Excerpts:
All manner of
rumours are trending with regards to the N14.5b given back to the state by the
Federal Government. What is the nature of this payment?
First let me
use this opportunity to welcome all of you to our brand new office, commissioned 20 years in the life of our state.
With the
support of the good people of the state, and the great work members of my team
and I have been doing, our state now has a befitting office that will serve it
for a very long time.
The N14.5b is
a refund from excess deductions on account of World Bank and Paris Club and other loans that the
Federal Government took and repaid. Our federation is a very wonderful one
where as state governors, you just wait and at the end of the month, they come
up with whatever figures and throw them at you at the FAAC. It was discovered
that most of what they did at that time was not proper, they repaid with states
and Local Government funds and governors came together to fight for what
rightly belonged to their states. This N14.5b was not given to Bayelsa only but to almost all
states of the federation. We have put out the figure as a result of our
transparency policy. The money belongs to the state and we are only privileged
to manage the resources.
Why is the
2017 budget christened “Repositioning for Consolidation” and how do you intend
to implement it in full?
It is
christened ‘budget for repositioning for
consolidation’ firstly because in the last
five years or so, we have embarked upon an aggressive and ambitious
programme of infrastructural development, a programme of deliberate expansion
of the economy of the state. Now, we are repositioning to consolidate because
in this budget year, so much will be done and so many of these projects and
ideas that were started will come to fruition. Thus if we faithfully implement
the policies and the principles behind this budget, at the end of the next budget year being
2017, there will be fundamental, almost irreversible paradigm shift in a lot of
things in this state. In this budget for 2017, so much will be done. Already,
so many projects are completed for example in the health care sector, the
diagnostics centre and the Government House hospital with the public and
executive wing. We also have the referral hospitals in the Local Government
areas.
So much is
happening in education, we have the boarding schools that will start soon and
the constituency boarding schools that we will complete. So much is happening
in the field of agriculture, we can see the massive cassava farms that will
kick start in this budget year. That is why we say the aim of this budget is to
finish up all of these. Also, we will position the state sector by sector in
such a way that Bayelsa will be ready to take off. Take for example the issues
that I raised in the budget, the fundamental principles in the budget, the
issue of increased revenue drive in the state,
is critical. In this new year, Bayelsa will be brought to speed in terms
of the IGR drive and the methodology that will be applied. In all sectors,
education, agriculture, housing you are going to see a lot of estates; in
sports tourism, you will see the golf course and estate, the polo field coming
up, sports academy opened and a lot
more. I also raised other fundamental issues in this budget. In this year,
Bayelsans are going to make a giant leap forward by way of breaking this attitude
of not engaging in business.
That is
critical to the economic future of the state and so in this budget, we have
provided for a N10b entrepreneurship development fund. We aim to provide N5b in
state government direct contribution to that fund. Then we will work with our
partners, the Bank of Industry, bank of agriculture and other commercial banks
that are already indicating interest to work with us to contribute to that fund
so that Bayelsa business men and women will be trained and educated in the businesses
and enterprises that they want to be engaged in. We will train them and put
them in the industrial park, we will create a farm settlement where they will
reside and do business. That fund will be utilised so that we can now settle
them in those businesses. They will be mentored, monitored and supervised. And
it is our hope that from this intervention fund alone, so many young people who
are currently unemployed will not just employ themselves but will be employers
of labour.
The policy of
subvention to tertiary institution is also being re-worked. Because of the way
the state came into existence and the political upheavals with no governor completing two terms and staying
for eight years to follow through with any real programme of development or policy
or reorganizing the government; we have had a situation where state –owned
universities and other tertiary institutions behave as if they are entities
that can only be there to be cost centres . We want them to look within,
generate revenue, supporting government in a more strategic sense beyond paying
salaries because the current system is such that every month we pay about N500m
as salaries of NDU lecturers for example. We have said as a government that
every tertiary institution will only be entitled to subvention. So lecturers
and university administrators should begin from now to put on their thinking
caps. But we are also giving them a soft landing in this budget year with a
special intervention fund for tertiary education support by which is meant fund
beyond payment of salaries that is kept aside so that we can build many
facilities and the institutions can be
modernised.
