Gov Dickson to APC: We’ve made fundamental impact
in Bayelsa State where he recorded rapturous receptions,
Governor Henry Seriake Dickson fielded questions from
the media on the forthcoming governorship election.
According to him, owing to his widely acknowledged
record of performance, he would win the December 5,
2015 governorship election. He had urged journalist to ask
his main opponent how many “monkey bridges” he built.
Excerpts:
From your community-to-community campaign how much
of democracy dividends would you say has really flowed
down to the people at the grassroots level, especially in
Brass and Southern Ijaw Local Government Areas?
I want first of all to use this opportunity to thank the
chiefs, elders, leaders and the good and wonderful people
of the communities and local government areas and wards
that I have been to so far for their outpouring of love and
support and encouragement. It was touching to see school
children wearing uniforms that my government supplied,
carrying banners in appreciation of their governor and
praying for me for the investments I am making for their
future. That is a lasting dividend of democracy: The
investment in the future of the state, in the hearts and
minds, not of a few Yenagoa-based critics and Abuja-
based politicians. I saw hope and appreciation on the
faces of our people; we got gifts from every community
and political leaders. Our people do not know any other
political party contesting for this election other than me, as
the candidate of the PDP. I saw the massive outpouring of
genuine love and support from the chiefs, elders, youths
and women groups.
On our community to community tour, I must say that part
of what I am doing and have been doing is to quietly, in
my own way, change the way politics is played in this
state. The level of maturity and tolerance I have brought
to bear on the politics is such that you see the opposition
campaigning against me as vigorously as I am also
campaigning. That is happening for the first time. When
the APC’s Chief Timipre Sylva was governor, you saw
what he did. Even the primaries in his own party was filled
with shooting and holding people hostage. When he was
here as governor, anybody who wanted to campaign
against him was attacked. One of his supporters, Chief
Rufus Abadi, knows what happened to him in his house at
Otuan. But some of our people have short memories. I
want to challenge my opponent, Sylva, to do same and
sleep in the communities as I am doing, instead of
bragging about federal force. No one knows him at the
federal level other than he was used to unseat his brother.
Let him go to our communities and relate with them freely
as I am doing.
I sat in a dining hall built by my government in Okugbie,
one of the investments we have made in all the
communities. We are not where we want to be yet, but we
have made a difference and they appreciate the roads and
they are all waiting to receive me. The last communities
on my way were Ayama and all Tarakiri communities.
They were very receptive such that for three days they did
not go to the forest or farm; they waited for me for two to
three days, to encourage me. I cannot thank them enough.
It is my prayer that after the election I will go back on this
community tour because it has also opened my eyes
more, which is the central purpose of this government: To
see the people’s material conditions and how much I have
tried to solve all their problems and to see what remains
to be done.
These gentlemen in APC are trying to take our state
nowhere. Despite the old names, their communities do not
appreciate them; they have no support. I have done what
no government had done before, spent two nights in
Southern Ijaw, one night in Korukoreseigh, which is my
speaker’s community. The entire ward waited till about
8pm when we got there. We commissioned their pavilion,
a road that we did; they also have the schools and
investments that are there. All we are doing is to
consolidate so that by God’s grace, those boarding
schools will start by January and I cannot wait to see
these children that I saw in all the communities wearing
smart, clean uniforms provided by the Restoration
Government, with books supplied. Our children are bright
and because of the investments we have in education they
can compete with their mates elsewhere. That is why I
am not surprised that our educational rating has gone up
from 28 in the national chart to fourth in WAEC results. If
we achieved this within this short period, then imagine
what will happen when I consolidate in all these 24
constituency schools coming on stream. Where have you
seen that kind of investment of over N26 billion put in and
concrete jobs in the communities and the communities are
seeing it, so they know it is not just talk.
How would you assess your opponents?
