Water Resources perm sec, Walson-Jack, loses father

The Amananaowei of Tombia community in Bayelsa State, HRH Christian Otobotekere, the Okun XIX, will be buried on Saturday.

The late Bayelsa monarch, who died on February 13, 2023 at the age of 98, is the father of the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mrs Didi Walson-Jack.

The Permanent Secretary is the wife of the former Secretary General of the Nigerian Bar Association, Nimi Walson-Jack.

The late monarch is survived by children, sons and daughters-in-laws, great and grandchildren.

Otobotekere will be laid to rest after the necessary funeral rites at Tombia, Bayelsa State on Saturday.

The late royal father was born on April 21, 1925 in Tombia.

His father, Okpofagha, was the son of Chief Otobotekere, the ruling chieftain of the Birifabiri Quarter of Tombia who died in 1939.

Okpofaa’s mother, Gbeinkoromo, was the daughter of Ekpebu of Sabagreia town in the Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

Formal education for HRH Christian Otobotekere began at the Junior Infant School, Tombia, from about 1933 to 1935. Thereafter, he was enrolled into the famous Reverend Proctor Memorial Primary School, Kaiama, in the then Eastern Region of Nigeria in 1936.

There, he passed his Standard Six Certificate Examination in 1940 and was later admitted to the prestigious Okrika Grammar School (OGS), Rivers State, in the then Eastern Region of Nigeria.

He passed out of the institution in 1945 with a Grade 1 in the Cambridge School Certificate Examination.

Subsequently, he worked for the British Colonial Government from 1946 to 1954 as a court interpreter, stenographer, and administrator in the coastal towns of Brass in Nigeria and Buea in the Cameroons. It was from Buea that in late 1954, Christian proceeded to Fourah Bay University College, Sierra Leone, where he studied and graduated, in 1957 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics awarded by Durham University, England.

On his return, he taught briefly at Baptist Boys High School, Port Harcourt, before joining the Shell British Petroleum Company, where he worked for 19 years from 1958 to the dawn of 1978.

In Shell, he rose to become Treasurer and later, Assistant Controller of Finance, Eastern Division of Shell BP

After his retirement from Shell BP, he founded the firm of Christian Tawi and Sons and went into business with an Italian firm.

He also had a brief stint in politics, where he pitched his tent with the Great Nigeria Peoples Party of Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim, who propagated politics without bitterness.

By birth, Christian Otobotekere was a natural descendant of two chieftains on his paternal and maternal sides – Chief Otobotekere and Chief Akoko of Birifabiri and Ingbelebiri, respectively.

In 1972 he was nominated as one of the candidates for the chieftaincy stool of Tombia in the Ekpetiama clan of the then Rivers State.

In 1973, he was elected the Amananaowei (King) of the town and was subsequently crowned in 1975.