Interractive Meeting with EDTF

Transcript

Our leader, our mentor, the eloquent professor T. T Songu. looking at the queue, I will just describe them as Elder state men, distinguished in service to Bayelsa and to Nigeria. If we have the collections of this as members of the trust fund, then we are sure that the fund will be safe, we are sure that they will deliver in service.

My leaders and elders, I want to welcome you to this interactive meeting, I still recall when you visited me in Abuja, as a member of the house of representatives over this and we give our widows might monthly and every tenth of the month, and I see the alert of a debit, I'm very happy. I hope that debit alert will stop now because that started with the house of reps to the Senate, and I was willing to do more in the Senate but by Providence and God's design I'm here to oversee and serve you as Governor of Bayelsa State.

So I want to thank you that at this age and time, you still find yourselves, some of you are well over 90, some of you are over 80, some of you are in your 70, and all of you have given service to the Ijaw nation, service to Bayelsa State, service to Nigeria. I am one of the very lucky young ones that have worked with you, virtually all of you over the years from madam to my elder brother to Prof, and then to our father, our caucus chairman of Yenagoa local government. so there is no one of you here that I have not worked with and that I have not sucked from the knowledge that you have given over the years. I want to thank you immensely, thank you profusely for even accepting to serve your people at this stage of life. You are setting the record that most of us who are hoping to retire from service of our people, you have set a precedent that people will say when you are Governor, professor Songu was still a chairman of the board, When you are a Governor, our sister was still there so you can not retire.

So I want to thank you and as the M.C noted, I keep saying that no society can grow above its level of education and if you think that education is not important, then we try ignorance. and I don't think that anybody will want to try ignorance. Today I decided to go round the places that where destroyed during the so called protest by APC on the 13th when the judgement was giving, and after going down those places, I almost wept, it is very easy to destroy, but very difficult to build. You people have built, you have built human beings, you have built infrastructure, up till now, I can't comprehend if those people are Bayelsans and If they are Bayelsans, seeing the level of destruction, like I saw today, then they create more imperative that we must continue to preach Education.  If they were well educated, they won't go to that level of destroying a radio station that serves our people, destroying a judiciary. if they wanted to visit the scenes of the supreme Court, they should have found their way to Abuja, the judiciary here was not the one that gave the judgment and for anybody who is educated in that level, you know that there is a level you will get to and then you will stop. You cannot be lawless and take laws into your hands in the level they have gone, It will take millions if not billions of naira to restore what they have destroyed. Money we should have used to continue to build our states, to continue to train our youths, make them to acquire skill's and to earn a living. So I want to thank you for coming, if I was giving the opportunity, I would have first of all heard from you, and for the fact that you are our father and custodians of this forum. i would want to know the situation of affairs even before I make my remarks. So may I at this point humbly handover to my leader, my mentor and my father.