Bayelsans should support abrogation of Land Use Act —Diri

Senator Douye Diri, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate for the November 16, 2019 election in Bayelsa State and currently representing Bayelsa Central Senatorial District in the Senate on the platform of the party, talks about his vision and plan for the people of the state, if elected. EBOIWEI LAWAL brings the excerpts:

Your party has ruled BayelsaState for the past 20 years. Are you satisfy with the level of development in the state, as the opposition claims the PDP is an unmitigated disaster in power?

We are not satisfied with what has come into Bayelsa and the level of development we have seen. If we are  satisfied, then there will be no need for me to come out to contest this election, as a party, even on self-evaluation. We know that within the 20 years of our rule, there were certain regimes that did not do well as a party, so that was the reason some persons even left government and joined opposition. When the government of Governor Seriake Dickson came in, we called it the “Government of Restoration.” For you to restore, it means the locust must have eaten up; that is the essence of restoration, so that is why the word restoration was coined. Therefore, to answer your question simply, we are not totally satisfied with the performance of the party for 20 years, not very satisfied.

But again, let us look at it from the other side. For those of you who knew old Yenagoa Local Government, comprising Kolokuma/Opokuma, Southern Ijaw and present Yenagoa, I’m also satisfied to tell you that a whole lot of development has taken place in Yenagoa, and that successive PDP governments have contributed so much to the development of Yenagoa as our state capital, comparatively to what you know as the old Yenagoa Local Government Area. This was a place where you had bushes bounding one community from the other; this was a place where you had very few development. The road was one tiny routed and you remembered, at the creation of Bayelsa State, people were abusing us for having just one road in the state capital. But today, I’m sure that you don’t have just Mbiama-Yenagoa Road; several other roads have been added, even though we are not there yet. That is why I said not very satisfied, but I can assure you that I’m satisfied to an extent. Those of us who are founding fathers that stood for the creation of Bayelsa State, we have nothing to regret about, because we are still a developing state.

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But some critics claim the huge allocation coming to the state in the past years of the PDP rule is not commensurate with the level of development so far?

I turn to disagree with you that the money coming into Bayelsa compared to the money taken away from Bayelsa is inadequate and compare to what the Federal Government has done here. If Bayelsa is giving so much to the Federal Government, why are we having only 13 per cent and why are we crying over 13 per cent that is nowhere near to the development of this state, considering our terrain and our environment. We get only 13 per cent of derivation out of 100 per cent. We should be talking about controlling our resources and paying taxes to the Federal Government. That is the practice worldwide; nobody goes to sit with  plate at the end of every month to collect what they called federal allocation, even when that federal allocation is used to develop other parts of Nigeria and here we are struggling and abusing ourselves with a paltry 13 per cent allocation. So, I want to urge every Bayelsan to join me in the crusade for the abrogation of the Land Use act, because that is what has deprived the Niger Delta from its own wealth. If that is done, then we can be asking ourselves how much do we have and how much have we put into the development of Bayelsa State.

The power situation has been one problem confronting the residents of Bayelsa, especially Yenagoa, the state capital. What plan do you have to improve the sector?

You will agree with me that power is on the exclusive legislative list in Nigeria and so, if there is darkness in Bayelsa, the first point of call is the Federal Government. A lot of people have misinterpreted it to mean that since Governor Seriake Dickson came in, that is when we have blackout. But no, the first people that should take the blame is the Power Holding Company, as you know, this is not a company owned by Bayelsa State. All the lines are owned by the Federal Government. That is why we are also talking about the restructuring of this country: things like this should not be in the exclusive legislative list. Things like this should not even be in the concurrent list. Things like this should be in the residual legislative list. What scenario is the concurrent list that the state government can also approximate power to have their own electricity, but because they are all controlled by the Federal Government?

You need to go and talk to people in Abuja to do something in your state. If you want to have an independent power plant, you need approval from Abuja. those are things that are wrong with our federation.So, the power situation is actually not from Bayelsa, but we will try to begin to get the approvals that they want us to get from the national and try to see whether we can bring in an independent power project, just like the late Governor Melford Okilo and others did when they were governors, and I’m sure even in this administration, I was party to certain discussions on bringing in more independent power projects. You know we are sitting on gas in Bayelsa and all major oil companies. We will engage them to the point that they will support us as a state and my government will productively work to bring more independent power plants in order to solve the problem of darkness not only in Yenagoa, but in our local government headquarters and in various communities.

 How about the welfare of workers; a lot of them have been complaining, yet they form an integral part of government machinery?

I have often said that most people who criticise government do not know what is inside government. If you stay out to criticise, you wouldn’t know what to do, in answering your question, I’m guided by the fact that I’m not yet the governor of this state. When  I become the governor, I will sustain parts of the policies that I was part of in the current government before I left for Abuja. One of them was to look at the civil service and see how we can bring in most of our youths who have graduated and are still roaming the streets. That is leading to increase in crimes in our state and that was done very well in the reorganisation of the civil service. They were people who were receiving salaries in five, six, places and at the inception of the present government, I headed a team in my local government area and we saw a lot of things, people who are not resident in Bayelsa were receiving salaries; some were in Port Harcourt, Abuja and their names were in the payroll of Bayelsa State government, thereby depriving our children from being employed. People who were over 65 years had age declarations that are younger than their own children. When those policies came on board and today, I’m told the policies have created chances for about 1000 people to be employed into the civil service. That came as result of good policies of reorganising the civil service as the engine room of government, and when i come on board, I will oil that engine room and make it effective.

I will oiled it in terms of training and retraining, oiled it in terms of having people who have the capacity and competence, oiled it in terms of people who are interested in the civil service and not people who have secured employment and do not come to work. You remember the policy of this present government of logging in and logging out, I remember when we came in, the secretariat was a ghost town, nobody was coming to work, but today, this story is different and we are going to sustain those type of policies, so that is the best we will do with the civil service.

How about the area of youth development and sports?

As a former commissioner for youth and sports, I’m passionate about sport development, when I come in as a governor, I will ensure that Bayelsa United come into premier league again, I will upgrade infrastructures and sport facilities in our state, we acquired a land under my tenure as sport Commissioner at Elebele axis to build a model stadium, in fact we even awarded that contract, but because our tenure was very short, the contract was unable to take off before we left and that place has been abandoned since 2006 till date, I feel very bad about it, now, we don’t have an international rating stadium in Bayelsa in spite of how sportiest  our people are, during my tenure as commissioner, I was one of those who advocated for comparative advantage in sport, I know in Bayelsa, we are very good in combat sport, we are very good in wrestling, I know and believe that in Bayelsa, we have skills in football and other areas, so I will improve on these.