Uche Usim, Abuja
Kemela Okara is the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) of Bayelsa and he wants to succeed Governor Seriake Dickson. He speaks on his chances.
You’ve worked with Governor Seriake Dickson, first as a Commissioner for Industry and now as SSG? How has it been?
I was appointed Secretary to the Government of Bayelsa State on the 30th of November, 2017. One of the things I set out to do was to institute a very clear agenda for finishing strong, and that became the mantra of the restoration government. This was important because the challenge of a government that is midway through its term is the ability to focus and maintain momentum to complete the execution of key policy initiatives. We successfully ensured that each of the different ministries, departments and agencies implementing key policies of government had a clear roadmap to ensure a strong finish in education, in healthcare, in infrastructure and we are also clear as to what the cost would be. The second thing which we have largely achieved was fixing the state secretariat that was in a very deplorable state. We set out a five-point plan for improving security, the environment, water supply, power supply and rehabilitation of the building; and we have succeeded on all these fronts. Take water for instance. There had been no water running in over 10 years because a lot of the facilities had run down over time and there had been very little maintenance and upgrade. We also made significant progress with the rehabilitation of the building. There were parts of the building where people couldn’t work in because whenever it rained, rain water would gush into offices. So, we rehabilitated the entire building and improved security to stop vandalisation of government equipment.
For me the most important achievement as Commissioner was the development of the State industrial policy in partnership with UNIDO. This has given us the blueprint for our industrial take-off on a massive scale. The other very important achievement we had during the time I was Commissioner was re-orienting people to embrace the importance of being entrepreneurs in order to improve productivity and manpower in the state. My office managed a fund of over two billion naira for MSMEs with good results. We were able to access this facility at less than 10 per cent interest and we were able to fund many businesses. There were people who were looking for N200, 000 or N300, 000 to start a business. So, with two billion, we were able to meet their needs. At the last count, we had over 3,000 MSMEs that accessed this money and were able to start their businesses and start repaying what they borrowed.
You spoke about insecurity before this administration came in. How has the government tackled it?
There was a high level of insecurity and the approach of the government has been to deal head-on with the issue by heavy investment in security infrastructure. One of the major initiatives that the governor embarked upon was heavy investment in policing by providing vehicles for the police, and the civil service. He set up what today is known as the Bayelsa State Security Fund into which corporate bodies and individuals in the state make contribution to augment what is on ground. You know the police is a federal one. In that case, the first thing the governor had to do was to augment in a very meaningful way the support going to the Nigerian Police to ensure they could carry out their duties more effectively.
On the social front, the other initiative which government did was to massively invest in education because without investment in education; there would be many recruits into crime, who are available and willing if they don’t have alternatives and the skills to engage the market place properly. Today, we have 16 boarding schools which provide for free boarding, free feeding of students to ensure that nobody is left out in terms of access to education. That is a major second strategy that the government embarked upon.
Considering the fiscal constraints currently faced by most states of the federation, how has your government managed to cope, including diversifying the economy from oil?
Two major areas have been our focus in terms of employment or expanding the economic base of the state: one has been to attract industries in the state that need gas because we have abundant gas in the state and so we are focused on attracting industries that require gas to do their business. But that is one. Secondly, our focus had been to exploit all our agricultural potential: two key areas where we have done this is in establishing the cassava processing factory in Bayelsa State which would leverage on a lot of cassava that is grown. So, we are working on a model of having a cassava factory as the anchor and the a lot of these cassava farmers are those who provide the cassava for the industry to process and sell because there is huge demand for different kinds of products that come out of that. That is one major area.
The second major area has been in the area of fish farming. We have successfully set up a 500-fish pond farm which has been concessioned. The third area is the new airport which has been completed. It is a 3.5 kilometer runway airport which has been completed. The only outstanding item which is being completed as we speak is the fencing because under the NCAA regulations, it must be fenced. The runway is ready; the terminal building is ready and all the supporting facilities in respect of landing equipment. With the airport, we know that you can also expand access into the state and expand businesses into the state.
One of the major challenges with governance at the state level across the country is the issue of God fatherism, how was the Dickson administration able to deal with this?
In Bayelsa State, god -fatherism has not actually been an issue. Bayelsa State is one of the exceptions to the rule if there is such a rule about anything like god-fatherism. I can only speak from the context of what I know in Bayelsa State. In Bayelsa State, it has not been a factor and if you look at the key political players in the state, the former president (Goodluck Jonathan) is one of the most accommodating politicians you will ever come across. This is a man who, without any push, was able to concede defeat and has entered into the annals as perhaps Nigeria’s foremost democrat. So, Bayelsa State is a state that has enjoyed very democratic cordial relationship among the key players. So, it’s not an issue that we have to contend with.