Ex-DSS DG Says Southerners Politically Disadvantaged

A former Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mathew Seiyefa, has said people from the South-south are politically disadvantaged in Nigeria.

Recall that Acting President Yemi Osinbajo had appointed Seiyefa after the sack Lawal Daura following the DSS invasion of the national assembly.

But a month after, President Muhammadu Buhari who had been away on medical vacation, compulsorily retired him and replaced him with Yusuf Bichi.

Speaking at the launch of the Bayelsa Tertiary Education Loan scheme in Yenagoa, capital of the state, the former DSS boss said John Pepper Clark and Seriake Dickson, governor of Bayelsa state, stood solidly behind him during his last days in the DSS.

Seiyefa said: “I want to thank two people who encouraged me during that period (crisis in the leadership of DSS). Prof. JP Clark, who was in Lagos and constantly, encouraged me not to give in but to stay and His Excellency, our dear governor.

“In fact, on two different occasions, he offered to employ me if I should leave, but I stayed the course.

“When August 7 last year happened, I was told of the jubilation in Bayelsa State. That they heard that one of their own is the head of a federal agency. People went to beer parlours, they bought drinks and they were happy and that moment of shared stakeholding in the Nigerian nation is very important.

“That moment of celebration that we too belong here is very important. But people made it happen and His Excellency is one of them. I appreciate what we have been through as a people.

“Education, as has been said, is it. I particularly want to encourage the boarding schools, because in the years to come, as far as I am concerned, that will be the game-changer.

“When I look back at my own story, the secondary school that I attended made all the difference. And for the young people, at the corporate and federal level, the years ahead will be very tough, competition will be very fierce and hard.

“At the moment, at the federal level, critical agencies are thinly spread, our presence is very little. At the corporate level, we are virtually nowhere, but those are opportunities for us because we cannot all be here struggling for crumbs, we need to be out there too.”