X-raying FG’s Actions, Inactions In Rivers

Like most other states in Nigeria, especially those being governed by an opposition party, transactions between Rivers State and the central authorities in Abuja have often left the former with the short end of the stick.
Even in the years when the state belonged together with the central government, the reallocation of some crude oil wells to neighbouring Akwa Ibom State did not go without some grumbling down here. Related to that was the Federal Government’s premature release to Bayelsa State of about N17 billion from an escrow account for the contested Soku oil field in 2014 when the matter was still pending in court.
Added to these was the long overdue rehabilitation of the Aba-Port Harcourt end (Section 4) of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Road for which work is now ongoing. Until now, remedial work on this road had come in the form of shoddy patching, leaving motorists and their passengers frustrated, mostly during the rainy months of the year when any previous earth work would have been washed off.
The Federal Government’s recent flag-off of a $3 billion rail project from Bonny Port through Port Harcourt to Maiduguri was said to reduce pressure on the nation’s roads. It is for the rehabilitation and reconstruction and reconstruction of the Eastern Railway with a narrow-gauge line that links major cities across 14 southern and northern states.
But Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, is not impressed.
“I hear people came to Rivers State to flag off narrow gauge (rail line) when the world is talking of standard gauge. What they are giving Rivers state is narrow gauge because I challenged them to show us what they have done for the people of the state.
“So, what they will do is to come and say okay, since you are complaining, let us come and give you that narrow gauge.
“Instead of giving us standard gauge to Maiduguri over which they are making noise, Rivers State, the Treasure Base of the Nation, the state from which they got the money to produce their President; it’s toward the end of their administration that they come and tell us of narrow gauge rail line,” Wike mocked while commissioning a link road in Aluu, recently.
Still on transportation, work is ongoing on the N120.6 billion Bodo-Bonny Road initiated by the Nigeria LNG Limited and jointly financed by the Federal Government. Conceived about 40 years ago, construction work on the project was flagged off by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in 2017.
Also recently, the Federal Government made a refund of N78.9 billion to the Rivers State Government for the amount spent in executing some federal projects in the state, including Port Harcourt-Owerri Road and roads leading to the federal housing estates in the state. In appreciating this gesture, Governor Wike was reported to have invited President Muhammadu Buhari to visit Rivers State.
The Federal Government’s approval of $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt Refinery has generated mixed reaction in the state. Some stakeholders like the Independent Petroleum Marketers of Nigeria (IPMAN) believe that such rehabilitation would help put an end to fuel importation. Executive Chairman of IPMAN, Comrade Joseph Obele, was said to have projected that the government’s move was capable of generating 25,000 jobs when completed. He said it would open up businesses within the host communities while also ensuring the availability of quality products unlike what is being imported currently.
But Governor Wike is not convinced. He thinks that the approval smacks of politics because, as he put it, similar promises had been made in the past, particularly during election transition period that never materialised. Speaking on Channels Television, he said: “I am not going to jubilate because the Federal Government said they have approved $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt Refinery. Thank God they said so, but let us wait and see the outcome of it at the end of the day.”
Completion of the N16 billion new head office of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), 25 years after its construction began, is one Federal Government action that not only excites Rivers people but also people of the entire Niger Delta region. Joining the commissioning by virtual conferencing, President Buhari said: “Today, we are handing over to the Niger Delta, a befitting Head Office Complex for present and future use. Consequently, huge yearly rentals would now be saved and deployed to other areas of need in the region.
“I commend the management and staff of the NDDC for staying the course and keying into the reform agenda of our administration.”
However, governors of oil-producing states don’t seem to be happy with the Commission for shutting them out of all the happenings in the interventionist agency. And this is even after their inauguration into the Commission’s Governing Board. The hint came from Governor Wike while addressing members of the House of Representatives Committee on NDDC, led by its Chairman, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, who paid him a courtesy visit in Port Harcourt, recently.
In addition, people of the region have continued to express worries over the apparently unending forensic audit being conducted on the NDDC, leading to the delay in inauguration its substantive board.
Another area of the Federal Government’s engagement in Rivers State is implementation of the United Nations’ Environment Programme (UNEP) Report. The Buhari administration had, on assumption of office in 2015, indicated interest to give the Ogoni Clean-up Exercise a fillip after years of apparent inactivity. But there have been arguments back and forth between major Ogoni groups and the Hydrocarbon Pollution and Remediation Project (HYPREP), the agency responsible for carrying out the exercise, as to the pace and quality of job accomplished so far.
The government had, at various times, been accused of playing politics with the Ogoni clean-up project as its involvement has come mostly far and between. Only days ago, the Minister of Environment, Muhammed Abubakar, reportedly flagged off in Bori the construction of N6.4 billion water facilities across Ogoniland where he announced that, in addition to the six water projects, eight more were on the way. Abubakar listed beneficiaries of the first phase projects to include Bori in Khana LGA; Barako, B-Dere and K-Dere in Gokana LGA; Korokoro in Tai LGA; Alesa and Ebubu in Eleme LGA. Given the slow pace of work, it’s really not likely that anything new will drop on the project soon.
