By Enaibo Asiayei
The traditional ruler of Ogulagha Kingdom, His Royal Majesty, Elder Capt. Joseph Timiyan has appealed to the new board of Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) not to disappoint the Governor of Delta state in the discharge of their responsibilities in their new offices.
Timiyan expressed his gratitude to the governor for the calibre of persons appointed in the board of DESOPADEC.
The King made this statement during the maiden town-hall and stakeholders meeting organized by the Board of DESOPADEC on Wednesday September 18, 2019, at Wellington Hotel, Effurun.
According to him, “First and foremost, I want to thank His Excellency, the Governor of Delta state for giving this directive to the Board of DESOPADEC to hold this kind of town-hall meeting with all the ethnic nationalities in Delta State.
“This is a new dawn; we have not experienced this before now. I know this is a corrective measure that the governor wants to carry out and I want to also say that the board members should not disappoint our governor, because he has a very good mind and initiative for the people that he is governing.”
The traditional ruler admonished the board members to execute projects and to empower the people in trade and other things that will engage them.
He added, “DESOPADEC is meant to be a board that is supposed to put smile on the people of the oil producing areas, but I believe that this present board will do something different because the starting point is so good.
“And I also pray that it will not be a thing of (in the beginning) romancing with us and at the end of the day we will not see this kind of romance again; it is supposed to be a continuous thing that will put smile on the people.
“We are always talking of projects. Projects only cannot give us smile.Project is cement, granite, sand and others; that only cannot give the people joy, it will make the communities beautiful but it cannot make the people absolutely happy.
“So when we talk of projects, we must also talk of employments. If project is going to come from the grassroots of the actual producing communities or impacted communities, let employment also come from them; also empowerment like giving money to people to either trade or skill acquisition.
“Things must be done for the people so that youth restiveness will be a thing of the past; if we only focus on project, we have not solved the problem; an hungry man is an angry man.
“I thank God that the MD is here, project director is here, finance is here and other board members are all here.This is the complete board. Please, I want you people to put all things in consideration and not only to think of project, project alone cannot give us the needed happiness but other things will add to the happiness, so that peace will reign in our Ijaw land and also in other lands.”
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