Thirty years ago, what is today Bayelsa State was ‘hidden’ at the eastern flank of the old Rivers State populated majorly by the Ijaw speaking people. Development around the axis was often times a matter of an after thought by the leaders as attention was mainly focused within Port Harcourt and surrounding local government areas and communities. Thus the area was left far behind in nearly all development indices,compounded by a challenging terrain of swampy nature.
October 1 1996 marked the beginning of a daunting journey to change the development trajectory of the people of the area as then Head of State, late Gen Sani Abacha during his independence broadcast announced the creation of Bayelsa State among other states listed in the broadcast. Thirty years after that ‘auspicious’ ‘broadcast, the Izon people as Bayelsans sometimes prefer to be called are still living with fond memories of that fateful day as it marked their break away from the cocoon of Rivers State where it could be said, they were not getting their due.
The journey of three decades to open up Bayelsa was not going to be a tea party. It took grit, it took stoic determination and sometimes audacious approach to authorities outside the state to get some things done. Apart from the administrators appointed by the military to oversee the state after creation, real work to get Bayelsa started with the civilian administration of the late Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who was elected governor in 1999.
Alamieyeseigha did the spade work and planted the seed for Bayelsa’s growth, complemented by Goodluck Jonathan, who succeeded him before he was taken to Abuja, to become the vice president to late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. After Jonathan came Timipre Sylva/ Seriake Dickson, who both could be said watered the seed planted by Alamieyeseigha/Jonathan administration. The incumbent Governor, Douye Diri, thereafter mounted the saddle in circumstances that could only be said to be miraculous and got saddled with the task of nurturing the growing seed into maturity.
Since then, Diri has kept his legs steady on the throttle driving development across Bayelsa with ruthless focus and determination. The cumulative efforts of the successive administrations from 1999 to date have to a large extent turned around the landscape of the state from a place that could only be accessed by a narrow single lane through Mbiama in Rivers to a dual carriage way leading to the heart of the state capital, Yenagoa.
This is in addition to the tributaries of internal roads connecting different sections making up the state capital. But it is in the effort to link all local government areas of the state to the state capital by road that government in Bayelsa have demonstrated rare courage and determination. Who would have thought that driving to Nembe by road, or to Oporoma and Ekeremor could happen in a lifetime? But, it has happened through the ambitious senatorial roads launched by the administration of Seriake Dickson, with all the roads now almost delivered by the administration of Douye Diri.
The senatorial roads were evenly spread across the three senatorial districts in the state, East, Central and West. Some of them have been on the drawing board of the federal government and it’s agencies for more than 60 years! Ideally, infrastructure is the bedrock of development in any society and successive administrations in the state never shied away from that reality. Yenagoa, the state capital remains the primary focus of the infrastructureal drive in a bid to transform it into a status befitting a modern state capital.
The ongoing state -of- the -art nine storey state secretariat complex, 30,000 capacity stadium complex, exquisite structure of the Government House, Creek Haven are among some of the structures deliberately put in place to give the state capital a fitting aesthetic.
What more, Bayelsa State has even beaten some states created several years before the dream of the state was ever conceived in some infrastructure. The Bayelsa airport is one of such key infrastructure that the state can boast it has got before some states that had existed before it came to be. Air travelers in and out of the state no longer have to make a detour to the Port Harcourt international airport before taking off or arriving in the state
Bayelsa can also boast of being ahead of many states in education infrastructure with three state owned universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and vocational/technical colleges in the eight local government areas of the state. The icing on the cake, however, is the 60 megawatts gas powered turbine which the administration of Douye Diri recently provided to boost the state’s Industrialisation drive as well as enhance people’s livelihood and local businesses.
The World Bank has also recently undertaken to provide portable drinking water in the state capital and environs after the state scaled through the rigorous assessment of the world body. In the same vein, the World Bank also recently awarded the state $4 million in support of the its strides in education and health sectors.
So with the giant strides being made in critical sectors: roads, education, electricity, water and measurable improvements in health, Bayelsa at 30 is a resounding success story waiting for a fitting marriage with global investors. Francis Durfar, a public affairs analyst and publisher of Yenagoa based Niger Delta Herald newspaper agrees that Bayelsa has made measurable progress in the last 30 years, citing progress in infrastructure and urban development. However he says there is still a wide gap between what the state has achieved and what he believes Bayelsans deserve.
“We cannot deny the transformation that has taken place since the creation of the state in 1996. There are major roads, public buildings, power projects and other infrastructure that were not there when Bayelsa was created. The present administration, like previous administrations, has also contributed to the development of the state in different ways.
“However, 30 years is also a time for sober reflection. We must ask whether development has sufficiently improved the lives of ordinary Bayelsans. We need to look seriously at healthcare, education, employment, agriculture, housing, internal roads, drainage, environmental protection and the development of a stronger economic base.
‘For me, Bayelsa should move beyond dependence on government allocations. We have oil and gas, waterways, agricultural land and enormous human resources. These should be converted into sustainable economic opportunities, businesses and jobs for our people.
“So, I would describe Bayelsa at 30 as a mixture of knocks and kudos. We should commend the achievements where they are deserved, but we must also have the courage to point out the areas where government and society have not done enough,” he said.
Durfar contended that the 30th anniversary should not only be about celebration., but a moment for Bayelsans to reflect on where they are, and identify what has not worked and develop a clear long-term plan for the next generation. “My hope is that when Bayelsa reaches 40, we will be talking less about what we failed to achieve and more about how we transformed our resources, human capital and opportunities into a better quality of life for our people,” he proposed.
Read also:
- Bayelsa State Creation: Abacha Called King Aganaba Before Creation, Says Boladei
- Bayelsa Restates Zero Tolerance For Corruption, Warns Against Frivolous Petitions
- Blue Economy In Niger Delta: Bayelsa Monarch Urges FG, States To Unlock Multi-Billion Naira Maritime Economy
On his part, Keme Opia, former secretary, Bayelsa Non Governmental Forum, (BANGOF) a coalition of civil society organizations in the state stressed that in as much as Bayelsans appreciate the senatorial roads to Nembe, Brass and Ekeremor, the poverty rate in the state remains worrisome. According to him, the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) places Bayelsa State at 88.5% ranking with the poorest state in Nigeria after Sokoto State
He pointed out that the state is still struggling with power and safe water supply for households in and around Yenagoa the state capital. In addition, Opia lamented that the state owned Niger Delta University is still crying for attention in terms of staff salaries, transportation difficulties and other welfare packages.
“NDU is currently being run with subvention from the state government, meanwhile the funds from state is insufficient to take care of the wage bills, hence some percentage of salaries are being catered for from IGR.
In my opinion the state government needs to prioritize education and health,” he maintained.
