From Nigerian editors have come accolades for Bayelsa State governor, Henry Seriake Dickson, whose restoration government and leadership style were hailed as progressive and people-oriented. The President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Mallam Garba Deen Mohammad, at a dinner in honour of editors who held their annual conference in Bayelsa at the weekend said Nigerian editors were impressed by the strides of development of the Dickson government.

Mohammad whose designation as President of the Guild was ratified at the All Nigeria Editors’ Conference (ANEC) in Yenagoa, the state capital, made the disclosure after the editors toured the projects executed and being executed by the Dickson government. The tour of duty took the editors away from Yenagoa to Nembe, a littoral community now being accessed by road, to Otuoke and other communities in the state.

According to the NGE President, the tour was a an eye-opener for the editors as it helped them to appreciate the performance of the governor. He said the Governor was not only restoring the glory of the state, but was also re-inventing the state.

He charged the Governor to sustain the momentum and do much more especially in the area of education; stressing that good education would ultimately take away from the people the scourge of poverty.

Earlier during the conference, Governor Dickson charged the editors to “take the liberty of your presence in the state to move round and see things for yourselves”. He was referring to the infrastructural development in the state wrought under his stewardship.

During the tour of projects, various editors lauded his leadership and commitment to the development of the state.

The NGE said the governor’s achievements was a way of recognizing his administration’s strides in socio economic development in the last three and half years, adding that Dickson, fondly called Countryman Governor has indeed done a lot for the benefit of the people.

With the theme of this year’s conference, ”Nigeria: The Change We Need – Role of the Editor”, the speakers at the event said, it was fitting in relation to Dickson’s vision and perspectives in governance, adding that the governor has by his innovative leadership changed the face of governance in Bayelsa State.

One of the editors who was also part of the project tour and publisher of New Nation, Richard Beke, said the governor was a change agent in view of his government’s achievements in the various areas of development.

He said though there were other governors before him, none had done as much to give hope to the people.

”He is the face of change in the new Bayelsa. He is the original change agent as he’s been saying and there is no doubt that there’s truth in his assertions seeing first hand for ourselves the various developmental strides”, Beke said.

He noted that hosting the 11th edition of the yearly conference in Yenagoa like other events in recent times was an indication that the state has changed from being a dreaded enclave to one safe and stable to live and do business.

Speaking in similar vein, a veteran Journalist, Taire Godson, said a major development initiative of the administration was the governor’s huge funding of education which, he said, had expanded opportunities especially to indigent students through its free education policy, scholarships and provision of modern classrooms and boarding facilities.

Godson also reckoned that the various roads and bridges built by the government have helped to open up the state for commercial activities to thrive.