Hon. Ayibaina Crowther Duba is the Bayelsa State Commissioner for Information and Orientation. In this interview with journalists, including Segun James, in his office in Yenagoa, he paints a picture of a government that understands the daunting tasks it is faced with and its readiness to face them squarely
It has been over one year since the coming of the Miracle Governor, you are in your second year now, what has the state government done in almost two years now?
We came in on February 14 last year, and in the joy and euphoria of coming in we were faced with a whole lot of problems. You know we had the pandemic which the world is still managing with its attendant effects on international business. And then oil revenue which is the main stay of the country and for a state like Bayelsa that doesn’t have the critical industries to bring in, and where the IGR is low, you will recall that things were not that rosy on the economic front. Then as a state that witnesses flooding, it dealt a huge blow on us because almost the entire state was submerged. But the good thing is that while all that was going on, as we were managing COVID-19 and the economic situation and all that, we were doing some planning. You will recall that the executive council was constituted only in August last year. And then immediately after that we went into full swing. By 2021 that is this year, to the glory of God, we have been able to start a good number of projects. I am sure you are aware that two of the senatorial roads that were stalled for one reason or the other, we have mobilized all the contractors back to site and we are working seriously. On road construction, the Yenagoa-Oporoma Road is going on, and we have taken it upon ourselves that that road will be completed in our own tenure, that is a commitment. The Sagbama-Ekeremor Road, the contractor, is back on site and they are working. You know this very well, you know that the Igbogene Ring Road, we are working on it, the work is going on. Then the Gloryland Drive, you will recall that when you are coming from Patani, coming into Bayelsa State, for some reasons the phase one of it was completed. And from the Economical Centre to Tombia to Government House, we have re-awarded to CCECC, (A Chinese construction company), they are working seriously now. The internal roads in Yenegoa, they were in a very deplorable condition, all Bayelsans know, it was as if they were neglected. But today, if you go into Yenagoa metropolis you will realise that those roads have been rehabilitated. We have given the city a facelift. There is this urban renewal going on that people don’t talk much about. The beauty of a city is sights and sounds. And when areas are filled with illegal structures it will deface the city, which is in a way a security problem because people can commit all sorts of crime in some of those places. So, in carrying out our urban renewal, we are trying to make sure that there are no shanties within the city. If you want to do a business, do it in a proper manner. We have been able to get certain places right, Kpansia Market which was a problem, we brought some decency to it. Tombia Roundabout is still a work in progress, but if you look at it today, you will realise that we have done a great job, and the job is still ongoing, it is not completed. I will use this opportunity to plead with the traders that that place is not a market. It is not designated for a market, whoever that is there is carrying out an illegal business. And we have always mentioned to them that they should leave that place, so that we will give the place the beauty it deserves.
Talking about roads, you mentioned the two senatorial roads, we know that it was abandoned in 2014, how many kilometres have you done now and is it still the same contractors that are handling both roads?
Yes it is Setraco, you remember that for the Sagbama-Ekeremor Road, the West Senatorial District road, Dantata and Sawoe was the original contractor. But the previous administration deemed it necessary to bring in Setraco too. And what we did was tell Setraco to go back to site. So Setraco is actually on the road now, so it is the same contractor that is there. CCECC, the Chinese Central Engineering and Construction Company was the one that handled the beat you are talking about. But I would not want to say it was abandoned, let us just say financial considerations came in and then funding issues were there. But we came in and then decided that we should talk with the contractors. And then the contractor CCECC is back and they are the ones constructing the road today.
Would you like to tell us the prices variation, how much is the total?
If this was properly planned I would have given you the figures because I am not into history where I will say about, I will would have loved to be exact on the figures. Mind you from Agobiri to Angiama is not cleared yet, so this new part of it, you will realise that the issues involved in survey and all of those things will come in. So they came in as a component part of the contract, so those items were added too.
There is this particular road that is controversial, that is the Gloryland Drive. We are aware that the former contractor took the state government to court. Now you said the project has been re-awarded, is it to the same contractor and what is the situation on that road?
When I started I said that 2020 was a period that was used to do a lot of planning. You will recall that Fark Engineering is an illustrious son, the founder and managing director of that company is an illustrious son of the state. And whatever there was that happened was an unfortunate incident. But His Excellency, the governor of the state deemed it necessary to engage him in a discussion. And they had several meetings and agreed to have an amicable resolution of the problems. So he was prevailed upon and he on his own agreed with government to withdraw all the cases in court. And to be fair to him, Engineer Fakuma, who is the MD of the company, withdrew all the cases and then agreed with government that it should be re-awarded. So, every litigation that arose from the misunderstanding between the previous government and the contractor was resolved. I think it was a win-win situation because the government mobilised him to go and complete the Nembe Bridge, which he is working on now.
