I was commissioner was re-orienting people to embrace the importance of being entrepreneurs in order to improve productivity and manpower in the state. My office managed a fund of over two billion
What would you say you achieved as SSG?
I was appointed Secretary to the Government of Bayelsa State on the 30th of November 2017. One of the things I set out to do was to institute a very clear agenda for finishing strong, and that became the mantra of the restoration government. This was important because the challenge of a government that is midway through its term is the ability to focus and maintain momentum to complete the execution of key policy initiatives. We successfully ensured that different ministries, departments and agencies implemented key policies of government; had a clear roadmap to ensure a strong finish in education, in healthcare, in infrastructure and we are also clear as to what the cost would be.
The second thing which we have largely achieved was fixing the state secretariat which was in a very deplorable state. We set out a five point plan for improving security, the environment, water supply, power supply and rehabilitation of the buildings. To a very large extent we have succeeded on all these fronts. Take water for instance, there had been no running water in over 10 years because a lot of the facilities had run down over time and there had been very little maintenance and upgrade.
We also made significant progress with the rehabilitation of the buildings. There were parts of the structures where people could not work because whenever offices set flooded. So we rehabilitated a lot of buildings and worked to improve security to stop vandalization of government equipment. We were able to access fund facility at less than 10 percent interest. We were able to fund many businesses. There were people who were looking for two hundred thousand or three hundred thousand naira to start a business. So with two billion naira, we were able to meet their needs. At the last count, we had over 3000 MSMEs that accessed this money and were able to start their businesses and start repaying what they borrowed. The context for this was that for many youths coming out of school the jobs were simply not available.
The other project we successfully ran was running the Bayelsa State Investment and Economic Forum which was a platform for attracting investors into the state and also for teaching Bayelsans the importance of private enterprise, how to start a small or micro level business – and grow it from there. We sought to qualitatively affect the lives of people and get them out of unemployment and poverty to a place where they could be self employed and making enough money for themselves and meeting their own obligations.
What legacies of Governor Dickson do you intend to build on and how if elected?
I have had the privilege of a front row seat because I have served twice as Commissioner for Trade and Investment and currently I serve as SSG. I’ve been part of this government for close to six years. And in that time, I’ve been right in the middle of a lot of the policy initiatives of this government. Governor Dickson’s world-view is anchored on changing the narrative of Bayelsa and the Niger Delta in fundamental areas. One of his key priorities is security. He invested massively in security infrastructure. He built a very sophisticated command and control centre to track criminal activities across the state. That helped to augment the efforts of the police, DSS and other security agencies. These deliberate efforts have yielded massive results in reducing the level of crime in the state and of course the work continues. I think we’ve done well partnering with the police force and other security agencies and investing in equipment that helps to track crime across the state. The Governor is most passionate about education because it is the key emancipator for any human being. Once you have education, your options are much wider than if you did not. To date we have 10 special boarding schools at secondary level with free education and free feeding. There are five more coming on stream so every local government has one and in the state capital there are two. We also started two new universities from scratch – the University of Africa, Toru-Orua and Bayelsa State Medical University, Yenagoa. This is in addition to major rehabilitation of schools and teacher training and certification programmes to ensure that we have teachers qualitatively prepared to teach. The third area is healthcare. Private health centres have been built in all the wards of the state. We also have something which I believe is unique: a regular allowance for all pregnant women in the state. Once it is certified that you are pregnant, you get N3000 monthly allowance to augment your feeding and other necessities. We also set up the Bayelsa State Health Insurance Scheme which started with the civil servants and is now expanding to the wider society. And then there is infrastructure. We have finished the first airport in Bayelsa – a 3.5km runway airport which will become operational next month. We are just completing the fencing to meet up with NCAA regulations. The Governor Dickson administration has also built roads and bridges across the state. Today, you can drive to Nembe which you couldn’t do before. In the past you would have to take a boat from Ogbia to Nembe and that would be a 30 to 60 minute boat journey. We now want to get to the Atlantic on the three fronts, the Brass front which is the eastern flank, Kolo-Ama which is on the central flank and then Agge where we plan to build the deep sea port on the western flank. Also in the past it used to require a three hour boat journey to get to Ekeremor, but now you can get there within one hour by road. This was achieved by this Government. I have been privileged to work with his Excellency, Governor Dickson in seeing these things come to life from nothing. And so my first priority is to consolidate. Projects we haven’t finished, we must finish and there is going to be no discontinuity.
