Senator Abe Speaks At Niger Delta CEOs Summit

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WE SHOULD HAVE THE COURAGE TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT

This year, since I am no longer in office I had made a deliberate decision to keep a low profile and I had decided that I would not attend this event.

But sometime, I think a couple of days ago, I saw some press statement from the office of the S.A. Media to the Acting MD/CEO of NDDC, and I will read:

“RE: NIGER DELTA CEO’S SUMMIT”
“Our attention has been drawn to a summit purportedly being organized by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) billed for this weekend”.

“The Acting Managing Director/CEO of the NDDC, Prof Nelson Brambaifa has nothing whatsoever to do with the said summit and therefore should not be dragged to such a phoney publicity stunt”.

That was I this gathering was described!

“We are not surprised as this is part of the sponsored choreographed tricks targeting at hoodwinking the unsuspecting public and dragging Prof Brambaifa’s hard earned reputation to the mud”.

“For the umpteenth time, all these sponsored attacks and innuendos against the present NDDC Management shall surely fail”.

And I was shocked and stunned beyond words because I know about the Niger Delta CEOs summit, it predates any issues in the NDDC, and I had also seen the flyers for this summit and I couldn’t see anything remotely resembling what I was hearing and seen here with what I knew the situation to be. So I put a call through to one of the organizers and he said to me that this was because “ the Managing Director was not politically comfortable with some of the persons invited here”.

And I asked myself, how can we develop the Niger Delta with this kind of thinking? How can we?

I mean, if you didn’t want to attend, you could quietly stay away, I was planning to quietly stay away. You could send somebody to represent you. If they asked you for sponsorship or for support and you didn’t want to give the support, it is your prerogative. You have been giving money to people in all sorts of empowerment schemes that empowers nobody, but something like this, this is your response to it.

And when I saw that, I said I would not only come here— you heard him (one of the organizers) when he was talking, he was being diplomatic about some of the challenges they faced. I fortunately don’t have to be that diplomatic.

I can say exactly what is on my mind, and I said I would come here and condemn that kind of behavior. It does not help the Niger Delta. We should have the courage to say what is right and insist that the right things should be done. That is the first thing I want to say.


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