Shortly before October 1st 2026 Bayelsa State’s 30th Anniversary creation from Rivers State, thepubliceyes.com had cause to chat with the Executive Chairman of Kolokuma- Opokuma Local Government Area Chairman who equally is the Chairman of Association of Local Governments in Nigeria- ALGON Bayelsa Chapter Hon. Tariye Leile.In this brief chat, the Chairman traces the trajectory of developments in the state and the local governments before, during and after Bayelsa was created from Rivers State 30 years ago. He emphasized that, as far as governance is concerned, the overall welfare of government workers and the generality of the citizens of the state remains the utmost priority of Governor Douye Diri’s Prosperity focused administration at the state level and also with the LGA Chairmen of at the grassroots.Excerpts:tpe.co.: Sir, as Chairman of Association of Local Government of Nigeria – Bayelsa State Branch and Chairman,Kolokuma-Opokuma Local Government Council, what’s your take on the developmental profile of the state ; with the LGA’s as a case study since the creation of Bayelsa from Rivers State 30 years ago?CHRM: First and foremost, we want to thank God for what He has done for Bayelss. As a people, what everybody is craving for as human beings is development. And you will agree with me that before the creation of Bayelsa in 1996, this part of old Rivers State was not as developed as it presently is. We may not have gotten to where we want to, but it certainly is not same as before we were carved out from Rivers State. You could recall that this part of the state, Yenagoa the capital, was only having one road, unlike now that its landscape is dotted with several internal and wider roads.Today, Yenagoa has become a city with provisions available for the populance for it to be regarded as such. So you will agree with me that we are moving forward. And today, by the Grace of God, successive governments, begining from the military administrators to the democratic governments of Diepreye Alamieyesegha, Goodluck Jonathan, Timipre Sylva, Seriake Dickson and the incumbent Douye Diri have contributed immensely to the development of the State.Today, with Senator Douye Diri at the helms, the three Senatorial roads which he inherited from Dickson, his predecessor, have been taken beyond the points he met them.The one for the Western Senatorial District has gone far beyond Ekeremor. The one to Brass has gone beyond Nembe. Infact, it is within Brass now. Today, one can drive with car to Southern Ijaw where, hitherto, it could only be accessed through water since a bridge have been constructed across the River Nun. Now, one can drive all the way to Oporoma, HQ of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area because of that. And except for Brass, virtually all the local government headquarters can now be accessed by road. But very soon, we will hit BrassBefore now, all the LGA headquarters could only be accessed by boat. In addition to this, we now have an airport and also a state owned airline. You’ll agree with me too that in the past, for you to want to take a flight out from Bayelsa you’ll need to go through airports of neighbouring states. But today, you can comfortably fly directly from Yenagoa using our own aircraft and airline- Pioneer Air.You can equally see the new tall Secretariat building that is being constructed just as the emerging world standard stadium among other impressive projects that Douye Diri’s administration is embarking upon. And if you go to every LG and indeed, every Ward, you’ll see so many projects that this government have, and is still working upon.If you go across to the new Yenagoa city, you’ll be amazed at the road network even when houses are yet to be built. For us, we are happy with the Governor and the people of the state. No doubt, in our local governments, the state government have equally tried with a whole lot of reforms..And for us, with my humble self as Chairman of ALGON Bayelsa, we are proud to say that Bayelsa remains the only state in the country where pensions and gratuities are promptly paid to retired LG workers. Recently in some states, there were reports of LG retirees protesting and rioting over pension issues. But for us here, we have paid pensions and cleared all the backlogs. We are not owing pensions to anybody. And today, the moment you retire, you’ll receive your pension. So now, Civil servants are looking forward to their retirement because they know that they will no longer be owed their pensions and gratuity.You’ll agree with me that even us in the LGA’s, just like the state government, we pay workers salaries before the end of the month. Since we came on board, we have not owed salaries for one month. And all promotion arrears due to civil servants are paid regularly. So you can see that the state government is a worker friendly government. And as local governments under the state, we are also taking a cue from the governor by being very interested in the welfare of our workers.As you have seen, just yesterday in our Primary Health Care System, recently we employed 800 workers into that system; qualified workers to be deployed to the rural communities. These people are not employed to work at the