Commissioner berates FG performance in Bayelsa .Urges Buhari to embark on development blue print

                           By Majesty Inegbagha

   Bayelsa state Commissioner for Community Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, Chief Saviour Frank Ibegi has berated the federal government performance in the development of the state since its creation 22 years ago.

Chief Saviour Frank Ibegi

President Muhammadu Buhari

   Chief Ibegi, who made the assertion in an exclusive interview with Global Overseer Correspondent Yenagoa, said emphatically that the federal government performance in the infrastructural development of the state was almost abysmally zero.                                                  

   He pointed out that the state by now would have been a paradise with the availability of all basic infrastructures that would impact positively on the lives of the people.

  But he lamented that the reverse is the case despite the enormous contribution of the state to the wealth of the nation.

  According to him since the creation of the state on 1^st October, 1996 till date the federal government has not done anything tangible to augment the development efforts of the Restoration Government led by the exceptional performing Governor Henry Seriake Dickson in the provision of basic infrastructures.

   He explained that apart from the federal secretariat building which has not been completed, and the proposed local content building and the only Central Bank of Nigeria building that had been built, there is no federal government reasonable project embark upon in the state.

  The Commissioner averred insistently that the federal government would have declared Bayelsa State, the heart beat of Niger Delta before now a state of emergency in infrastructural development because it bears the brunt of the entire process of development and has no federal presence.

  “And where are we? We have nothing. No single viable road initiated and constructed by the federal government. There is no single infrastructure build by the federal government. Nothing! And yet the entire wealth goes from here. Taxes don’t come to us. The taxes of the work of the production of oil here are paid to other states. And so the federal government needs to have a rethink about the development of the state call Bayelsa.

  It is like we are not part of Nigeria. The federal government should come and begin to do something here. We are very important. We contribute to the wealth of the nation. We contribute to the wealth of the people. We contribute to the best roads in this country. Then, we don’t even have a federal road. You can’t drive to Ogbia. You can’t drive to Ajagbene where the oil is coming.

  Now, going to Ekeremor that has been abandoned for 40 years on the drawing board, it took this restoration government led by Governor Henry Seriake Dickson to commence that kind of road. So, you know how that has been abandoned in the state. So, it is like we are not part of Nigeria. It is very wrong,” he stated.

  Chief Ibegi therefore enjoined President Muhammadu Buhari led federal government to embark on basic infrastructural development blue print for the development of Bayelsa state in this year’s federal government budget to give the state a sense of belonging.

   The Federal Government Bayelsa Development Blue Print he said should include federal government  taking over the construction of the ongoing three Senatorial Districts roads in the state to link Brass, Oporoma, Peretorugbene – Ekeremor – Agge.

  Other basic projects he mentioned include FG commencement of work at the Federal Refinery at Otuogidi, the abandoned Oloibiri Oil Museum which foundation stone was laid by former President Shehu Shagari’s administration, the NLG project in Brass and the fertilizer project.

   The Commissioner, who highlighted the significance of these projects to the upliftment of the socio-economic lives of the people, said it will help to lessen the burden of the state government in its efforts to open up the hinterland within the limit of available resources.

  “These projects are so much expensive. So many bridges; you have to build land a road out of water. Then, see what has happen to the road to Aleibiri, people are so happy and excited. But is so expensive and over laboured. So, the federal government should take over these roads, construct them for us and then we will be happy. The state government is over burden because of the kind of fund needed to do these kinds of roads. These roads are not for state government level of income we have. They are projects that the federal government needs to carry because the federal government has robust financial muzzles to be able to construct these roads,” Ibegi remarks.