I do not see anybody seriously contesting against me, not
even my good friend and brother, Sylva and his APC. They
are only holding meetings in Abuja and threatening their
own fathers and mothers and brothers that they will use
federal forces to overrun their own people for their own
purpose, not for the development of our state. This is a
man who had been here for five years. Where are his
statistics of development? What did he do for Bayelsa? He
is only playing on the nature, fears and greed, the envy
and jealousy of our people. There is nothing in their
politics for the people of Bayelsa State other than putting
some bad belle people together to fight me. Because I did
not allow them to go to Senate for a third time, so I must
not go for governorship. Even the people in their
communities know they have a governor they can trust;
they know when I make a promise, I keep it. All the
promises I made in the course of the tour, I am fulfilling
right away.
Leadership is about trust and responsibility, building, not
destroying. So, anytime somebody talks about destruction
you know that is not a leader but a gangster, a criminal. It
is because of the weaknesses of Nigerian institutions that
these people have been allowed to grow the way they are
and people mistake them for leaders. You cannot be
seeking the mandate of the people and saying, “whether
you like it or not, I will bring soldiers,” as if you are the one
who employed them and saying Nigerian troops are at
their beck and call. Are Nigerian troops members of APC?
They want to just destroy our institutions and our country.
PDP was in power for 16 years. Lagos and other states
remained in opposition. Does it mean Jonathan could not
order troops before he conceded defeat?
Sylva said pensioners had not been paid. I am the one
who said that our allocation is unfortunately low, even
offices do not have allocation. I am sorry that is the
situation, but I gave my word and true to type we have
started paying. When he was here, he was not paying
them for years. I have the records. He was owing over N6
billion in gratuities. Someone who could not manage
N15-16 billion, can he manage N4.2 billion that we are
receiving now? Out of this amount, we are still paying his
debt. The bond he took runs till 2017. Do you think Sylva
has changed overnight? I went to communities and they
were telling me statistics of young people that were killed
by Operation Famutangbe; go to Amarata, they will tell you
the number of young boys they lost. But the good news is
that the communities, the voters are the ones that matter
in an election and they are with us, which is another
paradigm shift I am introducing in the politics of this state.
After this election you will see that never again will
someone call himself or herself a political leader merely
because you have held one office and you are staying in
Abuja, Lagos or Yenagoa. I went to Kpansia. The
community waited 2-3 days for me and I got there at night;
same for Opolo and they welcomed me, gave me a sword
and tied wrapper on me when I got there because they
believe in me. If Bayelsans are self-respecting and you
want other Nigerians and people to look at you, the Ijaw
people with respect, then this is not the time to embrace
APC. Ijaw people will not be put to shame.
Why do you say Bayelsa doesn’t need APC now?
From the ministerial position they gave, you can see how
they rate Bayelsa. From a state that lost Presidency,
where our only permanent secretary has been removed,
they could only give us minister of state. Only God knows
what happens next. Our highest customs officers retired.
They say we got Minister of State for Agriculture. I say no,
it is assistant minister. In effect it is minister without
portfolio.
The truth is that Bayelsans must wake up. The elite must
learn to put the people’s collective interest ahead of their
own selfish interest. Timipre Sylva went about promising
people governorship and he became the governorship
candidate. He also promised everybody the position of
deputy governor and he failed them. This is the Jerusalem
of the Ijaw nation and cannot be given out to a man like
Timipre Slyva. You saw him perform as governor, let him
tell us the opponent he allowed to campaign freely as I am
doing now. Even though I disagree with him, he has the
right to campaign all over the state and I urge everybody
to give him respect, but do not vote for him, do not support
him. When he comes to tell you what he has to say, ask
him his record of security and how he intends to secure
you going forward. Ask him why he did not do all I am
doing, schools, uniforms? Ask him what he did with the
bond he got? Ask him why he apologised to the whole
world and Nigerians over Jonathan. You cannot be one of
us and go that far and expect there will be no
consequences. You might not agree with Jonathan, but it
was wrong for him to have gone as far, such that if God
from this small state gave us the presidency, he was the
instrument of people to destroy the presidency.
