CELEBRATIONS of the birthday of Senator Seriake Dickson who turns 59 today, would not be through merryiments and parties but in the thousands of people who his intentional decisions, policies, projects, and programmes have impacted their lives over the years.
The former Bayelsa State Governor born in Toru-Orua, on the shores of the storied River Forcados, sees service to people, not self, as the essence of politics, and more importantly, the thrust of man’s service to God, his Creator.
He serves the Almighty through his devotion to care, compassion, and magnanimity in his dealings with people. These are encapsulated in his guiding principle, “Que servit homo servit Deo”, “He who serves man serves God”. For Dickson, now Senator for Bayelsa West, the principle underscores his belief that service to others, communities, and society is inherently service to God, as one cannot truly serve God without serving fellow humans.
His tireless efforts, unwavering commitment, and unshakeable optimism have inspired countless individuals and transformed lives of some that the society had forgotten.
The legacies are evident in his transformation of Bayelsa State, as Governor, on the wheels of his determination to give Bayelsa, Ijawland, Niger Delta, and Nigerians a different perspective of politics as service. They are testaments to the power of compassion, integrity, and perseverance.
Bayelsa’s Transparency Law that made it mandatory for the State to make full disclosure of its revenues monthly; the only State that has such law, was one of the first laws he signed.
Governor Dickson held the transparency briefing monthly for his eight years in office. He ensured autonomy for the Judiciary, State House of Assembly and the Local Government Councils, by law, policy and practice.
Dickson worked tirelessly to promote fairness, justice, equality, and opportunity for all, often putting the needs of others before his in using the resources of Bayelsa- limited by a six-year recession, during his eight years as Governor – to execute programmes, projects, and policies that would continue to serve Bayelsa for more years. During the recession, he negotiated with labour to pay half salaries at the slide of Nigeria’s economy from 2014. The advent of Avengers that blew up oil facilities and the drop oil price to $18 per barrel was a great for a State like Bayelsa with low Internally Generated Revenue. The Federal Government ‘s emergency bailout for 34 States over four year was used in funding programmes. All his ambitious agenda programmes were halted, obligations renegotiated for the State’s to weather through the recession. The State for the most of the six years of the recession had about N500m left after monthly after payments. Dickson cleared all the salaries and pensions arrears before leaving office. Labour leaders while thanking him for the direction and leadership he gave the Civil Service and commended him for clearing all arrears up to January 2020.
Yet he made these investments – N5 billion in Linkage Assurance Company currently worth over N50 billion and Bayelsa is the majority shareholder in the company, N5 billion investment in Four-Power Limited, the owner of Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company, now worth over N20 billion, real investment in the United Kingdom through Bayelsa Investments Development Company, BIDC, valued at over £3 million, excluding rents, $700,000 from BIDC real estate sold in USA, N1b investment in Heritage Bank. There are N30 billion tax payment by Shell Petroleum Development Company won though litigation, re-funds of N38 billion spent on federal infrastructure, which the Federal Government discounted with promissory notes to N27.5 billion, tax refunds from FIRS, N7 billion, about N2 billion savings in Education Development Fund, N2.5 billion savings in Health Insurance Scheme, and more accruals from the Nembe oil wells, and state property that the that courts from some politicians that claimed them. He fought at the Supreme Court to keep the Nembe oil wells in Oluasiri to ensure that Nembe remained in Bayelsa.
It took someone of his capacity, intellect, gravitas to win elections in opposition for 2015, 2019, 2022. The opposition had more money through surveillance contracts than the State during the recession.
The State should grateful to have someone like Dickson, whose transparency, focus, selflessness made it possible to execute the projects that changed Bayelsa and made investments in all sectors of the State in that situation.
It was a wonder that with the N1.050 billion that Bayelsa earned in his eight years in office, half of which went into salaries, emoluments, and pensions, Dickson still supported the Local Government Councils monthly with 10 per cent of Internally Generated Revenue for teachers’ salaries, and 5 per cent each to the Education Development Trust Fund, and the Health Insurance Scheme.
He is a visionary with grand ideas that many deem impossible until they are accomplished. The airport, three senatorial roads, that have created access to some of the most challenging parts of Bayelsa, New Yenagoa City, ultra-modern Governor’s Office complex, Deputy Governor’s residence and all the official residences in Government House, and Bayelsa Geographic Information System, BGIS, the computerised land titles agency, are among projects that kinder folks accept were ambitious.
More policies and projects were delivered in primary and secondary schools he built across the State with teachers’ quarters. He built the first public boarding schools in Bayelsa and they are part of the free education programme where the boarders were fed, with books, facilities for science studies. Teachers were retrained and a certification board set up to register teachers. These improvements moved Bayelsa from its regular 27th and worse positions, joined the top five in national schools’ examinations.
