Fresh from one leg of his campaign tours of communities 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:
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.
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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