Former President Goodluck Jonathan has discribed the abandonment of projects he initiated as governor of Bayelsa State.
Jonathan spoke Ta Reporters crew on Wednesday at the inauguration of the Best Western Plus Hotel in Yenagoa, the state capital.
He said he had initiated the construction of one five-star and two three-star hotels during his tenure as governor, but the projects were abandoned by successive administrations.
He added that many state governments waste resources because new administrations often fail to continue with their predecessors’ projects.
“As a first elected deputy governor of Bayelsa State, the governor then, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, started hosting African Movie Awards ceremonies that people from America, South Africa and others were coming; actors and actresses.
“It was a world event: you know all these celebrities, they live a sort of fantastic life, and in the first edition hosted, most of the external guests stayed in Port Harcourt because there was no hotel that you could see in Bayelsa State.
“The idea of a state encouraging tourism is for tourists to spend their foreign money in the state to stimulate the local economy, so if the state is to spend on the programme that brings people all over the world and then the money will be spent in other states, that is a negative investment.”
Jonathan said his administration had also awarded contracts for the Tower Hotel and two other three-star hotels to improve accommodation in the state, adding that completing those projects would have transformed Yenagoa into a more attractive destination for tourists and investors.
He added, “So when I took over as the governor, then there were some small, small hotels in Yenagoa, I said we cannot build a three-star hotel overnight, let us give some little money for our hotels to improve, but they were supposed to pay back, and we gave money up to N10, N15 million to a number of people, but because I left, nobody returned any money to anybody.
“That is the problem of government, when a governor leaves, the next governor doesn’t want to follow up, most of that money spent will go.”
