Urhobo Forum Calls For the Appointment of Urhobo As MD of SSDC

The Urhobo Professionals Unity Forum (UUPF) made up of professionals of Urhobo extraction has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to appoint an Urhobo as the Managing Director of the South-South Development Commission (SSDC).

This was the clarion call made by members of the Forum at a press conference in Abuja, the nation’s capital on Friday. Led by its President, Engr. Dr. Ejiroghene Onokpite, and the Secretary, Dr. Emokiniovo Aderha, the members thanked President Tinubu and the National Assembly for making the emergence of the SSDC a reality. While noting that the Commission will accelerate the development of the South-South region in line with President Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope Agenda”, the Forum requested that it would be most appropriate to appoint an Urhobo to the position since the Act establishing the Commission made it clear that Delta State where the Urhobo people constitute the dominant population should produce the first Managing Director.

Addressing the pressmen, Dr. Onokpite said that the Urhobo people best suit the idea of the South-South and the Nigerian project in view of their enormous contributions to nation building. In his words, “the Urhobo people more than any other ethnic nationality in the South-South stood for the unity of Nigeria during the civil war. Our sons and daughters went on to serve Nigeria faithfully in different capacities after the war. In the democratic struggle that led to the present dispensation, the Urhobo people stood for Nigeria and the revalidation of the June 12 mandate”. Still speaking, Dr. Onokpite said that “in the course of the Niger-Delta crisis which led to the stoppage of oil drilling in the creeks and the high sea, Urhoboland was a safe haven for daily crude oil production which stabilized the nation’s economy”.

He further drew attention with statistics that the “the Urhobo people have since 2014 been the leading advocates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and they worked tirelessly for the electoral victory of President Tinubu in 2023”. While noting that the Urhobo people are a unifying factor in the South-South and a bridge between the region and the Nigerian nation, he drew attention to the fact that the Urhobo people are blessed with high profile professionals who have proven track records of excellence and service delivery.

He concluded that President Tinubu should appoint one of them as the first MD of the Commission.