Over 4,000 scholarships, for studies at home and abroad, the Students Loan Board, which the Federal Government has adopted, the Education Development Trust Fund, Board for Science and Technical Education, are visible landmarks of Dickson’s understanding of the capabilities of education to change the totality of people across generations. He had regular interactions and dinners with teachers and promoted some to Permanent Secretaries to emphasis their importance in government. He called teachers most important staff because of their roles in transforming people.
Bayelsa Medical University, Yenagoa, and the University of Africa, Toru-Orua, the Polytechnic, School of Nursing, School of Tourism and Hospitality, College of Education, School of Agriculture, Sports Academy, School of Driving, were some of the institutions he established, some for acquisition of special training to fill the skills gaps in the State. Bayelsa is the State that approved a monthly subvention of N10 million for Federal University of Otuoke and N5 million to Federal Polytechnic, Ekowe, because of the importance Dickson attaches to education and hie belief that the institutions being in Bayelsa were making contributions to the State.
A workable health insurance scheme, now one of the best in the country, 85 health completed out of 105 planned for each political ward, the referral hospitals, Diagnostics Centre, Forensic Centre, first by a State, the Specialist Hospital, that was conducting heart surgeries, were at the apex of his projects that aimed at making Bayelsa a top medical tourism centre, beyond making high-quality medical services available to residents of the State.
His attention to details, the logic he applies in creating linkages for his projects and polices affected all parts of Bayelsa and the larger Ijaw Nation that spans Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo, Rivers, and Ondo States. He extended scholarships, employments to them and built a hospital in Arogbo, an Ijaw community in Ondo State.
Ijaw Nationalism for him was not only about economic justice for Ijaws, and the Niger Delta, getting fair deals from the oil and gas resources in their environment, but in ensuring recognition, respect, relevance in every engagement with the people. Ijaws have a history of continued contributions that went without recognition. His created the Ministry of Ijaw National Affairs to manage Ijaw issues with greater attention than anyone had done.
Dickson completed the Ijaw House which Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha awarded but was abandoned after his sudden departure from office. Ijaw National Academy was the flagship secondary school to raise the next generations of Ijaw leaders. More than 1,500 students on full scholarship were admitted to the school from Ijaw communities of Cross River, Delta, Edo, Ondo and Rivers States. They were Ijaws back to the homeland. The Ijaw Heroes Memorial Park which he built to honour Ijaw people who excelled in public service to Nigeria while advancing the Ijaw struggle was another signature policy and project. By May 2013, he brought back the remains of Major Isaac Adaka Boro and his associates to be buried with a befitting mausoleum at the Park. Late General Owoye Andrew Azazi, Ijaw Nation’s first four-star military General who served Nigeria as Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Defence Staff and National Security Adviser was also buried at the Park with a mausoleum. Other prominent Ijaw icons have been laid to rest or have mausoleums built to honour them at the Park.
Before Dickson’s administration, cultism, political restiveness, violence, communal clashes, banishments, militancy and insecurity were central to life and politics in Bayelsa State.
He institutionalised peace, tolerance and political stability in Bayelsa through law, security measures, policies, personal comportment, capacity for engagement, dispute resolution, and accommodation. People used to be banished from their communities, their houses burnt, and their supporters killed over political differences.
Dickson fixed a date for security agencies to accompany the victims back to their communities and made provisions for them to be protected until the threats were dispelled. Banishments were worse in Nembe and Twon Brass. No violence was recorded in the State’s politics, from that point, until the Federal Government-backed APC forces introduced violence during elections. Dickson told the law-abiding people in the communities to resist them.
The stability Dickson’s maturity brought to Bayelsa halted the series of impeachments of Speakers of the State House of Assembly, Deputy Governors, and even crisis in the political party, PDP. The opposition was free to campaign, and to criticise Dickson. Politicians in opposition were not molested, their property were not seized or destroyed, bombed, or people chased away as was the case before him. He is always large-hearted and gracious in engaging and managing all opponents, but always works hard to defeat opponents at elections without destroying them and ensuring that state power and authority were not abused but used for the good of all.
Operation Doo-Akpo, Peaceful Life, was established with well-trained officers who the government paid special allowances, gave regular training, computerised equipment and command and operational bases. Since its establishment, Doo-Akpo has been winning won awards till date. Operation Doo-Akpo was equipped with gunboats, special communications gadgets. It fished out criminals in minutes working with a security architecture that included Bayelsa State Vigilante Service, Bayelsa Volunteers, and youth and community leaders. The independence and non-interference of the Governor in its operations placed everyone under the law.
Governor Dickson’s political temperament healed fractious Bayelsa, once a hotbed of criminalities, cult killings, and general disrespect for rules, laws and order by both government officials and the populace. He brought order to governance by making it known that there would be consequences for people’s actions.
