The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content and Development Board, Engineer Felix Omatsola Ogbe, has advised Bayelsa Youths to always engage in negotiations instead of protests and restiveness.
This was as he disclosed that Local Content’s journey is not that of a Marathon Race but a sort of Strength that will pay off very soon.
Speaking at the weekend in Yenagoa during an engagement with youth organisations and civil society groups, the NCDMB Secretary, represented by Dr Obinna Ezeobi, General Manager Corporate Communications, NCDMB,
Maintaining that the board has taken the pains to take her programmes to the Creeks, Ogbe stated that although NCDMB was not intending to achieve 100% local content, it hopes to achieve a maximum level of achievement.
He advised the youths to disabuse their minds from the notion that NCDMB is meant for only Bayelsans but for all Nigerians, adding that ” NCDMB is a Federal Government Agency and a regulatory Agency.
He advised: ” Some confuse the law. NCDMB is for all Nigerians, not for those from the oil-producing states. You can play a role in the Nigerian Content. People think that we are Shell. That is part of the problem we are having. We are catalysing the Oil and Gas Industry to help it become industrialised.
“We enforce compliance to make sure that all the laws are carried out. We employed about 230 Bayelsans and trained them. Almost 90% of NCDMB staff are Nigerians, while 70% of them are Bayelsans, according to Harcourt Aduke, who built the Tower.
“We called you out here to change the narrative that the Board is for some people. Let us change the mindset that you must work in NCDMB to have benefited. As we do this engagement, we must have reduced violence and other crimes.
“We are here today to explain to you why you should be our Ambassador and Advocate. Nigeria Content journey is a Marathon, not a sprint. If we accomplish everything we want to do in Local Content once, it then mean that we will close down the building. It took fifty years to get here.
“We are not intending or aspiring to record 100% local content. That is not the intention, but we hope to get to a greater level.”
He said that it is important to prepare the young ones and get them prepared in hand skills, mind skills and in behavioural ways to get them in tune with the pressure in the Oil Industry, maintaining that “If the environment is not conducive, investors will disappear.
“It is important to know that you can achieve everything you want through negotiation. You as youths should learn the different ways to engage.
“You can actually achieve a lot more by being constructive and by dialoguing. We don’t have to break the gate or having to disrupt operations to show our grievances.
“Know that capital is very migrant; if you disrupt it, it takes flight, so the youths need to negotiate. Why don’t we engage in a constructive way? Engage in dialogue, and you will find out that it will be a win-win situation.”
Speaking earlier, King Bubaraye Dakolo, the Ibenanaowei ( Agada IV), of Ekpetiama, in his reaction, advised the youths to always engage in negotiation instead of agitation, maintaining that they should learn how to dialogue amicably to press home their demands.
Maintaining that NCDMB was trying to build the youth’s capacity to benefit from the opportunities that abound in the Oil and Gas Industry, King Dakolo, who is also the chairman of the Traditional Rulers Council, Bayelsa State, disclosed that youths should maximise the opportunities that lie in the Petroleum Industry Act, advising that they should do their bit to make sure that PIA works.
He said, ” In today’s world, people should learn how to read so that they can represent people better. Perhaps the Niger Delta story would have been different if we had acted differently.
Dangote refinery could have been here, but he is not here today because he is going to where he will get protection, and so he is in Lagos and sourcing his Oil from here.
“So let us understand that by our attitude sometimes, we could chase away the man who could collaborate with us for the outcome that we desire.
“Let the young men from the Niger Delta understand that sometimes you could fight, but at the end of the day, everything lies on the negotiating table, and you must play your role there, and if you don’t have the right information for negotiating with them, you may lose all.
“You must fortify yourself and put yourself out at the negotiating table, and the outcome will speak for itself.
Negotiation brings a lot of opportunities. When you go into a discussion, you must understand that at the end of the day, you will have a win-win situation.”
He advised the youths not to disrupt discussions “so that at the end of the day, you don’t throw away both the child and the bathing water, declaring that staying alive alone all these years shows that you have made some attempts at negotiating.
“The outcome may not be as desirable. What we have done today underscores the fact that we have some opportunities.” The King explained.
