Bayelsa State governor, Dr. Seriake Dickson, has advised both the Federal Government and the rampaging militants of the Niger Delta region to perish the thought of employing violence to solve the recurrent issue of resource control affecting the region.
Militants under the aegis of the Niger Delta Avengers had declared war on the Federal Government, destroying national assets and incurring huge financial losses running to billions of Naira, while the FG had considered a military option of hunting down the militants and unleashing terror on the creeks of the region.
Dickson also condemned the development, urging the parties to come to a round table and dialogue for peace and stability.
The governor gave the advice at the weekend while he was being decorated with the Ekiti State University’s Doctorate Degree of Public Administration in recognition of his exemplary leadership as representative of his people at the federal legislative body and governor of Bayelsa. The event held at the main auditorium of the institution in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
Dr. Dickson said: “We are all concerned about the developments, all the leaders there are concerned about the recent tough surge of insurgency. We are collaborating on the way forward. Those of us who are governors in our states are working hard with traditional leaders and opinion leaders and security agencies and also collaborating with other private and corporate bodies to ensure that we put it under control.
“The way forward is not war, war. It is jawjaw. The way forward is peace and dialogue, it is consensus building and that is quite what some of us are in support of, we are not in support of violence, we are not in support brigandage, we are not in support of destruction of strategic national assets and killings. We know there is an issue and this issue can only be addressed when all stakeholders work together for unity, peace, prosperity and stability and progress for our country.
Expressing his appreciation to the university and Ekiti on the honour conferred on him, he said: “It is a great privileged to have been invited here and decorated with this beautiful academic robes. And so on behalf of our people of Bayelsa, I bring warm felicitations to the people of Ekiti and my brother governor Ayo Fayose who is a visitor to this wonderful university and who has been doing a great job in the state in spite of all the distractions.
“As you all already know, Bayelsa and Ekiti have a lot in common. We are twin states established on the same day. And so we are keenly interested in what goes on in Ekiti. Every Bayelsa man and woman is a friend and brother of Ekiti, and you are good people.
“The Ekiti State university has become a model for other institutions. Just two days ago I sent a team from our state university to come here and interact with your management with a view to find out how you are managing to pay salaries without receiving the subventions from your governor.
“I want to congratulate you as you are entering into another society, a society where your aspiration should not be to look for a white collar job because they simply are not there. Your aspirations and my expectations for all of you is to be wealth creators and employers of labour.”
Governor Ayodele Fayose, who is the visitor to the university, also appreciated the school management for having performed admirably well. His words: “I want to appreciate the governing council of the university for your efforts and outstanding performance at a time like this when financing government has become a huge challenge in the face of the dwindling federal allocations. Your performance for the six months has been commendable.”
Advising the university’s management to invest in agriculture as one of the strategies to shore up its treasury.”
“Let us focus on agriculture because we are not only fighting Boko Haram and insecurity but we already have food insecurity and when you have food to eat a large part of the problem is solved. It is not everybody that will buy blocks to build house, but everyone of us must eat, even if it once a day.
“Those that are graduating, the queue out there is long and white collar jobs are rare, those who even have such jobs, are they paid regularly. The situation is getting tougher every day, and we must all invest more in agriculture,” he said.
Fayose, who lauded the EKSU Vice Chancellor, Prof. Oye Bandele and his team for their efforts, said they still needed to look inward to generate more revenue.
He commended them for being able to clear arrears of salaries in the institution and being able to pay salary up to date, also lauded the Chairman, Governing Council, Prince Adedayo Adeyeye and his team for making the right choice in the selection of Bandele last December as the VC of the institution.
He urged the council members and the management of EKSU not to relent their efforts, but to break more ground.
Degrees were conferred on 689 post-graduate students, 392 sandwich students, 10,613 Affiliates Colleges students and 3,937 Part-Time Programme students also graduated on the occasion.
Also 24 among the 3,058 full time students for the 2014/15 graduating session bagged.