With its specially trained and well-funded unit of the police and other security agencies, Dickson built and handed over schools to the Army, Air Force, Navy, Directorate of State Services, and Police, the state headquarters for the Civil Defence Corps, in addition to new police stations and posts. The administration introduced a novel policy of Special Prosecutors to handle violent crimes, the first by a State in Nigeria.
The painstaking reform of the Civil Service which took three years was thorough, fair, and its removal of ghost workers, stopping indiscipline and rampant corruption in the Civil Service, created openings for 8,000 fresh graduates who were employed through competitive examinations conducted for applicants across the State. Dickson signed an Executive Order for the yearly employment of first-class graduates of Ijaw origin across the six coast States. These measures re-invigorated the Service. Civil servants learnt to do their work, played by the rules, and ended corrupt practices. Beneficiaries of the former system kicked but they were contained by the firm implementation of the reform. The writer hopes that the reform is deepened and maintained for the good of Bayelsa, rather than pandering to popularity.
The reform of the State’s traditional rulership enhanced peace and harmony across communities, clans, and kingdoms in Bayelsa. Amendments to the State’s Chieftaincy law officially recognised traditional rulers for every clan, community, and kingdoms in the State, no matter how small it was. Traditional rulers were given certificate of recognition, staff of office, and placed on monthly salaries. The new law, protected traditional rulers; they could not be removed from office until death.
Dickson ran a government of laws, personally penning over 70 bills, and providing directions for the Attorney-General and his team. He brought the State under the rule of law.
He ended the culture of primitive acquisition and display of wealth which corrupted the minds of the public and made people to aspire to such behaviours. Dickson dismantled parallel governments and systems that undermined formal government structures, and disrespected the authority of those in government. He stopped local government officials from handing public funds to high government officials and their spouses. Since Dickson did not tolerate the practice, it stopped.
Another challenge was managing the home politics of the President where some, using the cover of the presidency wanted to undermine and destabilise Dickson’s administration and the State for the eight years of his governorship. While the President stood by him and his government, some people spread rumours and propaganda in the State, country and formed factions in the party to replace Dickson before the end of his first term. Several times they compromised his security at private and public events. In all these, Governor Dickson remained focused on his agenda. No Governor would have taken a fraction of what he went through without reacting which would have thrown Bayelsa into flames.
Dickson appreciates Jonathan’s support, confidence, and trust in him since their paths crossed in 2004. Dickson ensured that the State was not conquered in 2015, 2019, and 2022 by the rampaging forces that got President Goodluck Jonathan out of office.
When he lost the presidency, Dickson hosted a rousing reception for Jonathan which he persuaded Ijaw leaders from the six coastal States of Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Ondo, and Rivers State to attend. At a special state banquet, Dickson with Chief Alamieyeseigha, King Alfred Diete-Spiff, and the Chief Judge of the State, presented a personalised Bayelsa State coat of arms to Jonathan in the presence of the dignitaries and expressed Bayelsa’s pride in him as the first President of Ijaw origin, and as his elder brother and leader – as Dickson always calls him – who has been “a pillar of support to me and my government”. Dickson supported Jonathan from his deputy governorship days to his election as Vice-President, and still supports him. Dickson was a foremost presence in the challenges Jonathan faced in his political journeys. He takes Jonathan’s battles personal and defended and fought for him as Deputy Governor, Governor, Vice-President, and President, and still does.
“God used President Jonathan to support me for the House of Representatives and the governorship. For these, I am eternally grateful to him,” Dickson said.
He genuinely respects and appreciates Jonathan and his family, and unlike others, he would not publicly or privately join issues with them. He also accords the same respect to anyone who have supported him in politics, and life. As a passionate ideologue on Ijaw, Niger Delta and Nigerian issue, Dickson is sometimes angry with the way and manner Jonathan lost power, the reason Dickson offered himself several times, since Jonathan left office, as Chairman of the Reconciliation Committee of PDP, the party under which Jonathan became President. Back home, Dickson christened PDP, the Ijaw and Niger Delta party.
With deft political management and sagacity, he provided facilities, security for APC’s campaigns in Bayelsa, when Muhammadu Buhari was campaigning against President Jonathan and even received Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo who led the APC campaign against Dickson’s second term bid as Governor.
Governor Dickson navigated a transition in an opposition environment that wanted the Bayelsa at all costs. The transition, unlike a mere succession plan, was deliberately aimed at inclusivity to address the disadvantaged parts of the State, in terms of accessing high offices like the governorship. The decision was expensive in consultations and getting the buy-in of others that it was for the good of Bayelsa State. Governor Douye Diri, his successor, is from Kolokuma/Opokuma, the smallest local government area in Bayelsa State, and Sampou, one of the smallest communities in Kolokuma/Opokuma. The Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, is from Ofoni, a Tarakri community, discriminated against because it is Urhobo-speaking through its maternal links. Dickson’s transition programme aimed at ending discrimination in the interest of the Ijaw Nation. He could do it because of the confidence his followers had in him doing the right thing in Bayelsa’s interest.
