Senate President Godswill Akpabio has alleged leaders from the Ogoni ethnic nationality stopped him from completing the East-West Road when he served as the Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs under former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Akpabio, who insisted that the leaders should be blamed for the current deplorable condition of the road, said his ministry secured a budget provision to begin work on the project when the leaders stalled it.
He said the leaders led a delegation to the then President and pleaded with him to transfer the East-West Road from his ministry to the Ministry of Works, whose Minister was Babatunde Fashola.
The Senate President said the stakeholders succeeded in their quest not minding that he is the son of the soil and without regard to his developmental strides in Akwa Ibom when he was the governor.
He said his ministry could not use the N75bn Sukuk loan it has already secured to complete the road and that the works ministry could not undertake the project because it was not captured in its budget.
Akpabio spoke to thousands of stakeholders, who gathered in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to attend the Niger Delta Stakeholders’ Summit organised by the Dr. Samuel Ogbuku-led Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) with a theme, Renewed Hope for Sustainable Development of the Niger Delta.
The Niger Delta Stakeholders Summit was attended by all the Governors from the NDDC mandate states
While two Governors Lucky Aiyedatiwa (Ondo) and Douye Diri (Bayelsa);attended the event in person; others from Abia, Imo, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Delta states sent representatives.
Nothing was heard about Edo as Governor, Godwin Obaseki was absent and nobody was mentioned as his representative.
Stakeholders from different walks of life, traditional rulers, youth leaders, captains of industries trooped to the Obi Wali International Conference Centre to partake in summit designed to key the Niger Delta into the Renewed Hope of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan was the Chairman of the occasion; Akpabio, was the host and also represented President Tinubu, who was named as the Special Guest of Honour.
Senators, House of Representative members, political and community leaders, former governors, Donald Duke of Cross River and Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa among others graced the occasion.
Akpabio said: “Let me speak on my part as a son of the Niger Delta. The East-West Road would have been completed under my tenure as the Minister of the Niger Delta during the last administration.
“But some stakeholders particularly of the Ogoni extraction led a delegation to meet with the then President, Muhammadu Buhari, to inform him that they do not want the Ministry of Niger Delta to complete the road.
“They said that they wanted the road to be transferred to the Ministry of Works at that time headed by my brother, the former Governor of Lagos State, Fashola. I was very shocked.
“We have just secured about N75bn in our hands to conclude at least particularly from Eleme junction when that came. And the President said ‘well if that is what you want so be it’. Therefore the road at that time was then transferred to the Ministry of Works that had no budget that year for the East-West Road.
“Even the N75bn that we got from Sukuk loan could not be used. What I’m saying it is Niger Delta that sometimes bring down Niger Delta”.
Akpabio, who lamented the development said the summit should strive to put an end to the Pull Him Down Syndrome rampart in the Niger Delta.
He said: “This summit must resolve to abolish the syndrome of pull him down. We must unite to abolish that syndrome. From the day the Ministry of Niger Delta stepped out of that road, no progress has been made on that road till today.
“The Ministry of Niger Delta inherited the road at eight percent. And as at the time our brother with some kings of Niger Delta came to insist that the money just released should not be used by the Ministry.
“They were afraid that a son of the Niger Delta was going to utilise the money in case something remains from there so that he will not make money. And it was also a son of the Niger Delta that convinced the then President to convoke that meeting in order to stop the man standing in front of you from completing that project”.
Akpabio said he attended the summit in his dual capacity first as a son of the Niger Delta and as the second person since the creation of Nigeria to become the Senate President from the Niger Delta region.
He said 45 years after the late Dr. Joseph Wayas was made the Senate President from the region, President Tinubu made it possible for the region to produce another one in his person.
He said the NDDC was expected to drive the delivery of Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda in the region.
He said: “The board of the NDDC is expected to work towards delivery of the Presidential Renewed Hope Agenda priorities. We are also aware that there has been a lot of complaints about the NDDC.
“And I want to use this opportunity to appeal and also direct that this time around we need to change the narrative. We cannot continue to do the same thing the same way and expect that we are going to achieve a different result. Collectively therefore we must be committed on how the zone can be transformed.
“With the caliber of people, who are here, I can see captains of industry, traditional rulers, I can tell you that this summit is pact with the who is who in the Niger Delta region. And therefore the outcome of this conference should be like no other before”.
Akpabio, who was flanked on the stage by senators and House of Representative members, passed a vote of confidence in Ogbuku’s management team and the board.
He said President Tinubu was happy to associate with the summit.
Akpabio spoke on the East West road following the comments of Jonathan and Douye Diri about the poor condition of the road.
