Bonny Youth Federation (BYF) is the apex youth body of Bonny Kingdom in Rivers State. It is a confederation of all youth bodies in the various Chieftaincy Houses in Bonny Kingdom. Its role is to galvanize efforts at leveraging opportunities from different avenues for the youths and also drive advocacy for issues that are beneficial to the youths.

The incumbent Leader of the BYF is Comrade Emmanuel Finecountry. He spoke with the Publisher of Kristina Reports, Godswill Jumbo, on issues relating to some misunderstanding between youths and workers of a surveying firm, and the NLNG Train 7 project, amongst others. Read through…

Kristina Reports: Rumours are flying around town and some people are making posts on social media and indirectly mentioning you that a certain company named Pullman Limited came into Bonny through you and then some issues happened that involved their workers. Can we have some clarity as to what actually transpired?

Emmanuel Finecountry: Ok. I was called a day before yesterday by the Secretary to Bonny Local Government Council that some persons are at Manritt Plaza that are workers of a certain company and they were mentioning my name that I brought them into Bonny. I had to immediately dash out to Manritt Plaza and saw that actually the information he gave was correct. Correct in the sense that there were actually people at Manritt Plaza but I never brought them into Bonny. Good enough, the persons that were there were from Pullman Limited.  

Pullman Limited is a survey company. I know the MD who told me he has a job in Bonny and I congratulated him. He said this job will last for 10-14 days, that the job is just a survey job. Like I said, I congratulated him and also told him that he should come to Bonny and employ Bonny youths. On getting there and seeing Bonny youths around, I was made to understand that this Pullman staffs were in Bonny, I immediately called their MD, who apologized seriously to me, saying that before they left Port Harcourt, he tried to reach me and even on getting to Bonny he has been trying to contact me; that my number was either switched off or not available. I told him there and then that he has to reach the relevant authorities to sort out any outstanding issues immediately. Those of us who were there including those from FTO Committee and Bonny Kingdom Employment Monitoring Team agreed to come back the next day by 8am to sort out any grey areas. The following morning, I got a call from my Deputy Leader, who said he got his own call from Mr. Tamuno Dan-Jumbo, who happens to be the Chairman of Employment Monitoring Team, that youths were at Manritt Plaza and that there were disagreements. We tried sorting out the issues before the Local Government Secretary, who was also there, asked us to take everybody to the Government Lodge so that we can see the Local Government Chairman. When we got there, the Local Government Chairman did her own investigations too. She called the MD of Pullman, who also affirmed to her over the phone that I have nothing to do with his workers coming into Bonny and also apologized over that. He also told her that I told him that he has to come to Bonny and employ Bonny youths through the right channels. After that call, having heard from the Pullman MD, she now asked that going forward, what do we do? I offered the opinion that since there are grey areas that needs to be sorted out, they may have to return to Port Harcourt till all such grey areas are cleared up; moreso, we also considered their safety. And I advised that the MD of Pullman Limited should go back to the drawing board and meet with relevant stakeholders.

Going by the way you have explained it appears to be a straightforward thing but we will need to ask, you said you know the MD of this company and he told you he has a job in Bonny…

That’s correct.

And you told him to employ Bonny youths…

That’s correct.

Did he give you any quota like to bring the youths for him to employ?

Not at all. When the man is not even on ground, how will he be giving quota from wherever he is to employ? Where are they going to work?

These Bonny youths you said he should employ, did you recommend any?

I did not recommend anybody to him.

And you did not collect money from him?

For whatever reason, I cannot collect money for employment. It is something I am strongly against and have been speaking against it all these years. Moreover, anything employment is the job of the BIRC.

In the course of your discussion with those staffers of Pullman at Manritt Plaza and with their boss over the phone, was there any mention of Train 7, like their job is having anything to do with Train 7?

Not at all, from our discussions I didn’t hear them say that the survey job has anything to do with Train 7. In fact, no such discussion even arose.

Now, the story out there is that people are saying that Bonny youths are being hostile to Train 7 workers and that the Train 7 project site was shut down; is there any truth to that?

I will, first of all, appreciate Bonny youths for their conduct, so far, even as it has to do with this Train 7 ongoing project in Bonny. I believe that Bonny youths are very enlightened that they don’t take laws into their hands because they know the implications of taking laws into their hands. They know the effect will also be on us as a people, our hotels will not be used, nobody will buy from our markets and at the end of the day, the backlash will be huge on our local economy. So, I believe that Bonny youths are aware of this and will not want to do anything of such.  

So, you are insisting that Bonny youth are actually welcoming and hospitable?

Yes, of course.

Finally, what is it you want to tell the global business community because Bonny is more or less a cosmopolitan city as peoples from different races are all here now? What is it you want to tell them about the disposition of Bonny people to their business?

Well, I will sincerely tell them that their business is in safe hands; not just within the Train 7 project but Bonny as a whole. This island is hosting virtually the entire world and till date has the record of one of the most peaceful environments to do business. So, this Train 7 will not be a different one. Bonny is a safe haven for investors to come in, not just the Italians, not just the Chinese, but everybody should try Bonny and see that Bonny is very much safe.