Bayelsa State has reaffirmed its determination to aggressively pursue its housing scheme programme by providing low cost residential homes for her civil servants.
Deputy Governor Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, made this known while granting audience to the state chapter of the National Association of Government General Medical and Dental Practitioners (NAGGMDP) in Government House, Yenagoa, at the weekend.
Ewhrudjakpo, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Doubara Atasi, clarified that the low cost housing scheme which would be run on “owner-occupier basis” is targeted at enhancing the welfare of workers in the employ of government.
According to the deputy governor, the Diri administration has silently declared emergency on the housing sector to address the shortage of residential and office accommodation confronting civil servants in the state.
He assured that the ongoing construction of the nine-storey iconic new secretariat building would be completed in record time, not only to tackle the issue of office accommodation but also boost the productivity of the state workforce.
Speaking further on the housing scheme, he said government had already mandated the state housing authority to directly handle the programme to avoid unnecessary bottlenecks and delays after flagging off the project.
The deputy governor, however, decried the poor maintenance culture of many civil servants occupying already existing government staff residential quarters in the state and urged them to turn a new leaf.
Responding to the issue of funding of residency training for medical doctors, he pointed out that Bayelsa State was the only state in the country which had the residency law already enacted, and assured the NAGGMDP delegation that the state government would continue to keep faith with the training programme.
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While assuring the association of the state government’s support for its programmes to help the physically challenged in the state, Ewhrudjakpo advised them to extend their work of charity to the rural communities to impact the needy there.
“This administration is making the issue of housing a major part of our agenda. We want to put it on the front burner as a priority to develop a housing scheme for civil servants. You are also civil servants, so you will also benefit from it.
“The governor has declared a state of emergency on housing. That is why you see that for the first time, we don’t have a ministry of housing. We have decided to put all our energy into the state housing authority, so that they can actually push that agenda very far.
“We are also looking at the issue of rural housing because we don’t want to concentrate on Yenagoa alone. The immediate past administration started it, so we have some pockets of rural houses. But we are going to expand it,” he said.
Earlier, the leader of the NAGGMDP delegation, Dr. Akpesiri Pearl, said the visit was to solicit the state government’s buy-in and support for the association’s programme to give support to persons living with disabilities.
