Helen Inafa Bob gained quick popularity as a female politician worthy of note in Bayelsa State. Her personal attributes recommended her to power brokers even before she knew it. She simply did her thing, not knowing that she was being watched. Her enthusiasm in whatever she did, to start with, was noticeable. Her friendly disposition could not be missed, and her open-hearted response to the hard questions of life was clear. Even more surely, her readiness to be of help to the next generation defines her to be a mother figure, and a woman with fellow-feeling.
To any discerning mind, it is clear that Helen Bob is a soul on assignment, and the evidence is unfolding from day to day. She could readily pass for a humanitarian at heart. She can easily be described as a teacher beloved of her school children, and identified as the enterprising executive director of SUMOIN, an independent agency with a focus on relationships, sexuality, coping with emotional trauma, and personality adjustment. But, more than anything else, Helen has gained greater reckoning as an astute politician, an amazon in her own right, holding her place in the roll call of women in Bayelsa politics.
Helen was born to noble parents on 18 June 1973. Her father, Festus Inafa Oweifie, was an illustrious son of Okpoama kingdom in Brass Local Government Area, with extensive ancestral connections in Opu-Nembe. Her mother, Madam Jane Daniel, was a proud daughter of Nembe kingdom in like manner. Helen’s passion for learning became visible from the time she first held a pen in hand and began scribbling into her infant notebook. She passed from class to class and obtained her First School Leaving Certificate in 1984 at St John’s Primary School, Ewoama-Brass. She proceeded forthwith to Government Secondary School, Okpoama, and completed her secondary education at Government Secondary School, Twon-Brass, glad to be in possession of her Senior Secondary School Certificate in 1991.
Off she went to the College of Education, Port Harcourt (now Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, Rivers State), passing out with commendable credits in 1998. The mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps programme was a memorable adventure for her in 2000. For 16 years after that, she took a break to enable her concentrate on bearing her children, and giving them personal motherly training. All the while, her mind was set on taking a higher degree as soon as she could. In 2016, she proceeded to the University of Ibadan, spent sleepless nights in the study, and obtained a Masters degree in Educational Evaluation.
Determined to upgrade her educational status, she pursued her dream of becoming a professional guidance counselor, and obtained a second Masters degree in Guidance and Counseling at the Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Amassoma, in 2021. Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, we are here today to celebrate the fact that Helen went all the way, exercising her mental faculties as a research scholar, and earned a doctorate degree in Guidance and Counseling. Today, she is at liberty to add the letters Ph.D to her name.
Many years ago, Helen met a young man called Crawford Jim Bob, and took a second meaningful look at him. After one year of courtship, she decided to tie the knot with him. She was 22 years old at the time. The union is blessed with four children, three men and a lady, within a space of eight years. Dr Helen Bob is grateful to God that all her children are graduates in disparate disciplines, holding their own place in life.
The adventures of Helen Bob in politics came with no indication that she would be involved at the level of high stakes. Having taught for five years at Government Secondary School, Okpoama, she found herself in politics without being consulted. She was virtually hand-picked by Hon. Israel Sunny-Goli and Chief Timipre Sylva to work with the Covenant Political Family to champion the women wing alongside Mrs. Alayingi Sylva, wife of the governor. Her vocal interaction with the women folk would come in useful, to say nothing of her ability to mobilize political support at the grassroots.
Helen Bob held various leadership positions which involved increasing levels of responsibility, service, accountability and authority. In 2005, she was nominated as Woman Leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa State, and her popularity grew beyond regular borders. For four eventful years, she held her place at the vanguard of women politics, and won sufficient confidence from the Governor to be appointed as Caretaker Chairman of Brass local government in 2009.
The public image of Helen Bob grew even larger in 2012 under the successive government of Henry Seriake Dickson when she was appointed as Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Talent Development, and later in 2015, upgraded to Special Adviser to the Governor on Talent Development and Gender Promotion by former Governor Seriake Dickson. She also served as Deputy Director on Women Mobilization during Dickson’s second tenure campaign in 2015.
Four years later, in 2019, despite her commitment to the PDP, her principled stance on critical issues ran against the current of government opinion, and got her a sack. But then, God directed her footsteps to Chief David Lyon, former governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who welcomed her to work with him. She served in various capacities in the party, first as member of the contact, mobilization and reconciliation committee of the Bayelsa APC in 2019. She was also a member of the inauguration committee of David Lyon, Governor-elect of the APC in 2020, before the Supreme Court upturned the verdict. As may be expected, she was also a member of the entertainment and welfare sub-committees of the Bayelsa APC.
