Bayelsa Government Building Both Office Complex, Homes
By Ebiuwou Koku- Obiyai, YENAGOA –Â The Bayelsa State Government has noted comments by Mr. Udengs Eradiri criticizing the ongoing Nine-Storey Iconic Secretariat of the Senator Douye Diri administration and arguing that the funds should have been spent on residential houses for workers, because there is enough office space and the real problem is poor maintenance.
His argument sounds compassionate but rests on a false choice and a one-sided understanding of the civil service. Since Bayelsa was created in 1996, every administration has built one office annex or another. That fact alone proves chronic shortage, not surplus. Year in, year out, workers themselves made a befitting office their top demand every Workers’ Day.
As Governor Diri said at the March 1, 2025 groundbreaking at the old secretariat site in Yenagoa: “What propelled me to build a new secretariat was the civil servants’ request for office accommodation, which became a recurring decimal every Workers’ Day.” Those wearing the shoes know where it pinches.The difference in this administration is approach.
It has abandoned the piecemeal fix of building annexes for a permanent solution. The existing secretariat – whose first blocks were built under Military Administrator Navy Capt. Omoniyi Caleb Olubolade (1997-1998) and completed under the Alamieyeseigha/Jonathan administrations from 1999 – was designed for a few thousand staff at creation.
Today the core service is 25,789 officers in 22 ministries per the 2021 Biometrics Register, about 27,000 after government expunged 28,000 ghost workers from a 55,000 payroll. Two additional blocks added later could not cope.
More so, the existing structures were not built for digital government, with ministries scattered in rented buildings across Yenagoa. The new N46 billion electronic secretariat is that permanent solution.
Conceived and initiated by the Diri administration and being built by Megastar Technical and Construction Ltd on a 3,675 sqm footprint, it has 155 parking spaces and will be delivered in 24 months. It is designed for productivity: solar-powered system for reliable power, conference halls for coordination under one roof, a six-bed sick bay to treat minor ailments on site, and a crèche to support working parents.
When files are misplaced in overcrowded rooms and work stops when generators fail, every Bayelsan seeking service pays the cost. As the Minister of Regional Development noted at the commissioning of the NDDC’s new Bayelsa office, moving from rented to permanent accommodation increases productivity.
The immediate past Head of Service of the Federation, Mrs. Didi Walson-Jack, at the groundbreaking described the project as “a commendable effort to provide public servants with a conducive workplace environment. The government is therefore most determined to complete the Nine-Storey Iconic Secretariat to standards on schedule.
But housing is also receiving attention. Bayelsans are getting both; office and residential accommodation. Bayelsa’s history is not a blank page. The Okaka one-bedroom scheme began under Goodluck Jonathan as Governor. The Dickson administration built 150 units at Ayama in Ogbia LGA and 16 blocks of 12 flats at Okaka, and built the new Governor and Deputy Governor’s Office complex. What this administration met at Okaka was an abandoned estate that had become a haven for squatters and an unsafe space. It has completed the 108 units and launched new projects.
The surrounding infrastructure is being treated as part of housing, not an afterthought – the Governor has approved rehabilitation of Old Okaka Road with internal roads, drainage, water, power, perimeter fencing and security. It is true a one-bedroom will not suit a large family, but the service is not only large families. Every year it absorbs young graduates, single or newly married, on entry-level salaries who end up in substandard rooms far from work. For them, a safe, affordable first home near the workplace protects take-home pay and shortens commute.
The 108 units are Phase One, not the final word. The State has declared a housing sector emergency. The Bayelsa State Housing Authority is running an owner-occupier programme that has already allocated plots to over a thousand civil servants. Larger family units belong to later phases. Judging the entire housing policy by its first phase is like judging a building by its foundation. In sum, Mr. Eradiri presents a choice between homes and offices. Bayelsa civil servants are receiving both. The secretariat answers their most persistent demand and ends the era of annexes. Okaka answers the immediate need of young officers while the wider programme promises more for families.
Hon. Ebiuwou Koku- Obiyai is the Bayelsa State Commissioner for Information, Orientation & Strategy