Jonathan, however, observed that political interference on NDDC was the reason why it had not lived up to its mandate.
He appealed to the political class to stop overstressing the commission to enable it focus on the development of the Niger Delta.
He said: “The first leadership of NDDC led by Onyema Ugochukwu as the chairman of the board and chief Timi Alaibe who was the executive director finance and administration and he later became the MD showed some clear leadership and it appears as if the Niger Delta was moving to some direction.
“But after that leadership, I think NDDC got involved into too many, let me say we the politicians took over the NDDC and their progress was slowed down, their activities were slowed down and people started feeling that the impact of this agency was not well noticed”.
He, however, said the current management and board of the commission had shown focus and desire to develop the region.
Jonathan said: “But with the birth of this current leadership people from the Niger Delta have seen some light. It’s not because they brought me here. I listened to the beginning of this conversation from Wednesday that it was opened and have sons and daughters, key stakeholders from the Niger Delta interrogating the issues.
“I also listened to people like Chief Jasper Jumbo and others and I was impressed that they are taking a different look at the Niger Delta. For them to gather all of us including people like me who are no longer involved with active politics to have conversations on the Niger Delta shows clearly that the current leadership intends to move the NDDC to a proper direction and that’s why some of us decided to come and encourage them.
“What I will request is for us who are the political class not to overstress the NDDC so that they can perform. I’m lucky Gosdwill Akpabio is here himself. He is our most senior politician, he has to work with others so that the NDDC is not put under too much of stress and I know what I am talking about”.
Jonathan commended Ogbuku and the board for giving the region the opportunity to come together to interrogate issues in the Niger Delta.
To Ogbuku and his team, he said: “”We are happy with way you’ve started and I hope you will continue in those strides”.
He asked the commission to end the era of abandoned projects describing it as the greatest problem of the NDDC.
He asked the commission to find a way of maintaining its infrastructural projects, which had deteriorated over time by either constantly rehabilitating them or handing them over to governors at the point of inauguration.
Jonathan said: “The next thing I believe is oil. We are here because we produce oil but everybody knows that the fossil fuel hydrocarbon, the future is so bleak. It may dry up just like the Oliobri oil field dried up.
“Or even if we still have it, the global environmental politics may stop exploitation of the fossil fuel one day and therefore the Niger Delta should begin to see how they will start building a Niger Delta without hydrocarbon.
“We must prepare our young people and children for a Niger Delta without hydrocarbon. There are so many ways to do it and I admire the competence of the key actors in the NDDC. One thing is about education and the NDDC has been giving scholarships, I know that. I think they have to strengthen that aspect very well. Let our youths be well educated and acquire skills so that they can work anywhere in the world”.
The former President appealed to the commission to look into the industrialisation of the Niger Delta by partnering with some agencies to give out loans to businesses in the region.
He told the commission to embark on agricultural revolution by giving grants, seedlings to real farmers and not portfolio farmers.
Diri on his part decried the state of the Eas-West and lamented his experience while navigating the road to attend the summit saying it took him four hours to get to Port Harcourt.
While appreciating President Tinubu for prioritising the development of the road, the Bayelsa governor appealed to the Federal Government to begin the construction of the coastal road from both ends of Lagos and Calabar.
He said: “Let me also use the opportunity to appreciate the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for prioritizing the Niger Delta by appointing a board on time and a management team on time.
“We have also witnessed recently the construction of the coastal road that is going to run from Lagos to Calabar and we want to appreciate and thank the president for that.
“However, I like to appeal that as the construction is commencing from Lagos it also has a concurrent commencement from the Calabar axis of the road.
“Our region is in dire need of development. Everything has been said by everybody here and for me there is just one open thing that I will say, before today, the journey between Yenagoa and Port Harcourt is either one and a half hours or one hour.
“For those of us who even come with a convey, one hour you are in Port Harcourt. But today, I traveled four hours between Yenagoa and Port Harcourt, our people are suffering. That road has collapsed.
“So while we appreciate Mr. President for the coastal road, there is a need to immediately go into the East-West road.
“If that contractor does not have the capacity, please Mr. President, hand over that road to the Niger Delta Development Commission.
“I was arranged to travel by air and I told myself those who are traveling on that road are Rivers people, Bayelsa people, and Niger Delta people, and if they are suffering let me go and see their sufferings. And I couldn’t believe what I saw today.
“Some people have been there for one week, some have been there for two days. That is not the Niger Delta that we want to be. That is not the Niger Delta our forefathers dreamt about.
“And so I appeal particularly to our son who is here representing Mr. President to take this message to the president and let them act fast on the East-West road”.
