Samuel Oyadongha, Yenagoa
14 November 2008
interview
Governor Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa State last week declared that he has no apologies for his administration's adoption of new economic policies in the state and his frequent trips outside the state including foreign visits, saying his job in the state is a dirty one and will be appreciated at the end of his tenure as governor.
Speaking at 'the Parliament', made up of state correspondents of national newspapers and other professionals including lawyers, doctors and accountants, Chief Sylva said the cry of some sections of the state on the austerity measures put in place by his administration was an open display of their inability to be creative and withstand new economic conditions. The governor also bared his mind on other sundry issues affecting the state: Gov. Sylva of Bayelsa
Recently your administration has come under intense criticism over what they call 'austere measures' and the near lack of money in circulation compared with other administrations in the state. What are those choking economic policies your critics are talking about and how do you intend to change them?
Many people complaining of lack of funds are those awarded billion-naira contracts. When you even give these people jobs, go to the site, you only see job men on the site. But it is not the job men I gave the jobs, it is the Bayelsans I gave the job.
But the Bayelsans have since disposed of the jobs to job men. The job men are now at the site. This is a way you engineer your people to begin to think correctly and that is the challenge of the government.
The challenge of the government is not just because everybody is flowing this way you go with them. You must try and head the people in one direction you think would be good in the long run. In the short run it can appear as if it is hardship but sometimes we must pass through these hardships in order to get out of it to the next level of self reliance.
We need to build a strong future. We do not want to keep ourselves at this same level where people just decide to get money free and then dance and by next morning, they are broke again. It is not sustainable and that is why our people have never shown the need for hard work. Look at the state; you don't have anybody that has good money.
For example, I was invited to this area for an Annual General Meeting (AGM) by an Anambra friend, he doesn't have oil but he is a rich man. If you go to Anambra, you are talking of other rich men like him. It is because they have the spirit of hard work but here in Bayelsa, how many rich men can you count.
If you count them, it is either they are from government or politics. Nothing! Is it this kind of generation you want me to grow? I am doing a very dirty job, and frankly speaking, it is a thankless job. It is a job I don't like at all but I have come to realize that the only way our people need to grow is to set them to a point where they begin to work.
I think what they want is to get the state money out and dash people to enjoy. That is why sometime it is difficult to deal with people. Though the whole state is dependent on government, how much do we get? You can see that we need to do some forward commitment. When I came in, we had to mobilize some jobs, the roads and on going massive projects, I pay huge monies out.
So every time there is a decline in activity, the people are not resilient enough to survive the period of less activity. The society should be strong enough for down turn in every economy.
But the lay man on the streets of Yenagoa and other communities in the state don't know what you are doing. How do you reach them and explain the re-direction and the benefits that may accrue from such positive outcome you have outlined?
I agree with you that on the aspect of communication we need to do more. But it is actually more of a deliberate action by government. What I am doing is what they call silent revolution. I don't want sloganeering. And that is what I hate to do by over blowing my trumpet. Some people do it, when they have not even done half of what we are doing. I don't like it but we will get to that level soon.
People will get to understand what we are doing and would realize that where we are taking them is actually the best place. Yes, we took a loan; I have never denied that but also did not want to tell you the previous loans taken in the state.
I came here and we decided we should manage this situation. But when we came, there was a major problem because our allocation had dropped drastically. We are getting like N4b and our salary bill over N3.2 billion. Now it has climbed with the payment of consolidated salary scale at N5b. with that kind of funding staring at us, what do I do?
Do I just pay salary and keep quiet? Every society in the world develops on leverages. There is nobody that says he has only ten naira and would only do N10 things then you are not a businessman.
A businessman should be able to use N10 to access N100 credit and be able to manage the credit in a way that will expand his economy. Look at this road, Imgbi in Amarata, have increased in activities on it. Maybe the price of land along this road has also gone up. That means we have created value. Some of the roads we built have increased the creation of wealth for the people. That is to leverage the economy.
But the problem is that our people tend to look at issues more from what they mean as "practically" this means for us to bring money out for the people to enjoy. No I practically am that government is for the creation of value. The government can do something now that can empower us without putting something in our pocket.
I can decide to ban street trading; it means I have created a need for a market. Somebody with sense would then build a market. He would now capture those people banned by government into his market and start making money. You will listen to our policies and react to it. If only people can listen to our policies and take advantage of it, we would have created value.
Look again, in 50 years of Guinea Insurance Company, why did they choose Bayelsa, it shows that people are beginning to see that this is the place to go to. To me, it is a signal. Before you know it, companies will come here and have there AGM here because they feel that the environment is good and we are creating the opportunity that can affect those kinds of things.
These things are most practical things, but one thing we must agree is that the prize of things have gone down in Yenagoa. Before now, people who come into Yenagoa to sell clothes used to say politicians pay for cloths without pricing but now, they want to know the price and even bring it down. It was like a Polish market. Money is valuable and you must give value to money or else your economy is gone. We must start imbibing that attitude.
With these dreams, many believe your globe-trotting and shifting of the administration of the state to Abuja may truncate any visible attempt by your government to achieve all you have stated. Do you agree with your critic?
It is not true that I travel too much. In fact, I am one of the governors that stay more in Yenagoa than any other places. Maybe sometime I am in town you don't know I only go to Abuja when there are events. I stay here sometime for two or three weeks.
And in Abuja, one time or the other you get hunted for one meeting or another. Because of these, when you go to Abuja and attending National Economic Council Meeting, the tendency is that the governor's forum fixes their meeting for same time and if the president wants to meet with the governor, his meeting is fixed at about that time in order not to allow the governors to go back and forth from base.
So, when you go to Abuja for an event, you will stay for a longer time. I don't want to mention names but I have some colleagues of mine, even today when I called him, he has gone to Abuja. Many times, governors tend to depend on one another. This year, I said look let us go to Abuja and let us look at the nation's budget and see what they have for Bayelsa.
This is for all state ministries to take advantage of the national budget. Everybody went and came back with good stories. Today, the federal government is going to build one of the strategic food reserves in the country, if we did not go another state would have taken it. They are going to build a rice processing mill in Bayelsa.
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