Alabo-George

He belongs to the young, up and mobile professional class. Ross Alabo-George is an Information Technology specialist with vast experience in providing services to the oil and gas industry and other government and non governmental organisations.
In this two-part interview with Opaka Dokubo, George shares his deep feelings about some contemporary political developments in Nigeria with a strong bias for the Niger Delta and Rivers State.
Excerpts:
How do you feel when you hear the phrase ‘Rivers of Blood?
I think that is a cliche
that’s being pushed by elements in the political arena who want to destabilise the state. You need to see the kind of impression people have about Rivers State when you travel to Abuja or Lagos. There is this impression that Rivers State is like a Boko Haram area. That notion has been pushed by certain individuals who may be, think that casting the state in such bad light will force the Federal government to declare a state of emergency.
The sad thing  about this is that the people who are doing this are indeed Rivers people. I understand that there are security challenges but it is not enough to categorise Rivers State ‘Rivers of Blood’. I think Rivers State is still a largely peaceful state when compared to states like Kaduna State, Plateau State and some states in the East.
We have criminal incidences like kidnapping which indeed is very sad but I think that in past few weeks, we have witnessed a drop in some of those activities. But I think that the state government has to do more in terms of collaborating with the security agencies. I don’t think that there is sufficient sync, the interface is not wide enough. I think that the state government has enough resources to mobilise the needed security resources to deal with this.
In Kaduna State, the police declared a state of emergency and actually brought in more personnel, Rapid Response Squads from different states to address the issue and we saw a sharp drop in criminal activities once that was done. In Rivers State, in the last administration, that was achieved because the PDP controlled the state and the federal government. But I know that the way the federal government will respond to the state government will be different and that is also the problem with our politics.
This is a federal republic and that means that the state has complete and full right to the security infrastructure at the centre and it is not even at the behest of the president. It is something that has to be done and so, once the Rivers State governor demands, it behoves on the president to respond immediately. It is a complex issue and we need to address it in a pragmatic manner. It is not for the state government alone to address.
What do you make of the president’s threat to treat pipeline  vandals like Boko Haram?
I think that one of the silliest things that General Gowon said in the days leading the Biafran war was to use the word ‘crush’. He said he would crush them. It didn’t sound like he was talking about his own citizens. It sounded he was talking about foreigners and I think that the international community took that statement very seriously. And I want to call on the international community to take this statement by President Buhari threatening to deal with pipeline vandals like Boko Haram equally seriously.
Book Haram is a terrorist organisation and we all know the carnage and pain Boko Haram has caused this nation. For us in the Niger Delta, it is sad that these people have caused this nation more than the lives they have destroyed in the north. The fallout of Boko Haram has affected economic activities because when you travel out of the region, everybody thinks that Boko Haram is within the country. But it’s not true. They don’t understand that Boko Haram is confined to the North-East.
We have seen terrorist attacks by Fulani herdsmen. These herdsmen have killed over five hundred people. In fact, an entire community was sacked and razed down. And as I speak to you today, the president has not said anything about it personally. It is therefore shocking that the same man will talk about pipeline vandals. So, are the pipeline more important than the people in Agatu? Certainly not.
I think the president has a communication issue and I think the entire government is not connecting with the people. There is a gap. What we need is a rapid feedback system that will carry the people along. The president is in China to borrow two billion dollars but he has not visited the Niger Delta that generates 60 billion dollars every year. He has never been to any oil producing state in the Niger Delta after he won the election. He has been very careless with some of his utterances. For example he said, “you don’t expect me to treat the people that gave me 97% the same as the people that gave me 5%.”
You categorise the people of the Niger Delta as 5% and then you threaten to attack the people of the Niger Delta…? How can you give them the Boko Haram treatment without sacking communities? And then we have seen this drama about the Calabar-Lagos railine project. I know that the contract for that project was signed in 2014. The name of that project really was Niger Delta Coastal Railine but in the wisdom of President Goodluck Jonathan, he decided to call it the Calabar-Lagos Railine to give it a national outlook. The drama we’re seeing around the project suggests that somebody somewhere does not want that project to come to light.
When you think about that project, it is the biggest project ever in this country. That project is about half of the entire national budget. It is worth about three trillion naira, about 11.76 billion dollars. That is China’s biggest infrastructural project ever outside China. That is the biggest infrastructural project in Africa. So, looking at it from that perspective, I think that some people who are concerned about the economic benefits may be worried.