No Bayelsa politician has respected Bayelsa and Ijaw leaders and served them as Senator Dickson who is fair, straight, consultative and honest in his dealings. He respects and engages people, of all classes, but states his position clearly and could only would be persuaded by a superior argument.
He named prominent government buildings after leaders across the Ijaw Nation like Chief Dappa-Biriye, Isaac Boro Gabriel Okara, Chief Alamieyeseigha, Gen Owoye Azazi, Pa Edwin Clark, and Pro Chief Melford Okilo, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and others who featured in the Ijaw story. To inspire the young people, he name buildings in the Ijaw National Academy after Pa Edwin Clark, President Jonathan, and British academic Kay Williamson, who did seminal work on Ijaw language.
While he was Governor he invited high profile intelectuals like Nobel Laurent Prof Wole Soyinnka, Prof JP Clark, Prof EJ Allagoa, and ambassadors to the Academy which former Head of State Gen Yakubu Gowon commissioned, to address the students.
Isaac Boro College of Education, Sagbama, Chief Alamieyeseigha Banquet Hall of Government House, King Alfred Diete-Spiff Helipad in Yenagoa, Gen Owoye Azazi Control Centre of Operation Doo-Akpo, Chief Harold Dappa-Biriye International Conference Centre, Chief Gabriel Cultural Centre, Prof EJ Alogoa Museum, were some important government facilities that he built and named after top Ijaw leaders.
He named the halls in the Traditional Rulers Complex which he built and was commissioned by President Jonathan, after King Koko of Nembe and another hall after his great grandfather King Kpadia of Tarakri Kingdom.
He built mausoleums in the Ijaw Heroes Park for the departed.
He created an army of thousands of people who he taught through his examples to see governance as service to the people. Dickson is always on the lookout for those with skills and talents. He did not discriminate against any part of the State in appointments. In fact, he appointed hundreds of people from the six Ijaw States in the Niger Delta, and other Nigerians from all parts of the country.
Governor Dickson paid off loans and liabilities of over N200 billion that he inherited, reduced the debt to N123 billion by February 2020 when he left office, paid outstanding salaries, pensions, and the severance pay of his political appointees, providing a clean start-off slate for his successor.
He left Bayelsa as the least indebted State in South South, according to records of the Debt Management Office, DMO, and one of the least nationally. From having one of worst infant and maternal mortality rates by 2012, Bayelsa had the best infant and maternal mortality rate in the South South and was among the best in the country when Dickson left office in 2020.
As Governor, he did not sign any bogus pension law that would have entitled him to houses, cars, and huge annual cash payments. He left office with his four old vehicles and a severance pay of N25 million and N23 million for the Deputy Governor.
After leaving office, he has used tolerance and non-interference in any way in a government he fought to install, though there are irritations, to ensure peace.
How does Dickson manage betrayals? “What we do, or what God uses us to do, for anybody is a reflection of who we are and our values. And everyone is in control of that. On the other hand, how the people we have helped, would react, or what they do to us, is a reflection of who they are and their values. And we’re not in control of that,” Senator Dickson said.
“So the best thing to do is not to place hope or expectation of reward on them. The right thing is to leave things to God. My father once told me, “Let the world owe you, not the other way round. Because you’ll not be able to pay if you owe the world. But the world can always repay you, even to generations unborn, and with interest.
“Anyone who pays evil for good done, or received, must realise that there are repercussions both here and the hereafter. That is my belief”.
His charity, the Henry Seriake Dickson Foundation, HSDF, reaches more people through scholarships, free health services for the elderly and women, free delivery, including Caesarean Sections, and empowerment programmes. Beneficiaries of his undergraduate scholarships, including the Law School, cut across Bayelsa and beyond. The Foundation subsidises meals for students of Hensard University, which Dickson founded in 2023, and University of Africa, both in Toru-Orua to lighten the burden parents face in educating their children.
Dickson laid the foundation of a new Bayelsa at a difficult moment. He left indelible milestones that are challenging to beat. What is recorded here impressive as it is, is really a part of the things that Governor Dickson accomplished and his strides in various offices in life.
The security and welfare of the people, which the Constitution states as the primary purpose of government, has meaning when leaders serve the people. Senator Dickson, the dean, politics of selfless service, is proof that, as daunting as service to the people is, it is possible.
May this birthday be the beginning of another year of joy, good health, and continued service to humanity. Happy birthday His Excellency, Ofurumapepe, the Great White Shark.
Ikeddy ISIGUZO, Editor-in-Chief, Momentum Africa Media comments majorly on public issues
