James Ojo Adakole
Renowned maritime journalist and publisher who hails from the Niger Delta Region, Mr. Asu Beks, has given a pass mark to the outgoing governor of Bayelsa State, Sierake Dickson, though he noted that the governor did not do well in the area of workers’ welfare.
Beks who is the president of Ijaw Media Forum (IMF), and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Maritime Media Limited in this interview also reflected on the state of the nation, the forthcoming governorship election in Bayelsa, among other issues. Excerpts:
Governorship election is your state, Bayelsa, is coming up in November. How will you assess the performance of the outgoing administration of Governor Seriake Dickson?
Governor Seriake Dickson has not done badly in terms of infrastructure, roads, education and health; he did well in these areas. The only area I think he had issues is workers’ welfare The workers are not happy with him in terms of poor renumeration, salaries owed and non-payment of pension to pensioners. Therefore, the outgoing governor has done well in the education sector. We now have some landmark and special schools established in each of the senatorial districts in the state. Aside this, he also established two universities which is remarkable. There is Bayelsa Medical University (BMU) in Yenagoa, the state capital and University of Africa, Toru-Orua. If you look at Nigeria today, the main problem we have in the North is lack of education.
So, if a governor has invested so much in that area, he needs to be commended and whoever that will take over from him should continue from where he stopped. However, where I am very worried about is the industrialization of Bayelsa. Bayelsa is a major oil-producing state and there is no reason in terms of unemployment indices in Nigeria, it should not be among the top three. We have over 32 per cent of unemployment rate in Bayelsa State which is very sad. And this is why whoever that is going to take over from him should do more in the area of job creation. We have the natural resources to achieve this. We have oil, we have gas and fishery. There are also lots of things that can drive investment to Bayelsa State such as airport and a seaport. From the foregoing, whoever that will take over from him should be able to the kickstart the real development, because if you ask me, real development has not taken off in Bayelsa and we need somebody who has the capacity to do that.
You talked about having someone with capacity as the next governor in Bayelsa State, what is your assessment of political big-wigs eyeing the governorship position?
If you look at the top-gunners for the office of Bayelsa State governorship at the forthcoming election, we have All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman in Bayelsa State and a former governor of the state, Timipre Sylva, we also have Senator Heineken Lokpobiri who is currently the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development. From the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) camp, we have Chief Timi Alaibe and Dr. Boladei Igali. So, if you look at these people I have mentioned, their credentials are very rich. Meanwhile, the choice between Dr Igali and Chief Alaibe will depend on the body language of the outgoing governor. You know these days, any outgoing governor would like to install somebody that can continue from where he stopped, not necessarily, covering up because there is nothing like cover up. Whatever that you have done, the books are there. In the case of APC, it is likely going to be between Sylva and Lokpobiri. Senator Lokpobiri was one of the early speakers of Bayelsa State House of Assembly, so he is one of the pioneer speakers in the state Assembly before he went to the Senate and presently a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So, when you are talking about experience, he has it. He is somebody who has grassroots support. Some people are saying he is from the same Senatorial District with Dickson, but that doesn’t matter. This is because there is no zoning arrangement in Bayelsa. There may be zoning arrangements in other states and even in Nigeria, but I don’t think there is any zoning arrangement in Bayelsa. And then, look at Alaibe. He is well respected. He was the former Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC) and he is doing very well as a private businessman. He has contacts all over the place. He is somebody I hold in high esteem and most Bayelsans are looking at somebody like Alaibe to be their next governor.
But the question is will Dickson be comfortable with Alaibe taking over from him? That has been the question people are asking. For Dr Igali, another top contender, he used to be an ambassador. He was a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture before he became Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power. He is very experienced, widely read and a grassroots man. So, between the two of them, it depends on where the governor wants the pendulum to turn to between the two of them. So, that is the case for the PDP. In the case of APC, where we have Sylva and Lokpobiri, I heard that there is going to be an arrangement. Sylva may be given a ministerial appointment as a compensation to step down, but whether they have put pen to paper on this kind of arrangement, I don’t know. So, from every indication, there are four main contenders for the forthcoming governorship election in Bayelsa, any other person is a joker.
