Bayelsa Election: Buhari Will Not Allow Security Breakdown-Gov. Dickson

[caption id="attachment_29373" align="alignleft" width="300"] Governor Seriake Dickson:“What I have done in my state, majority of them believe that I have performed. There is no doubt about performance. Then it is not realistic to expect that PDP will not make me their flag bearer. So if you have an ambition as a politician, to contest governorship, and in that kind of scenario you move over to the next available platform which appears to be viable, in the sense that at least it controls the federal level, that’s the attraction.”[/caption] Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State recently fielded questions from representatives of different media houses, including TheNEWS. He spoke on the coming governorship election in the state, his achievements and how to make the coming polls peaceful. Q: In Bayelsa, there are skirmishes here and there in the political circle. And people are concerned about your political survival. Are you jittery? A: Well, not skirmishes here and there as you put it. But last Saturday we had decamping, major leaders of our party shifted their political affiliation to APC but for me who has been managing a whole lot of issues for almost four years now, I know the undertones. For example, most of those people who crossed were part of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria which was like a political party in Bayelsa and they have structures from the ward levels to the state level, parallel to the PDP. Now you a have a parallel government, you have a parallel PDP and all those issues that I have to manage over these years. All the people moved to the APC because they lost elections, couldn’t become PDP flag bearers, even their candidates sponsored in the other parties lost elections to the PDP candidates. So it is the need for platform to express their political ambition, it is basically fuelled by ambition and then positioning for federal appointments, these are the key factors. For those who want to be governors, you can’t stop anybody from having ambition and some of them are perennial contestants to the governorship. I am the presumptuous candidate from my party, the PDP. What I have done in my state, majority of them believe that I have performed. There is no doubt about performance. Then it is not realistic to expect that PDP will not make me their flag bearer. So if you have an ambition as a politician, to contest governorship, and in that kind of scenario you move over to the next available platform which appears to be viable, in the sense that at least it controls the federal level, that’s the attraction. So all of them are going there to contest for governorship, which is not realistically open to them in the PDP, by so doing they are also in the APC making themselves available for federal appointments. It hasn’t gotten anything to do with my leadership in the party other than a number of them and their supporters could not become the flag bearers of the party. Take for example, Senator Lokpobiri who has been in the Senate for two terms and wanted a third term and didn’t get it, the leadership of the party decided not to field him. They said, two terms are okay let’s give it to another person. So he became disaffected, he went to court, and the court just two days ago struck out the case, and then he went to APC to run for governorship. The same thing for the one who was in the House of Representatives for two terms, now a new person is there. He lost his nomination process and now he is going to APC to contest for governorship. The same for the woman who when I became governor (I was in the representative before then), she was selected to replace me. When the Senate came to her own local government and she couldn’t go back to the House of Representatives, she is now decamping. All of them like that. Even the former chairman! That gentleman that moved to APC was not chairman of our party; for the past six months he had not been chairman, there are issues of mismanagement of money and his colleagues, all of them, suspended him. No other official of the party left with him. But now, a suspended chairman went to APC and they embraced him as if the PDP chairman of Bayelsa state has moved! It not as if the government has not done well or the party is not strong. No, it is because of ambition. They want to contest governorship. I refer to APC in Bayelsa as a party full of governorship aspirants but a party that has no membership. All the people going there are all aspirants, so the members are the aspirants, so that is the real situation of APC in Bayelsa, they don’t stand a chance in the governorship election other than the expectation, well in the Nigerian context, ahh, a party that have the federal government will bring security, police, army, INEC, they will write result, other than that, they are not on ground, and particularly against a government that has a governor that has a direct link with the people, connection with the people, the community, the ordinary people who are the most important. It is not big names or names that are visible because of the office they had before and at the end they still have only one vote like any other person! [caption id="attachment_29374" align="alignright" width="300"] Governor Seriake Dickson: “That gentleman that moved to APC was not the chairman of our party; for the past six months he had not been chairman, there are issues of mismanagement of money and his colleagues, all of them, suspended him. No other official of the party left with him. But now, a suspended chairman went to APC and they embraced him as if the PDP chairman of Bayelsa state has moved!”