Diri Amazes Me With The Boldness He Faces Critical Projects In Bayelsa -Royal Father
10 min read
It is almost three years since Senator Douye Diri took over the affairs of Bayelsa State as governor. By next year, he will be facing the electorate again for their mandate for a re-election.
How has he fared during this first term? Does he deserve to return? Is he managing funds accruing to the state properly? These and other questions were posed to the chairman of the state council of traditional rulers, King Bubaraye Dakolo.
This was what he told TNN during the interview.
Auditors uncover payroll fraud in PAP *…513 persons receiving multiple stipends
What do you make of what Governor Douye Diri has been doing since he came on board about three years ago?
He came on board in 2020 and there was very little that he inherited financially, apart from debts. Much later, of course, he was also welcomed by COVID and then subsequently, he has been managing the funds but some of these windfalls wouldn’t have come in and he has taken exceptionally bold steps- building new roads, particularly the senatorial roads- and I think a couple of months ago, we went to Nembe to commence the building of the Nembe Brass road, which we estimated to cost like N56 billion or something. This could be a couple of millions in the 70s. It’s supposed to be a few millions from Okaki to Brass, about four million or something in those days. But now, it is in the range of billions and some of these bold moves are all because of the small resources that come in, the 13 per cent and monthly allocations.
Auditors uncover payroll fraud in PAP *…513 persons receiving multiple stipends
So to the best of my knowledge, I may not have the monthly figures, though there is a transparency briefing that is done every month and then we hear the stories of 13 per cent and the rest of them. If you see the boldness with which he initiates some of these projects and quickly even completes most of them and of course all the bridges and so on and so forth and knowing that in this part of the world, even comparing Bayelsa state to Rivers State, it’s actually incomparable because Rivers State you have from Port Harcourt to Ogoni, all that Ikwerre area is real upland. It is when you go to the Abuloma, Buguma, Bille and then all of those places that you now talk about riverine. Here, everywhere, this place you are now(the state traditional rulers council) gets flooded beyond words. In fact, if I were to follow the rules, this house is supposed to be demolished because this house was not properly built as the time it was built. It is not a child’s play constructing in Bayelsa or building in Bayelsa. Go and ask anybody in the Federal Secretariat in Yenagoa. 26 years after the creation of Bayelsa state, there is no functional federal government secretariat. The reason is, they’ve been arguing because they have a prototype design and they say okay, Taraba (it will cost N20 million, Kano 20 million, you understand? And they say Bayelsa N20 million. We say “make una come build am na? Dem never fit build am till now.” There is one that is quarter finished or something somewhere, no one has packed in because you will spend five times that money only in the substructure. I’m an engineer, you spend five times that money only in the substructure. Substructure means you are piling, you are reclaiming and all of that and nobody sees it. It is only when you start building up. So you can actually spend N5 billion preparing the substructure and people would say, “wetin you dey do?” And because the country is, I don’t want to use the word daft, but because the country is filled with all kinds of persons, with all kinds of experts that have experted us to where we are today, where it is one dollar to about N800, you should not wonder much why people would stay somewhere and assume that what holds here is what should hold there. In fact, the purpose of the youth service is not being achieved; they have to redouble efforts towards making sure that people are juggled around this country to see what happens elsewhere. So to that extent, you can’t compare.
With Second Term Mandate, Diri Will Do Much More For Bayelsans- INC President
The government has talked about building some basic roads here that may actually be valued as much as a standard flyover elsewhere. All of those things are here but they are more for engineers to bring out the figures and then let us know for sure whether these claims are absolutely correct, but there is a lot of sense in them. But behind all of these, and no Niger Delta person should fall for it, it has been a recurring decimal. I have written a book titled, The Riddle of the Oil Thief. There is a chapter there that deals with intervention of these bodies; how they don’t quite achieve their mandate and then what people are quick to do, you hear things like ‘your brother was NDDC MD, your father was this MD, your mother was in the Amnesty Office and then your father was governor and all of that’ and what they expect is, we should now carry machetes and carry stones and go and stone them, but that is illegal.
