The Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) has called on the Minister of Petroleum, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, to shelve his governorship ambition in Bayelsa State and concentrate on discharging his ministerial responsibilities to actualise the benefits of the Renewed Hope Agenda in the subsector.
The council said it discovered that Lokpobiri was more interested in garnering support for his ambition to be governor of the state than dispassionately discharging the functions of his office.
IYC, in a statement signed by its secretary-general, Maobuye Nangi Obu and three others, observed that all the decisions the minister had taken especially in Bayelsa, his home state, were being influenced by his governorship interest.
The statement reads: “This for us is a distraction because it has made the minister to lose focus and concentration. How else do we explain his inability to address the chaos and myriads of problems in the oil sub-sector?”
IYC stated that the minister’s focus to fly the governorship flag of his party had also adversely impacted the operations and functions of the IYC, a non-political organisation.
The statement said: “The Minister is using his brother, who is the President of the council, to mobilise youth support for his ambition, thus attempting to turn IYC into a political group when it is not.
“This is the same President that cannot add his voice in the Rivers political crisis and stand by the governor who is our son because of his brother’s attachment to Siminalayi Fubara’s political rival.
“Lokpobiri is busy kowtowing and following instructions of persons he believes will help him actualise his ambition without considering the disadvantages of such actions to his office.
“His ministry requires full concentration and a display of grit and knowledge of the dynamism of the petroleum industry. There is no way someone with heavy governorship interest can discharge the functions of such office effectively”.
The council appealed to the minister to purge himself of his ambition and focus on his duties to enable him craft a firm and decisive path to resolve the problems in the sector.
IYC insisted that the minister’s inability to address the issues in the oil sub-sector was the reason for increasing hardship in the country especially in rural and coastal communities in the Niger Delta.
“Oil is the major determinant of the country’s economy. Oil gives economic direction and guarantees stability of other sectors.
“Unfortunately, the chaos in that sector since the appointment of Minister Lokpobiri has created untold hardship in the country such as high prices of goods, services and other commodities; instability in exchange rate, high transportation cost among others, thereby making all genuine efforts of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu invisible to the people.
“We are, therefore, asking Minister Lokpobiri to stop distracting himself with his governorship ambition and face the functions of his ministry to address these problems and help the economy to recover”.
The council added that unlike some of his colleagues, Lokpobiri has refused to use his office to attract opportunities for his people, adding that as a minister he can’t boast of any intervention he has done personally to lift his people out of the current economic crisis.
“The Minister came to the region to ask Ijaw youths not to take part in the hunger protest with the assistance of his brother the president and the youths listened and did not protest in the hopes that he’ll help minimise the untold hardship on them but rather he has gone back to his comfortable zone and left people stranded and suffering.”