The next key thing is the expansion of the economy of the state because what is most important for people is to be able to leave their homes in the morning, be engaged in something productive and to know that there is some reward for what they are doing. We have a lot of natural advantages in agriculture: in palm production, cassava production, fish farming and rice production. We are in the Delta where rice can grow all year round.
Bayelsa State is also blessed with abundant gas and we will leverage on that. So for me the next thing is to expand the economy in such a way that we will create more wealth and pull more people out of poverty.
How will you convince delegates to support your aspiration?
The Restoration Government which I am part of controls over 80 per cent of PDP in Bayelsa State. From membership of the House of Assembly to membership of the National Assembly to the Governor, the Deputy Governor, political appointees, special advisers, commissioners, counselors, and officers in the local government. These people make up the delegates. In order to build consensus, the Governor has done something brilliant; he has laid out two criteria for the person he will support to succeed him. One, the person must have the fear of God, secondly, he must have a passion for development. Currently, three persons from the Restoration movement have indicated interest to be Governor. The Governor has said that anyone can go ahead to indicate interest, pick up the form and talk to the state and to the delegates and we will support the most successful person. I am a part of the Restoration team and I come from Bayelsa Central.
By the zoning system which we have in the state, Bayelsa Central District produced the first Governor, D.S.P. Alameyesigha. Central District has three local governments, Southern Ijaw, Yenagoa and Kolokuma/Opokuma Alameyesigha was from Southern Ijaw. After him, it moved to Bayelsa East with our former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan emerged as the Governor. Ogbia, Brass and Nembe make up Bayelsa East. After him it remained in Bayelsa East with Timipre Sylva who was at the time the PDP Governor that was produced from Brass. Then it moved to Bayelsa West where our current Governor, Seriake Dickson hails from. And he has been the first Governor to complete two terms successfully. If you know the history of our state, you’ll realise that we are in the middle of the first proper transition. Out of the three who have indicated interest, I am from Yenagoa which is Bayelsa Central. Also today, Yenagoa has the highest number of votes across the entire state. Therefore we are of the view that if we talk about politics of fairness and equity and inclusion, then it should come to my local government area. I am the only member of the Restoration team who is from my local government area who is contesting. The delegates know this well, they are part of the structure. We are not taking anyone for granted; we’ll keep talking to the delegates. My fervent belief is that at the end of the day, the delegates would recognize that there is a need to maintain continuity, to fortify and to consolidate on the things which we have achieved for our common good.
How would you describe yourself?
Kemela Okara is a man of integrity who loves his people, and who is passionate about the development of his people. If you value people and do all you can to improve the quality of their lives, then ultimately, society will be a better place. If you run a system that gives people the opportunity to achieve their potential, there’s no greater legacy you can leave behind. That is why for me, integrity, passion for people and a desire to see people’s conditions change; that is what keeps me involved in politics.
As an individual, what have you done for the people of Bayelsa?
When I got involved in politics in 2010 one of the things I observed was the high level of unemployment among youths. I asked myself, what is the single most important thing I can do? I thought about it and decided that perhaps the key thing I could do is to provide scholarships for indigent students. So today, we have a scheme that provides scholarships for indigent students who gain admission to the university. Based on the set criteria if you qualify you get a scholarship. I chose law because I am a lawyer and so was my father and I wanted to honour him. We also give scholarships in nursing. My mother was a nurse so I’m very partial to nurses. We also have medicine because it’s a key profession that helps society. Also, engineering, because if you’re going to industrialize, you need engineers. Today, we have eight students to whom we are committed from year one till they graduate.
What would you say is your unique selling point?
My unique selling point is that I am part of this government and I understand what we need to consolidate on. I have a clear understanding about what we need to do to expand the economy. I was in charge of designing the state’s industrial policy and master plan for industrialization. So the next priority is job creation through a multi-dimensional strategy anchored on Bayelsa’s areas of comparative advantage in agriculture and gas for industrialization. I can wake up anytime and tell you what we need to do and how to leverage our areas of comparative advantage to grow the economy of the state.
