Keniebi Okoko is one of the wealthiest persons in Bayelsa State. As a successful entrepreneur, Okoko, who hails from Gbarain, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, has been nursing the ambition to become the governor of the oil-rich state.
In the 2015 governorship election, Okoko, who is the son of Prof. Kimse Okoko, a notable Ijaw scholar and leader, made efforts to clinch the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but the party favoured the second term bid of the incumbent Governor Seriake Dickson.
The philanthropist has, however, continued to identify the potential of Bayelsa and the state’s economic advantage. Speaking to the Niger Delta Report in Yenagoa recently, he tries to juxtapose the state with Singapore. He wonders why Bayelsa is still struggling with development despite its huge resources while Singapore is far ahead with less resources.
“If you go to Singapore, I have been to Singapore at least six times in my life. If you go to Singapore, it is more or less a small island surrounded by water. Singapore has no oil, but has refineries. Singapore exports a lot of fish products and Singapore is doing extremely well economically.
“Bayelsa on the contrary has oil which is called black gold. Bayelsa has vegetation for rice farming; I can use the Peremabiri Rice Farm as an example. We have a good texture of soil to grow crops. Bayelsa is bigger than Singapore in size and in population if am not mistaken. What is so difficult in developing Bayelsa? That was why I made that comparison. We have more resources.”
What is the problem with Bayelsa? Okoko traces the problem to lack of education.
“Well, I believe that Bayelsa as a whole needs to focus on education. Mental poverty is worse than financial poverty. If a mind is not developed and equipped, a man cannot give what he does not have,” he says.
He adds: “Our people are not completely exposed to good education systems. Our people are not well travelled like other tribes. The Ijaw man is determined to succeed, if you give the Ijaw man the right playing ground, he will perform, I can assure you. So I believe that what we should do as a people is to focus on education.”
In his assertions, the billionaire businessman said emphasis should not be placed on classroom education. Bayelsa needs to blend theory with practical. The state needs to harp on skill acquisition. “Classroom education is one aspect, and outside classroom education is another aspect,” he says.
He continues: “Not everybody can experience education in the classroom or to the university level. There is a proverbial saying that all fingers are not equal. But you can balance the gap of the fingers. Creating skill acquisitions with the right personnel to man them give you the opportunity to train the less privileged on the skills that can develop them.
“For example if you go to China, you have where they train people on ICT, you have where they train people on bricklaying, you have where they train people on every artisan job you can think of. When the Amnesty Programme was going on, I was privileged to try to get something for some of the people, so I went to China to look at some of the schools in Wanzu.
“I was amazed, it was almost like a university of any magnitude, but it was just a skill center. If we have three in the three senatorial districts that are of high class, it will help to reduce the number of children that are not equipped to fend for themselves, or not equipped to face the future.
“On the other side, classroom education, in the universities today, I don’t know what is happening. You hear stories of lecturers abusing students; you hear stories of excessive selling of handouts. The educational system has gone down the drain.
“We need to refocus on the educational system, encourage our people with scholarships to go to school. Sign a contract with the schools that the certificates will be returned to you based on the fact that they will come and work for four, five years, and then you release them so they put what they have learnt back into the system.”
Okoko acknowledges the efforts of Governor Dickson in developing the educational system of the school. He says the governor has done his best. He says his duty as a leader is to add to what the governor has done in the sector.
He says: “I think the governor has given it a good try. I think that the intentions are good. I believe that he has genuine intentions for the job, and I believe he has tried his best.
“My duty as a leader is to try and add to what he has done, to build in any way we can help the government to improve where they have stopped in any capacity we find ourselves with good suggestions, and trying to develop a good road map to drive the Ministry of Education, to push his policies forward and help him being that I am in the same party with him.”
Okoko urged youths in the state to have role models and stopped being used by politicians as thugs. He appeals to leaders to take responsibility in shaping the future of the youths in the state. He laments the condition of the youths in the state saying they lack hope.
He says: “If a man does not understand the good around him and what it is for, he doesn’t value it. If a man is not part of a project, he cannot value the project. If a community does not understand why this will develop them, over and over again they will do it. That’s mental poverty. What will develop you is what you are killing, that is the mental poverty.
“Hope is dead in Bayelsa. The young people don’t have hope so they are looking for any means. Give them back hope. Sell leadership through qualities, be transparent, and open to them. Take them through processes of trainings. Mentorship, who is your mentor or who are you mentoring?
“Who are you looking up to? Why do you wake up in the morning? What is the core reason for your existence? Have someone you look up to. I have someone I look up to everyday. I have three people I look up to – Professor Kimse Okoko, Pastor David Ibiyomie and Bishop (David) Oyedepo.
“By any standard, these are men to look up to. So I aspire to want to be like them. Who are these young men looking up to? What are we selling to them as leaders and parents? When I was growing up, Prof. Okoko will always tell me, ‘my son a good name is better than riches’. ‘My son I don’t have money, but nobody can insult me in Nigeria’. He is going to be 80 with diabetes but he is looking younger than people that are in power. Healthy, strong, vibrant and sometimes driving himself. These are the things we should be asking ourselves if we want to be true; if we are not going to be political about everything.
“What are we giving the youths, what are we selling to them? I come to the village, young men come and be chanting Keniebi slogans and I say ‘shut up, what’s that nonsense about?’ I say ‘stop it and don’t vote for me if that is what you will be doing’. I tell them ‘what do you want for your future?’ You say you want to support me for governor, what am I doing for you?
“They were quiet because they have nothing else to trade on. With one thousand naira, they start carrying guns and shoot themselves. What are we teaching the young ones? So let’s be true to ourselves. The reason those things were stolen is because they didn’t have the reason and the value those things were there for.”