Recently, the Economic Confidential, in its Annual Viability Index (ASVI) for 2018 listed Bayelsa State as one of the 17 insolvent states which cannot survive without fedwweral allocation. Are you surprised to see your state on the list, especially considering the fact that it is one of the oil-rich states in Nigeria?
These are some of the things we are saying because there are so many wastages. It is not that Bayelsa State cannot pay salaries. If a state like Anambra can pay salary, why can’t Bayelsa pay? Look at Cross River, they pay May salaries as at April. So, what we need in Bayelsa State are men who have the fear of God to say look, this position that I am holding, God gave it to me to serve the people not yourself.
But in most cases, we have people who do not have the fear of God and when you have leaders who don’t have the fear of God, then forget it. Most of these leaders refer to the resources of the state as if they are theirs. We have just eight local governments in Bayelsa State, so why should we be the last almost every time they talk about economic indices? Bayelsa is a one-city state, with only Yenagoa. This is unacceptable and whoever that is coming should change the narrative. To this end, all we need to do is to challenge the leaders.
Another inauguration date, May 29, is around the corner. What is your assessment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s first term and what do you expect to see in his second tenure?
If I were Mr President, none of the current set of ministers will make a return because they have failed woefully. Is it the Minister of Agriculture who has been farming on the pages of newspaper and TV? Is it the Minister of Power? Just name it.
Look at the cabinet, there is no minister you’ll pick and say this one has done very well. So, if Mr President wants to achieve success, if he really wants to take Nigeria to the Next Level, he has to look for capable hands. You can imagine the kind of cabinet we had under President Goodluck Jonathan, fantastic group of people. Agreed, not everyone in that cabinet was okay, but among these outgoing ministers, you cannot point to anyone of them and say this one has been outstanding. So, if he is going to bring back these same ministers, then it is another four years that have failed on arrival. He needs to rejig his cabinet because those are the people that will do the work for him. Also, he should show more than lip service to security because if there is no security, who will come and invest in your country? When he was sworn in four years ago, and we had this challenge of Boko Haram, people were confident that because he was a General, what Jonathan cannot do in four or six years, he can do it in three months.
But we have now discovered that this General can only bark, he cannot bite. He has disappointed Nigerians because of the level of insecurity. We have never had this so bad. Then the poverty level in the country is alarming. We are now the poverty capital of the world. All the worst economic indices have been attributed to Nigeria. There is nothing the World Bank or International Monetary Fund (IMF) has come out to say positive about our economic policies. Look at the Finance Minister we have before, look at the one we have now, they are not even close. Can you compare them to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala? The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been given another tenure of five years. Unfortunately, he has already started to raise alarm about gloomy days ahead for Nigeria economically. It is his responsibility to fix the economy as the CBN governor. If there is any economic team in Nigeria today which I don’t think we have, the CBN will be in charge.
So, for me, with what we have seen in the last four years, I don’t see any hope, except Mr President will do the right thing, get the right economic team, get the right calibre of people to man the security agencies. This idea of preference for certain ethnic group, especially as regards appointment of security chiefs will not help us. Now, we have more security challenges in the Northern part of the country and all the present security heads are from the North. Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar; that of Customs, Police, Immigration, Civil Defence, Prison, among others. All these security chiefs are from the North and yet the region has the most prevalent security issues in the country, not even Katsina, the president’s state is safe.
You have an upcoming event, what is it all about?
Yes, it is called the Maritime Industry Living Legend Award. It is an award that will hold once every decade to honour and appreciate those who have contributed meaningfully to the development and growth of Nigeria, especially the Maritime industry. This is because the Maritime industry remains the life-wire of Nigeria’s economy. If you look around us, the things we wear, the offices, the cars, everything, almost 90 per cent of what we use comes through the ports. This is the industry where we have agencies such as Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigeria Ports Authority, (NPA), Nigeria Shippers Council (NSC) and Maritime Academy. Therefore, Nigeria is a big player in the committee of Maritime nations, and so we at Maritime Media Limited decided to put a day aside to honour those who have been contributing and are still doing so to the development and growth of the Maritime Industry. The event will hold on May 24, 2019 and we have the DG of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside as the Chairman of the occasion. We have also invited the President of Liberia, George Weah as the Chief Special Guest of Honour, while the Special Guest of Honour will be the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural development, Senator Lokpobiri. So, it is a big event.