By Iniruo Wills

A big milestone is afoot in Bayelsa State. It is coming at a time when a fresh but fierce urgency about solid governance and development is being forced upon Africa, if we read the tea leaves.It is worth anticipating, if only to defeat the notion that, beyond extravaganza, marking history as a collective springboard unto greater heights is hardly a Nigerian thing.

No average Nigerian remembers any meaningful way in which the country utilised its centennial anniversary in 2014 to reimagine itself or instigate some lofty national ambition. The year before, the centenary of Port Harcourt’s founding by Lord Lugard, who supervised the joining of Northern and Southern Nigerias, also missed a chance to use history as a spur to explore new horizons. There was some pageantry in PH, to be fair – besides which, zilch!

Roughly 30 weeks from now, Bayelsa State will be 30 years since it was birthed by the goggled General, Sani Abacha. At its creation on Tuesday October 1, 1996 to wild jubilation by its long-yearning people, there were barely two or three petrol filling stations in the capital town, Yenagoa. The disheveled head office buildings of the then Yenagoa Local Government Council became a makeshift Governor’s office quicker than a mum fixes her famished kids a hotplate.

On the day the first Governor, Navy Captain Phillip Ayeni, arrived, indigenes trooped in from all over the state and especially from Port Harcourt, their former State’s capital, to receive him. Many volunteered time, money, and materials to make things manageable for the moment. The patriotism was palpable, the excitement could be sliced.

It is just as well that on Saturday, March 21, one of the State’s first two cabinet commissioners(Engineer Numoipre Will), both of whom transited from the same offices in the dear old Rivers State, unveiled a book he authored on the origin story of Bayelsa. The most distinguished personage yet from the state, former President Goodluck Jonathan, chaired the event, fittingly.

The emergence of Jonathan as President is perhaps the sharpest symbol of the most poignant dividends so far of the state’s creation: identity, political recognition, and a certain sense of endearment from fellow countrymen across the country. There’s something indefinable about Bayelsa that Nigerians can’t hide their affection for.

Milestones achieved
Far more than 30 other things have been gotten right or nearly. The “three senatorial roads”, a recurrent promise by every successive civilian administration in the State to link major sea-bounded towns in the three senatorial zones, are finally taking form, for example, the Ekeremor Road.

The Senator Douye Diri administration is on its way to installing a 60-megawatt Gas Turbine. Starting with the Niger Delta Universityinaugurated by the first civilian governor, Chief D S P Alamieyeseigha, the state currently hosts five universities, including a medical university converted from an abandoned hospital project, the University of Africa which stemmed from controversial ownership origins, and a private university. A befitting secretariat for the civil service is finally under construction.

When armed militancy pulverised oil production and threatened to paralyze Nigeria’s public treasury, it was largely thanks to three sons of Bayelsa State at top echelons of federal and state leadership – among them then Governor Timipre Sylva and Timi Alaibe, MD of NDDC at the time – that an armistice was brokered, resulting in the Amnesty Programme for the Niger Delta.

A nationally impactful institution for building Nigerian content in the petroleum industryhas been headquartered in Yenagoa since its inception sixteen years ago, though its impact is still too little felt in host communities. Though the law enacting it was anchored by actors like Temi Harriman in the National Assembly, Goodluck Jonathan cannot escape credit for catalysing it in his time as Vice President and later President.

Vanity, prestige, and lessons
What history can be complete without vanity and prestige projects? Bayelsa has a fair share already into the future. From the high-rise carcass of an uncompleted hotel standing as a Tower of Reproach, to an attempted recreation of the Acropolis in Bayelsa’s Government House, and a high-cost but low-use airport (now followed by a reported state-owned airline), the list goes on.

However, there are simple initiatives that have touched populations more valuably than their modest costs foretold, such as Governor Diri’s ongoing flood mitigation works in Yenagoa through the reopening of natural watercourses and building of pilot flood shelters.Still, Bayelsans are earnestly yearning for more, much more indeed.

Governance and strategic vision: A fresh urgency
A clash of buzzwords is causing global and local shocks. Ongoing geopolitical explosions brought live to us onscreen. Chaos in supply chains. Disruptions imposed by climate change, despite powerful forces disrupting the energy transition. Spiralling national security emergencies resulting in daily mass mortalities.Ultra-nationalism in the Western world. Great power flexing (Trump, Xi, Putin and Europe) and the sudden probability of brazen recolonisation in whatever guise (beyond benign neocolonialism) of weak polities – read Africa. Except that these are realities,not mere buzzwords. With stark collateral consequences for the innocent.

Piling these on top of pre-existing pressures for aggressive development adds to the weight of history on the shoulders of Governor Douye Diri, in a setting where every serious subnational must look beyond worsening national failures to work out its own salvation. Prosperity being the theme he freely chose to christen his tenure, it falls on Governor Diri, aided by his mint-fresh Deputy Governor Peter Akpe, to urgently accelerate the foundations for building therequired resilience and desired prosperity in Bayelsa State. Thus willhe seal his legacy in gold.

The inescapable starting point is to commission the production of an integrated socioeconomic masterplan, perhaps a Bayelsa 2026–2056 Masterplan projecting into the next 30 years. That blueprint has to be designed anddriven with laser clarity of vision, bold ambition, unmistakable executive willand fiscal discipline, in deliberate synergy with development partners.
Partners and possibilities

It’s all down to initiative and orchestration. Partners abound for the right visions: planning institutions, a whole breed of Bayelsa eggheads scattered around the world, often unseen on the State’s radar, and development finance institutions like AfDB, AFC, and Afreximbank.

