• IITA to establish farm centre in Bayelsa
Governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, has advised the management of Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited that having acquired the assets of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), it should operate differently from the former owners of the oil firm.
   
The Bayelsa governor also urged the company to incorporate the interests of host state governments in its operations to reduce conflicts.
  
Diri stated this yesterday when he received the management of Renaissance Africa Energy, including its chairman, Dr. Layi Fatona, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Tony Attah, and other officials in the Government House, Yenagoa.
  
The governor explained that before SPDC divested its assets, host communities were short-changed because the proceeds that accrued to them were grossly inadequate and resulted in agitations by the state governments for a better deal.

“When we heard that SPDC had divested, we advised that the new company carries the host states along because part of the issues with the previous operator was that they were seen more like buccaneers. They were like people who came to the communities to collect and gave nothing back.
 
IN another development, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) located in Ibadan, Oyo State, has disclosed plans to set up a sub-national centre in Bayelsa State through a partnership with the state government.
  
The Deputy Director-General of the institute, Dr. Kenton Dashiell, stated this during a meeting with the Bayelsa governor, who visited the expansive farming complex in Ibadan.
    
Dashiell, in a presentation, explained that IITA was established in 1967 as a research centre that focuses on generating agricultural innovations that address the challenge of food insecurity and the impact of climate change on agricultural produce in tropical Africa.
   
“We are here in Nigeria, which is our home. After Oyo State, Bayelsa should be number two to us. We are willing to come to Bayelsa and, in partnership with the state government, help to develop the youths who are interested in agriculture,” he said.