It
is unimaginable why Bayelsa which is the smallest and one of the richest
States in the federation, yet could not cater for its people, allowing them to
starve and die in hunger and penury. Bayelsa only covers an area of 9,415.8 square kilometers,
with a population of 1,704,515, a meager 1.2% of Nigeria’s total population.
Why
such a tiny State will have a wage bill of N4.5 billion bugles my mind. Ebonyi
State has a population of 2.3 million and a wage bill of N4 billion. With
just a paltry 2.16bm federal allocation which the State receives, salaries are
paid up to date and the State is embarking on massive rural development.
Bayelsa
State July allocation alone was a whooping grand total of N19,197 billion, with
N7.97billion from the 13 per cent derivation account and another N10billion
from excess crude account. Additional N538million was also credited to its
accounts for its councils and N597.7 million from the excess crude account for
the local councils in the State.
I rank Bayelsa as the most mismanaged State in the whole of Nigeria. As
for corruption, State has a legacy that speaks for itself. All this while when civil
servants were being owed several months salaries, the Legislators and government
functionaries of the State were regularly paid their salaries. This is to
ensure that the executive is not under any form of impeachment treat or sacked
by the House.
If Bayelsans don’t know why they are suffering, now they should know that
the cause of their pains are from both the State House Assembly and the
Government House, a tag team of evil collaborators fleecing the State of its resources
and lying to the poor indigenes that they are conducting civil service head-count
and biometrics verification.
Where are all the moneys the governor claimed he was saving for the rainy
day during his first tenure in office? Now that the rains are here, let him
produce the money, no, instead he is telling us that the State is broke.
We are all aware of the precarious financial situation the country finds
itself. The drops in oil price, dwindling oil production, low exchange rate and
high inflation have affected the economy very negatively. Not that I really
care or sympathetic with the government, no because it was evident this would
happen, judging by the very poor and reckless manner the government was being managed.
The Federal Government has disappointed the Niger Delta people, we agree,
but the State government have disappointed its people even more. That is why I
wonder why the struggles by the Niger Delta people are only focused on the
Federal Government and not also to the States.
The federal government has always lied to us. They deceived us by
creating the NDDC and the Niger Delta Ministry to make believe that something is
being done, meanwhile these agencies are conduit for challenging money back the
same government officials. If you carry out a survey of the amount so far
disbursed to these bodies, and compare it with the extent of work done in the
Niger Delta, I can bet it won’t be up to 5 percent that has gone into projects
in the region.
What really pains me the most is when I hear statements like the Niger
Delta area have very bad terrain, and development poses great challenge to the government,
it make me sad, because, when they enter the swamps and creeks, and dive our waters
to drill oil, they never know the terrain is bad. The issue of the federal
government is a discussion for another day.
Let us get it right in Bayelsa first, and that is my immediate concern. Clearly,
the government of the State is sitting on its oars because all the persons and
groups that are capable of bring pressure to bear on the government have been
settled one way or the other and the poor people of the State are left to
suffer with no support coming from civil society.
The Bayelsa people need to exert pressure
on the government, which includes the State House of Assembly members, to make
them pay greater attention to the poor and deprived children, mothers, elderly
and unemployed youths of the State.
No comments:
Post a Comment