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South-South based Non-governmental Organization, Niger Delta Media Activists Group and Excellent Leadership Foundation, says former Governor of Bayelsa State and ex-Petroleum Minister, Chief Timipre Sylva was among seasoned politicians that midwifed the birth of the All Progressives Congress ( APC).
The group stated that when Nigeria’s main opposition political parties, Action Congress of Nigeria, All Nigeria Peoples Party and prominent founders of New Peoples Democratic Party merged to formally register the political party with the Independent National Electoral Commission in 2013, Sylva was a Frontline member in the struggle for the ruling party’s formation and subsequent registration with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
A statement made available to newsmen yesterday in Abuja, the nation’s capital with the National Coordinator of the group, Chief Izzi Yakiah , however recalled that Sylva successfully chaired the 2015 Presidential Transition Committee (PTC) that coordinated the handover of power at the Federal Government level and later formed a viable partnership with the change agenda administration to execute key projects in the Niger Delta Region.
According to him, Chief Sylva as a Minister of State Petroleum Resources ensures the completion of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board Headquarters in Yenagoa, maintaining also that the former minister got Federal Government approvals for different projects which includes, the commencement of Federal University of Agriculture, Nembe-Bassambiri, Bayelsa State, the execution, engineering, procurement, and construction contract for the development of Oloibiri Museum and Research Centre (OMRC) at Otuabagi, Ogbia Council Area of Bayelsa State and many other projects across the state.
The organization further poured eulogies on Sylva for his doggedness and dedication when he assumed the leadership position of the APC in the state in 2013 at a time when the Peoples Democratic Party holds sway as the largest political party in Nigeria.
They noted that the erstwhile Petroleum Minster leadership track record began in December 2013 when he immediately reactivated the party’s presence and the change ideology of the party across the 105 wards in the State, and later brought into the party an array of high profile political leaders.
The Niger Delta Activists Media Group and Excellent Leadership foundation, said some of the high profile politicians the ex-Minister lobbied in the party upon its formation in the state included a former Acting Governor, two former Deputy Governors, a former Speaker, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri now a two time Nigeria’s Minister, over ten former commissioners as well as appointees numbering thousands that worked with him as Governor between 2007-2012.
The group’s statement reads in parts: “Sylva collaboration with senior members of the party ensured the effective funding of the party before and during the 2015 General election where APC won a seat in the Bayelsa State House of Assembly.
“Despite the intimidation and harassment of APC members and strongholds in the state, Sylva guided the party to garner 5,940 votes for the APC in the 2015 Presidential election.
“The former Governor continued the building of the party with periodical stakeholders meeting and evaluation of the party structures at the Wards, Local Government and State levels and in 2017 he ensured the appointments of key party members into various Federal Government Agencies which include the appointment of lady Julie Okah Donli as Director General of NAPTIP.
“In 2019, Chief Timipre Sylva became the first APC State leader in the South-South and South-East region of Nigeria to have led the party to a Governorship election victory, a senatorial election seat and two Federal House of Representative seats respectively”.
The NGO leadership affirmed that after the supreme court judgment that sacked David Lyon as Governor-elect, Chief Timipre Sylva consolidated on his vision to expand the numerical strength of the party and in 2021, where he singlehandedly funded the state APC participation in the APC nationwide membership registration and revalidation exercise that admitted fresh addition of about 40,561 new members into the part fold.
The statement further notes, that during Sylva’s time as Minister Of State Petroleum Resources, he facilitated the appointment of three Federal Commissioners to the State, an Ambassadorial appointment and other twenty individuals into several parastatals and agencies.
Passing a vote of confidence on Timipre Sylva for his milestone achievements in leading the Bayelsa APC, Yakiah called on President Bola Tinubu and the National working committee of the party to ignore self-seeking members of the party in the State who had partnered the State Government to sabotage the Party during electioneering season.
The organization’s National Coordinator appreciated the former Minister, Sylva who was also a onetime, Chairman and Pro-Chancellor, Governing Council of the Nigerian Maritime University, Okerenkoko, Delta State for his stand out sacrifice for the APC in the last twelve years.
