‘How To Harness Rivers Economic Potentials For Dev’

The sobriquet, “Treasure Base of the Nation” which Rivers State bears as its corporate trademark among the comity of states is by no means a mere oddity. It is a recognition and confirmation of the strategic importance of the state to the economic development of Nigeria.
Rivers State therefore, as a costly economic and political bride, offers unfettered attraction to scores of people and corporate organisations that prospect and depend on the fortunes of the state for a lifeline.
But Rivers state is yet to optimise its lavish natural potentials for the holistic development of the state. Experts and public affairs analysts have blamed the stunts in the levering on the natural potentials of the state for self-development on institutional policies that dispossessed the people over the years of functional assess to the enormous treasures of the state or impropriety in exploring other critical sectors of the state for sustainable economic growth.
A key proponent of the philosophy of harnessing the numerous economic potentials of the state for self-development is Engineer Olu Andah Wai-Ogosu, a foremost environmentalist and technocrat in the state.
The former National President of the Nigeria Environmental Society (NES), who spoke with the Port Harcourt Metro in an interview recently, said, “apart from the huge deposits of oil reserves, Rivers state is endowed with other natural resources such as arable land and river course, silica, sand, glass sand, clay, wild life and tourism potentials.”
He however noted that these natural resources lie forlorn in the depth and bowel of the state without due quantification and exploitation for maximal economic growth of the state.
According to Wai-Ogosu, “the need to harness and explore the overall natural resources base of the state becomes more imperative, given the dynamics of industrial revolution and the need for a functional, self-driven economy, propelled by direct involvement in the productive economic system”.
He pointed out that, ” the real potentials of growth in any given economy depended on the study and understanding of the system and its exploration for self-development”.
In his analysis, getting a firmer grasp and insight into the depth of natural endowments and economic potentials in the state is instructively the bulwark to sustainable economic growth in the state.
The elder statesman urged the Rivers State Government to consider it as priority to take proper inventory of the comparative economic advantages of various parts of the state and put the state on its right pedestal of development. “There’s hardly any part of Rivers State that isn’t endowed with a peculiar resource base; the Government should have a formidable think tank base to take proper inventory of these natural resources for proper harnessing. The arable lands should be put into proper use, the tourism potentials should be explored to make Rivers State a flourishing economic hub”.
The University don, also alerted that Rivers State was under severe threats of environmental pollution because of the activities of multinationals that operated in the state without recourse to environmental safety standards.
To address this particular anomaly, he said the Rivers State Ministry of Environment and other related agencies saddled with the responsibilities of overseeing activities in the environment sector must be proactive in responding to the challenges of environmental despoliation in the state.
The expert noted that the reckless activities of the oil firms were responsible for the continual pollution of the air quality and gross depletion of the state’s natural resources base, resulting in the disappearance of natural water bodies, and poor food and animal production including worsening health conditions of the people.

By: Taneh Beemene