THE controversy generated by the open disagreement between the Minister of Transport, Chibuike Amaechi, and the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, on Monday 13th June 2016 at the Uyo federal government’s town hall meeting could best be described as interesting and at worst very unnecessary. Pathetically, the manifested behaviours of the two top government functionaries from the South-South, seemed to have completely drowned the actual message in the disagreement.
It would be recalled that while addressing the senate committee on maritime on January 19, Amaechi announced the scrapping of the Maritime University project originally slated to be sited at Okerenkoko, Delta state as it was expected to be financed by the Nigerian Maritime and Safety Administration Agency (NIMASA), a parastatal under his ministry.
He cited insecurity in the area, and described the project as a “misplacement of priority” because as he pointed out, there are two transport institutes already in the country- one in Zaria (Kaduna), and the other in Oron, Akwa Ibom state.
Amaechi who revisited the case again, at the Uyo Town Hall Meeting in response to a question from a participant said the new government lacked the funds to continue with the university project. He also called the amount spent on purchasing land for the university into question.
According to him, if the N13 billion already spent on land acquisition alone was returned, the university would be completed. He made it clear that he was not at all against the idea of the Okerenkoko (Maritime University) in Delta state, stressing that his argument was that land alone has already gulped 13 billion Naira which was more than enough to completely build and equip the institution.
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The Transport Minister suggested that “What to do is to let EFCC retrieve and release the money and then we will use it to build the university. If they bring the N13 billion, I will build the university for them. That’s for land alone. I believe the Federal Government does not have money. When we have money, we can continue. The minister of petroleum has said he would look for the money. Minister, give me the money and we continue.”
So the issue here is the cost of acquiring the land for the project and the transport minister whose ministry is expected to finance the university project believes the 13 billion Naira dangled as the cost already spent for site acquisition alone was unreasonable and needed to be investigated by the appropriate agencies of government.
In his response, Kachikwu disagreeing with his colleague, Amaechi, said “First, let me say on Okerenkoko University, I disagree with the Minister of Transport.
“Any facility that is located in the South-South we should work close to developing it. I don’t care the circumstances under which you are placed.
“It’s not in my position to determine whether land was valued at 19 billion or 10 billion. The appropriate institution which is at the cost system will determine that.
“That has nothing to do with development of infrastructure. As far as I know, so much has already gone into that, so much fiscal asset has been developed. We are not going to throw away the baby and the bath water.
“We’ll deal with the issues but the university will be developed. If he (Amaechi) doesn’t want it in maritime, I will take it in Petroleum.
“On the issue of negotiations, again I disagree with him. There’s no theatre in the world where conflicts are being resolved through battle. It doesn’t matter who’s right, who’s wrong.”
Agreed that because so much has already gone into the project and we should not discard the bath water with the baby, but has that addressed the issue of the unreasonable amount of money claimed to have been blown on land acquisition for the institution? The issue of accounting for the money that has been released for the project, to all reasoning public, should be dealt with first and foremost.
It was unfortunate that Amaechi may have been perceived to have tactlessly spilled raw truth and basic knowledge on the matter but that does not in any way diminish the gravity of the issue of the already expended bill on acquiring land for the project. Good that Kachikwu himself acknowledged that there is an issue with the costing of the acquired land but his idea of dealing with the issue is: let’s just go on first and later we address the issue. The question with this mindset is: where is the money to go on first going to come from? And when is the right time to raise the issue of accountability and cost efficiency is it better now or much later in the life of the project when water go don pass garri?
The uproar against Amaechi was understandable however. The Niger Delta people or more aptly a section of the region is angry at the announced cancellation of the university project in Delta state, yet Amechi seemed not to care about their displeasure and is still trying very hard to justify the decision.
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According to them, why is Amaechi more concerned about the 13 billion Naira paid for land instead of the overall development advantage such project would bring to the region?
From the pronouncements by both ministers, it was very clear neither Amaechi nor Kachikwu was against the university project and its location in Okerenkoko, so the uproar was really unnecessary. It looks more of an outright mischief to create disaffection between Amaechi and the Niger Delta people for reasons that are at best blurred and at worst obscured.
There is no doubt that Amaechi and kachikwu are both working in the best interest of the country and the Niger Delta as evidenced in some of the stance the two of them had taken in the recent history of this Buhari-led government. None of them love the Niger Delta more than the other; and none of them equally love their boss, President Buhari more than the other. The tragedy of what transpired in the Uyo was that both ministers allowed mischief makers hijack the real essence of what they actually meant to convey in their discussions particularly as concerns the proposed maritime university.
The takeaway from the federal government’s town hall meeting in Uyo was that this administration should be helped to lead the people with an open mind purged of every prejudice. They should be more objective in making decisions and taking actions, after all, democracy is supposed to be the government of the people by the people and for the