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WHY WE MUST ACT NOW ON OIL SPILL DAMAGE IN THE NIGER DELTA, BY UDUAGHAN
His Excellency, Mr President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, may I on behalf of the wonderful people of Delta state, welcome you and your impressive entourage to Asaba, the capital of Delta State. Sir, you are in Delta state, the land where God lives—the finger of God. You are in Delta, a state dedicated to uplifting the needs of her people, a government serving the ends of every community. We are indeed one happy family. And we feel we enjoy a Special Relationship with the first family of the country. Last month your wife, the First Lady of Nigeria, Dame Patience Jonathan, was with us. What a great moment we shared with her, the memory of that visit is still fresh with us. 2. Now today you are with us. This is truly remarkable. In one voice, all Deltans everywhere receive you with open arms in appreciation of your robust commitment for the oneness, growth and development of the state. The shortness of your visit has not allowed us to show you the full dimension of our state, of our love, of our care and of our humanity. What you have seen is a mere tip of the iceberg, but we know you will visit with us again. And when you do, it will hopefully be for a longer stay, and you shall feel more the hospitality and warmth of our people. You shall see more the transformations in Delta state—the emerging Tiger of Nigeria. 3. In Delta State, our people are enthusiastic about democratic rule, our people are enthusiastic about capable and visionary leadership, they have given us their support, and we have succeeded largely because of that. Your Excellency, since assuming office, you have manifested great qualities of leadership that our people admire and cherish so much, they have thus resolved to give your administration the support and cooperation you need to succeed. 4. Three years ago on assuming office we placed before our people our three-point agenda of Peace and Security, Human Capital and Infrastructure Development as the road map for broad economic development of the state. Our vision was defined by our goal of building a Delta State without oil, a state that will explore other opportunities outside of oil, a state that will develop clean energy as means for creating jobs and eliminating poverty. We have begun this work, which at the beginning looked like a tall order. 5. In pursuing our goals, we were determined to give every Deltan a sense of belonging, in particular the oil producing communities. To drive this vision, we created the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, which receives fifty per cent allocation of the thirteen per cent derivation fund. The mandate of the commission is to interact with the people, gauge their feelings, assess their needs and address them. Today, developments are reaching the riverine communities long neglected. There is still much work to be done, but we have made a good start. 6. Our infrastructure vision across the state is no less ambitious, with the overall aim of ensuring economic development. Delta state is so well situated it can be a major logistics hub for the region, thus our emphasis on building major transportation infrastructure to take advantage of the opportunities available. Our investments in power supply, urbanization, industrial clusters, ICT development, transportation and road constructions, have the simple objectives of creating employment and reducing poverty. Most of these projects were begun three years ago and its impact as you shall see has been terrific. Aside from Asaba international airport and Osubi airport runway, we have three industrial clusters in the pipeline. We have the Warri Industrial Business Park, the Koko Export Free Zone and the Asaba ICT Park. Substantial resources will be devoted to these projects, both from government and the private sector partnering with us. As these projects take shape, Your Excellency will be briefed and hopefully will find the time to visit us and be part of its progress and success story. The Asaba airport should be ready by end of the year and we trust Mr President will accept our request to commission this airport, which should be one of the best in the country. 7. Mr President sir, I take pride in stating that in terms of highway, urban and rural roads development, drainage schemes, and waterways structures, our record is impressive. A few samplers will demonstrate this: We have completed over 483.67km of trunk roads, more than 93.55km of urban and township roads and awarded additional contracts for the construction of another 51.52km of urban and rural roads. In the same vein, 669.02km of drainage works are under construction in various parts of the State, out of which 424.79km have been completed. I might even add with due modesty that Delta state has some of the best road network in the country. 8. As spectacular as these projects are, we see huge benefits in expanding our infrastructure base further, which is why we have undertaken even more massive road projects like the dualisation of the 148.9km long Ughelli-Asaba, which is a federal road, currently under construction. Businesses will gain enormously from this road because it will make movement to and from the port in Warri to the commercial nerve centres of Onitsha and Nnewi, faster and easier. Moreover, it will improve the linkage of Warri and Asaba, the two main economic hubs of the state. The other is the Ugbenu-Koko road, which is intended to improve traffic to the Export Processing Zone. All of these projects on completion have the potential to employ thousands of Deltans. At the present time through direct government and its agencies over fifteen thousand Deltans have been employed. 9. Our efforts at awakening public interest in the utilization of Delta ports are already yielding results. The port in Warri has risen to number two in the country after Lagos, in terms of cargo handling. This is a major fruit of the peace and security agenda of this administration. The dredging of the Escravos break waters by the Nigerian Ports Authority is still being awaited as this will no doubt help to boost both traffic and greater utilization of the Delta Ports, because it will enable bigger ships to berth in the port at Warri. Mr President’s intervention will be most decisive in getting Nigeria Ports Authority to act. 10. In the last three years, I am happy to inform you, Mr. President that we have carried out several urban renewal schemes with the installation of street lights, sanitation and beautification of our major cities. Our street light is spread across 275 kilometres of the state; it is a mixed system of solar and conventional. Solar powered street lights covers 120 kilometres of this spread. From this alone our cities have become more attractive and more secured for us as a people as well as to visitors, particularly, tourists and investors. And that is why this year we are expanding coverage to a further 180 kilometres of the state. 