When the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo inaugurated the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, in 2001, in fulfilment of one of his campaign promises to the people of the Niger Delta region, every Niger Deltan including the Ogoni ethnic minority who had continued to protest the degradation of their environment by oil firm were happy that their expectations would no longer be delayed.
They had hoped to benefit from whatever would be the outcome of the commission’s development plan in the completion of the East-West road, among other development needs of the region.
At the end of that administration, the successive government of the late Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua created the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, in another attempt to address the development challenges of the region.
Years after the establishment of the NDDC and the creation of the Niger Delta ministry, the East West Road project which has been a major issue for the people, including the Ogonis, has remained a subject of day-dream. Note even Dr Goodluck Jonathan, a son of the soil, was able to push for the completions of the road, as was being expected.
There were reports that work on the project was stalled because Jonathan did not win the 2015 election. But with the appointment of Senator Godswill Akpabio as minister of the Niger Delta who also doubled as the supervising minister for the NDDC, hopes were high again, that with what he did in Akwa Ibom as governor, he could take steps to face the road squarely. Akpabio indeed, promised stakeholders from the region that he would deliver on that road. But he could not till he left office.
This was what angered the Ogoni people and forced them to block the Eleme axis of the road as a way of protesting the ineptitude of the government. While the protest lasted, all the heavy trucks that ply the road could not move anywhere. Some of them were forced to use the Nowa-Tai-Oyigbo routes as an alternative.
Promises by the federal government between then and now have not been translated to results, leaving the masses to continue to wallop in pains as a result of the failing state of the road which has now become a death trap, especially for heavy duty vehicles that do business around the Onne axis, where the Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority (OGFZA), the defunct Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Petrochemicals industry, Indorama, Port Harcourt are all located.
Just like other stakeholders, we see the federal government’s continued abandonment of the East West road as a show of irresponsibility and disregard to the plight of the Niger Delta who are the major users of the road.
Only recently, the president raised the people’s hopes again, when he gave a directive to the effect that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited should fix Section 4 of the East West Road (Eleme Roundabout to Onne junction) through the Tax credit Scheme.
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Even though the NNPC as currently constituted is no more entirely a government corporation, it is hoped that with the president’s directive the people would begin to have a sigh of relief.
We urge Mr Umana O. Umana, the new minister of Niger Delta Ministry who is a son of the region, to show more than a passing interest on this project and do the necessary follow-up, based on the recent directive by the president.
There is the need for this administration to show the political will to construct this very important road, from where huge revenue is being generated to fund other projects in the country. Contractors who were expected to handle the project should be pushed to get to site and fix the road without further delay.