Helen Bob was also on the national convention committee in 2022 as a member of the Bayelsa APC Elders Advisory Council. Alongside that, in the same year, she was a member of the reconciliation sub-committee of the APC Elders Advisory Council. Ahead of the presidential primaries and the special convention of the party towards the event that year, she was also a member of the accommodation committee set up by the party.
What’s more, Helen Bob was in the women presidential campaign committee of the APC in 2023. As we speak, she is a member of the reconciliation committee set up to redress aggrieved party members in Bayelsa. She is known to take responsibility for the challenges that come her way. In the parlance of the times, she is an experienced, value-driven leader who has immense respect for hard work. She is dedicated to the very idea of service to the people, and she works with the fear of God.
The exploits of Helen Bob would not be complete without any mention of her involvement with the plight of dispossessed children and mothers. Her years in teaching were spent feeding her passion for humanity. She secured employment with the Post-primary Schools Board in 2000, and was posted to her alma mater, Government Secondary School, Okpoama-Brass, as an economics teacher. During her stay there, she became more familiar with the harsh social challenges confronting young adults. She witnessed a great deal of emotional imbalance, youthful turbulence, poor home training, early sexual harassment, and untimely childbirth dilemmas, amongst others.
She reviewed the prevailing situation of things, and thought of what to do. In 2002, she came up with the humanitarian project entitled Catch Them Young, designed to recast the mindset of promising children and give them a brighter future. She would create time within the school hours and engage students at a personal level, winning their confidence and getting them to articulate their fears and worries. More than that, she would go to the community public address system at dawn, pick up the microphone, and give guidance and counseling sermons to the youth on topical issues of the day.
In 2010, the Catch Them Young Initiative metamorphosed into another winning idea, namely the Successful Motherhood Coalition of Bayelsa State. Again, Helen Bob was at the heart of a populist campaign. She launched the agency in Yenagoa, going round media houses, spelling out her concerns on inter-personal relationships, sexuality, emotional trauma, and personality adjustments. The formal incorporation of the NGO came as a crowning achievement to her humanitarian service delivery profile across a span of twenty-one years, all in a bid to help youths define their career choices, and give them hope for a bright future.
Helen Bob has a remarkable acumen for business and enterprise. She has since adopted the philosophy of multiple income streams, the secret to her staying afloat financially, despite challenges that may threaten her source of livelihood. She has learnt to manage her resources and invest wisely, with an eye on the future. She has seen enough suffering in her lifetime to be cautious, and to cultivate her personal skills for survival. Knowing how unsteady politics can be, and how painful it is to lose a political appointment with nothing to fall back on, she has learnt to embolden her spirit of resilience, look inwards, and recline on her domestic experience in the kitchen, carrying on with her catering services in good and bad times.
Before her teaching career got underway, in fact, she took special pride as a cook of remarkable distinction. Even while she held office as Woman Leader of the PDP in Bayelsa State, and later as Caretaker Chairman of Brass local government area, she was still to be found in the kitchen, exercising her mind with her primary delight, cooking a variety of dishes and receiving plaudits for her cuisine selection at Jane Daniel’s Kitchen, an enterprise dedicated to the memory of her beloved mother and mentor.
Helen Bob is blessed with a sense of gratitude. Her devotion to God is permanent for the wonderful life she enjoys, the range of friends she can count upon, and her personal capacity to develop herself. She is grateful for the energy that propels her towards discovering the world anew, for the go-getting spirit that earned her a certificate in Guidance and Counseling, to start with, and ultimately a doctorate degree that has come with a befitting hood and gown.
Helen Bob is determined to give back to society. She remains grateful to all those who have made valuable contributions, in one way or another, to her successful sail on the high sea of life so far. In like manner, Dr. Helen Bob wants to engage more with influential decision makers and leaders in the international public policy space.
She is open to meaningful conversations, and ready to exchange ideas with respectable stakeholders in child development ventures. She is grateful to everyone who has shown up today to celebrate her rise to the next rung of the proverbial ladder as she grabs her scroll as a Ph.D holder in a discipline that is confirmed to make the world a better place.
