It has often been said that in politics, there are no permanent friends or enemies; only permanent interests. This best summarizes the recent rapprochement between the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godsday Orubebe and the Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Ameachi.
After months of acrimony and public recriminations over the East-West Road, the two men met Wednesday in Port Harcourt, during which the minister sought the cooperation of the governor in the development of the Niger Delta through what he called the “Niger Delta Action Plan.”
Orubebe, who spoke when he led top government officials of the Niger Delta Ministry on a courtesy visit to the governor at Government House, said about 80 per cent of the nation’s revenue came from the Niger Delta, stressing that there was need to fast track development to improve the standard of living of the people of the area. He called on Amaechi to join hands with him and other governors in the region as well as the private sector to effect the desired development.
“We were in Cross Rivers State, Akwa Ibom State and Imo State before coming to Rivers State. And as I go round, I see the feelings of the governors of the Niger Delta and their people, I quickly understand. Judging from the history of the Niger Delta, we are talking about from 1957 till date. So Your Excellency, our visit today is to handover the Niger Delta Action plan to you, and to appeal that, you work together with us as a team to do those things that should be done for our people and Nigerians generally. You have been in government for some time, and so you have gotten some good experiences to add value to our thoughts and processes, so that collectively we can move forward,” Orubebe said.
While expressing President Goodluck Jonathan’s commitment to the speedy development of the region, Orubebe said, the Ministry of Niger Delta was created in 2008 to coordinate the activities and development of the region, emphasising that cooperation was needed to ensure that the issues of project duplication in the region is drastically addressed through the use of resources and the Niger Delta Action Master Plan.
“The Niger Delta Action Master Plan will take care of issues of abandoned projects because there is continuity. And I share a lot of this thought with our governors and stakeholders in the Niger Delta, so if we collectively agree on the pathway it will also tackle the issues of duplication of projects, and equally conserve some resources for us to do the things we need to do,” he said.
On the issue of the East-West Road, Orubebe said the project was awarded at the tune of N234 billion in 2006 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration due to pressure from the people of Niger Delta, but expressed regrets that there were setbacks on the part of the consultants due to lack of proper designs and drawings.
He promised that with the details of designs and drawing of the road project, the road would be completed by December 2014. He said: “Your Excellency, by 2010, we came to realise that the road is having 42 bridges, spanning from 70 metres to 850 meters. But we have 786 culverts, and have completed 37 out of the 42 bridges. The remaining part is sand filling and clearing, including the asphalting of the road.”
The minister explained that the initial consultants came up with a bill of N1.3 billion to construct coastal roads, adding that plans were in top gear to make funds available to kick start the project soon.
Orubebe told Amaechi that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had approved the setting up of a council on the Niger Delta to allow various stakeholders meet at least once every year to discuss mind-boggling issues on the Niger Delta region.
He said by the institutionalisation of the council on the Niger Delta, a conference had been fixed for April 21 to 26, where President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to declare the council open on April 25.
“We expect that in the first two days there will be stakeholders meeting. We are requesting every state governor to send in their commissioners that are involved in infrastructural development to form part of the technical team to work on the Action Plan document and other inputs, so that they can prepare the bridges for the council to discuss and proffer solutions for government on what they have to do,” Orubebe said.
The minister further spoke on the amnesty programme, saying if peace must be sustained in the Niger Delta, there was need for government to collaborate with development partners and the private sector to ensure human capital development, the economic expansion of the people and also undertake total turnaround of infrastructural development of the region.
“So that even if it is two or three critical development projects that we have, we can collaborate together and ensure that these projects are done, but it cannot be done by one individual alone. We believe that, if we are on the right path, we will be able to transform the Niger Delta reasonably,” he added.
Responding, Amaechi agreed that the Niger Delta Master Plan would be a signature project that would promote speedy development and progress in the Niger Delta. “Any development that is not planned will be chaotic and will not achieve its objectives. You talked about the 50-year development plan you got from Denmark, we in Rivers State also have a similar thing, the Greater Port Harcourt 50-year master plan which we concluded in my first tenure in office.
“The Greater Port Harcourt City has two phases. We have taken care of the old Port Harcourt through the urban renewal which we are doing, we also have what we called the Greater Port Harcourt City Development Authority and we expect that construction of houses in that area will start this year,” Amaechi said.
Amaechi observed that complaints and agitation for the development of the Niger Delta region and her people were the rationale behind the presidency urging the people of the region to make use of the vista of opportunity in the best interest of the Niger Delta.
“I must say that you and I are from the Niger Delta, this is the best chance that we have, we can never have this kind of opportunity again, even though nobody knows the future – it is our chance.
“We have been complaining to Nigerians that we are oppressed, exploited and underdeveloped; Nigerians now said take that power and develop yourselves; we can’t complain and we can’t afford to fail. So I think you are right on the Action plan.
“Whenever we meet at the stakeholders meeting I will support the plan, because time is not on our side, we shall also use the opportunity to discuss our feelings,” Amaechi said.
On the East-West Road, Amaechi commended the level of improvement on the road construction project and appealed to the federal government to extend the construction from Onne junction to Rumukwurushi, by the Eleme junction flyover/interchange.
He noted that the Port Harcourt-Onne Road was a busy thoroughfare for multinational companies, including the Eleme Petrochemicals plant, Port Harcourt refinery and the sea port which is occupied by Intels and other oil service companies.
“I received the people of Ogoni ethic nationality, who came to see me to complain that the contract on the East-West Road had terminated at Onne up to the Eleme junction fly over at Rumukwurushi.
“The report from RCC is that, they were only asked to evaluate the road, and that part of the road is bad. Considering the economic activities in Port Harcourt, 50 per cent of it takes place from the Rumukwurushi junction to Onne Sea Port, and that is the bad part actually, because we have multi-national companies that are contributing immensely to the nation’s economy.
“To worsen matters, the oil pipelines pass through the communities to Bonny Island, so we need to consider them a lot. The improvement on the road is better when one is coming from Akwa Ibom State to Rivers State. The RCC seems to have done a wonderful job up to the Onne junction and from that point you can drive to the boundary between Akwa Ibom and Rivers State, you will never see pot holes or traffic problems,” Amaechi said.
