Let me start by wishing all Bayelsans and indeed, all Nigerians across the country a Happy and Prosperous New Year!
As we celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of another, we are always hopeful and prayerful that the new year will be better than the previous one.
The year 2012 was particularly very challenging for us as a state in many respects. Not only were we confronted with a devastating flood which had most of our communities submerged and rendered many of our people homeless; we also suffered the tragedy of an helicopter crash which claimed the lives of two prominent Nigerians and four others.
The death of Governor Patrick Yakowa and General Owoye Azazi along with four other patriotic Nigerians who died in the ill-fated crash is still fresh in our hearts. For most of us, we are still mourning their departure. Once again, let me seize this opportunity to commiserate with the families of the departed souls. Please be rest assured that our prayers are with you always.
As a government, we enter this New Year with a renewed zeal to rise up from the tragedies which has befallen us in 2012 to encourage ourselves in the Lord, especially with the knowledge that God has our best interest at heart always. That is the same message we bring to all those who have suffered one form of set back or the other in the year just gone by. We urge you to encourage yourselves in the Lord and move on with the assurance that God will add to your joy in this New Year.
While wishing all Bayelsans, a Happy New Year, it is pertinent to state that your government will keep faith with our commitment to deliver on every promise we have made to you. Our government is committed to infrastructural turn around of our dear state and this new year you will see us undertake the construction of more roads. That is why we have allocated over N152 billion to infrastructure alone in this year’s budget. Our commitment to deliver on Education with emphasis on computer literacy, science and technology will be further pursued vigorously this year. Not only will our
investment in education focus on the rebuilding of our comatose educational infrastructure, we will also invest massively in the training and re-training of our teachers
to adequately equip them to impart the right skills and knowledge in our children.
This much we will do because we have since realised that quality education has become an economic necessity, even as we take cognisance of of a
world largely driven by modern knowledge economy.
We are determined more than ever in this New Year to demonstrate our willingness as a government to work round the clock to sustain and consolidate on our restoration agenda.
In the last eleven months you have seen us evolve policies that are designed to make life more meaningful for our people. In this New Year we will sustain that momentum and by God's grace at the end of 2013, it will be clear to all that
our government meant business.
Let me once more on this occasion thank all the good people of our dear state for the support and solidarity shown to me and members of my team all through the year 2012. No doubt, we are seeing the emergence of a new Bayelsa and in this New Year so much more should be expected from your government.
As we celebrate the New Year, let us remember to pray for our state and the restoration government.
Let us pray for peace in Bayelsa State and Nigeria as a whole.
Let us pray that this state will not witness any more tragedies like the ones we experienced last year. Above all, let us spare a word of prayer for the first family of this nation – our dear President and his wife with members of his household.
Happy New Year once again to you all.
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