Minister of Transportation Rt Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi
said President Muhammadu Buhari has united all regions in the country with his
appointments and project.
The minister said lopsided appointments can only be found in
the security sector of the country.
Amaechi stated this while explaining the reasons and
underlining policy behind the projects in the South-South and South-East
region.
He said the people of the South East and South-South pretend
not to see the effort made by the Federal Government of Nigeria because it is
led by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He, however, called on the people of the South East and
South-South to love themselves and work together in unity to foster growth in
the regions.
Amaechi made the call during an interactive session with the
South East South South Professionals of Nigeria (SESSPN) in Lagos, weekend.
The SESSPN had invited the Minister to address concerns of
the people of the South East South South regions in security, power, economic
and social integration and representation in government.
Amaechi said, “We fight a lot among ourselves. In
South-South and South East, we fight amongst ourselves. I’m saying this so that
we can separate emotions from reality. Today it is not about President Buhari,
it is about us. This administration is doing a lot, but because it’s President
Buhari, we pretend not to see it.
“We complain about lopsided appointments. Apart from the
area of security, have you checked other areas side by side? The President will
appoint someone from the South East and people from the same region will fight
against the appointment, if you are the President, how will you feel?
“When we took office, the President asked us to complete all
projects left by previous administrations before starting new ones. We did that
and it was across all regions. We completed Port Harcourt Airport, we are working
on Enugu Airport; Enugu Onitsha road, work is going on, no matter how slow. The
second Niger bridge in Onitsha – 48 percent and we have assured the country
that by 2022 it would be completed. Those who are from Onitsha or from Anambra,
have you gone to the site and work is not going on? When we came it was zero.
Most of you don’t see it because it’s not beside the Niger bridge, so you don’t
see it unless you visit the site.
“Onitsha is a River port, 3.5 metre draft. The only thing
that can go there is barge. Port Harcourt and Warri seaport will be the
highest. And people still criticise a president that is doing this much for
this zone. How do we survive by ethnicity?”
On rail projects and why work has not been done in the South
East, Amaechi said, “I hate tribalism. I’ve said this before, for me, I’m
Nigerian, and what informs my decision of choosing which rail line to construct
at any point in time, is the economics of rail; and currently, the economics
shows that Lagos to Kano has the capacity to move 30 million tonnes of cargo
per year. I do the same analysis for Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, 11 million
tonnes. We are currently doing the analysis for Lagos to Calabar to know how
many tonnes of cargo can be moved there per year. So we started with the Lagos
to Kano rail. President Obasanjo approved it, President Jonathan started
construction on it by doing Abuja to Kaduna and President Buhari told us to
complete all previous projects.
“Now, we are applying for $11b loan to construct Lagos to
Calabar rail. There was no design for Port Harcourt-Maiduguri. We knew that the
first thing to do was to commence a feasibility study, after that we did the
design. Its now they’ll start to do the site drawing. In those three months
that they are doing that, you’ll start shouting again, why are they not
constructing? You forget that Ibadan to Kano, they are just finishing the
design now, that’s why they’ve not started construction.
“Back to Port Harcourt-Maiduguri, the first thing was the
instruction from the President that all rails in Nigeria must be standard
gauge. So we did a standard gauge design. We went to Bonny to do studies and we
did that study up to Maiduguri. I did a feasibility study that brought it
between $14billion to $11 billion. When we finished, we got approval from the
President, but I realised that we may not get the money in this government. I
changed my course, and I said, while we are looking for money for the standard
gauge for Port Harcourt-Maiduguri, let me ask for money to reconstruct the
narrow-gauge at $3.1billion. And the President after much argument, accepted.
After some time, he agreed, that we can proceed with the narrow-gauge while
seeking for money to construct the standard gauge.
“At least I’m sure that before we leave government we would
have done up to 80 percent of that rail. Also, there was no line to Owerri, I
added Owerri to the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail design, because of the
Industrial Park and the University of Transportation in Ubima”, Amaechi said.
He talked about safe anchorage issues which has delayed the government’s maritime security project from commencing operations. According to the Minister, the deep blue project which has most of its surveillance equipment already on ground would ensure end to end surveillance and safety of Nigeria’s waterways, and would, in turn, encourage usage of all ports in the South-South.
“The problem with maritime in Nigeria is insecurity. There
are rich Nigerians who do bunkering. Next are those who escort vessels, another
is the OMSL group who say they are protecting vessels and so on. We have a
disadvantage where those who are making the money will not allow you to provide
security. We have bought equipment for use in securing our waters. The moment I
announced it, they reported me everywhere. But we must end it”, Amaechi stated.
In his opening remarks, President of SESSPN, Hannibal Uwaifo
while welcoming the Minister, said, “We will need to work with our people in
government, support them, no matter what political party they belong to, to
help and promote our region. It is those of us who are exposed, those of us who
are professionals that can put heads together with our people in government to
overcome these challenges. We have to up our game in order to get a better
tomorrow for our children.”
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