[/caption] We are on ground; that is what it’s playing out. It also has historical background. In 2012 when I became candidate; my colleagues in National Assembly, none of them supported me. And these are still the same people. We won election without them. I tried to bring all of them in, and now close to election, they have gone back again to their old game. Some of them because we have lost the presidency, are now moving away to the other party, even in the last general election, at a time, they had a lot of power, the so called Abuja group, had a lot of influence and power, undermining me and the PDP in the state level, fielded a candidates against our candidate, they lost. These are the same people that are getting themselves together to go to the APC. We cannot dismiss it in the sense that as a leader of the party, I can’t say if they are leaving the party that am not worried. No. That is not an ideal situation. In politics we are fishers of men, so the more the merrier. Even if one member leaves, I should be concerned, we wouldn’t have wanted it to be so, and you can’t stop somebody for having ambition. I know our people, unlike the south west. We have always been in a party that has the centre. So this sudden loss of the presidency to most of them who wants federal position has given them the opportunity to move, not because there is anything against me. Whatever they are saying is politics, as a matter of fact, they are indebted to me personally because of opportunities I have given to them. Even as we speak, most of them have nominees in my government, because of the way I consulted them for cabinets and making appointments, some of them are still serving. They are all my contractors, government contractors, most of them, so it is not personal; it’s not because of lack of inclusion. No no, no. It’s just ambition, ambition, and this is where majority of Bayelsians disagree with their approach to politics. Q: What is this notion in Bayelsa that if our brother had not lost the presidential election, the wife would have worked against you. Now you have other people working against you. Is the problem Dickson or what is the problem? A: The problem can’t be Dickson that is part of what I have explained, the problem is ambition. Q: Your former permanent secretary (Mrs. Patience Jonathan)... A: Ambition could come in different ways and could have different devices. It may not be an ambition for one person to be governor. It may be an ambition to install another person, a person who is close and other things like that. I don’t like talking about the former president’s wife. My position is that the former president who is my leader and elder brother is supportive. Very supportive, he has been always supportive. I don’t know of any plans people might have made to fight me. You know I have been supporting him from the beginning to the end. And I still do because that is the right thing to do and I don’t want to go into speculations. I believe that both of them are supportive. I believe that what is happening in Bagels is as a result of ambition. I have started a revolution. If you ask me, some people are uncomfortable with the reforms that I have started. Yes. When I started in Bayelsa, the wage bill was N 6 billion, six point something... billion, my commissioner for finance is there. Now with the steps that we have taken, the wage bills have been dropped down to 4 billion, now what that means was that about 2 billion naira was going into the wrong hands every month and that’s a huge amount of money. I mean that can make people go crazy- treasury officials, accounts, other civil service leadership and some political leaders over the years and some bankers, and so on and so forth. Those in that loop were just carting away, just from that source alone N2 billion monthly Now if you stuck by your policies, if a Dickson has come to stop that, which is good for the state, you should know that you have stepped on people’s corrupt toes and according to Ribadu, when you fight corruption, corruption fights back and so it is a combination of all of this. And when you find out that people are not coming to work and you said No, as a civil servant, you can’t get paid. These are far reaching cultural attitudinal changes that you are introducing, and people resist change. So that is it. Beyond that, we are more consultative, we are consultative. I am a man who believes in the supremacy of ideas. No one knows it all; certainly I am not perfect, I don’t have all the answers that is why everything I do, I consult. These people who are going they have all been involved in the formulation of policies, they are all contractors like I said. They all make inputs in the government. The issues are not about me like I said, we are also fighting a culture of over dependence on the government for survival, and they are no businessmen, their only business is politics. You live in a state where people don’t