What is the political situation in the state, because it seems that, the opposition party says that your government is not doing anything? How true is this?
It is strange to me as Commissioner for Information that the opposition party is saying that we are not doing anything. Even if they say we are not doing anything, what do you expect from them? They are opposition party. But people who are resident here know that the government is doing something. And I know that even when you came in there is this atmosphere of total peace in the community. And like the governor, Senator Douye Diri will always say, if there is darkness, you show light, where there is hatred you show love. And that is what we have been doing. And he sees everybody, be you APC, PDP, you are a Bayelsan first and foremost. And if all these things I have counted are not visible, I don’t know what will be visible. If you see bridges being constructed, Elebele Road, the bridge collapsed since, we are back there reconstructing the bridge. Is it that there are no APC persons in Elebele? Is it that there are no APC persons in Ekeremor? No APC person in Yenogoa and Oporoma, Southern Ijaw? That they are not seeing these things that are happening? That statement is more political than real.
The government is said to be working on many projects. Can you please name some of the projects?
In Yenagoa now, for quite a while the street lights where not on, but if you go now at night, Yenagoa is back to those days when everywhere was glowing with light.
What is the situation with Peace Park?
Where we are using now, if you look at it, they have done some facelift there. What government is intending to do, the last time I spoke with the Honorable Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, since government is using this park for some of its activities, he was telling me that they want to find somebody to manage the place. People have been coming, but you know how it is with all these PPP arrangements, sometimes some don’t come with the intention to even spend a dime, they just want to take what government can bring and go away. But the Commissioner for Culture has assured me, the last time I spoke with him, that about three or four companies are interested, that they will want to turn the place to its original intent, which is to be a peace park. A park that people can go and have fun with family and friends. That is what they are doing, and I am sure that he will achieve that because he is a serious minded person.
There has always been this issue of the size of the workforce in Bayelsa State, and we know that during the last days of the last administration there were a lot of employments even when the government was complaining that the workforce was so large because of the monthly wage bill. What is it like now and how is the government coping with the situation?
That is one hell of a problem we have in our state government, because a greater percentage of our income, what we get goes to payment of salaries. But as a government, we have decided that there will be no downsizing, no sacking of anybody in the civil service. Rather, if you listened to us in a our last transparency briefing, it was clearly stated that rather we will look for other sources of revenue to shore up whatever shortfall that has come as a result of the high wage bill that we pay. Incidentally, when you look at it, I realised that personally, it is not just Bayelsa alone that has these issues because just recently I was listening to the governor of Kaduna State who said over 80% to 85% of what comes to the state is used in paying salaries. He in his case said he was downsizing, but we have agreed that we are not downsizing. What we are trying to do now, which you can see is that we are doing a needs assessment. We want to know exactly what we need for effective performance of our duties as civil servants. Yes, it is a drag on other areas but when you look back we are still Bayelsans, we don’t need to sack, they have been employed and by the time we finish the needs assessment, we will know whether we still need to employ or not. What are we doing with the needs assessment? Take for instance, you are Ministry of Works, you need engineers, and what you have are admin officers. What does Ministry of Works need? They need engineers and the professionals that are needed, so we want to know that. In the education sector, we want to know, do we need teachers? If we need teachers, can they be drawn from within the service? Where are the excesses? Where are the shortfalls? If we need teachers, how many teachers do we have teaching Mathematics? How many teachers do we have teaching Geography? Because there is always a tilt, favouring one beat than the other. So those are the things we are trying to do. The committee that was set up has given a report, we have the needs assessment report. We are at the implementation stage. I heard when the needs assessment programme was going on, some civil servants felt that they were to be sacked. No, the government is not thinking of doing that, we just want to put proper people in their proper places. And then where the need arises, if a department needs X number of persons, let it be that it is the X number that is really there, so that others could be shifted to where there is a greater need. Just like in teaching, we have more teachers in the urban areas than the rural areas. The issue is when they are transferred, why are they not going? Meanwhile, in the schools that teachers are not there, you will think that there is a lack of teachers. Meanwhile school A might have 20, 30, 40 teachers and school B will have only 10. Those are issues that as a government we try to exactly know the true situation and we are working on it. But to answer your question, rather than sack, we want to find alternate sources of revenue so that we can meet up government obligations to the people.
Talking about security, is the governor and the government in favour of state police? And secondly the activities of some youths in this state, most especially the one they call cultism, how is the government handling it?
