Don Urges FG To Dev Oloibiri Oil Museum

A university don has condemned the continued inability of the Federal Government of Nigeria to develop the Oloibiri Oil Museum, many years after it was initiated.

Prof Joseph Ajienka, director of Institute of Petroleum Studies (IPS) of the University of Port Harcourt said, in spite of the importance of the project and the fact that the nation has adequate resources to develop the project, the museum has been allowed to remain at a pedestrian level of development.

Prof. Ajienka, in an exclusive interview with The Tide in his office, said the lack of will by successive administrations in the country to show interest in the project was a clear reflection of decades of neglect suffered by the Niger Delta region.

He appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan and the Petroleum Minister, Mrs Deziani Alison-Madueke to give the project its deserved attention by developing the oil museum to  international standard.

He noted that the history of Nigeria as one of the major producers of petroleum in the world cannot be complete unless Oloibiri Oil Museum was properly developed.

It would be recalled that the Federal Government initiated the idea of oil museum at Oloibiri in Bayelsa State where the nation struck the first crude in 1958.

The museum, according to experts, may not yield much in terms of monetary revenue but its importance cannot be over- stressed as it would contain relics and artifacts on oil which is the economic life-wire of the nation.

It would also be a point of attraction to both local and foreign tourists as well as researchers who are interested in the history of Nigeria as a major producer of crude oil in the globe.

Chris Oluoh