Bayelsa capital city doesn’t reflect our wealth, ex-security adviser cries out

Nathan Tamarapreye, Yenagoa

A former Security Adviser in Bayelsa State, Chief Perekeme Kpodoh, has lamented that Yenagoa, the state capital, does not portray Bayelsa as an oil-producing state.

Kpodoh in a statement on Sunday said the current administration of Governor Douye Diri had done nothing significant to give Yenagoa the required facelift and reposition it to attract tourists and foreign investors.

He said when compared to Uyo in Akwa Ibom State; Port Harcourt in Rivers State; Calabar in Cross River and Benin City in Edo State, Yenagoa smacked of underdevelopment and reflected the wickedness of the state government.

He said other non-oil producing states like Ebonyi had repositioned their capital city better than Bayelsa, which is ranked fourth in terms of oil production revenue.

“Abakiliki, the capital city of Ebonyi State, which is one of the poorest non-oil producing states in the country, has witnessed significant transformation under Governor Dave Umahi. But Yenagoa, the capital of one of the richest oil-producing states is lagging behind under Governor Douye Diri, who styles himself a miracle governor. What an irony”, he said.

Kpodoh said the government jettisoned the master plan of the city out of its selfishness and resorted in undertaking uncoordinated, disjointed, disorganised and inferior projects that had made Yenagoa to continue to assume an outlook of a glorified local government headquarters.

He said it was unfortunate that a project to dualise the few kilometres Isaac Boroh expressway had taken the state government more than 10 years to complete.

Kpodoh wondered why Governor Diri refused to build a flyover at the Tombia roundabout but instead opted to do what he referred to as roundabout expansion.

He said: “The original design is to have a flyover at the Tombia roundabout end of the Isaac Boroh Road dualisation project. But instead of following the original plan, which would have contributed in giving the city the desired facelift, governor Diri ordered a poorly executed roundabout expansion.

“That poorly expanded roundabout betrays the capital city status of an oil-producing state like Bayelsa. Tombia roundabout, which links visitors to other parts of the state including the International Airport deserves a beautiful flyover infrastructure with all accompanying aesthetic nuances”.

Kpodoh further lampooned Diri for destroying what he described as illegal structures in Yenagoa without making efforts to rebuild and readjust them.

“Yes we agree that illegal structures should not be allowed in the city, but it is irresponsible to destroy and leave them in rubbles. The destruction without any plan to immediately rebuild them and evacuate the rubbles has further defaced the capital city”, he said.

The former security adviser said it beat the imagination of everybody that a tower hotel project started by the government of the late Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha at the heart of the city had remained uncompleted.

“This monument of disgrace is a perfect description of the lip service paid to the development of Yenagoa by the state government. Governor Douye Diri’s administration doesn’t appear disturbed by this edifice of embarrassment.

“It is time we rose up and demand a better capital Yenagoa city that will reflect our status as an oil-producing state. We can no longer continue to tolerate this sham development of our capital city”, he said.