What were your feelings following your hard fought re-election?
I have an immense sense of gratitude to God Almighty from whom all power flows and to the good and wonderful people of Bayelsa who showed a lot of support and confidence in me and in what the restoration government I lead has been able to do in the last four years. We also take that as a vote of confidence, a pointer that the people are actually yearning for more service delivery. Happily in the last four years we have been able to lay some solid foundations in all sectors of our economy, education, physical infrastructure, roads, bridges and all what have you. We were also able to bring about a semblance of security, law and order never mind the stories that came out of the election and that had to do with election violence and some bit of post election violence but generally Bayelsa is peaceful. All of these are records we were able to achieve in the first term and it is our expectation that in spite of the dwindling revenue which is a major national challenge we will make more progress. We all have to carefully manage public revenues and hope to build on the foundations already laid.
Why was there so much violence in the just concluded elections?
The pointers were there right from the primaries of some of the parties that produced challengers, from complaints of arms build up, from the reports we were making as a government. People were talking, other candidates were raising those issues, and the security alerts were all over the place but somehow I think there was some interference, some lack of pro-activeness on the part of the security agencies and probably some undue interference with security judgements and security law enforcement actions which really is regrettable. All of these were known, they were predicted, the characters were all known, well identified, with their clear track record so everybody knew which people were planning what more of which cane to light when I embarked on a community to community tour that took me six weeks. Even with my record of performance I had to connect further with the people. I knew that a lot of things have changed in our democracy, for example the introduction of the smart card readers and the PVC which ensured that only actual votes count. That is a major fundamental paradigm shift which unfortunately a lot of politicians are not conscious of. They are still thinking that the old way of playing politics and getting themselves declared , arranging people, or hooligans to hijack materials, kidnap people, write results and present them to electoral officials would prevail.Those days are now getting over for good, so I took time to campaign and in the course of our campaigns we raised all those issues and that whereas we were campaigning and further connecting with the people others seemed to be preparing for war, purchasing and procuring prohibited weaponry and training people. They were not interested in the contest of ideas or in espousing a vision. All they were doing was preparing to maim and terrorize. I was always conscious that I was not just a candidate because when you are an incumbent governor you have a constitutional responsibility and mandate for security and law and order in addition to being a candidate. So we were holding security council meeting, security chiefs were fully appraised of all these developments but unfortunately they were either overwhelmed or there were a lot of other issues and somehow they were unable to prevent this level of violence.
Talking about the proliferation of arms. Now that the election is over, how do you intend to put an end to this?
In our system, the ultimate responsibility for law and order, the ultimate guardian of the institutions and apparatus of coercion is the Federal Government. So even with the best of intentions a governor can only play a very limited role. You can provide leadership and support to security agencies but ultimate responsibility resides in the federal law enforcement agencies, so cooperation, the understanding of the federal security team is important. Courage, commitment, professionalism on their part is critical. The political directive, the political will at the federal level to ensure that there is observance of law and order and that in the enforcement of laws there is no unnecessary discrimination i.e like the phenomenon we have come to know in Bayelsa, which is sweeping across the Niger Delta and I hope it stops at that region and doesn’t get exported to other parts of the country ie for the first time we are now having political partyn criminals, i.e criminal A of this party who will be protected and supported who will be given some level of immunity and then a criminal or militant B who is not deemed to be supportive of a political party now becomes a target. Either he is framed or set up and then the security law and order agencies now go after the person. We are having that type of dangerous situation. For us, crime is crime, whether you are talking of people who are blowing up pipe lines or people who are killing people and maiming people and destroying homes in the guise of politics. Whether they are supportive of a particular candidate or not, you deal with these issues as they are. There must be leadership at the federal level, there must be professionalism at the federal level and there must be understanding of the roles that governors and those who control levels of authority must play. In other words there must be collaboration.
Some people allege you played a role in the violence. What is your response to that?
In a political contest, you will expect people to say that but the empirical facts are there. I would not want to call names here but everyone knows that ninety percent of those whose houses were destroyed are of my party. Even 90 per cent of those who were killed are my supporters and PDP supporters. If 90 per cent or 100 per cent of those who are attacked and killed are of my party and my supporters then you should have a clear idea as to where the finger should be pointing. These facts are all in the public domain and they are very well in the possession of the security agencies. So politicians can trade blames, others can deflect liability, they can accuse people after doing something, and play the propaganda media game but facts remain facts and as far as the Bayelsa elections are concerned the militants are talking about the political persuasions that they belong to. We know the candidate they support, we know the people who procured arms for them, we know those who are using their contacts at the federal level to compromise the work of the security agencies so these facts are very clear that we are not responsible at all.