pay tax as I said; civil servants don’t pay their P.A.Y.E tax. Yes. Certain as it is. Other governors maybe thought that it is good politics and I said, No. You must all comply with the personal income tax act. That’s a federal legislation. Isn’t it? You journalists are also paying your PAYE tax but Bayelsa workers were not paying PAYE. And then there has come a governor who said No, you must pay your PAYE tax. I have not introduced any new tax. But I said No, things must been done properly. We have to lay a strong foundation for the development of the state. That is what we are doing. If others were giving jobs and people were not performing, that was then. In my own time, I have given more jobs because there is more development but I also insist that you must do the job. So someone will say ahhh why? Because, it is a culture e that am changing. The change that I have bought about in Bayelsa, the one that has taken more energy, more time, political capital from me is not building of roads and bridges (that is the commissioner for works sitting there). [caption id="attachment_29375" align="aligncenter" width="280"] Governor Seriake Dickson:“If you ask me, some people are uncomfortable with the reforms that I have started. Yes. When I started in Bayelsa, the wage bill was N 6 billion, six point something billion naira, my commissioner for finance is there. Now with the steps that we have taken, the wage bills have been dropped down to 4 billion, now what that means was that about 2 billion naira was going into the wrong hands every month and that’s a huge amount of money. I mean that can make people go crazy- treasury officials, accounts, other civil service leadership and some political leaders over the years and some bankers, and so on and so forth.”[/caption] I have built more roads and bridges than all governors put together. Roads and bridges that they didn’t build, that they could have built, roads and bridges that they should have finished but they did not, Bayelsa is now safer with greater prosperity but the attitudinal and cultural mindset that I am fighting, that is war. For the public service you must go to work, for the public service, there is no free cash that is one of the values for money, if you are an appointee, it does not mean you should play the richest man in your village or your local government. If you are close to me or whoever you are, you can’t use violence and terror to prosecute a political agenda, if you do so, we arrest you and try you. So am putting myself through the system. These are far reaching changes, when they were voting for me I told them that they were voting for a revolution. But I didn’t think they understood the import of it. So there are a lot of changes that we have introduced and the state is no longer the same, so ordinarily people will react. Also, Bayelsa has no industry and people are now forcing people to be entrepreneurs. There is no industry- everything bread, water, all comes from neighbouring states and we are now selling the message of self reliance and independence outside government. In the past, everybody wanted to live off government, everybody must be appointed, must earn a livelihood from government, they want to marry, everything is government. That culture must stop and we are making it. There is no issue about not performing, no one will tell you that our governor is not performing, has stolen our money. In Bayelsa, there is a system of transparency. The finance commissioner is here, every month we address the state – this is what has come in, this is how we are spending it. These are fundamental formats. If you are a former chief of staff in government house who used to have one N1 billion every month to play with and now I come and reduced the overhead to N200 million and plough the balance to work, you should know there will be some resistance, but the resistance is a conspiracy, it is not rooted in the people. That’s why even when the Abuja powerful group undermined us for three years, it couldn’t affect the results of the elections, all their candidates lost. Even look at it from outside: big name, big name and at the end of it, one vote, everybody. So when we have the people behind us, because the people are seeing the school, health centre, roads, referral hospitals which were not there, bridges springing up, they are happy, saying that for the first time, this government is working. The people are with us. Unless most of these characters retrace and come back, politically speaking, there is no future for APC and the agenda they want to prosecute in Bayelsa. Q: Some people in Bayelsa are complaining about you...? A: That is in terms of sharing money? Q: You spoke about one man one vote; your party has expressed its strong reservation with the appointment of the INEC chair. Now do you share such sentiment? Do you have anxiety or the possibility of the return to the creeks? A: For the possibility of returning to the creeks, I can’t speak for militants. But Bayelsa central as far as maintenance of national stability and security is concerned. I don’t think there is any imminent return to creeks in that violent sense that we know of it. I have a duty to interact with the federal officials which am doing, to let them know the issues they need to address. I am happy that the president