By Samuel Oyadongha, Yenagoa

The Ijaw people in Bayelsa State are demanding the creation of 33 Local Government Areas from the existing eight LGAs in the state.

President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Prof Benjamin Okaba who spoke with Vanguard in Yenagoa said the current number of LGAs in Bayelsa State does not adequately represent the population and vastness of its landmass, particularly considering the state’s significant contribution to the country’s oil production.

This, according to him, informed the decision of the INC to constitute the committee for the creation of additional LGAs for the state, headed by Rt. Hon Tonye Isenah, a former Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly with Hon Ayibaina Duba, the pioneer Leader of the State House of Assembly as Secretary.

Okaba, who said the committee has since submitted the position of Ijaw people to the House of Representatives Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, insisted that creating additional councils for Bayelsa would lead to improved access to local government services and infrastructure development in the state predominantly riverine communities.

He said: “It is worth noting that despite Bayelsa State significant contributions to Nigeria’s GDP, land and river mass and huge potentials for steady growth and development, it currently has only eight Local Government Areas, which are Brass, Ekeremor, Kolokuma/Opokuma, Ogbia, Nembe, Sagbama, Southern ljaw and Yenagoa.

“It is a well-known fact that this insignificant number of LGAs falls short of the minimum constitutional requirement of ten that makes up a state. Hence, the urgent need to create more new local government areas in the state to meet the constitutional requirements and other necessities.

“The people of Bayelsa deserve more local government areas which would translate into attracting more federal revenue allocation and more representation at the National Assembly to frontally address the peculiar challenges related to poverty, social exclusion, environmental degradation, and infrastructure deficiency.

“It was in response to these inadequacies that the government of Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, through a law passed by the Bayelsa State House of Assembly (Bayelsa State Government Local Government Areas Creation and Transitional Law, 1999) created 24 Rural Development Areas (RDA), with the mandate to provide efficient service delivery including healthcare, education, and infrastructure development.”

He, however, pointed out that the limited capacities of the RDAs made their attempts to deal with the issues of economic empowerment, provision of social services and infrastructural development less impactful for very obvious reasons.

“Our demand for additional/new 33 LGAs for Bayelsa State is premised on the need to tackle the impediments to sustainable livelihood, political under-representation and general underdevelopment highlighted above.

“Other justification for the creation of more Local Government Areas for Bayelsa State include: The need for further decentralization of power, to enhance political and social mobilization at the grassroots and provision of major development/administrative centres (Local Government Headquarters) in the state. The proposed areas also have strong economic potentials including: Vast Acreage of Mangrove Forest, Fisheries/Agriculture, Oil Palm Trees, tourism potential, natural harbours’, oil and gas.”

He noted that since the entire territory of Bayelsa State is swampy and crisscrossed with rivers, rivulets, streams and creeks, making development expensive and challenging, thereby provoking unrest, instability and several forms of agitations for justice, fairness and equity, “the creation of more LGAs for Bayelsa State might just be the panacea to all of this.”