By Ben Murray Bruce

Many people will be shocked with the data from the Africa Health, Human & Social Development (Afri-Dev) which provides factual data on Human Development Indices in Nigeria when they see it. But not me, because I saw it coming long before it became a reality.

Gov Dickson

Bayelsa state used to be one of those states listed as educationally backward states. In fact, as recently as 9 years ago, Bayelsa was the most educationally backward state in Southern Nigeria.

Fast forward to today and the data from the Africa Health, Human & Social Development (Afri-Dev) shows that Bayelsa has gone from being at the bottom of the ladder to having the lowest rate of illiteracy among males in Nigeria!

This is nothing short of a miracle and thankfully, that miracle was catalogued by a continental policy think tank like Afri-Dev otherwise people would have claimed it was manipulated.

This development, this modern day miracle is the handwork of the Governor of Bayelsa state, Seriake Dickson and I doff my heart to him.

Dickson has given new meaning to the words of our Lord in Matthew 20:16 “the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

And these data from Afri-Dev have been corroborated by the West African Examinations Council, (WAEC), via the results of its West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

Since 2013, Bayelsa state has been steadily rising to the top, displacing states that hitherto used to outperform her.

In 2013, Bayelsa state had the 6th highest pass rates amongst Nigeria’s 36 states with 51.66% pass rate.

As if this was not good enough, the state performed even better in 2014 jumping 2 places ahead to become the number 4 best performing state with a pass rate of 52.83%. 37,242 students scored five credits and above including Maths and English.

If this is the only thing that Governor Seriake Dickson has achieved, then he deserves to be re-elected just for that. But no! He has achieved more. Much, much, more!

One thing I admire about Governor Dickson and which I think all administrations in Nigeria should copy is his belief in the continuity of governance and his ability to separate his personal feelings from his actions as governor. He is able to work with those he does not like which is more than I can say about many Nigerian leaders.

It is common knowledge that not a lot of Bayelsan’s reckon with the previous administration of Governor Timipre Sylva, whose administration could not be said to have been friendly to Seriake Dickson, yet Dickson has gone out of his way to pay debts owed by that administration. Can you beat that!

Under Sylva’s administration, a world renowned Caucasian Christian clergy had been invited to help midwife peace in Bayelsa which had been experiencing a high prevalence of kidnapping, piracy and other poverty related crimes.

This man did the job he was invited to do as a consultant and did it successfully to the extent that many militants gave up arms and decided to cooperate with the administration.

However, he was not paid. After years of fruitlessly waiting for his money until Sylva left office, he happened to mention it to someone who had the ears of Governor Dickson.

It will shock Nigerians and indeed Bayelsans that Governor Dickson after the conversation right there and then asked a young man present to follow him to his office where he instructed one of the accountants in the state Governor’s lodge in Abuja to pay this peacemaker his money for work rendered to his predecessor.

That is the heart of a leader and Dickson has it.

I am convinced that you cannot force people to follow you. You inspire them to follow you. Leaders that do not know this lose reliability and become liabilities. Dickson is a leader that knows this and that is why I am convinced that the people of Bayelsa should and will follow him for another 4 years.

Where others see power as an opportunity Dickson has seen it as a responsibility which is why the major grouse some people have against him is that government money is not circulating as it use to circulate before.

But if Dickson had continued that practice, would we have seen the phenomenal rise in education numbers we are witnessing today?

This is a man who is interested in the price of leadership and not the perks of leadership.

To the best of my knowledge, the Countryman Governor (as Seriake Dickson is fondly called in Bayelsa) is the only governor who renders a monthly account of the accruals to the state from the Federation Account and how it is being spent. He does this in a town hall meeting where he relates directly with the people.

Little things like this are what makes me so convinced that Governor Dickson will break the jinx and become the first governor of a Bayelsa to be re-elected and complete his second tenure without interruption.

Being a well traveled man, it used to upset me that m own home state does not have an airport. Well, they will soon be a thing of the past as the current state government is almost done with the completion of Bayelsa’s first airport.

In the not so distant future, Nigerians will be able to fly to and from Bayelsa. Now that’s what I call good news!

Residents of the state capital, Yenagoa, will soon experience reduced traffic on municipal roads because the Seriake Dickson administration had the foresight to build a flyover on the Isaac Boro Expressway that is soon to be commissioned. It is worthy of note that this is the first and only flyover in the whole of Bayelsa state.

Ben Bruce

Seriake Dickson is on the right track. I keep repeating that its not the government’s job to circulate government money amongst the elite. It is the job of a state government to grow the people and the people will then grow the economy which will allow money to circulate amongst everybody and not just the elite.

Look at what the young man is doing in the area of township roads. Even roads that were initiated by Federal Government agencies are being completed because he is releasing funds for their completion.

I salute him for releasing funds for the completion of the Nembe-Ogbia road. Children now will no longer have to swim to school. They can walk. Cars can now come to the community.

He has expanded the Elebele – Opolo and Opolo-Imiringi roads making it possible for the people in the hinterlands of Bayelsa to experience motor-able roads whereas in times past their experience was of pot hole infested roads that could not stand the ravages of erosion and flooding.

And it is not just in the area of education and works that Seriake Dickson has proved his administrative mettle. No!

Bayelsa state under his administration has improved in virtually every sphere of Human Development.

I will leave others to talk about these other spheres, while limiting myself to these areas where I have first hand experience.

Let me end by calling on every supporter of Ben Murray Bruce in Bayelsa state to make sure they not only support Governor Seriake Dickson’s re-election bid, but they should go out and canvass for him so that we keep moving ahead.