Reacting to the incident, factional President of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Nsuke Fegalo, said: “We thank our President, Muhammadu Buhari, for the decision to commence the Ogoni water project and call on him to extend his gesture to other communities in the Niger Delta who also suffer similar pains and deprivations like us, the Ogoni people.”
It is already well known that the Federal Government has, since 2016, made provision in its yearly budgets for the sum of N500 billion to finance its Social Investment Programme (SIP). This is to say that, as at the end of 2020, government had spent N2 trillion on its N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer, Home-Grown School Feeding, Tradermoni, Marketmoni and other schemes covered by the project. Whereas people in states selected as pilot cases have continued to enjoy this social safety net, Rivers people get a sniff of any of these only close to general election time when such items are used as political baits.
This experience is further illustrated with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers Programme through which many peasant rice farmers in the north and some other places across the country have since been transformed into multi-millionaires. On realising that certain forces in Abuja appeared to be using politics to deny Rivers State access to agricultural loans offered by the nation’s apex bank, the state chief executive raised the matter with the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Hon. Mustapha Baba Shehuri, during the latter’s visit to Government House, Port Harcourt.
“Please tell the Governor of Central Bank to remember us too; that we are part of Nigeria. When we applied (for Anchor Borrowers loan), they said this loan was N5 billion. We have applied for more than one year now. They said we should bring this and that…” Governor Wike complained.
The Governor was reported to have, in like manner, pleaded with the Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Bashir Jamoh, to return the Cabotage Services Department of his Agency back to Port Harcourt.
“We had a Cabotage Department here in Tombia Street (New GRA); your people moved it to Lagos. Is there any offence that Rivers State has committed against Nigeria?
“You may know, I don’t know of any offence any person can say we have committed,” he said.
In his speech, the NIMASA boss announced his Agency’s award of foreign scholarship to 10 Rivers’ school leavers to study marine engineering and marine architecture. He also pledged to assist in tackling the menace of maritime insecurity in order to encourage investors come to the state.
Jamoh also requested from the state government land to build an office for his organisation in the riparian state. According to him: “I want to request the Governor to give us a strategic land where we will build an edifice that will show the presence of maritime regulatory agency in this second largest maritime state of the country.”
During the outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in Nigeria last year, the Federal Government was reported to have released fund for the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to establish testing laboratories. This was in addition to the government donating money to assist Lagos State, Kano State and the FCT authorities to fight the pandemic.
Of course, with the Port Harcourt, Bonny and Onne Ports serving as entry points for foreigners into Rivers State which also harbours expatriate staff of multinational oil and construction firms, it was expected that the authorities in Abuja would have considered that the state stood the risk of recording high cases of the dreaded disease. And as such, any allocation of money and equipment to fight the pandemic ought not to have been denied the state. Therefore, the building of COVID-19 laboratories in Lagos, Ogun and Kano States and failing to situate any in Rivers State was enough to anger the government and people of the oil-rich state.
Speaking while receiving the then new Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph Mukan, who visited him in Government House, Port Harcourt, Governor Wike accused the Federal Government and the NCDC of playing politics at a time all hands needed to be on deck to fight a strange disease that was ravaging the world.
“There must be a collaboration to fight the Coronavirus pandemic. NCDC is building laboratories in Lagos, Ogun and Kano without building any in Rivers State. This is a state that is exposed to several foreign and local visitors with no single federal intervention.
“When oil companies write to change crew, we insist on knowing their status. If they continue to politicise COVID-19, Nigeria will suffer it,” he warned.
Of all the areas where the Federal Government appeared most insensitive on an issue concerning Rivers State was in the matter of environmental pollution as exemplified by the black soot menace. Whereas the government had deployed its security agencies in the form of joint Army, Police and Navy task forces to tackle illegal oil thieves and refiners, it was discovered that these outfits were often compromised by the culprits. And when arrests were made and stolen petroleum confiscated, the task forces preferred to burn such stolen crude in the creeks, thereby adding to the fumes that steadily emanated from the many undiscovered illegal distilleries. These were finally carried over by the wind to pollute the nearby human settlements.
At a seminar/workshop organised by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), a number of participants, comprising academics, environmentalists, traditional rulers and other stakeholders in the oil and gas sector blamed the black soot on the inability of the Federal Government to repair the nation’s refineries and guarantee steady supply of petroleum products.
Finally, other areas of Federal Government’s positive actions in the state include the Afam Fast Power Project which construction started in 2016 and which seeks to expand the existing Afam Power Plant by an additional 240MW at the cost of $186 million; completion of the new terminal building of the Port Harcourt International Airport at Omagwa; and the renewed effort to resume work on the East-West Road.
Other observed infractions were the politicisation of security in the state by way of frequent changes of police commissioners which some have counted to be about 15 times in just six years; and the alleged use of the then F-SARS Commander in Rivers State, Mr. Akin Fakorede, to try to influence the outcome of the 2019 General Elections in the state.

By: Ibelema Jumbo