Now that you have been re-elected, what will be your priority areas this time around?
Well fortunately, during the first term and in spite of the challenges and distractions, we had the presence of mind to have laid a solid foundation in almost all sectors. A number of projects were completed like the flyover but some because of the short fall in our revenue in the past one and half years or so were slowed down but it would not take more than six months to one year to achieve completion. These are all legacy projects, life changing projects. Our dream is to turn Bayelsa in the next few years to be the Dubai of Africa and we will be expecting all of you to come to Bayelsa to invest, relax and enjoy yourselves. The airport we started is about 70 per cent completed. We have built over 30 boarding facilities, we have built many health facilities like the diagnostics centre most of them are completed. Every local government now has a modern hospital, most of them 70-80% completed, so the foundation has already been laid. The architecture for providing adequate security and enforcing law and order is already laid out. The philosophy of our government is clearly laid out. We have set up the micro finance bank in the state for the first time, to create easy access to capital for low income earners and particularly rural dwellers. My community to community tour was actually an eye opener. Now I understand far more than ever before the actual living conditions of the rural people. This second term is an opportunity to consolidate on the foundation we have already laid and I think Bayelsa will be better for it.
In terms of your plans to reduce youth restiveness, what do we expect looking at your budget?
In the budget we are hoping to complete existing projects. There are very few projects because in my first term I was very ambitious. As a matter of fact I was accused of doing too much. That was good for me because happily that foundation is already there. So in this budget because of the short falls in our national revenue, we have scaled it down. My budget for the last two to three years has been twice this. This budget is only N150 billion, we even pray that we realise that. This is one critical area we need to work together in the country across all political fences. We need to close ranks and unfortunately we are not doing that enough. Sadly, the team around the Presidency at the federal level with all due respect is not building sufficient consensus. After elections, every leader in this nation has to unite and right now we have national imperatives that we must address, the issue of securing this country, protecting lives and properties, fighting and defeating terrorism in all its forms not just Boko Haram but also kidnapping, blowing up national assets. We need to build national consensus from governors to community leaders to local council chairmen and to those who are running the security apparatus in our country. We need to set politics aside, call a spade a spade, and unite to confront and defeat terror and address the economy. What are our strategies for saving the economy? Because in all of this in the end, people will hold the president responsible and all of us governors for inability to fulfil our campaign promises. You talked about youth restiveness.The president and his party have a very robust agenda in the area of fighting youth restiveness, they are proposing N5,000 stipends to unemployed youths, which is wonderful. I am already doing it in Bayelsa but mine was targeted at the elderly. Every Bayelsan over the age of 70 and above has a stipend of N5,000 monthly. The former governor of Ekiti also did it. In all of these programmes you need money. So where are we going to get money to fund all these? Addressing the issues of national economy and security that also fuel the economy are very critical.
How do you intend to tackle the issue of youth restiveness because they do not believe they have any benefits from multinationals operating in the area?
Bayelsa is not just a state like other states. Bayelsa is the heart and soul of the Niger Delta, the epicentre of Niger Delta issues and that is why stabilising Bayelsa is important. That is why clear headed leadership like we have tried to offer is important for our region and the country, and that is why we are concerned about the state of violence that was actively promoted and supported even by state actors. Now to address this issue of youth restiveness, youth unemployment and unemployability because very often they complain of no jobs but they are not employable. All of these are very critical moving forward for our economy as well as the security of our nation. Now we have to address these issues. I have built a youth development centre bigger than most universities. We built it from the scratch, we can accommodate almost a thousand youths for in service training. It is a brand new place which we built and have donated it to the NYSC, we hope to collaborate so that we can give some basic training to youth even leadership and citizenship training to our young people. This nation cannot survive unless we work together to address these issues and complaints form our youths. A number of youths from Niger Delta are frustrated when they do not have the skills with which to compete in a globally competitive job market. This is the age of internet and globalisation and you have 90% of our active youths not being able to tap into this realm and that poses a very serious danger to our economy and security. We all need to work and collaborate with even the multinationals for when a young man sees that just across his house there are oil facilities with light and water and he doesn’t have light where he stays, these things they call oil blocs which I have repeatedly emphasised are but ancestral property of people of the Niger Delta but which some just sit down, plot and give out, it fuels resentment. By our constitution, they federal government has the prerogative over all this but there must be sufficient consideration for the training, for enabling the people to have a hope and a sense of belonging. That is why the amnesty programme came and the nation spent quite some money over the years on amnesty and now I hear it is being reviewed. I am waiting to interact with the coordinator who I believe can do a good job, so that we can collaborate and discuss with other players and give hope not just to the youth of Niger Delta concerning their frustration with oil companies and give hope generally to all the unemployed youths of the nation.
