Obasanjo harps on stable security as panacea for development 

Lauds Bayelsa’s Transformation In 20 Years 

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has identified peace and stable security as the panacea for the country’s development and progress.Obasanjo said this yesterday during a visit to Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, to inaugurate completed projects of the Governor Seriake Dickson government. He also visited the state’s traditional rulers council.

The former President who also inaugurated the Bayelsa State Drug Distribution Company, the state ultra-modern Diagnostic Centre and other projects expressed shock over the rapid transformation, which Governor Dickson had brought to the state within six years.He commended Dickson for the relative peace he had maintained in the state since his six years on the saddle and urged other states in the country to emulate him.

“If one state is peaceful, secured and safe in Nigeria, it is an example to others and it goes a long way because the aggregate peacefulness, and security is what makes for peace, security and stability of our country.

“You called me a Bayelsan and I ought to be. I said to the governor that any good man must feel proud to be called a Bayelsan, because here, you have seen real transformation. If there is a place where you can say, come and see transformation taking place, this is one place in the country,” he stated.He, therefore, suggested that the younger generation should be accommodated in the nation’s political leadership because “although they are future leaders, tomorrow might not come.

“We have to make allowance for them because they are not only the leaders of tomorrow. Their leadership must start from today because if we leave them till tomorrow, they will never be left waiting for tomorrow that may never come. Today must be their time; let us accommodate them, let us make room for them and carry them along.”

Meanwhile, three former Ministers of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, Labaran Maku and John Odey, have said that information dissemination was key to democracy.
They said this at the inauguration of Bayelsa Information House in Yenagoa, as part of the activities to commemorate the sixth anniversary of Governor Dickson.

Other prominent stakeholders including media executives, editors, columnists and top government functionaries also witnessed the unveiling of the house, which has been described as one of the best in the country.

The ex-ministers, who were led to the edifice by Governor Dickson, his wife, Rachel and the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, commended the government for attaching importance to information dissemination.Gana, who unveiled the building, said it was a great honour to perform the ceremony, adding that the building would be a source of enlightenment and education for the people of Bayalsa and Nigerians.