Corrupt Politicians: Bane of Bayelsa's Poor Growth

My Ogboin brothers and sisters, let the truth be told, what dividends have all these appointments of Ogboin indigenes brought to the clan and the Bayelsa people? NOTHING!

So, why celebrate mere appointments without achievements. I will be happy if accomplished projects in Ogboin where listed, rather than celebrating the appointments of political non-achievers. I look at the childishness of our grassroot politics, at the least, it is laughable and disgraceful.

Why do Bayelsa politicians have this wrong belief that they have performed when they own big cars and acquire fancy homes, even to the detriment of the wretched helpless indegenes who pass through thick and thin to vote them into office.

Haba, politicians show little compassion now! Henceforth political office holders will be judged and voted for based on the number of social amenities and projects executed and not by the individual and personal wealth they flaunt, which of course is often stolen public funds.

My people, Daddy Shoky say "shine your eyes". Make monkey no dey work for baboo to dey chop alone.

When people say that appointing the people to various offices in the political agenda is development of our society because the people have to be made prosperous, or that providing power and fixing a three kilometer road, is sufficient to give credit to State as haven performed. I shudder with grief and undiscribable shame.

I am indeed not surprised, ‘omoni biribein ka tei ikiyegha.’ (meaning: a slave that has enough to eat never thinks of escape). Some of you are partly or wholly in the equation and are defensive and aggrieved by my honest call to better the lot of the helpless and impoverished indigenes of Bayelsa. I understand the essence of your positions and I know very well too, that ‘Esibiri kori keme ke obudo gbolomo’ so, I will get into the mud with you just to enlighten you.

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja was constructed under ten years with a budget of N59 billion. Bayelsa State receives an average of about N17b monthly, totaling over N2 trillion in the last ten years from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), which is enough to build four prototypes of Abuja in Bayelsa State. The State has a population of just about 1.7m and a land area of 21,110 km2, making her one of the smallest in the country but in terms of revenue, she is the fourth largest earner from the federation account. My people, where are all these monies? I demand an explanation from any of you who has an answer.

At this point let me correct some of the erroneous thoughts in your response to my article. Firstly, I am not a politician; neither did I name dropped or have anything against my Excellency, governor of Bayelsa State, Seriake Dickson or indeed any other person for that matter and therefore do not owe any apology to anyone.

Secondly, I want to also correct the impression that because I do not reside in Bayelsa does not make me oblivious of happenings in the State. Let me reiterate that I am involved in private effects to bring development to the State. This year about a dozen students from Bayelsa resident in Lagos benefitted from the sponsorship of their JAMB fees by a group of volunteers from Bayelsa, amongst which I am a party. I and a few other friends from Bayelsa are providing a library project in Toru-ebeni. Also, the ongoing Medical Laboratory project in the Niger Delta University sponsored by Chevron had my influence. I am also working on a plan to rehabilitate an historic structure in Amassoma for the purposes of siting a museum.

ayelsa politicians have this wrong belief that they have performed when they own big cars and acquire fancy homes, even to the detriment of the wretched helpless indegenes who pass through thick and thin to voPutting up arguments such as bad terrain, a purely civil service economy, political instability and poor Internally Generated Revenue as being the reason why Bayelsa’s development is slow, to me, holds no water.

My brothers, ‘me Bayelsa amongaru me, ose ke sai worimi.’ (meaning we are in this Bayelsa boat regatta together). We are all in the same boat and therefore have equal stake. If the boat sinks, we all go down with it, regardless of whether you are in Abuja, Lagos Yenagoa, Zamfara or in the diaspora. The truth remains that Bayelsa is not doing well at all and it is more worrying because it is not due to lack of revenue, we have a large monthly allocation at our disposal.

Believe me, I do sincerely, appreciate the peculiarity of our terrain, low IGR, unstable government and the purely civil service nature of the State as challenges militating against the smooth development of the State. But are we not looking away from other equally important issues affecting the State as well? Giving the size of the State and the amount of federal allocation she receives monthly, it is evident funds is not really the issue but corruption, lack of dedication to duty on the part of civil servants and cheer wastefulness in the polity. The State cannot grow at the pace it is expected if we continue to place personal convenience over and above the development of the State.

There is competition out there. You will never know because you reside in Yenagoa. Our children need quality education, comfortable accommodation, clean water and electricity supply, healthcare and good food. These are mandatory requirements for them to be well developed in mind and body to be able to compete favourably with children from other parts of the country.

While agreeing with you that we have challenges, I do not believe these challenges are insurmountable. We can actually turn these challenges to opportunities and exploit them to our own advantage.

PECULIARITY OF OUR TERRAIN: We can learn from our neighbouring Cross Rivers State, whose terrain shares many similar features like ours. The Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia are examples of States that have converted their otherwise unfriendly terrains to a world acclaimed tourist paradise.

GOVERNMENT INSTABILITY: It is ironical that the instability and call for change of government portends a vote-of-no-confidence on the part of any administration. A government that is doing well, will definitely win the support of the people and will therefore not be asked to vacate.

INTERNALLY GENERATED REVENUE: IGRs are monies received from income tax, land charges, licensing fees, tolls, public amenities fee and the likes. The State has to provide more hospitals, motor parks, leisure gardens, market stalls, shopping malls, toll-able roads and others, that can help boost the IGR of the State. That is what these other States do, that is why that has high IGRs.

CIVIL SERVICE STATE: The State civil service is a mirage. Workers often resume very late to work or never even show up for days and sometimes weeks and months. Even when they show up, they have little or nothing to engage them for a better part of the day. Productivity is very low but the State wage bill is almost N5billion each month, with ghost workers having a big bite of that.

The World Bank classifies Bayelsa as one of the States in the country that is most difficult to carry out business transaction. The civil service is very corrupt, ICT infrastructures in the ministries are very poor, and thereby most business processes are done manually and are very unreliable. Civil servants ask for high kick-backs upfront from potential investors even before submission of their proposals.

As a result of such bad business model, coupled with the poor security rating of the State, investors are dissuaded from coming. The civil service needs to be reformed and run like an enterprise where only productive and essential personnel are retained. Also the suggestions above on IGR will create more jobs and help to keep the work force busy.