Auditors uncover payroll fraud in PAP *…513 persons receiving multiple stipends
The correct thing to do would be, for the police that have a department they call CID, the police should know that this government official has stolen money and take him up and ensure he’s jailed and so the first question is, is there any NDDC former MD that is in jail? None. So then, what are they talking about? So you want village people who have not eaten to go and begin to look for former governors and stone them for collecting money that was released by Buhari? If the system wants to do justice, the system has what it takes to do justice. It is not for a hungry youth, a misguided youth to be misguided enough to now go and burn houses of senators or burn houses of former governors. That is a call for anarchy; that is not the way. The correct way is that if anybody has taken 13 per cent that belongs to the Niger Delta people, that belongs to Bayelsa state, then the police, the EFCC and the rest of those bodies should swing into action. What are they waiting for? I don’t have the facts, if you have the facts, present them to the police and let them swing into action. It is not to call for people who have not eaten to say somebody has eaten your money(like Wike did). Who has eaten the money? Bring the facts. Go and tell that to the EFCC. Wike should go and tell EFCC who and who amongst his colleagues have eaten the monies for their states, present those facts and then if the person does not have immunity, they should swing into action straight. If he has immunity, once the immunity elapses, they should swing into action or EFCC could do like Obasanjo before and say “look, una man dey thief too plenty oh, so the best way is that Assembly, make una dey teach am na” Are you getting the point? Calling for this very retrogressive way should not be it, it has happened too many times. I’ve been confronted by people that said, “Ah, but there is this 13 per cent derivation” 13 percent derivation is useless to me except it trickles down to my community and I see the effect and unfortunately, most persons do not have basic logic, they went to schools, they passed through schools, school did not pass through them, so they don’t have basic logic. Few days ago in the event I went for, I managed to tell them because they are looking at security of government infrastructure in the Niger Delta and I said Okay, oil and gas, and telecoms and the rest of them and I said okay, the way forward is not all these grammar, surveillance and no surveillance, that is not the story, the story here is that the exchange rate is one dollar to N800, so the economy is something else. What you can afford to eat now as breakfast is worth less than what you were eating in secondary school. What you were using to drink garri in secondary school in those days, Titus, Milk and Geisha and all of those; you can’t attempt it today. So the economy is so bad that almost everybody you see around is cutting corners.
With Second Term Mandate, Diri Will Do Much More For Bayelsans- INC President
You said the federal government is not tracking the funds allocated to states. But how about those who are collecting the money on behalf of the people? Which was why I asked if your governor has made good use of the money he collects on behalf of Bayelsa?
I think so.
Why do you think so?
I just mentioned to you the things he’s been embarking on, road projects, building projects, all kinds of projects in the state.
So would you say you are proud of him?
Yes, sure. I’m proud of him. I’m proud of Governor Diri.
What would you expect of him, in the coming days, in the coming months?
Well, I would expect him to remain people focused. He’s just centric in his style or in his approach. I want him to remain that way because if you are committed to the welfare of your people, if you get money, you want to put them in front, you want to look at their priorities, you want to listen to their priorities, you want to attend to their priorities. So that is what I would want him to be and note, he has a pedigree, he has a pedigree of an Ijaw naturalist. So he is someone who grew up in his village, who schooled around here and who left what he was doing because he wanted to be directly involved in service. He is that kind of fellow. So that kind of fellow, it will be very surprising if he acts otherwise. It will be very surprising.
Auditors uncover payroll fraud in PAP *…513 persons receiving multiple stipends
Election is coming very soon next year, so he has like one year to go. Can you set specific targets for him? Can you set an agenda for him?
Well, he has a lot of competent executors. When I mean competent executors, it means commissioners and other experts that are working with him and they have a lot of projects, some of which would consume so much money and I would think that instead of spreading the monies, I would say he should focus on some of the key projects, like the bridges going down to Southern Ijaw should be completed, the bridges down the Ekeremor axis should be completed, the Brass roads and bridges along that axis should be completed. Those are the major ones in my mind. But when these are done, the human beings must stay alive and so usually when you carry out projects that would keep people alive, for those who want to strictly politic, they would say, where is it? So if you operate my eyeball with N5 million and I begin to see again, your opponent would say, where is it? If you operate your pile and you ensure that you can defecate properly, the opponents would say, where is it? If you want to make sure that immunization goes round and ensure that medications are getting to people and people are staying alive, they would say where is it? If you ensure that pensioners are paid as at when due and so on and so forth, you’re paying up arrears and so on and so forth, at the end of the day, they would say where is it? So far, I think that Douye Diri is doing well and I will advise that he continues focusing on people centered projects and let him open his hands and show transparency in facts and figures in the monthly and constant briefings. It will go a long way. Though sometimes, even with that, opposition would say na lie oh, wayo, even when you show some receipts.
So when you said opening of hands, I thought that you were going to talk about what some people call “food on the table” You know, giving out money to people, empowering people.
Studies are conducted and based on needs, that is being done. Those things, I think the Women Affairs Ministry or so is dealing with small businesses and the empowerment on monthly basis. They’ve done to a couple of thousands of small businesses that do not need more than 250 to 500 thousand given to them to boost their local businesses. That has been going on here. I hear almost 3000 persons have gotten that in the last two years. Everything should be based on a mathematical study, not just handing over for handing over sake; it has to be such that, it is like trying to sow a seed. You should study the ground and ensure that the ground is fertile and watered enough so that when you plant, it will grow. You don’t just give money to people as per food on the table kind of system, no. It has to be an organised way so that when you eat today, you can also eat tomorrow. It is not about just eating today and then when you clean your mouth, you say, ah, I never chop oh, since three days.
I hear they have some partnership that would be deployed in January in respect to massive rice production and of course the flood has destroyed almost everything; all the cassavas in the state are gone, but there is hope for agriculture and for small businesses.