11. In laying out vision, it is clear we desire to build a world class economy. However, our frustration which is not peculiar to Delta state but indeed a national issue is the challenge of power supply. Delta State has a power demand of 1000MW out of which 100MW is available from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria. This is highly inadequate. To boost power distribution within our State, we have embarked on the phased construction of the Delta State power grid transmission line from the Delta IV power station at Ekakpamre to Ogwashi-Uku. We have also completed 200 out of 350 on-going electricity projects, involving the construction and installation of 300 KVA, 33/11KV transformer substations and 7.5MVA, 33/11KV transformer substations with accompanying overhead low tension lines. 12. To find a more permanent solution to the State’s energy problem, we have initiated an independent integrated approach to provide uninterrupted power to all nooks and crannies of the State. Our aspiration in the energy sector, which embraces generation, transmission and distribution, is to establish independent power plants through private public partnership. The programme is anchored on the vast gas resources in the State. Consequently, the State government has commenced action on the construction of its own small scale power plant that will generate 120MW of electricity. Furthermore, we are in talks with International Energy Agency (IEA) a multilateral agency based in Paris, to conduct an energy mix report on renewable energy options that will guarantee energy security and energy efficiency for the state. That report should be ready in months. We are also hopeful that when the NIPP comes on stream our power needs will be further addressed. As you will recall Mr President, Delta state Government has contributed N 15 billion to this project. Happily the zeal, which you, Mr. President, have brought to bear on this challenge, gives us confidence that the power crisis will be solved in no time. 13. Now I come to an event in which I have shared some spotlight with Mr. President, and it is the recognition we received for addressing rural poverty and economic marginalization of the poor through the Delta state Micro-credit scheme. This programme was launched in 2007, but it has achieved so much in the short time of its existence. Over Fifty one thousand Deltans have become micro-entrepreneurs from the programme, and a tenth of this number is scaling up to small business enterprise owners. This is just a small proportion of those who earnestly desire to be covered, so this year fired by the passion of our people for this programme, we have budgeted 1.5 billion Naira. As testimony to the success we have made, the Central Bank of Nigeria selected Delta State as the Year 2008 and 2009 Best Micro Credit financing State. On both occasion, Mr. President handed the trophy to us. I want to assure Mr. President that we are unrelenting in our fight to end the poverty of our people, and to give them the opportunity to be wealth creators. And not to be overlooked, win the CBN award yet again. 14. Agriculture, no doubt, remains the dominant enterprise of our people. Our agricultural policy is directed towards the attainment of food sufficiency and security, including job creation and wealth generation. We have handled this in two ways. The first part was to deal with the issue of food security by assisting our peasant farmers, that is, those who are already into farming. To improve their yields, we have given them material inputs and some working capital. The second angle is employment generation through agriculture; this was done under the Youth Empowerment through Agriculture programme. We have so far engaged 900 youths, who were trained at Songhai-Amukpe and mobilized to the field through the provision of inputs, access to land and working capital. The other strategy is to partner big private investors, like the Obasanjo Farms Limited, to invest, build local capacity and expand their operations in the state. 15. Mr President at this point I feel the need to place before us an issue of great importance—the issue of environment. The world has become extremely sensitive about the environment and how we should relate to it. If we are in doubt, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico by BP has become a subject of global attention. The US/ BP oil debacle makes an interesting case study. Compared to what we have here is grossly underestimated, I dare say. BP is under tremendous pressure to resolve the problem its oil spill has caused. Sums like 20 Billion Dollars victim funds is on the table in addition to a possible criminal investigation, in short the very survival of BP as a company is now an issue. BP, as we all know is one of the largest oil companies in the world, and it is being held accountable for its action. Now you may ask: do we not have issues of oil spill and environmental damage here in the Niger Delta? The answer is of course yes, even more than is commonly accepted and thus makes criminal investigation of the extent of oil damage in the Niger Delta more urgent and as compelling as what we find happening in the Gulf of Mexico with BP. Mr President our environment, if I may speak in a direct personal terms, knowing that we share the same cultural and environmental experience, is in danger of complete devastation by oil spill. The time to call the oil companies to account is now. 16. Permit me, Mr. President, to use this opportunity to commend the Federal Government for bringing the contractor of the Ajaokuta-Aladja railway back to site. We implore you to use your good offices to ensure that the rail line is completed on time, because of its strategic nature to the steel industry and as a link between the Warri seaport and the northern parts of the country. 17. We whole heartedly support the Amnesty programme of the Federal Government and wish to thank you for encouraging greater collaboration and cooperation between the affected States and the Federal Government. As you address the post-amnesty issues let me add that the people of Niger Delta States will continue to remain calm and law abiding as the determination of His Excellency that the programme should unleash new lease of life on the region has never been in doubt. 18. Mr. President, as you pilot the affairs of State, we wish you all the very best of luck and assure you that we shall diligently key into the reform programmes to move this nation forward. We whole heartedly align with your desires for electoral reforms and admire the sure footed manner, with which you conduct the affairs of government. Having shown impeccable leadership since assuming office following the exit of President Umaru Yar’adua, a great friend of the people of the region through circumstances nobody wished for, your being in the driver’s seat today can only be the act of God. If history is any guide, the partnership between the people of the South-south and our brothers in other parts of the country is a Special Relationship, a relationship built on trust and mutual understanding. I see your presidency as a continuation of that Special Relationship; I therefore call on Nigerians to support this administration to succeed. 19. Once again, on behalf of the government and people of Delta State, I thank you most sincerely for this honour of visiting us. 20. Thank you and God bless us all. Office of the Governor, Government House, Asaba. June 19, 2010   
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