…Why East-West road failed

By Wahab Adesina

Mr. Olice Kemenanabo, managing director of Bayelsa Electricity Company Nigeria Limited, immediate past chairman of PHEDC, and a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, hails from Kolokuma in Bayels State. In this interview, he spoke among others on the performance of Governor Douye Diri, who has been in the saddle for three years. 

His take Senator Douye Diri’s performance and how the governor has ensured peace in Bayelsa

From the very first day he was sworn in on February 14, 2020, his disposition has been that of a united and rancor-free state. This was obvious in his inaugural speech in which he said “If they preach hate exude love” so he is truly working that speech.

Going by the circumstances of his emergence after that Supreme Court landmark judgment and the reactions thereafter, the anticipation was that peace and security would elude the state for a long time but he quickly rallied round to douse the tension and took firm control of the security architecture of the state. He later went on to enact the Community Safety Corps Law and appointed General Eric Angaye as the coordinator who didn’t leave anybody in doubt that he is here to make the state peaceful and enabled for social and economic activities to thrive. The General therefore wasted no time in putting together a robust arrangement that has since brought out the best of the state internal security outfit “Operation Door Akpo” He has transformed the men and officers to be highly disciplined, responsive and on high alert at every time. Response to distress calls are not only prompt but monitored from the command and control centre of the Gen Andrew Owoye Azazi Security Centre situated in the heart of the Government House.

Indeed, he has gone beyond tackling crimes and criminalities by ensuring that reckless driving against traffic is curtailed. I am a victim of his intolerance to this recklessness so I am speaking from experience. 

Critics of Governor Diri say he has this snail speed approach towards project execution in a state that is largely judged to be lagging behind others created the same day in 1996. What’s your take on that?

Firstly, comparisons should be made based on critical evaluation of various factors. That is why they say that you compare oranges with oranges and not oranges with apples. The states you have mentioned don’t share the same geographical, ecological and environmental parameters with Bayelsa State so comparing them with her is like comparing apples and oranges. For instance, road construction in Bayelsa State requires excavation of top soil, sand filling and stabilization before asphalting, while in Nasarawa State, grading and rolling will enable stabilization and finishing.

Driving through the Sagbama -Ekeremor Road, the spur from Ofoni to Ekeremor has six bridges with some places filled up to 10 meters high with sand to avoid flooding and early failure of the road. After that you compact water to enable proper settlement, then mix with cement to create the proper cohesion before thinking of finishing. All of these stages you need a mandatory cure period before proceeding to the next stage. Otherwise, the road will fail or buckle.  This is what happened to the Okogbe to Ahoada sections of the East/West Road which has now become a sand dump for the villagers around the place. In fact, block moulders have relocated to that portion with their moulding machines scooping the sand that washed off underneath the asphalt during the last flood.

As far as I am concerned that road ab initio was a total engineering evaluation failure on the part of the company that handled it. You wouldn’t want the same to happen to our roads. Do you?

Notwithstanding the above constraints, we are not where we ought to be but certainly a lot of progress has been made under the current administration. I wish I could take a guided tour with you to Ekeremor and Angiama. The spur two of the Glory Drive which I refer to as the sweetest road to drive on is a project I admire and was done in record time.  From Yenagoa to Angiama which used to be about two hours by river now takes less than 20 minutes. Even the opposition parties can attest to that because only two days ago they took their campaign to Oporoma the headquarters of Southern Ijaw through that road. I mean these roads traverse through the most offensive terrains of the Niger Delta but Senator Douye Diri dared, challenged and conquered it and therefore deserves kudos. All of these were achieved within two years because the first year of this administration was challenging due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.

What are Diri’s life transforming projects?

I have just enumerated a few but let me just lay emphasis on some impactful projects embarked on by the prosperity administration.

Tombia Roundabout, which hitherto was a den of criminals is now gorgeous to behold. That was where ladies’ bags and phones were snatched, drug dealers and petty thieves’ abode is now turned to a serene and lovely environment. Night life has become safe as the Bayelsa volunteers’ operatives and the internal security personnel curiously watch out for criminals and criminal activities on a 24/7 basis. The completion of the second bridge and the lighting system at night has further enhanced aesthetics of the place. The level of completion of the West and Central Senatorial Districts roads are extraordinary.  How about the ultra-modern bus terminal at Igbogene?

