The Bayelsa Government says it has resorted to use of traditional media to persuade residents to embrace its ongoing urban renewal policy.
The
Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Chief Ayiba Duba, made
this known in an interview in Yenagoa in Monday.
“Our
efforts in using the mainstream organs of mass communication have not been very
effective in changing the behavioural patterns of the people.
“We
have decided to bend back and resort to the basic traditional approach to
involve the town criers and traditional forms of communication to achieve
behavioural change in our people.
“It
is a gradual thing and will take a while.
“The
task before us in the ministry in charge of information, orientation and
strategy is enormous .
“We
are putting finishing touches in the plan and we have to rely on the use of our
local dialects.
“We
are trying to ensure that the messages and media of communicating them all
align with existing media laws,” Duba said.
He
said that the ministry had acquired buses mounted with public address systems
to disseminate the messages on the gains of the ongoing urban renewal.
Duba
said that the ministry would also engage layers of community and opinion
leaders in the various communities on the policy.
The
commissioner said that the state government had the political will to pursue
the policy to a logical conclusion and give the state capital a befitting
status.
He
said Gov Duoye Diri had approved the use of town criers and other traditional
means of communication to disseminate government’s message on the ongoing urban
renewal programe in Yenagoa, the state capital.
The
governor explained that the Diri-led administration was committed to curbing
the haphazard development in the state capital which had defaced it since the
state was created in 1996.
“The
policy has come to stay and it is regrettable that we have deviated from the
norm for so long. Those of us who have been in government for sometime now have
to sit up and do the right thing.
“The
good thing is that Gov Douye Diri has said that he is committed to this policy
even at the risk of ‘losing political capital’ as a first term governor.
“So
there is no going back on this. Our people must realise the need for development
control.
“It
is very worrisome that people raise illegal structures at will and it has
persisted for decades such that every effort of government is misinterpreted.
“The
time to correct the errors is now; we are doing this in public interest,” He
said.
It
will be recalled that Diri on May 5, directed the demolition of all illegal
structures, including buildings and markets in and around Yenagoa.
The
directive sparked off public outcry from the affected small business operators
who said the policy lacked human face.
On
the operators’, Duba said government had approached the policy from a
persuasive dimension, adding that it had engaged the affected groups on the way
forward, to no avail.
According
to him, adequate notices were given after meetings to inform the affected
people to remove the structures voluntariry or have them removed by government.
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