Bayelsa gov race: Why I stand out among PDP aspirants —Agbedi

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Bayelsa gov race: Why I stand out among PDP aspirants —Agbedi

Member, representing Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal Constituency of Bayelsa State, in the House of Representatives, Honourable Fredrick Agbedi, is one of the aspirants seeking the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the governorship seat on November 16, 2019. In this interview, JACOB SEGUN OLATUNJI gives reasons why the odds favour him.

What stands you out from the other aspirants in the governorship race of Bayelsa State?

I’m a grassroots politician, who has gone through the crucifix of politics, so I understand what it takes to be a professional politician. When you talk about party administration, I am one of the best in my state known by all. As cthehairman of the party, I was in charge of the campaign of former Governor Timipriye Silva. I was also part of the Yar’Adua/Goodluck campaign across Nigeria in 2007. Today, I am campaigning vigorously by going round Bayelsa and indeed the entire country to say that the burning desire I have to serve my people in a greater capacity should be realised in 2019. I am well-suited, well-qualified, well-experienced. I have served my people both in politics and outside politics. I was a businessman, as well as a civil servant. It is good to seek this kind of office because there is a lot that the civil service training has got to do when you are the governor of a state. You must realize that you are going to work with the civil servants and you must understand how they work; you must also know the rules and regulations of the Civil Service.  In 1991 when the Ekeremor Local Government are was carved out of the Sagbama Local Government area, I was prevailed upon to be the pioneer secretary of the then National Republican Convention (NRC). I didn’t quite wanted to be, but my leadership qualities were identified and leaders, as well as the elders of the local government insisted that I must lead the party as the secretary. It might also interest you to know that since I left the civil service, I have been an independent man doing business to live my life. I know what it takes to generate money, invest it and make returns. I am fit and suitable to take decisions as to how to generate money in my state to run my government.

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You are currently a member of the National Assembly and a lot of politicians are of the habit of abandon their constituents until another round of election is insight. To what extent do you represent a paradigm shift from such tendency?

I’m a grassroots politician. I was in the eighth National Assembly Abuja for four years. I never stayed in the federal capital for up to 10 weekends throughout the period. Every week, I made sure that I was state and my federal constituency because I am a man of the people. What are Bayelsans yearning for? They are yearning for a man who is resident with them. They are yearning for a man who stays in Bayelsa with them. They are yearning for a man they can see without asking for where he is. So, I am very comfortable telling Bayelsans that I want to govern them. I am the only aspirant who knows every community in Bayelsa State; I am conversant with the needs, aspirations and pains of the people.

Some governors are far removed from the people after election and may not even be aware if their directives on issues affecting the welfare of the people are carried out. What is your take on this?

I see the position of the governor as a supervisor. Once you have competent people around you, all you need to do is to supervise them. If I visit your community and ask about a sector, the first person, who is going to speak is the line officer. Governance is service, we are to serve our people. Those who don’t understand that governor is the servant of the people think that state money is their personal money. If you are given a public office to hold, you are a servant to the people and you must so put yourself in that position. That is what I believe in.

 A number of people believe the incumbent governor has been able to raise the bar of governance in the state. What are you bringing on board if elected the governor of the state that will be capable of making a difference?

Governor Dickson has done his best. If I am elected today as the governor of the state, what the people expect is that I do my best. Nobody can completely meet all the demands and yearnings of the people. One thing that I think is paramount, other than the feeding bottle democracy that we practise is to raise the revenue base of Bayelsa. I will look into the resources I can harness to boost the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) with which I can run the government in Bayelsa. It will be a priority in my administration. Besides, we need to deal with the issue of vocational education. It is very critical to grow the people’s desire to be independent, self-employed and run businesses and trade of their own. The other thing I observed is that we have abandoned research for a very long time. We have raw materials. If you vote quality finances for research, you will always turn out report on raw materials in your environment that you can develop that will also get people gainfully employed. In Bayelsa we have raffia palm, is tapped by many; they process it into gin, which the past colonial masters described as an illicit gin. Today, we are still at of the era of illicit gin, whereas we ought to added value so that it can be exported as quality drink. Sadly, we are still at that low level in terms of harness the potential in that sector because of the lack of research and investment. A lot people have even abandoned the trade that used to be a source of income and wealth. So, scientific research is going to form a cardinal part of my agenda so that people will know the kind of resources we have in our environment and how we can harness them to get ourselves gainfully employed, as well as generate revenue for the state.

Bayelsa has what is called the Gatala Farms. So, why must we adopt the way that Nigeria only produces crude oil and sell instead refining and adding value to the product for export and domestic uses? Nigeria has failed in a simple economic sense by selling its raw materials only. It is better that you turn your raw materials to finished products. In Bayelsa, I know there is the need for us to build a modular refinery. The crude that will be produced from the Gatala farms to produce finished products for us to gainfully employ our people and ensure that we make profit rather than selling the raw crude oil. If you compare the price of crude oil to palm oil, the latter is more expensive, whereas, we have lost focus completely on the issue of palm oil because nobody wants to plant oil palm and process palm oil Therefore, the government will need to encourage people to go into palm oil production.

Our governor is doing so much to bring the deep seaport to fruition. If there are Bayelsans, who are ready to have invest between N1 billion and N5 billion into the project, foreign investors will be willing to partner with them. But you will still have to work hard to convince those investors to leave their countries for a community that they knows little of nothing about. So, we will look at core competences of our businessmen and grow them so that they can attract partnerships to come and invest in Bayelsa. If you visit the state, there are communities that have 24 hours of power supply. Have we sold that achievement to the world? Today, investors from around the world go to China to build factories because of the cheap labour in that country. Bayelsa has communities even inside the creeks that have constant power. My government will deliberately tell the whole world that these communities have constant power supply. You don’t need to come with a set to generate your own energy. The issue of security also comes to the fore. The Brass the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) needs to come on stream. If they can put on the three NLNG plants, Nigeria won’t have any problem of funding its budget. I have engaged the managing director of the NLNG, as well as that of Shell, we have agreed that the NLNG should come with the details to fund how that investment can be realised.

Because I have access to all the nooks and crannies of Bayelsa, if anyone feels that this is his hideout, from where he is encouraging militancy, you will find me there. I will come there as the governor of Bayelsa. What I want in this regard is to ensure that these people are brought together and a security company established with these guys who understand the creeks and know those that are capable of making trouble. This will not only make them work and earn salaries, but also any investment coming into the state will be deliberately used to create a shareholding in those investments for that company. We have a hotel that is standing there on the skyline. For me, even if the hotel is going to cost $1, dispose it; deal with the encumbrances around the hotel and sell it off to an investor who knows that he will not pay too much for it. No asset of Bayelsa should be wasted.

Bayelsa gov race: Why I stand out among PDP aspirants —Agbedi
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