By Our Reporter
YENAGOA, Bayelsa – THE Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, has underscored the urgent need for increased investment in education, describing it as the foundational tool required to reorient children and guarantee a secure future for the people of the Niger Delta and Nigeria at large.
Ogbuku made the assertion on Friday during a plenary session at the 2026 Law Week of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Yenagoa Branch.
The event, held at the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) Conference Hall in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, was themed “Securing the Future.”
The high-profile gathering attracted prominent African leaders and stakeholders, including former President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan; renowned Kenyan lawyer and Pan-African activist, Professor Patrick Lumumba; the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri; and the Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Nimibofa Ayawei.
Speaking during the plenary session titled “National Assets Protection: Nigeria’s Shared Responsibility,” Dr. Ogbuku noted that any meaningful strategy to secure the future must reflect on historical mistakes.
“In securing the future, we must also think of the past, because we have missed our way and there is a need to rediscover our purpose,” Ogbuku stated.
The NDDC Chief Executive Officer lamented the deep-seated corruption in the fabric of Nigerian society, attributing the rise in corrupt tendencies to negative practices emulated from online media platforms.
He added: “We must invest in the right education for our children. Western culture has polluted our society, and only the right education can save our country.”
Aligning with Ogbuku’s position, former President Goodluck Jonathan, who chaired the plenary session, called for an immediate overhaul of the nation’s education system to prepare the next generation for global challenges.
“We have to prepare our children for the bright lights of the future,” Jonathan said.
In his remarks, Governor Douye Diri commended the NBA for choosing a “timely and profound” theme, noting that it speaks to the collective responsibility of leaders and citizens to build a society anchored on justice, equity, accountability, and sustainable development.
Diri also charged the leadership of the NBA to intensify efforts in enforcing discipline and ethical best practices among legal practitioners.
He described the keynote speaker, Professor Lumumba, as a “powerful voice for good governance, accountability, Pan-African development, and principled leadership.”
Delivering his keynote address titled “Sustainable National Assets Protection in Africa: Opportunities, Risks and Regulatory Pathways,” Professor Patrick Lumumba advocated for total unity across African nations to achieve true independence and safeguard the continent’s assets.
Lumumba argued that the path to a secure future begins with intellectual liberation from colonial structures.
“We have a duty to secure our future, but we must start by being united. It is only in unity that we can protect our assets. To talk about our future, we must find out who we are and decolonise our minds because Africans were wired to fail by the colonial masters,” Lumumba declared.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Chairman of the NBA Yenagoa Branch, Mr. Clement Kekemeke, challenged legal practitioners to look beyond routine courtroom practice and actively leverage their positions to drive meaningful societal development.