I cannot end this interview without mentioning the huge intervention works in the power sector. The Niger-Delta Power holding injection substation at Ogboloma, which was abandoned was reactivated as a child of necessity to supply uninterrupted power supply to the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital at a time when movement even within the state was prohibited during the COVID-19. This was done at a huge expense as the hospital was designated an isolation centre. Today barring loss of supply from the grid the Gbarain communities in Yenagoa have the highest availability of supply.

This administration equally intervened in revamping the 60MVA 132/33kV Transmission Substation. We have to procure the failed parts on special and priority order and air freight them from China due to the urgency and work through day and night to accomplish a task that ordinarily would have lasted six months in eight weeks. This has made the state which had only one transmission substation got two thus making power-supply flexible. These are very silent but salient projects that I thought should be brought to the fore.       

What are Governor Diri’s achievements in the education sector? 

Governor Douye Diri is a product of a teacher and also one who taught for many years in the secondary school before joining politics. So he places education at a special place in his heart.  Having been a member of council in the University of Maiduguri and one who understands the need to train and develop the right skills for the 21st Century world, he is using education as a tool to confront the development challenges of the state by investing in specialist educational skills. He is striving to develop skills that are employable both locally and internationally. 

Governor Diri has since embraced the STEM education philosophy by building one technical college in each of the eight local governments with one super internship high skill centre that will harvest  and advance the very talented for productive and self-reliance. Five of them are very ready to go by this current session with exchange programmes with skills centres in India and Germany.  

He embarked on the spot assessment of education facilities across the state. With the first-hand information the tours availed, he told the state executive council that the situation was unacceptable and vowed to change the narrative.

Some of the primary schools in rural areas had only a teacher and a head teacher. He gave a marching order to embark on massive recruitment of teachers to boost teaching as well as massive construction and rehabilitation of schools across the state. Some of these schools are Yenezue Primary School which was built from scratch. Others are Biogbolo, Igbogene, a brand-new school at Opolo along AIT road, UPE Ovom and a lot more that are verifiable.  It may also interest you to know that the government engaged the services of Microsoft in the training of 12,000 teachers in ICT. This is borne out of the desire to update the teachers with contemporary skills, knowledge and competences in ICT for the first time in the history of educational development in the state. We are happy and teachers are happy today that they are being fondly described as digital teachers. 

The governor is in a hurry to place Bayelsa on the fast lane of entrepreneurship-driven economy and promote the culture of acquisition of skills that will equip the beneficiaries to easily fit into the global job market or entrepreneurs from day one of their graduation. This is part of the determination to enthrone his vision for prosperity as most of the army of unemployed youths will be meaningfully engaged through such practical skills. 

It is heart-warming to mention that so far the state-owned Niger Delta University within the period under review secured the accreditation of 70 courses at a stretch, while other institutions like the state owned school of nursing, college of health technology, college of education have all benefited from similar gesture.

One of the issues raised against state chief executives across the country is poor motivation of workers and neglect of retirees. How is the governor tackling these issues?

Every worker can attest to the fact that Governor Diri is a worker friendly governor. Regular payment of salary every month and pension payment and backlog of gratuities have made both retired and active civil servants to be happy and motivated. Just last month he set aside the sum of one billion naira for payment of pension arrears and gratuities. This is beside the standing order of N250 million a monthly that is meticulously implemented right from the day he assumed office

The training and retraining of workers for optimum performances is a cardinal goal of the Diri administration.

The attention of the governor was drawn to the plight of primary school teachers in the state ranging from non-promotion to non-payment of backlog of 18 percent minimum wage arrears owed since 2011. Without wasting time, he approved and instructed immediate implementation. 

He also approved payment of the state’s own part of counterpart funding for health care workers across the eight LGAs to boost the morale of primary health workers. Today they have all benefited from various welfare packages and allowances alongside the N30,500 minimum wage that has been fully implemented since he came on board.