Chief Edwin Clark has berated the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Zubairu, over the government’s plan to establish a naval base in Kano State.
Clark’s opprobrium was contained in an open letter he sent on Monday to Zubairu in which he condemned the decision to site a naval base in Kano.
According to the elder statesman, the move was purely symptomatic of the nepotism that has characterised the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Clark’s letter was titled ‘A Naval Base In Kano In The Heart Of The Sahel?’. He said the project was simply “an example of putting a square peg in a round hole.”
“That a new Naval Base is being built in the middle of the Sahel which the entire world knows is presently under threat of fast-spreading desertification is totally ill-conceived and with all due respect, parochial,” he said.
According to him, if more Naval Bases are to be set up in the country, what has happened to the coastal states of Nigeria, particularly in the Niger Delta
“I believe you know that at present there is no serious Naval Base in such serious places such as Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta and Edo States. In Delta State in particular, major coastal towns such as Sapele, where there is a need for a naval base, it is sad that there is no functional one. There used to be a naval base there, but for reasons best known to the Federal Government, it was downgraded to a training school, and in fact, almost abandoned,” he noted.
“The so-called Warri Naval Base is nothing to write home about as of today, the base is not functioning as it ought to be. Large navy warships which used to patrol the waters, providing protection, can no longer do so due to the fact that the place has stilted and the Federal Government has refused to dredge it.
“Bayelsa State is entirely surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the River Niger, yet there are no naval bases there to protect the shores of Nigeria and the oil companies. For instance, the Bonga Oil Field which is the largest oil field in Nigeria is in Bayelsa State. Two riverine communities, Agae and Amatu communities, are at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, where oil companies are located yet there is no naval base to protect them. The people are left to their fate. The same can be said of Akwa Ibom and Ondo States.
“The question thence is, for instance, how possible will it be to navigate a navy warship through the waters of Lagos to the desert naval base in Kano which you want to build? Or is there a waterway to take one from Lagos to Kano? Or you want to commit huge scarce resources to create artificial ocean and rivers in a country that is so indebted? You think because you control the government other Nigerians can be treated with impunity as second-class citizens?”
“The citing of a naval base world over, is mainly for the provision of security along the waterways of the coasts in order to provide security of a nation’s internal waters and its territorial integrity. And this is done where there is water and not in the heart of dry land.
“It is even difficult to decipher and more curious why you intend to crowd the north which is already saturated with heavy military infrastructure, especially in places like Kaduna and Kano States. (There must be a limit to nepotism and parochialism).”
He contended that Nigeria should establish naval bases in the coastal areas in the Niger Delta, where, according to him, much of Nigeria’s shoreline exists.
It is ridiculous to build a naval base in Kano when Bayelsa, Delta, and other coastal areas have no functional naval base, he said.