When re-elected into office, what are those things you
would do which could not be accomplished in your first
term?
By the grace of God and by the support of the people, we
have started a lot of mega life-changing projects. I came
in here to make maximum impact within the available
resources and time. Unfortunately, our finances dropped
precipitously. Last month, we got N4.2 billion and after
paying Sylva’s bond, which we will keep paying every
month till 2017, we managed to pay salaries and
pensions. We cannot even pay allowances of people
working with us, and we are not alone; all states and even
Federal Government are affected. Therefore, the second
term is to be dedicated to completion of most of these life-
changing projects that are almost at completion stage
because every project has a gestation period. People like
to see magic because of the energy we started with and
because we had resources we were putting everything in
and now people think I am distracted. I am not, it is a
question of finances. Look at the airport, and ask Sylva
why did he not do the airport. He played politics with
everything, cleared a site and put a signboard before the
first block was laid and got an ailing president to come
and commission it!
Since I took over, I have not fought Sylva. I just drew a
line below his abysmal record and did things differently. I
am the one who has security background. In our younger
days, I started as a policeman. We know how to fight but
in the interest of peace I do not believe in using
government powers to bring people down. Politics is
about using the power God gives us, power through the
people to build and change lives. But for goodness sake if
you cannot help a man, leave him alone; do not shoot him
and his children. I know what happened to the airport,
not to talk of the Nembe-Brass road that so much money
went into. You all know me and that is the difference
between me and him. If you drive to Amassoma Eoad
now, you will see the airport. I have awarded the contract
for the installation of the navigational instrument. FAAN
has come to do the certification. In the next couple of
months we will be landing there.
I thought they said the flyover was built by the Federal
Government, but now they are not saying that anymore.
Ask Sylva why he did not build a structure like that. He
calls it ‘monkey bridge.’ How many ‘monkey bridges’ did
he build? He could not dualise the Azikoro Road that we
finished and that is the road they are using, going about
wielding brooms. There is the dualisation of Isaac Boro
Road. Such big projects have a timeline. So, if there is a
shortfall within that period, the completion time elongates
naturally.
If you ask me about projects I will focus on, we need to
complete these projects. Look at Igbogene bypass; that
road is 35-36 kilometres. We have already done the bulk
of the job. When you owe a contractor because of what
happened, contractors will leave and it is all over the
country even with Federal Government jobs.
So, by the grace of God after the elections, God willing,
these are the things to complete. We will start certain
things but they will be minimal because we want to finish
all these ones because they are almost 80 per cent
completed. Look at the Igbogene bridge that they ply on.
Ask Sylva why he allowed those 1950 bridges to be there
until I came in. The bulk of that work is already done,
leaving just the sand filling of the second lane; so in 3-4
months that work is finished. That is how to work for a
people. We did not do that just to get praises.
Nobody in APC can close their eyes and say we have not
made any difference because we have made a
fundamental impact.
Look at the Transparency Building he started, but did not
complete it? I have spent more money on those buildings
than he did. We are going to complete these life-changing
projects and then the schools, because that is where the
real future of our state is. By the time I finish this boarding
policy, they will be the best. We must also do the fencing
of those compounds and the teachers will be re-trained as
the teachers training institute is set.
You can imagine where Bayelsa will be with Governor
Dickson in the next two years with these projects finished.
That is what Sylva cannot do because he does not have
the discipline to manage lean resources. He does not have
the vision and the passion and commitment. This job is
not for ‘guy men’ but for a country man who knows the
people, shares their problems and works for them. If you
like him because he fought his brother and you want to
reward him, like Judas got 30 pieces of silver, no problem.
If he is not good enough to be President Buhari’s minister,
then our message, which we must send out on the 5th of
December to President Buhari and all the people in INEC
and military is that we Bayelsans say he is not good
enough to be our governor.
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