N/Delta youths urge Buhari to shun critics, confirm Brambaifa as NDDC MD

A Niger Delta-based youth organisation, Advocates for Good Governance (AGG), has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to ignore critics and confirm the acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Professor Nelson Brambaifa, as the substantive MD of the commission.

The coordinator of the group, Mr Briggs Lokpobiri, in a statement in Yenagoa, said that the organisation has observed a consistent and orchestrated campaign by some elements to tarnish the image and discredit the effort of Professor Brambaifa which has repositioned the commission to attain its statutory mandate in the past few months.

He said that the ultimate aim of the sinister plot is to rob Bayelsa State of its right to produce the substantive managing director of the commission.

He said: “We appeal to the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State as well as all well-meaning citizens of the state across political parties divide to lend their unalloyed support and ensure that this opportunity that is due to the state does not elude it.

“Indeed, it negates rationality that any true son of Bayelsa should be involved in any form of negative plot to rob the state of this unique opportunity to take its rightful position as the managing director of NDDC.

“The entire leadership of Bayelsa State must close ranks and line up behind Brambaifa to succeed. Bayelsans should know that should this slot slip away from us, we will have no other persons to blame than ourselves.

“This is our slot. This is our turn to produce  the next managing director of NDDC. It is a taboo for Brambaifa’s own people to work against him. The people of Bayelsa must rise up against this act.

“After Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, Bayelsa is next in line as the highest producer of oil in the entire country. In the last couple of months of being at the helm of affairs at the NDDC,  Brambaifa has demonstrated his unalloyed commitment to the mission and vision of the commission by his words and deeds.

“He has taken steps to tackle the perennial problem of water hyacinth across the creeks of the Niger Delta; he has also launched the Volunteer Surveillance Group (VSG) which has  provided jobs for thousands of our  youths across the nine oil-producing states.

“The commission, under him, has also initiated a partnership between  the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the NDDC, which is geared towards providing loans for agricultural projects , thereby providing massive employment for  youths across the Niger Delta and foster sustained peace in our region,” he said.