From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
There is uneasy calm in Bayelsa State, over proposed dissolution of the state executive council (SEC) by Governor Seriake Dickson.
Investigations indicated that the proposed dissolution, coming on the heels of the sack of the eight local government caretaker committee chairmen, is to inject fresh blood into his administration.
SEC members have already been directed to prepare their handover notes, in preparation for the cabinet reshuffle, which is expected to happen after former head of state, General Yakubu Gowon and Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka commission some projects, including the Ijaw National Academy, in the state.
Daily Sun gathered that the cabinet reshuffle has become necessary due to poor performance of some commissioners, political distraction and divided loyalty, especially on who takes over from Dickson, after his tenure.
Meanwhile Gowon and Soyinka, according to sources were selected by the state government because of their status as forthright leaders without political bias.
Sources said Dickson, who has mulled the idea of who to invite to commission some of the projects executed by his administration, zeroed in on Gowon and Soyinka “to demonstrate that his administration achievement is not just on paper.”
Aside the Ijaw National Academy, a tuition-free educational facility built for brilliant indigent students from all the eight local government councils in the state and Ijaw states, the two elder statesmen are also expected to commission the new governor’s office.
Meanwhile the state government has dismissed as “wicked rumour,” the alleged plan by Dickson to dissolve the SEC.
The state government, through the Commissioner of Information and Orientation, Hon. Jonathan Obuebite has said the claim of planned dissolution of State Exco was a wicked imagination of some politicians.
“I am a Commissioner and am supposed to know. This is another wicked rumour by people wishing to slow down the performance of the restoration government,” he said.
It is believed that some cabinet members, rather than focus on the delivery of the dividends of democracy by implementing policies of the administration have been divided along the core and no core ijaw as well as engaging in political meetings over the successor of Dickson.
Sources said members of Dickson political family from Southern Ijaw, Kolokuma/Opokuma and Yenagoa local government areas have meeting with political actors from their areas on how to push the agenda of their different local government councils clinching the governorship after Dickson.
Meanwhile, Gowon and Soyinka, according to sources, were picked by the state government because of their status as forthright leaders without political bias.
Sources said Dickson, who has been mulling on the idea of who to invite to commission some of the projects executed by his administration, zeroed in on Gowon and Soyinka to demonstrate that his administration achievement is not just on paper.
Aside the Ijaw National Academy, a tuition free world standard educational facility built for brilliant indigent students from the eight local government councils in the state and Ijaw states will be commissioned. The two elder statesmen are also expected to commission the new governor’s office.