Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State is a man who seems on a mission. In his efforts to clean up the rot in his state, he has stepped on so many powerful toes. But he is not deterred. To him, the right things must be done to reposition a state where everyone believes government must spoon-feed them. Dickson is not only trying to change how things are done in Bayelsa State but he is also instituting such changes by enacting them into law.
One of this is that any sitting governor that fails to address the media and tell the people of the state how much the state makes in three months risks impeachment. He also speaks on the coming governorship election in the state, his achievements and how to make the coming polls peaceful. Excerpts….
In Bayelsa, there are skirmishes here and there in the political circle. And people are concerned about your political survival. Are you jittery?
Well, not skirmishes here and there as you put it. But last Saturday we had decamping, some 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 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 for the governorship position. 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 were okay let’s give it to another person. So he became disappointed. He went to cour , 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 House of 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, of federal might. A party that has 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!
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 the defectors approach to politics. Before now, many of the defectors told the world that I was the best thing to happen to Bayelsa, immediately, the APC captured the centure, they have suddenly started singing a different song This tells you clearly that it is their selfish ambition that is propelling them to jump ship. Well, I remain the governor of all of them; in fact I am the governor of the good, the bad and the ugly and we are managing the situation very well and there is no cause for alarm.
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?
The problem can’t be Dickson that is part of what I have explained, the problem is ambition. 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 Bayelsa 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 N6 billion. My commissioner for finance is there. Now with the steps that we have taken, the wage bills have been dropped down to N4billion, 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 Nuhu 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. 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. They are no businessmen, their only business is politics.
You live in a state where people don’t pay tax. Civil servants don’t pay their PAYE tax. Other governors may be 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 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.
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 we are now forcing people to be entrepreneurs.
There is no industry: everything including 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. 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.
Some people in Bayelsa are complaining about you…?
That is in terms of sharing money?
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?
For the possibility of returning to the creeks, I can’t speak for militants. But Bayelsa is 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 I am doing, to let them know the issues they need to address. I am happy that the president appointed the amnesty coordinator and 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 and 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.
Some people are saying you do not spend money the way politicians do and 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…
I have Ijebu blood in me; 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 and 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 that. 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 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 are 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 which are primary obligation.
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, teacher training academy and we are building a college of education.
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, nine, 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.
What is your Internal Generated Revenue?
In fact that is another thing. When I came in, it was about N50, N60 million per month. No industry; no one paid tax (I am talking about PAYE tax). It is a society of NEPA bills. People don’t pay. But government must pay. So if we say no, pay your bills, someone will say no, this is anti-people policy.
You seem to always condemn your predecessors…
No, no, no. I am praising them and I am building on foundation that was laid before me. But I am also changing cultural mindset and advancing developments beyond the level I met it.
Talk about the Maritime University and employment generation…
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 an unrealistic expectation. As a matter of fact, that is one of the problems facing our country; states and local governments, the wage bill 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.
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 and 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.
How much of loans have you taken in the last couple of months?
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.
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?
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. 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.
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.
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; 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.
How do you feel when you stay among your colleagues and they complain about lack of resources.
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 I 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 and 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, 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 midnight, 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. – Thisday.