appointed the amnesty coordinator; I believe the programme is still on, we are following developments. If there is any course for me to add my voice, I will be available to do so, that is why I am there, to moderate developments in the interest of our nation. You asked about INEC, my party has spoken, I have nothing to add other than that the laws and constitution empowers the president to appoint whoever he wants subject to National Assembly screening. The screening process is meant to take care of issues. I think we should all expect the president to appoint people who are credible to advance and deepen our democracy. Q: Some people are saying you do not spend money the way politicians do that you behave like an Ijebu man with government resources. Even contractors are complaining that apart from not being paid, they are not making enough gains... The issue raised- money! I also have ijebu blood; there is no doubt about that. My great grandmother was a princess in Ijebu land; I am a descendant of the Fidipote Ruling House in Ijebu Ode. On a serious note, I don’t think there’s much to that, we awarded contracts and suddenly the economic downturn came on, so our inability to meet our contractual obligations is not as a result of governors stinginess’, it is as a result of unavailability of money. A lot of people think that government has so much money, they say "Ah governor no dey release money, governor don spend the money." Many people still ask, does the governor have the money, does the state have the money. They don’t ask, and this phenomenon is not limited only to Bayelsa, even federal government contractors are moving out from site. I doubt if any state in Nigeria is pursuing any aggressive fiscal development, we are all owing. States owe their contractors. A number of states even owe salaries, Bayelsa is not, maybe because of my Ijebu stinginess, Bayelsa does not owe civil servants and we do not owe our pension obligations, so we are current, so we do not even owe WAEC. In Bayelsa we go beyond WAEC. Since I became governor because of the emphasis on education, we pay WAEC, GCE, NECO, JAMB, there’s no state like this, now these are the ways to spend public resources. The same people talking, their children are overseas on scholarships across the world. Now let me also add, we also owe some of the scholarship obligations which again is not peculiar to the state, even the federal scholars, because we are in a depression, our economy is in a terrible state now, and we have been managing for the last one year. If some political leaders feel that because they political leaders, that I should use the money meant for civil servants and pensions on servicing their greed and their lavish lifestyles, sorry. I think in that sense, Bayelsa needs an Ijebu governor so that we do not owe salaries, primary obligations. Talking about contracts, we have given out more contracts to Bayelsa indigenes than former governors because of the works we are doing. If we have built schools, 32 schools, secondary with boarding facilities. There was no single school with boarding facility when I took over, and now every state constituency has one. In fact the speaker’s constituency has two because of the population and illiteracy level. We are building more schools, primary schools, teachers training academy, we are building a college of education, schools, schools, schools. 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 [caption id="attachment_29373" align="alignnone" width="300"] Governor Seriake Dickson:“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.”[/caption] 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. The key to employment generation is not an over bloated public service, it is to stimulate the private sector, that is why I have been holding the economic summit, that’s why I have established the Bayelsa Development Investment Corporation, BDIC, the first investment arm of the state and it has made wonderful investments. We have majority stakes in insurance, banks, real estate investment under this government. Over time, the investment arm will have a lot of money on its own. It can create jobs not the state. Look at Lagos, Lagos is the way it is and they are having high IGR, not because of state government but the private sector, they create the jobs, develop skills and then pay taxes so that’s what we are pursuing. Q: How much of loans have you taken in the last couple of months? A: Well that is an interesting question because when we took over government, Bayelsa was one of the highest indebted states, our debt volume was so high, my predecessor borrowed a lot and committed the state to a lot of bonds and other obligations. Debt volume was very high, meaning that every month, a substantial amount of our revenue went to debt servicing and they took it off from the source. We have to manage and now Bayelsa is now one of the least indebted states that will answer the question as to how much we have been borrowing. You can’t run a government without borrowing. There are short term facilities you take to meet one exigency or the other. Bayelsa was the highest indebted but now the least indebted. This shows you the frugality and prudence and the ijebu blood! Q: When elections are approaching, people get desperate. As the chief security officer