UNFOLDING SEN. DOUYE DIRI’S “PROSPERITY 2020” AGENDA FOR BAYELSA STATE

BY: DENNIS ALEMU

A new chapter of political history was opened in Bayelsa State on September 4, when Senator Douye Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) emerged as the party’s standard bearer for the November 16 Gubernatorial Election in the state.

Emerging winner among the no fewer than 21 aspirants in the keenly contested party primaries, Douye Diri polled 561 votes, resulting in a wide margin of victory of over 190 votes clear of the first runner-up in the contest.

It is noteworthy that at no time in the history of Bayelsa State had the PDP in the state paraded such an array and caliber of aspirants like the recent one won by mercurial Senator Douye Diri.

It is also remarkable that since Douye Diri’s emergence as PDP governorship candidate in the state, the political temperature of the state has moved several calibrations higher on the thermostat of politics, even as the calculi on the outcome of the gubernatorial take new coloration with every passing day in the build-up.

As it is well-known, the ultimate goal of politics in society, across time and clime, is development.

Thus, the flag-bearer of the major political party on the ground in Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri has since unfolded his development blueprint or agenda for the people of Bayelsa State.

Aptly captioned “Prosperity 2020”, it is carefully woven around key societal growth metrics that hope to reinvent a fresh momentum in the developmental dynamics of the hydrocarbon-rich, littoral state.

It is therefore not surprising that the first item captured on the “Prosperity 2020” agenda is the establishment of one industry in each local government area (LGA) in Bayelsa State.

This industrialization vision, as enunciated, will largely be built on agriculture, oil and gas, and other natural resources which are available in the state.

In tandem with this, business hubs and economic zones will be created in the eight LGAs, which will expectedly evolve into 16 development accelerated zones (DAZs).

Another key index in the “Prosperity 2020” agenda is creation of job opportunities for the teeming youthful population. Of course, the primary target of job creation is the youth, the seamless realization of which can be a mirage in the absence of a strong and workable industrialization policy that must go hand in hand with a cast-iron political will ready to go the whole hog.

Hence Senator Douye Diri has identified industrialization as a top priority to tackle the social menace of unemployment. The proposed Guaranteed Employment Targeting – GET-Youth Strategy will holistically address youth engagement in broader depth and scope.

A Douye Diri-led Administration in Bayelsa State will develop a well-defined strategy on power and energy towards the attainment of a stable, reliable and affordable electricity supply to all Bayelsans.

The policy articulation in the power sector in the “Prosperity 2020” document will identify key energy players like the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) to ensure that Bayelsans fully benefit from the Gbaran-Ubie Power Plant in the state.

The lighting up Bayelsa State will be taken a notch higher through the planned resuscitation of the decrepit state-owned gas turbines for the state to take full advantage of its hydrocarbon potentials.

In the agricultural sector under the “Prosperity 2020” vision, the Douye Diri Administration will create an indigenous, home-grown model for an agricultural revolution.

This will be highly steeped in manpower development and training, provision of improved high-yield varieties of crops and fingerlings and input, agricultural extension services and other farming infrastructure, all aimed at the full involvement of Bayelsans to guarantee increased food production and sufficiency.

In the aquaculture sub-sector, deliberate steps will be taken to streamline the operations of the Aquaculture Village at the Yenigwe suburb of the state capital. The in-coming administration aims to improve the existing regulatory framework to attract and catalyze more private sector investment in fisheries, which holds a huge potential to drive economic growth and alleviate poverty at the micro-economic level at least.

Senator Douye Diri’s “Prosperity 2020” agenda has identified security as a top-most priority. This is rightly so because development cannot thrive in a climate of insecurity. Thus the incoming PDP administration in Bayelsa State will build largely on the security milestone achieved in the last seven years.

In the tourism sector of the state, no effort will be spared to harness the existing tourism potentials which need a more effective osmotic marketing template, with diffusively penetrating PR strategy and engagement to launch their attraction in the global tourism market.

With an article of faith to move tourism in Bayelsa from theory to practice, Senator Douye Diri has lofty plans to make such sites like the famous Slave Transit Camp at Akassa in Brass LGA; the First Oil Well at Oloibiri in Ogbia LGA among others, more attractive to the prospective tourism clientele.

Sports development will be given the attention and resources it rightly deserves through the provision of world-class sporting facilities such as Olympic-size swimming pools, wrestling auditoriums, fitness gymnasiums, standard football pitches to groom local talents into national and international stars. The right incentives to motivate the pool of talented youths of the state’s origin will be put in place to actualize the afore-stated goal.

In the critical educational sector, the free education policy of the state will be sustained.

However, government’s policies in the sector will be humanized and tailored more to meet the yearnings of the people, while being attuned to the dictates of time and other exigencies, to make Bayelsa State a reference point for excellence in the educational cartography of the nation.

In the all-important area of infrastructural development, the administration will adopt a multi-prong approach to foster development across the eight LGAs of the state.

In this respect, the three key senatorial roads will no doubt be among the big-ticket projects.

Special focus will also be given to rural electrification in order to connect more communities to the National Grid; construction of internal link roads in the local government headquarters, and development of the New Yenagoa City, while not leaving out other uncompleted or on-going public infrastructural projects within the state capital and elsewhere around the state.

The government intends to increase youth participation in governance, who mainly constitute the brain and brawn to drive the engine of the development process of our dear state. The Guaranteed Employment Targeting (GET)-Youth Strategy offers a broad-spectrum for participation in the “Prosperity 2020” Project to gainfully engage the youths.

Other priority areas include women empowerment, skills acquisition, affordable health services to all Bayelsans, safety nets for the elderly, civil servants’ welfare through payment of salaries and other legitimate entitlements as and at when due; technology incubation and development, among others.

With this heavily-loaded “Prosperity 2020” template for the all-round development of Bayelsa State, there is scarcely any ground to entertain doubt that the PDP candidate for the 2019 Governorship Election in Bayelsa State will set a new water mark in the development history of the state.

With the PDP’s ubiquitous presence and widespread grassroots support, it is strongly believed that Senator Douye Diri will coast to victory in the general election on November 16.

However, what is urgently required now is for the PDP to bring together all stakeholders of the party as one large political family with a view to mend the broken fences from the party primaries, in order to forge a formidable front that will guarantee its victory in the election.

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