For me that is the way forward, an investment in education is not something you see the dividend immediately to get political credit from. No. Even their own children, 9, 10 year-old of them are selected. They are in top boarding schools in this country, government scholarship. That is the way to spend public money. We are building referral hospitals in every local government area. Now ask yourself, why was these things not done before? Why were these schools, hospitals not built?
A medical village has come up where there was none. If the sin is that we are spending public resources on those critical developmental challenges, then I plead guilty. And that was why I offer myself for service not to satisfy myself or the greed of a few people, I think that’s the challenge. What is happening actually is that they are not used to this type of revolution. They are not used to it. There is what is called culture shock. Some of them do go about saying, this governor does not do party, doesn’t dash people money, boys must drink now, so it is a cultural thing. I believe that with time, now that they have a benchmark, with time they will judge governors not with the issues of sharing money. They still wonder: “how do you expect a governor who is a custodian of public resources to say e no dey share money, public money?” And this should tell you something about that society. I thought that in a sane place, if a governor is prudent, in fact prudence should be the yardstick to electing governors. I run an economy of N10 billion per month in the average. When the economy was okay, our allocation was around N15, N26, N17 billion every month.
Q: Whats your Internal Generated Revenue?
A: In fact that is another thing. When I came in, it was about N50, N60 million per month, no industry; no one paid tax (am talking about PAYE tax). It is a society where NEPA bills, people didn’t pay, government must pay, so if we say no, pay your bills, someone will say no, this is anti-people policy.
Q: You seem to always condemn your predecess
“They still wonder: “how do you expect a governor who is a custodian of public resources to say e no dey share money, public money?” And this should tell you something about that society. I thought that in a sane place, if a governor is prudent, in fact prudence should be the yardstick to electing governors.”
A: No, no, no, am praising them, am building on foundation that were laid before me, but am also changing cultural mindset and advancing developments beyond the level I met it.
Q: Tell us what you have been able to do to raise your IGR
A: Now I was coming to that. Finance commissioner is there, let him tell us. Our last month IGR was how much? It was N800 million. So you see, they will tell you, this governor is making us to pay tax. And here, I have told you I have never introduced any new data, by a combination of prudence, discipline and focus, and getting a solid team, I’ am a team builder.
The system and structure are that even if anybody wanted to steal money in Bayelsa it is not possible. If you stop civil servants from doing the stuff of things we are talking about and you want to do anything funny, because there is nothing you can do, you are not a signatory to the government account (It’s the civil servant who runs the system). When you start this kind of massive change from the top beginning with me, it has gone round, a number of reactions are culture shock, and they are just it.
Now the civil service has four new secretariat complexes built that were not there. I am not indicting my predecessors, but I am telling you, four or more of those complexes should have been built in the 19 years of Bayelsa. They were renting places, civil servants were saying they had no offices to go to work, and they were earning salaries in more than one ministry, someone should have said no to that, someone should have built secretariat building for them.
I have built and built. When you come to Bayelsa you will see them. We are not renting again, now they have a place to work. We also have music school, museum, state archives, traditional rulers’ quarters, Bayelsa didn’t start today.
Q: Is it your business giving the traditional rulers a building?
A: Yes, because the traditional rulers, first class traditional rulers are part of government. Traditional rulers are very useful part of the government. They had their own place that was built under the military, just like a shanty, that’s where I was taken to when I went to campaign, that’s where dignitaries that came were taken to. So it is an important face of the state.
Now they have a complex. I don’t think there is any state that has such a complex for traditional rulers. I call that area the cultural boulevard where you have the traditional rulers’ complex, you have the museum, archives, library and all the facilities and a school of music. I am a lover of arts.
Q: Talk about the Maritime University and employment generation…
A: I will come to your question, there was an initiative that I proposed working with the polish government but it failed because I wanted the federal government guarantees to pay our own equity, and the polish government brought some forms and expected also some contributions and the federal government in the last administration didn’t approve that transaction. Okonjo- Iweala didn’t approve that. I think that’s what Oshiomole said he is angry about, she didn’t do that to only Edo State; she did it to the Presidency.
But because of our maritime nature, I wanted to train seafarers, and the country is losing so much money training these guys outside. We can actually be a powerful maritime nation. I wanted Bayelsa to be the maritime hub because of our location. The maritime academy is there, we are operating it in a small way.
On the employment generation question, we have employed a number of people. There is just a limited number you can employ. Government alone cannot employ, cannot create jobs, that’s is an unrealistic expectation, as a matter of fact, that is one of the problem facing our country, states and local government, the wage force is over bloated. But I have employed in the critical areas. I directed the employment of 200 graduates to protect our forestry reserves because we have very pristine forestry reserve which is to be protected. There is illegal logging going on there. We employed a lot of medical personnel – doctors, pharmacists, nurses. I have also authorised the employment of engineering staff because of the quantum of government public construction that was going on, we needed to have more people to supervise. So after some time, I wish to employ teachers massively too. I have employed a number, so employments are going on.
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