of the state, are there measures you are putting in place to make sure that there is no breakdown of law and order. Secondly, when you leave office, what are you going to do so that things will not slip back into the situation of the past? A: Things will not slip back by the grace of God. That is why most of what we are doing, we instutionalise by backing up with laws, the transparency. Do you know what I formulated there? I said, if a governor of Bayelsa does not address the press, does not call the whole state and tell them what has come in and what it has spent, if he doesn’t do this for three months, the governor should be impeached. I proposed the legislation and when they passed it, I signed it, so that is to instutionalised it. Also there is the savings law, anything put into that account, the governor cannot touch it, it can only be touched by two-thirds majority of the house of assembly for a, b, c reasons. There is one aspect of the political culture that we have changed. For example, when President Buhari was campaigning, even against Jonathan in his own state, when he came, I gave him state facilities, stadium, traditional rulers came to me for permission to receive him, I said go ahead and receive him. Now the last Saturday rally, APC never expected me to give them the stadium. I gave them the stadium. I directed the security to go and protect them. There were people who disagreed with me and I disagreed with their politics, but they are Nigerians and they are Bayelsans and they are entitled to their views. No one person has been molested or harassed for having a contrary view. [caption id="attachment_29374" align="alignnone" width="300"] Governor Seriake Dickson:"They are the people in Bayelsa who have gone to APC because their own kind of politics can’t fix into my own idea of service. And their doing so, telling people, that look, we need federal power, calling young people to come and do anything they want because we have the federal power, that is the feeling they have for going to APC and my position is that I believe strongly that President Buhari will not allow that to happen. Security agencies are professional enough to do their job"[/caption] If a cripple wanted to declare governorship, Silva and his people would send bombs, dynamites to go and kill people. Same with Alaibe when he was running, guns, guns, shooting, killing people. That culture has to change and that brings me back to the issue of security. There is a lot of concern in my state because the APC by the nature of the people they have attracted to their fold is made up of the most violent politicians in the Niger Delta. The politicians who don’t give a hoot about killing and maiming and destroying people and properties. They are the people in Bayelsa who have gone to APC because their own kind of politics can’t fix into my own idea of service. And their doing so, telling people, that look, we need federal power, calling young people to come and do anything they want because we have the federal power, that is the feeling they have for going to APC and my position is that I believe strongly that President Buhari will not allow that to happen. Security agencies are professional enough to do their job and I know also that the citizenry of Bayelsa state will rise up to the occasion. We have already seen signs of increase in wave of criminality. Bayelsa, when I took over, was one of the highest in the chart, but now Bayelsa is by crime statistics in this country one of the least. The people themselves have keyed into our agenda of peace and security. The people will work with the security agents to hold these men accountable. Q: You have built about 400 schools, how many of them are functioning now? A: All schools are in use. The boarding schools will take off hopefully September, October. There was no boarding facilities, so we are going to test run them, it is a massive logistical problem. For the first time, children will be sleeping in boarding houses. We are even building more schools. The building of schools will not end but the scale of investment after we finish this, I don’t think any governor after me will put in much because infrastructure was allowed to decay for so long and even when you build the schools, the boarding schools and all the rest, you have to furnish. It is so massive, it runs into billons. However, don’t be surprised if critics go to one place and take a photograph of a school, an isolated place, and say Governor says he is doing so much in education, why are these children like this? It is a massive problem we are addressing, it takes time, yes, we have spent N23 billion for educational infrastructure alone, building schools, boarding schools. Most of us went to boarding schools, we learnt how to live with our peers, in a controlled environment, skills and attitudes were learnt from the boarding houses. In this area of the Niger Delta, the role models they see are the people carrying AK 47. If the so called generals, you know in the Niger Delta, there is a difference between a general and a general (pronounced generale)... If you spell them, spelling is the same, and these guys run their system, their own governments, some build schools and even hospitals, now tell me if you go to that person’s community, will you blame any of the young lads from