Are you on the same page with President Buhari on his fight for corruption?
I do not think there is any Nigerian who will have issues with the fight against corruption. But there are genuine concerns as to the way and manner corruption is being fought. The fight has to be all inclusive, there should be no discrimination and it should in advance be within the context of the rule of law because in the end we are a nation of laws. I am an anti-corruption crusader myself. I have supported that tough actions be taken not just to fight it but most importantly to prevent it. Now we are addressing corruption in the sense of reviewing what has been done before, which is good but I think that more effort should be done within the context of the law and how to prevent corruption. We must get ourselves to the level where we avoid this fire brigade approach and wait for somebody to mis-appropriate billions of Naira and dollars and you do name calling.
In the media we are yet to see convictions by the court of law which are the things we are waiting for. It is not media trials. It is good to say that there is this scam and we are investigating it, but we are reading so much of this as if they are established facts. What I think is that the judiciary should also rise to the occasion and not be intimidated or overwhelmed by this challenge. It is a major challenge to national development that the judiciary and all of us must rise to:the challenge of accountability, transparency and holding ourselves accountable to the laws and constitutions and it is a challenge that even the leadership of our nation at all level must subscribe to. You cannot do anything outside the law and claim you are fighting corruption and we must also bear in mind that perhaps the worse form of corruption is not just stealing money, the worse form in my view is the abuse of power itself because in all other forms of corruption you are only talking of Naira and kobo but the abuse of power on its own undermines everything about corruption because that is the greatest corruption. If you threaten the judiciary, blackmail the state institutions, abuse and use state institutions to serve your personal purpose or even partisan interest, or in a way and manner that is outside the rules is in itself corruption. If you put undue pressure on an electoral body or abuse security powers invested in you, that is corruption. We are happy with the trend because we all need to be woken up from our slumber as a nation, because certain things, negative conduct, should not become a norm or define us.
What is your take on the Biafra struggle?
This is a concern I have about the team of the President. I have said it that after every election we all unite to essentially address two key things: economy and national security issues. Whoever is the president, whichever party, we all need to do that. There is not enough consensus building. We have issues of Boko Haram, Biafra agitations, people threatening to go back to the creeks which we will work to prevent. Their plate is full and we should really focus on doing more.
Talking of Biafra, I believe that the Biafra agitators as President Obasanjo correctly analyzed it are calling for attention. He understands these things perhaps more than a lot of other people. He has said that these guys are not working hard to dismember Nigeria because that is not possible. They are crying for attention and somebody should be listening. I think that is what President Obasanjo is saying and we all are in support of that attention because in the end we are a nation of diverse interests and diverse people and we should not run away from it. Our strength as a nation derives from our diversity. Our diversity is our strength, so when people sit down there in Abuja and begin to build cocoons, begin to polarise our country and instead of building consensus you are creating more battle fronts on every side, on every issue, now that is troubling, that is not leadership. So President Obasanjo is correct and he has a lot of experience. probably one of the most experienced men in our country and he should be taken seriously.
How do you plan to stop kidnapping in Nembe?
Kidnapping is a major issue. We have dealt with it to some extent. After I took over, the crime rate was reduced to the barest minimum and we were priding ourselves as Bayelsa being the safest state in Nigeria. I believe it is still the safest state but we do have issues of kidnapping and sea piracy in Nembe but the rate has been reduced because of the road that we now have from Yenagoa, through Ogbia to Nembe. It was a Shell -NDDC project but we encouraged and supported them so people now drive there. But in Brass we have issues of kidnapping, we have issues of sea piracy. The whole thing is a national problem to be dealt with through collaboration at all levels. Our security infrastructure is there, I have laid down for example, a community wide radio communication system, where we can stay in control rooms and monitor situations for effective enforcement of law and order. Specially built, we will commission it very soon. Through it we can communicate with our communities and know exactly what is going on and we will enable every security operative to tap into that network. We are also sensitising communities because at the end of the day even the communities and the community leaders know people who are doing these things, the people who break pipe Ines, the people who steal crude, the people who kidnap, the people who carry out piracy attacks because they live in those communities. I have also set up a frame work for getting community support behind the work of the law enforcement agencies.
Follow The Eagle Online Channel on WhatsApp
