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By Amos Odhe, Yenagoa
The Senator representing Bayelsa West in the National Assembly, Henry Seriake Dickson, on Wednesday sponsored a motion seeking to retain the name of a foremost Niger Delta activist and leader, Harold Dappa Biriye, on the new permanent headquarters of the NDDC.
While presenting the motion on the floor of the Senate, Seriake Dickson noted that Dappa Biriye has nothing to his name apart from the NDDC Headquarters unlike his peers who fought alongside him for Nigeria’s independence and whose names and faces are on national currencies and strategic assets.
Senator Dickson, a one-time secretary to this quintessential Niger Delta leader and national legal adviser to the Ijaw National Congress told the Senate that while the NDDC had commissioned and moved to its headquarters, “it has refused, neglected or failed to transfer the name, Harold Dappa Biriye to it.”
The senate, which agreed with the motion by Senator Dickson, resolved to urge President Muhammadu Buhari to name the NDDC new national headquarters after the late Harold Dappa Biriye.
The senator recalled that Harold Dappa Biriye, amongst others was the founding chairman of the board of trustees of the Ijaw National Congress with Chief Edwin Clark as its deputy.
He stressed that the late elder statesman offered crucial advice to President Olusegun Obasajo’s administration on the need to restore peace in the Niger Delta and was one of the leaders who played frontline roles in the establishment of the NDDC.
Senator Dickson further recalled that following the establishment of the NDDC, “the Federal Government and management of NDDC with the support of the Rivers State government, led by Sir Peter Odili, who himself was one of the protégés of Harold Dappa Biriye, decided to name the NDDC temporary headquarters donated by Rivers State after him as a mark of recognition for his services to the Niger Delta people and Nigerians at large”
According to him, all through his adult life, Harold Dappa Biriye fought for the Niger Delta people and all Nigerians and was a quintessential Nigerian who lived a good life promoting national unity, understanding and cohesion.
Senator Dickson said in his presentation that Harold Dappa Biriye collaborated with other leaders of Nigeria and former head of state General Yakubu Gowon in managing the issues and agitations that resulted in the creation of Rivers State. He also negotiated the release and pardon of Ijaw icon Jasper Isaac Adaka Boro who joined the Nigerian Army and died fighting for Nigeria.
He said the late leader taught Niger Delta people how to work for “a united, just and egalitarian Nigeria, a Nigeria that works for everyone.
“He taught us how to serve Nigeria, work for the good of all in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society, not to stop raising issues that must be raised.”
Dickson recalled when he became the governor of Bayelsa State, he built an International Conference Centre and name it after Dappa Biriye to immortalize him.
