Keshi: It’s time South South braced up on economic development

 

Director-General of BRACED Commission, Ambassador Joe Keshi, in this interview with KELVIN EBIRI and LEO SOBECHI, expresses optimism that current political realities in the South of South geopolitical zone offer great opportunity harmonize socio-economic development in the region. The astute technocrat with immense experience noted told that after seven years’ lull, the BRACED (Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo and Delta states) commission need to speed up issues of economic development, creating opportunities in education, health, industrialisation among other sectors.

What’s the prospect for reviving the BRACED commission now that all the states in the South of South belong to one political party?
I believe it will create a greater harmony. Even with Governor Godwin Obaseki in APC before, he was very much involved in trying to revive the BRACED commission and now that he has exchanged party, I have got the feeling that it will help solidify the regional cooperation that BRACED is trying to achieve.
 
Our hope is that the governors in terms of economic development will be on the same platform and have the same vision and political will, and to drive development even more in the region.

Was politics behind the six years’ inactivity of the commission?
You could put it down to the disagreement that occurred and the bitterness that was left behind in the 2015 election. Let’s put it that it was more political in the sense that there were disagreement among the PDP governors at that time. Both about who to support at the federal level and then who to support at the local level and it created significant bitterness that lingered for a long time.
 
But, it is all gone and we are looking forward to the BRACED commission working more closely with the governors. Just like the commission in the South West, we report to the governors and in the last couple of years as I said as a result of the politics of the region itself, there was not many meetings at the BRACED level to address issues of concerns of economic development, which is what we are focused on.

It is like a company when you have the board not functioning properly and you no person to report to, or to get to listen to you. When we fashion out a common policy for the region, it is supposed to be domesticated at the state levels or to be aligned with on going state policies. But then that was not happening; there is lull, which we are trying to overcome now.

How concerned is the BRACED commission about NBS latest report that put present unemployment rate in Akwa Ibom at 45.2% and Rivers 43.7%?
I have no reason to doubt the Bureau of Statistics report, because if you go round the region you will really know that there is unemployment because in terms of job creation little is being done across the board. My belief is that this is an area the states need to work seriously on by opening up the region for investment. If you go to some of the industrial estates that were built by previous governments years ago, they are no longer in existence and we need to recreate the industrial sector. We need to build up the industrial sector. We need to expand agriculture and use agriculture as the fulcrum of the development of the region.
 
We also need to invest in education, particularly, science and technology, and in health. When the region does all these it will begin to see the tide turn and then create the environment that will encourage investors, both local and foreign to come to the region. Which also means that the federal government has to pay serious attention to the issues of peace and security in that place because they control the security forces. They have full responsibility to ensure that the region is secure for investors to feel confident to be in the region.