Bayelsa Seaport: What Bayelsa Govt, FG Should Do Quickly-Ex-Commissioner
6 min read
Furoebi Akene, a former commissioner in Bayelsa State, on Tuesday shared his thoughts in this online interview with TNN, on the proposed Agge Deep Seaport project, a few hours after a federal government delegation visited the state governor, Senator Douye Diri over the same subject.
Excerpts:
The federal government has shown interest in joining the Bayelsa State government to make the Agge seaport work. How did this news get to you?
It is good news. So, I am excited but not without some reservations. Some of my reservations include the degree of sincerity and commitment on both the Bayelsa state government and the federal government because these days, every serious-minded Nigerian positions himself like the biblical Thomas Didymus. Secondly, will this seaport stop the monopoly of the seaports in Lagos? We are aware that the authorities have deliberately incapacitated other seaports like Calabar, Burutu, Warri etc except Onne which is restricted to oil and gas.
So, why are you excited?
I feel excited because I know that the deep seaport project is beyond the carriage capacity of the Bayelsa state government. You know, I was the commissioner for lands and survey when this project was conceptualised and I never hesitated to express my concerns, fears and possibilities on technical and socioeconomic lines. The state government involved the Nigerian military to conduct the cadastral and topographic survey of ten thousand hectares (10,000.00Ha) around Agge in the Ekeremor Local Government area of the state that has its frontiers in the south by the Atlantic Ocean and the western side with Delta State separated by Ramos River. The ministry of lands and survey where I was the Honourable Commissioner supervised the survey.
What does the Agge sea port mean to you and what are your expectations?
The seaport means so many things to me as there are going to be a lot of opportunities from construction to completion and commencement of operations particularly for those of us who are professionals in the built industry. My expectations, are that, the seaport will create a lot of business and employment opportunities to serious minded people in the state and beyond including international business opportunities.
How do you see the FG’s readiness to work with the Bayelsa State government in this project?
At this point, it is premature for me to talk about the readiness on either or both of the parties moreso I am not involved their plans and processes. As a senior professional in one of the areas needed to make it work from the cradle to not only completion but needed so long as the port is operational particularly in the area of continuous spatiotemporal analysis and monitoring, I am not sure about the extent of preliminary preparations done such as review of the survey that was done over a decade ago, the determination of the annual rate of the incursion of the Atlantic Ocean, hydrographic surveys of the rivers, the ocean and other rivulets in and around the location, geotechnical surveys, etc. These are essentials needed for the planning and designs for the project. However, as time progresses, we will know how ready they are. While not being pessimistic, we hope that this is not going to be one of the usual elephants political projects in the country.
If you were to meet with team working on this project, what would you be telling them?
I am a consultant in the field of surveying and geoinformatics. It all depends on which trajectory, status and format the meeting will be. If my firm is engaged as a consultant, we work according to the terms of agreement, if I am engaged as an individual, in the same vein, the conditions of engagement will determine what shall be done.
What economic benefits does the Niger Delta stand to gain from the seaport?
The economic benefits will be enormous not only to the Niger Delta but the entire country, and the global community. A lot of channels of opportunities will be open to people who will have the determination to exploit it, so equally for employment opportunities
As a former, commissioner in the state, what is your take about the development of the state and what can be done to improve on it?
The development of Bayelsa State is what I don’t want to talk about for so many reasons. One of the reasons is that various administrations in the state prefer sycophancy to criticisms no matter how objective, technical and constructive the criticism may be, not minding that the sycophant’s major interest is what they can get from the system from praise singing. It is so bad that some people are appointed as media aids now infamously known as data boys to insult anybody that criticise or say anything about the government so long as it is not having correlation with the government position without even understanding what they are insulting the people for in most cases. This is the major reason why most people even professionals don’t want to comment on issues in the state. Unknowingly, you are creating avoidable enemies for saying the truth to put things in the most probable perspective. However, to answer your question concisely, you can only appreciate the rate and level of development of a state by comparing the revenue inflow, against the environmental settings, the workforce, capacity buildings and development and capital projects. In other words, the facts behind the figures.
One area I must commend the present administration headed by Senator Douye Diri is the development going on in the area classified as the new Yenagoa city amongst others like housing and roads linking up the country sides. I also wish to commend the present government in the area of housing development which this administration has started in this second term. It should be noted that previous administrations abandoned housing development in the state after the administration of His Excellency Goodluck Jonathan. I was the proponent of this project of the new Yenagoa city as the then Commissioner for lands and survey, and when the approval was granted by the then Governor, Henry Seriake. Dickson, we mobilised a comprehensive cadastral, topographic and as-built surveys of the entire island. After the survey, we engaged the services of experienced town/city planners headed by TPL. Godknows Nathaniel whose magic fingers with the AutoCAD and other relevant softwares, produced what is now known as the new Yenagoa city including the area for the new commissioners and the new state legislator’s quarters with dual carriage roads and other infrastructures of good standards and quality.
What can be done to improve on rate and level of development is to identify good and experienced professionals and experts from the state in various fields that are up to date in the emerging technologies in their fields to help the Governor to make tremendous improvements in the development on all areas. We are aware of cases of some old hands that are not updated with the new technologies in their fields and blocking the young. vibrant and up to date professionals from making input to the governor because they are afraid of exposing their deficiencies. This is not helping the state in any way. Finally, while I commend the Administrations commitment to linking all the local headquarters and some other towns, I want to suggest that such roads should be upgraded to minimum of dual carriage to minimise the rate of occurrence of accidents.