For Hon Seriake Dickson, the governor of Bayelsa State, nothing can be more satisfying than fulfilling his campaign promises of infrastructural development, education, security, and reforms in the governance structure and the public service of the state.
Dickson had promised the people of the state in 2012 that if voted into power on February 14, he would engage in accelerated infrastructural development, robust education, transparency, security and reforms in the governance structure and the public service of the state.
The governor won the election and with a diligently selected team of the State Executive Council (SEC), he has since shown the people of the state that his administration’s restoration pattern possesses a different development paradigm which has been able to deliver on election promises.
In the last three years, the present administration has shown the needed determination and fiscal discipline for the completion of some critical infrastructure including the first flyover project in the state, the Ogobiri/Toru-Ebeni Bridge, dualised the Hospital, Diete Spiff, Road Safety and Water Board Roads in Yenagoa, while several other ongoing projects such as the dualisation of the Isaac Adaka Boro Expressway and AIT-Elebele Road have reached advanced stages of completion.
Also, the work on the 17-storey five-star Tower Hotel, initiated by President Goodluck Jonathan when he was governor of the state, is underway with an added Bayelsa International Cargo and Passenger Airport.
A check showed that the state government has built over 400 primary and post-primary schools replete with state-of-the-art facilities, including head teachers’ quarters, in addition to a sports academy, language and music schools, as well as teachers training institute. Also handed to indigent Bayelsa students were over a thousand scholarships for the pursuant of various courses at post-primary, graduate and post graduate levels, both within and outside the country.
Dickson, unlike former Governors Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and Timipre Sylva, may have endeared himself to many progressive minded people of the state with a clarion call on political gladiators in the state to allow him run for a second term in office as governor in 2016.
Political observers have noted that while Sylva and Alamieyeseigha lacked political mastery and required integrity in their fight against opposition’s use of alleged financial recklessness and disloyalty to President Goodluck Jonathan as a yardstick to deny them their second term dream, Dickson has initiated a tested system based on performance, transparency and total loyalty to President Jonathan in a bid to secure his second term.
In spite of the pressure from opposition groups within and outside the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the Dickson administration seems to be on top of its game and delivering on the needed development.
For top members of the PDP and a multitude of religious and specialised groups in the state, the governor is the new and needed choice in the governorship race in 2016.
While many other aspirants through proxies have sustained a mounting pressure against the choice of Dickson in 2016, the list of personalities and party faithful declaring support and endorsing Dickson’s choice is growing by the day.
According to a group, Grass Core for Grassroots Restoration, led by a former chieftain of the Accord Party (AP) in Nembe local government area of the state, Hon Nyenye Kuro, the decision to support Dickson is based on his performance in the last two years, his loyalty to the ruling PDP, commitment to the dreams of President Jonathan for Bayelsa, and above all, commitment to God Almighty.
Though the race for 2016 is dependent on the success of President Jonathan in 2015, those set to oppose the rising popularity of Dickson have shown signs of tiredness based on the show of commitment by the present administration to development and politics without violence.
The vice president-general of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) Bayelsa State chapter, Abdulrahman Zikeye Enewari, said the decision to endorse Dickson for a second term in office is due to the monumental achievements in the area of infrastructural development within his short period in office.
Enewari said, “We assured the governor of the prayers of the Muslim community in the state for the peace and unity of the country and the sustenance of the current momentum of development in the state.”
The PDP Elders Advisory Forum, after a meeting that lasted for about five hours, x-rayed the state of affairs of the ruling party in the state and the government towards charting a new course to move the state forward in the light of the prevailing economic realities.
The communiqué, which was signed by the chairman of the forum and former governor of the state, Alamieyeseigha and secretary, Chief Thompson Okorotie respectively, commended Dickson for his developmental strides and for the enthronement of peace and stability, saying, “The governor’s ability to carry everybody along in the restoration government has given all a sense of belonging.”
Appraising the achievements of the State House of Assembly, the speaker, Hon. Konbowei Benson, said in the last 28 months, they have passed 41 bills into law and over 40 motions and pledged his unalloyed loyalty to the Governor Dickson-led administration.
Speaking, the first executive governor of the state, Alamieyeseigha hailed Dickson for his unprecedented and remarkable achievements in the state against the backdrop of dwindling federal revenue allocations, saying, “There is no part of Bayelsa State that Governor Dickson has not left his footprints of development to improve the standard of living of the people, particularly in the area of infrastructure.”
This action has earned Dickson the needed support from the president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan during the Presidential rally held in the state on February 9, 2015. According to Jonathan, the rumoured animosity between him and Dickson is a lie and the handiwork of mischief-makers.
The president said whoever is working against the present administration in the state is working against his re-election bid. Describing the reported frosty relationship as unfounded and the brainchild of those who do not mean well for the state, Jonathan urged the people to join hands with the governor in working for the development of the state.
The president, who said he was in the state not to campaign, but to thank the people for their support from 1999 till date, warned Bayelsans to be wary of infiltrators, who are bent on fanning the embers of disunity to achieve their selfish interests.