Security issues are very sensitive issues. There are times we could be emotional about them because there are constitutional restrictions that makes it difficult. There are some options that look outwardly very appealing. And I know that you will recall that the South-south governors came up with a position in their last meeting. Coming back to Bayelsa State with specific reference to what you asked concerning cultism, it is a problem to us because a great number of these boys are doing what they are doing. Sometimes they claim that it is because they don’t have things to do. But I personally think that the choice to do evil and commit crime is a personal thing. Because my philosophy tells me that inherent in us is goodness and wickedness, evil and good is part of what it is. Which one you allow to override the other is what matters. As a government, I have been involved in several meetings where the security team has been doing a lot. They have been working tirelessly to the point of even engaging these so called bad boys. As I speak with you, just recently we set up a committee for anti-cultism. There is a committee that is working on them, we have criminalised it to a level where if you are found, you will face the law. And we have not rested, just like while I was talking about the urban renewal concerning the Tombia Roundabout, that is one flash point we have. And whatever we are doing is to make sure that such ugly situations don’t arise. As I speak, the whole security architecture in the state is being overhauled. And very soon, the people will hear. You know, even the state security outfit has been a little bit dormant for some time. By the grace of God, it will come back fully operational when they cross the Ts and dot the Is. So it is a concern that the government is working seriously on. And there is a synergy between the government and all the security agencies working in the state even the military. You know this is one government that since its inception, Security Council meetings have been very, very regular, the same way exco meetings have been regular. I don’t think we have missed any since the cabinet was formed. Security Council meetings are regular and they are fine tuning and at the end of the day you will see that there is a new dawn security wise in the state.
We know that the state is highly indebted and you are pursuing these infrastructural projects, and the workforce has increased, which means also that the monthly wage bill has also increased. And you say that you will look for other sources of revenue to shore up your expenditure. How are you doing it, what way are you taking to source for funds from outside to make sure that the government keeps ticking?
When you are a prudent manager of resources, and you allocate these resources properly, when you have even less, people will think you have more. Any time these questions come up, how we are funding these projects and whether we will be able to sustain it, I keep saying that we have a governor who is a prudent manager of resources and is prudent in its application and allocation. Because if you need this, and you are spending money on that, you have miss allocated the funds. So knowing that opening up the state is critical to our survival, if you want to harness our agricultural produce from Southern Ijaw, or from Ekeremor, you need a road to get there. Even your security, fast movement of security personnel to flash points, it is easier by road. So we believe that by this proper application and allocation of these resources, it will open a new economic vista for the state. Mind you we have a lot, but because of the nature of the state, take for instance cassava, we have a starch factory ready for commissioning in Ebedebiri. Now, if you tell women in Southern Ijaw to now plant cassava, if you need a truck load, which one is easier? Is it by boat or with a vehicle? The truck will get to those places and move those things there. Mind you in agriculture we are doing rice and all those kind of things. Definitely when we get there, the rice is not for just local consumption, it will be sold. Even with our dealings with the oil companies, yes, it could be in the exclusive list, but there are ways to go about certain things. And the economic team, they are working on the final details on what to do. And I know that within the available resources which are not just finance, resources that are natural to us, we will be able to meet our financial obligation. Look at it this way, timbering, every day you see logging, people do this, what comes to government? So if we tighten our tax system, because if you are going to Niger Delta University, you will see several trucks taking wood out. How much are they paying? So if you tidy all these things up, we will have revenue that will come. And if you get N100 out of it and you spend the N100 well, in running the state, you will think it is N1000 you are spending. Because we need to cut down on wastages, and you will recall that from when those jobs were awarded from today, for those of you who are living in Yenagoa, and Bayelsa State as a whole, you will realise that the governor is always going to those project sites. He doesn’t sit down in the office to get report from field workers, so he is seeing where the money is going, he knows the next step to take. By constantly visiting those sites he knows when the next milestone for payment will be. So preparation is done first hand.
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What we are trying to do now, which you can see is that we are doing a needs assessment. We want to know exactly what we need for effective performance of our duties as civil servants. Yes, it is a drag on other areas but when you look back we are still Bayelsans, we don’t need to sack, they have been employed and by the time we finish the needs assessment, we will know whether we still need to employ or not. What are we doing with the needs assessment? Take for instance, you are Ministry of Works, you need engineers, and what you have are admin officers. What does Ministry of Works need? They need engineers and the professionals that are needed, so we want to know that. In the education sector, we want to know, do we need teachers? If we need teachers, can they be drawn from within the service?