city centres, they are to go down to the health centres and clinics in our rural areas to serve the people.Aside wanting to speak for my self, there is no local government that is not having projects being done by its current administrators. So you can see that, even the local governments are functioning well.Narrowing it down to my own local government which I am privileged to pilot in a little over 2 years now, we have completed a staff quarters at Kaiama, the headquarters,that is accommodating all our senior staff, principal officers, Vice – aChairman, Secretary among others.We have constructed three Corpers lodges at three diffferent primary schools. We have constructed a couple of concrete roads. Ofcourse, you know that our terrain is a marshy area. We have just completed a town hall building in Oloibiri. And through our Councillors, we have done water projects, toilets,; you know we have gone beyond the stage people would go to our river to pollute it. We renovated markets, hospitals. As I am speaking with you now, we are constructing a modern market at Sampou. Sandfillig is far gone, and any moment from now, the structures will start.You will agree with me that secondary schools and universities are not in our purview. These are with the state and federal governments. However, two years running now, as a government, we have paid school fees for our University students to encourage education in our local government area. Last academic session, we paid for 65 students. This session, we paid for about 75 from different Universities ranging from NDU, Federal Univesity, Otuoke, College of Health Technology, Africa University. Funny enough, most of the people we paid for I dont even know them because we didn’ do the selection. We asked the schools to send us the names of students who are from Kolokuma- Opokuma LGA that have not paid school fees and may not be allowed to write their exams So the schools sent us names and we just picked them and paid. So, it is not a question of civil servant or one person sending us names. The schools did, and we paid.So most of them that we did this for, I dont even know them. Sometimes I just get calls saying ” my daughter’s school fees was paid, my son’s school fees was paid. Thank you Chairman”.For the state’s Health Insurance Scheme which initially targeted Civil Servants but have now been made open to every citizen to benefit from the scheme, last year, we were able to enroll 5000 people. We selected those who are not working; considring the fact that if they were gsinfully employed, the required dues would be deducted from their salaries. As a people – friendly government, we also encourage our youths who are interested in joining the armed or para military forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And whenever the forms are out, anybody who is interested in it we buy the forms for them for free, so that there would be no complaint that it is because you dont have the money to buy the form that’s why you couldn’t make it. No! just indicate your interest and we get it for you to serve Nigeria in the capacity you so desire.Quute a number of them have been gainfully enlisted into the military and quite often, I get text messages from them. So these are some of the things that we have done.As a local government, we have also established a farm since the governor encouraged that we should go into farming. And for us in Kolokuma Opokuma, we felt that where we should start from is with Palms. And for now, the one we have between Kaiama and Odi has reached a height of 5 ft plus. A set gt whitered and we are replacing them and the specie we brought is expected to get matured in 3 years time. We believe that in the next 3 years, we would begin to produce palm oil and other bye products. As a government, we intend to expand it so that we can bring in other plants and crops. We equally intend to turn it into a training site for the youths to go into farming. As is often said, seeing is believing. When they see us do it, and see that it is working, that will encourage them also to come into farming. That could also improve seed production in our local government area.In addition to all the above developments, my Secretariat which was not in good condition and had staff complaining that “I will sit down in my office and rain will be beating me” have been given a proper facelift. That condition is in the past.We have renovated our Secretariat. We have renovated our ICT Centre. We have renovated our Skills aquisition Centre among others.Recently, we did something quite remarkable. We reabsorbed Civil Servants who were laid off almost 20 years ago during Hagler’s time into the system. They contested their sack in Court and judgement was given in their favour. We felt it was needless appealing that judgement since they were our own people.Thus, we obeyed the Court ruling and accepted them back as staff of the LGA. When I got into office, I didn’t even know that a case like that existed. Anyway, we complied for justice, equity, peace and harmony to reign in our LGA.So for these few years, these are what we have done on ground for now.Thank You.
Welfare of Workers, Priority of Gov. Diri’s Administration – Hon Tariye Leile