aspiring to be like that person? So these are the things, and it’s only in education that you can capture the young people; otherwise you will be dealing with second and third generations of militants. We are dealing with militants who now have children, so if we don’t sustain what am doing, which means their own children too will be general (generales). And a we have a long line of (generales), I don’t mind them become a general. But not (generale). Q: Let’s talk about the PDP. There is the belief that the PDP is going into extinction, you have talked about Bayelsa and those who have decamped. What went wrong with PDP as a ruling party and failed woefully and secondly you have talked about what you have built schools... A: Schools, Hospital, there is an airport that we are building, which is at 50 per cent completed Q: Can you talk about some of those things sector by sector" A: Sector by sector? Aah, Commissioners will have to do that. Like the airport is the major one and you ask yourself, why are we now thinking about building, why is this government building an airport in the 19 years of Bayelsa state? Agriculture, Works, all their commissioners are all here. In fact, the talks everywhere is that I’ am over working. A have done too much or am doing too much. I used to hear some remarks, Na work, work, hospital, road, na him we go chop? For me that is complimentary. Because that is what I promised that the state will be a construction site, promised that the state and the Ijaw nation will not be the same again after me so we are aiming at maximum impact, unfortunately our pace has been slowed down in the last year because of the financial crunch but we are managing. Talking about the PDP, this is the first time the ruling party has lost in the federal level, so in Nigeria we don’t have any precedent, in my party, my former party AD, we started, and by the way I was state chairman in Bayelsa, became national legal adviser of AD, so when we have three parties I was actually legal adviser of one. We went into the 2003 election and we lost all our state except Lagos, Jagaban (Asiwaju Bola Tinubu) was able to hold fort, was able to protect Lagos for us in AD at the time. And you can see how AD metamorphosed to AC and then ACN and now it is part of APC. So don’t worry politics is dynamic, what is constant is the people. APC is at the centre, they did a lot of good work, my friends and colleagues. I have a lot of respect and admiration for the hard work they put into bringing the APC to existence. But they themselves have to deal with the problem of managing the success and managing the national party. You saw what happened in the National Assembly, probably with more pro-activeness they could have saved the situation, my good friends, and am happy they have resolved their problems. My good friend, Gbaja, and Dogara had to be made to go to the polls. I congratulate them, they are both my friends, Gbaja could have made a fantastic speaker, great guy; he was my ally in the house. Those are the challenges of managing national power, let’s watch event develop. I don’t think PDP is dead in the sense you are putting it. Q: What are you going to do now that Bayelsa needs development? A: That is very important, that is why we set up the BDIC, that is why we are attracting, working with partners in agriculture, to build fish farms, cassava farms, improve on our palm plantation, Bayelsa is richly endowed agriculturally, that’s why we are sponsoring the economic summit every year. Q: With the boarding schools you built, what are the security measures because there could be criminals and copy cats that may want to replicate what happened in Chibok... A: Security challenges are there everywhere, every state, and I just told you that Bayelsa is the safest place in the country, that does not mean that there is no criminal activity here but the statistic is very low. And if there are boarding schools in Lagos for example or any other in other states, I don’t see why having boarding school in Bayelsa will be a problem. Bayelsa doesn’t need special arrangements for our boarding schools. Q: How do you feel when you stay among your colleagues and they complain about lack of resources. A. That’s one area we need to learn from. For example I will send my officials to Ondo to learn about the residency card. Because I believe that is something that we should do, it is an idea I also had but am interested in the implementation. For planning purposes we need to have data, good ideas, so governors had to learn from one another. I sent people to Lagos State to learn about their tax system, I sent people to Cross River to learn about tourism and how government gets revenue from tourism can improve. That’s why we need the Governors’ Forum, as a mechanism for peer review, so we can talk about our experiences. I believe others can learn from what we are doing in Bayelsa, for example in the area of security where we have an effective 911 system, whereby within three minutes of any incidence, the patrol team can get to you, now, even when women are pregnant, in the mid night, they call, it is as effective as that, computerised. We have a purpose built command and control centre, we have started the CCTV programme, where you see part of Yenagoa, that’s how other countries are kept safe.