Other platforms include impact funds and investors, sector-specific provisions such as the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund, Bank of Industry schemes for creatives (Nollyfund, etc), the NIMASA cabotage vessel finance facility, and the new African Energy Bank, facilitated in no small measure by Petroleum Minister Heineken Lokpobiri, a Bayelsan for that matter.

The capital market, currently superintended by another Bayelsan, Dr Emomotimi Agama, as head of the sector regulatory body, offers possibilitiestoo, and turbo-charged industrialists like Dangote and Elumelu are steadily scouting for conducive climates to enact economic history from. Governance champions like the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and Aigboje’s African Initiative for Governance (AIG) are also plausible partners, depending on the social valueproposition.

NDDC and the regional masterplan
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is a potential prime partner, exactly because it is designed as an anchor for co-planning and co-development. Poetically, the agency is led by a fairly young Bayelsan, Dr Sam Ogbuku, who is leading it to light up the Niger Delta with solar power.

Until recently, NDDC seemed poised to progress a regional development Masterplan, into which any serious member state can plug. That opportunity may be lost to Bayelsa under Diri if NDDC doesn’t revive and complete the process this year.

Pending NDDC’s readiness, the State needs to press on regardless.
Additionally, the BRACED Commission, a repository of planning data, must be incentivised as a partner.
Environmental Justice and the BSOEC imperative

Besides producing a proper roadmap, there are more than 30 other initiatives the Bayelsa State Government and partners can implement before the State turns 30. Tops is the long-overdue implementation of the Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission (BSOEC) Report,to resolve and redress the well-documented environmental degradation inflicted by the petroleum industry.

Long-term sustainability and human security for communities depend on this. The Governor can appoint a Special Counsel on Environmental and Climate Justice to coordinate proposals and position Bayelsa as a continental hub for climate action. Suitable heads include Anthony George-Ikoli (SAN), Boma Alabi (SAN, OON), Professor Engobo Emeseh, Tonbofa Ashimi, and Tengi Ikoli.

Repositioning BDIC as catalyst for industrialisation
One of Senator Seriake Dickson’s best inventions during his tenure as Governor (2012–2020) was the Bayelsa Development and Investment Corporation (BDIC). It could have been a shining sub-sovereign wealth fund but it was quicklyderailed.

Repositioning and recapitalising BDIC under competent, transparent leadership with the stable support of the Governor could help build a robustly diversified public-private economy. Examples of a wider pool of entrepreneurs and professionals to lead and constitute itsBoard include Gesi Asamaowei, Amagbe Kentebe, Timi Alaibe, Omeremu Omuso, Pattison Boleigha, Thelma Ekiyor, Prof Steve Azaiki, Dr Oton Efebo, Dr Ginah O. Ginah, Dr Azibapu Eruani, Elaye Otrofanowei, Eugene Abels, Dr Youpele Banigo, Warmate Idikio, Ms Timi Wolo, and Dr Edward Agbai.

Yenagoa has an earmarked Commercial and Industrial Layout, but no industries. It should be BDIC’s remit to get that layout productive with factories and warehouses.

Public service reform, and urbanisation
As the new secretariat complex gets underway, there is a crying need to re-professionalize and retool the Bayelsa Public Service, including introducing living wages by all legitimate means possible. Fortuitously, two Bayelsa women stand out as possible mentors or honorary advisors for the purpose: Dr (Mrs) Timi Koripamo-Agary and the present Head of Service of the Federation, Mrs Didi Walson-Jack.

Also, through the supervision of the Deputy Governor, the State Government can support and galvanise Local Government Councils to truly urbanise all LG headquarters, beyond merely gazetting them as urban. Each LGA development plan should include at least one light/medium industrial or commercial cluster and one standard vocational school per House of Assembly constituency.

Blue economy and environmental restoration
A comprehensive water resources management plan is vital to address flood and erosionlong-term and also prepare Bayelsa to actualise blue economy opportunities. Restoration of the Epie Creek and optimal land use of its foreshore should be part of a wider PPP-driven capital city upgrade as well.

Some icings on the cake
Forgood measure, Bayelsa can also position itself as a hub for centres of educational and cultural excellence that double as monuments to our heroes and heritage. These could include ideas like an Ernest Ikoli Foundation for Politics and Journalism, an Ekpebu School of Governance, the Melford Okilo Centre for Strategic Leadership, a Goodluck Jonathan Presidential Library and International Centre for Peace, a Diete-Spiff Centre for Development Studies, a Frank-Opigo Community Development Academy, an Ebitimi Banigo Business College, an Admiral Soroh Marine College,a Victor Ombu Sea School, a Betty Agama Gender Resource Centre, a Ben Bruce Creative Arts Village, the Torlowei Design Institute and Fashion Factory, and a Harcourt Adukeh School of the Built Environment, among others. And how about bringing the Isaac Boro

City idea to life?
A call to leadership
History beckons. For a ship that now has a former campaigner for good governance on deck, Bayelsa State is Governor Diri’s oyster. On Thursday October 1, 2026, the State can mark thirty years with visible structural transformation, to which the drums should jolly well roll. Seizing the coming thirty weeks with bold vision can set the State as a reference point and cause pride to flow like the rivers of Bayelsa through its people’s veins.
Cheers to the 30-week countdown to 30!

Wills is a lawyer and development consultant based in Port Harcourt.