Nigeria: Governor Dickson, President Zuma and Investment Fever in Bayelsa State.

Gov Seriake Dickson

Last month, precisely Friday, October 26, Governor Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State and his investment team stormed Johannesburg, the business capital of South Africa, on the invitation of President Jacob Zuma. This visit and the power-packed investment summit, which held at the Hilton Hotel, upped the ante in the vortex of investment in Bayelsa State. The October meeting was sequel to the governor's visit to the country in May where he and his team wooed investors to the state.
These businessmen are expected to replicate some of the infrastructure that make South Africa a strong economy in Bayelsa State. This novel drive of Hon. Dickson is hinged on his belief that Bayelsa has a lot to tap from the South African economy which he describes as having all the trappings of a first world economy.
Expectedly, the governor's first pot of call was the South African State House in Pretoria. President Zuma was at the University of Pretoria where he was delivering a lecture at an occasion put together to honour the longest serving president of African National Congress (ANC), late Oliver Thambo, and others. When he was told that Governor Dickson had arrived, there was no other way the South African strongman could have honoured the countryman-governor than to cut short his engagement after his speech and cruised to his office to receive the governor and his team. We had lunch with Mr. President and went straight to the business of our visit, which lasted 30 minutes.
Governor Dickson informed his host that he is currently emulating his party, African National Congress (ANC) by running Bayelsa State from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secretariat in Yenagoa at least once in every month. The governor advised African leaders to go beyond "political integration to integrate our people economically because it is when we build a strong economic base for our people that we can put food on their table." While rolling out the investment potentials of his state, the governor said government had put in place time-tested insurance policies for all investors and investment.