TheCable

Seriake Dickson, governor of Bayelsa state, says the wealth of his state is in the sea, expressing readiness to partner with the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to construct a bridge linking Nembe to Brass.

Dickson said this when Ibim Semenitari, NDDC acting managing director, led other directors of the commission on a courtesy visit to the government house in Yenagoa, capital of the state.

He also commended the contributions of the NDDC in boosting agricultural development in the Niger Delta, saying the future of Nigeria would be determined by its investments in agriculture.

“We are sad that Brass is still cut off from the rest of Nigeria. For us in Bayelsa, our wealth is in the sea. This project will attract new business and link Brass to the rest of Nigeria,” he said.

“We will soon become a major hub for agriculture in the country.

“Already we are setting up a school to train our youths in agriculture and we are going towards state-owned farms. We can partner with NDDC on rice cultivation and aquaculture because this is where we have comparative advantage.”

Semenitari told the governor that the NDDC had awarded 28 regional projects, with 20 ongoing, while two had been completed and commissioned.

She said a total of 658 other projects had also been awarded for shore protection, construction/repair of roads, sand-filling, construction of jetty, electrification, building of houses for professionals and solar water.

Semenitari added that the NDDC was constructing the Akenfa bridge awarded at a cost of N800,993, 396.31, the prototype university hostel at the Niger Delta University, Amassoma and internal roads network (Phase 1) at the Federal University of Technology, Otuoke.

She said other areas of intervention were the award of overseas scholarship for Bayelsa graduates.

“Bayelsa had not been left out. Today, we shall be boosting agriculture and food production with the handing over of tractors to stakeholder farmers in the state,” she said.

“In NDDC, we believe that food security is critical to national security. We are doing this to expedite massive food production in Bayelsa State and the Niger Delta region.

“We can beat our chest and say that NDDC has treated Bayelsa as a ‘special area’. The biggest, single, most ambitious project ever undertaken by NDDC since its inception is cited in Bayelsa. The Ogbia-Nembe Road, which is linking and opening-up about 14 communities in Bayelsa to development, is a mega-project which first phase had been scheduled for commissioning this month, April.

“It is a worthy collaboration between NDDC and Shell petroleum Development Commission (SPDC), and is the result of what we can achieve when we work in partnership with development agencies, IOCs and state governments. That road project is one of the commission’s prescriptions for the rapid development of the region.”

She also urged the Bayelsa government to assist the commission to galvanise the local population to resist those who want to keep them behind the 21st century.

“We invite civil society organisations and other community based organisations to launch advocacy that will alter the thought process of these misguided youths,” she said.