Call to dump local content boss provokes Ijaw stakeholders

TRACKING_____Prominent Ijaw stakeholders including youth leaders have flayed some persons asking the Federal Government not to renew the tenure of Simbi Wabote as the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Content Development Management Board (NCDMB).

The leaders were angry that such call to dump Wabote , who hails from Nembe Local Government Area, Bayelsa State emanated from some aggrieved individuals from the state.

Some APC folks felt that they had not benefited from the appointment of Wabote, who became the executive secretary of the board on September 16, 2016 and warned Buhari against his reappointment.

No sooner had they made the request than angry voices of prominent Ijaw leaders, youths and students rose in defence of the executive secretary.

A public commentator and youth leader, Fortune Godson, described the call to deny Wabote reappointment as petty and selfish.

He said: “I was told Caleb Olubolade, a former Military Administrator had good plans for Bayelsa but when he saw our petty and selfish our people are and how ordinarily respected Bayelsans go to him to blackmail others on a daily basis just to get peanut he got tired. So he did what he could share what he couldn’t the detriment of that State and it’s development.

“Some Bayelsans would have preferred for Simbi Wabote to build the 17 Storey Nigerian Content Plaza in their Stomachs than what we have now”.

Also the Joint Campus Committee of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) Bayelsa State Axis, lambasted persons attacking Wabote and commended the executive secretary for making the Niger Delta proud with his performance.

Chairman of the committee, Kenneth Jacob, who highlighted his achievements in the region including building 17-stores edifice in Bayelsa, passed a vote of confidence in Wabote-led board.

He said: “Wabote deserves the support and encouragement of the people of the Niger Delta and Bayelsa State, in particular, to enable him transform the entire Nigerian oil and gas industry dominated by foreign content with Nigerian content.“People should focus more on collective gains rather than individual gains so that our region will not continue to wallow in poverty in the mist of plenty.

“Amidst cheap blackmails and sponsored attacks, the students body comprising over 80 per cent of youths pass a vote of confidence on the Executive Secretary of the board, Simbi K. Wabote and call for his reappointment.

“Consequently, we appeal to the president Buhari led federal government not to withdraw their trust on the son of the soil, and consider his reappointment as there is no need to change a winning team”.

A former Executive Secretary of the content board, Denzil Kentebe, said anybody suggesting that Wabote should not be reappointed never meant well for Ijaw people.

He said: “Anyone who even suggests not reappointing him does not mean well for this nation or even at best, ijaw people. Wabote’s drive and passion for his job and his people is not in doubt.

“I was on that seat for eight months so I do understand to some extent the challenges he has to face on a daily basis. To have navigated successfully for almost 4years and continued the vision of those before him, he deserves our prayers not talk on his reappointment. We as Ijaw people must learn to always support our own. No one is perfect but he receives a 95 per cent and more”.

In his remarks, a former federal Permanent Secretary, Boladei Igali, said Wabote remained one of the greatest Ijaw assets.

He said: “Unarguably, l am one of few Ijaws who rose to the top of the bureaucratic ladder in Nigeria and affirm that this young man, Engr Simbi is one of the greatest assets we have ever had.

“I became curious and decided to find out more about him, but needless rehash here my fantastic finding. If you go to the NCDMB website, you see the multifaceted line up of activities and value he is bringing to the Niger Delta.

“Look, he completed a 17 storey headquarters building in Yenagoa in a shot time and has started the Development of two Oil and Gas Industrial Complexes in Bayelsa and Cross River.

“He has invested over $50million to help, indigenous modular refineries take off. He has started building a major Gas Project in Polaku and several smaller one across the region. He regularly organises enterprise development seminars for our young people and supports their take off.

“At the commencement of COVID-19, he was the first to roll out ambulances and line up of trucks of pallatives to BYSG. Unlike most local narrow minded Ijaws, he sees no dichotomy between a federal agency and BYSG or see politics ae they and us, he is so far their greatest partner!

“Yet some miscreants and deluded Ijaw boys would use the social media to write about non renewal of tenure because he did not share money to them! How condenable and odious. We as enlightened folks must condemn this trend. We cannot continue as termites also trying to destroy what we have from within.

“Unless, he changes his mind to return to his plum job at Senior Management in Shell, his tenure will certainly be renewed to enable him complete his amazing good work”