Dr. Franklin Osaisai is a governorship aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa State. In this interview with reporters in Lagos, he explains why he wants to be governor, challenges facing the state and other issues. MUSA ODOSHIMOKHE was there.
Why are you throwing yourself in the governorship race?
I was lucky to have been appointed as the pioneer executive chairman of the Nigerian Atomic Energy Commission, and I was quite happy to have done that job for 11 years under Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umar Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari. It created an opportunity to work in a sector that is quite important for the development of our own country, which is the energy sector. The key component of my mandate as head of the commission was to develop the partway that will be able to develop and employ atomic energy for electricity generation. I did that for a while and I think it is quite fulfilling to have started the process of developing the foundation for training a large number of young Nigerians in various aspects of nuclear science and engineering. We academics don’t retire. So, in a way, I am not retired. Bayelsa State like you know was created just a little over 22 years ago and so it is still a state that is growing and a lot of development activities are going on and my thinking and the reason why I have offered myself to run for the office of governor is to ensure that one consolidate on the progress that have been made so far and to ensure that we put a foundation that can pave way for sustainable development in the state.
What are you going to do differently for the people, if given the mandate?
I can tell you the country has developed to an extent that a large number of people who participate in politics are seeking various offices both legislative and executive are people who have a professional career. I am an engineer and a scientist by professional training; I have done some work as an academic teaching in the university. I have also had the opportunity for nearly 20 years working to develop the nuclear technology sector in the country. In doing that, you also acquire quite a lot of relevant expertise and experience that could be applied to governance. As an academic, yes, you can teach; you can do research, but when you have the reins of power as a governor you are also able to implement programmes that you can see if they are working and see the happiness in the face of the people. And that I think is a lot more satisfying than anything else. So, I think my interest is to provide leadership for my people. It will give me an opportunity to contribute to the socio-economic wellbeing of my people. With that, one can begin to build a system that will ensure sustainable progress and the people will be happy.
What strategic plan are you going to focus on majorly?
I will consider myself somewhat lucky in the sense that some foundation have been laid. When you have continuous civilian rule for 20 years and luckily by the same political party, the differences are somewhat reduced. At this point in time you may have found some of them in other different political settings. So, my responsibility will be to improve on what others have done. If there is strategic directions that have been developed, if there is a pathway, by that I mean if the people have been able to develop a roadmap to implement the key elements of that strategic plan, what we will have to do is to look at what has been done, the areas in which we have gaps, where things have been done well, you could continue to follow that. Where there are areas that could be improved upon, you do that. So, I am opportune to look at the achievements that have been made by previous governments and improve on them and also areas we could start afresh, we need to do it. Twenty years of civilian rule could appear long but it is a short period in the life time of a state. So, we are still in that foundational setting and we need to improve on what has been done so far.
What your chances in your party, given the number of aspirants that indicated interest in the race?
The constitutional requirement for anybody to vie for the office of the governor of a state is that you are 35 years of age or more. Two, you have had a secondary school education. So, there are quite a large number of persons who fit that, and so long as there are many people who satisfy that requirement, there will be quite a large number of people who are interested in running. What will differentiate people is the ability to provide genuine leadership. Another factor is what each aspirant wants to do and how these programmes will affect the wellbeing of the people of Bayelsa State. The decision is not mine. We have two hurdles; the first one is being accepted by your party, so you can be nominated to run. That is the first hurdle. There the party will look at the various aspirants and know who they think is better positioned in order to win a general election for them and that person will be nominated. Hopefully, I think I will be the one.
Two, once you get nominated you are going to be weighed against the candidates from other political parties. But the main essence or the main selling point for any candidate or anybody who wants to lead the state is that you have the capacity, the experience, the integrity and the commitment to genuinely and selflessly lead the people to a part of sustainable development.
Specifically what are you going to focus on under your administration?
There are many things to be tackled. First of all, a lot of work has been done, but we still have infrastructural deficit. So, within the limited resources you have to build the pertinent infrastructure that will give that needed platform for people to lead a decent life. Two, we are also a state that we need to bring in key elements of innovation. Science and technology innovation, that will require providing the facilities, the institutions and also providing the wherewithal for young men and women to be trained so they have a good education. And training them in a way that they are not being trained to seek for employment or work for government but being able to be entrepreneurs, looking at the vast resources – agriculture resources that are available to us in the state, being able to setup industries.
As the governor, one of the things is to create that enabling environment that will add value to our resources. One should also be able to setup industries that can create employment. Above all, we also have to begin to look at our resources that are available and priorities them in a way that, with dwindling resources how do you invest them in a way that you can continue to grow development in the state and also for the benefit of the citizenry.
What is your take on the security situation in the state?
That is a general problem in the Niger Delta and Bayelsa like you know is the heart of the Niger Delta. Security is not entirely in the hands of the governor of a state where he sits as the head of the state security council, but all the major institutions are under the control of the federal government. Those are issues that have to be treated. But, what I intend to do is to build appropriate partnerships with them in a way, particularly the militants. We have to engage them, I think there are been quite a number of Federal Government programmes through the amnesty programme where some of them have been trained. We will also create opportunities for them to use these skills in a way that they can take care of themselves and their own dependent.
But so long as you have trained minds who don’t have things to do. It is a little bit difficult to be able to control them. That is the key reason why you have criminals’ activities and criminal tendencies in society. So, one of our own responsibilities will be constructive engagement in a way that we can provide the enabling environment for some of these young men and women to be useful and productive to themselves. In terms of the general security architecture, we will partner with the federal institutions and also build bridges with communities.
These criminals operate from within communities and if you do have appropriate linkage with them: the leadership of these communities. There is a way that there could be some element of community policing and you will be able to reduces incidences of criminal activities along our water ways.
Do you have the capacity to turn Bayelsa’s IGR around?
The first thing is that there has to be security, safety of life and property. Once you have a safe environment, once human life is secure, once there is peace and once there is a market and the market in this case is the human beings, businesses will come and will do quite well. Primarily Bayelsa State is a civil service state and we would want to change the narrative by engaging the people, tasking them while also assisting them to have access to resources in a way that will enable them to setup cottage industries. That may take a while, but I think the important thing is again making people to understand that their wellbeing those not entirely lies in the hand of government, they will have to work for it. They will have to position themselves in a way that they can take care of their own destinies.
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