Considering
the scope of the ongoing development projects in the state, do you think the
amount appropriated to the ministry of works and infrastructure will be enough
to sustain the tempo?
We have major
infrastructural deficit and challenges. We have tried in the last couple of
years to see what we can do but because the funding situation became so harsh
on account of the recession, you can see that a number of these projects have
stalled for some time. For example, the dualization of Isaac Boro road which is
our flagship road almost cutting through the entire length of Yenagoa. It is
very easy to forget how that road was before we came into office because human
memory is very short. This budget is about completion of projects. The amount
we have appropriated for infrastructural development is not as robust as we
will like for it to be but a budget is a product of what you expect . For
example last year, we expected we will get so much but we ended up with only
about 46 per cent of the anticipated revenue. So, if you look at it from that
perspective, you can understand why not much could have been achieved. For
example, you see the Igbogene bypass. That road has been in existence for over
20 years but you have seen the beautiful dualized roads we have made like the
Opolo-Elebele
road. That is why we give them to Dantata and Sowee, CCECC and Julius Berger
and the like. I wish we have more resources for infrastructure but given the
economic environment, this is the best we can do.
In 2016 the government proposed N191b and in
2017 the proposal is N221b. Given the current economic realities, what informed
this increase and would you let Bayelsans know the level of performance in
terms of implementation of the 2016 budget?
The sectoral
performance report will be given by the commissioners and the media and finance
team. They will begin to analyze the budget performance. But I have already
said that we received only 46 per cent of the budgeted revenue for the outgoing
year and that should let you have an idea. But if we did not receive the money
we anticipated then it goes without saying that government didn’t have enough
money to do quite a number of things. That is why I am talking about the delay
in the critical projects like the dualization of the Isaac Boro road and the
stopping of work at Oporoma and so on. But all of these we intend to kick off.
To your next
question of why our expected revenue is slightly higher this year, I talked
about the fundamental principles underlying this year’s budget which we must
all understand properly and collaborate to achieve. The first one is the
increased revenue drive. There are states that get over N10b to N20b IGR, some
approaching N30b.
n those
states, if you own a property, you pay tenement rate, property tax. You pay for
permit to build a house. This is how modern states and economies are run. We
have assessed our possibilities and worked with the other arms of government to
collaborate on redesigning the mechanism that will deliver on increased IGR for
the state.
With the free
education policy in the state, where is the place of vocational and technical
education, particularly technical colleges. And there have been reported cases
of cattle destroying crops belonging to local farmers in parts of Bayelsa
State. What measures have you put in place to check this menace and prevent
clashes between farmers and herdsmen?
We have been
taking a lot of measures to prevent clashes from occurring. Let me say we
condemn the attitude of herdsmen who come into this state and carry their
cattle to people’s farms and destroy them and attack farmers and
villagers. But part of what we have been
doing quietly is to work with the security officials and the leaders of some of
these elements and a lot of progress is being made. I am aware of those
instances and I want to say that people should not take the law into their
hands. We will not allow herdsmen to intimidate Bayelsa people. That will not
happen under my watch, you can be sure of that. And any herdsman who is armed
with any dangerous weapon will be promptly dealt with according to the law. We
have decided that we will open up ranches where people will be engaged in
animal husbandry. But in the interim, we
have directed that no cattle should be seen roaming around Yenagoa again, it is
a very dangerous trend. We have given them a temporary place, i.e the Bayelsa
palm. On your second question, we have already designated a school as a
technical school, the science school here at Okaka now that BDGS has been
relocated. But if we have resources, the Polytechnic will also serve a lot of
purpose. The issue of technical and vocational training is key, we are not
forgetting that.
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