… as MSME operators plan showdown
ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, Yenagoa.
Bayelsa State Government has appealed to the people of the state to bear with the Douye Diri administration as it progresses in its urban renewal programme.
It said the demolition of illegal structures currently being carried out in Yenagoa, the state capital, is part of the administration’s urban renewal programmes and not targeted at unleashing suffering on the people but to bring out the beauty of the state.
Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Mr Ayibaina Aduba, who explained the government’s position, noted that the whole essence was to give the state a semblance of sanity and orderliness.
The commissioner said: “The exercise is not a witch-hunt against anybody. The truth is that we have to give Yenagoa, our state capital, some semblance of sanity. People are just doing things the way they like. It is not appealing to the eyes at all. That is why I keep asking for the cooperation of everybody so that we give this state capital some level of organisation.
“Again people who live in a city must learn to obey government laws, rules and order that are given. So we are appealing to people to show understanding with us. If we continue to live this way, it is just a ghetto that we are just creating.
“Look at the market people in Swali ultra-modern market, there are empty shops. They don’t want to go in. What is the guarantee that if you stay outside of the market, you will make sales every day.
“Do you know that there over six hundred market stores that are near empty? It is sad. You keep talking. You go to radio, you talk. They will say they didn’t hear. You do announcement, they will say they didn’t hear. So at what stage will they hear? People are just being recalcitrant.”
He said a place like Tombia was never designated as a market but regretfully, people just formed a market there.
He said he found it curious that people set up a market at a place not designated for such and are now telling the government to relocate them.
Despite the government’s explanation, some Bayelsa women under the aegis of Association of Women in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (AWMSME), said they would soon hit the streets of Yenagoa to protest what they described as “destruction of their sources of livelihood in the name of urban renewal policy.”
Speaking through the state Coordinator of the group, Mrs Peace Oruama, the aggrieved women, who said they were not against the urban renewal policy, decried a situation where all the places they ply their petty trading had been destroyed without alternative arrangements.
Oruama also faulted the claim by the government that there are over 600 lockup stores at the Swali Ultra Modern Market where displayed traders could relocate to.
She noted that the said vacant stores at Swali were ones with open roofings and were in marshy areas that could not be accessed by customers when it rains.
Oruama, however, revealed that the group had scheduled a meeting with the state government through the office of the Deputy Governor, emphasising that they would be left with no option but to embark on the statewide protest that would ground all business activities in the state.