Can anyone explain the benefit of this River Niger dredging for Nigeria's economy. I thought this is a scheme which exclusively seeks to ensure that if Nigeria ever brakes up, the dredging of River Niger would enable Northerners to have a seaport, and hence the only benefit, not for the whole country but for the benefits and advantage of the Northerners. So, why use Nigeria's money to facilitate that? In any case, people don't learn from history. During the WWII, the Belgian Seaport at Antwerp was incapacitated and seriously decimated due to the fact that its access point in Amsterdam was blocked. So, even if this project goes ahead, and if and when Nigeria brakes up--which someday it would necessarily have to--the access point MUST be blocked, preventing any flow of marine traffic to the North. We'll wait and see.

Nigeria has started a vast operation to dredge the River Niger to enable boats to carry goods from the Atlantic Ocean to remote villages in the interior.

The 36bn naira (£140m, $233m) project will remove silt from hundreds of miles of the river - Africa's third-longest.

The government says it will bring communities together and secure the flow to hydro-electric plants.

Activists have previously said the dredging could damage the livelihoods of villagers along the river.

The BBC's Chris Ewokor, in Abuja, says the project has been in the pipeline for four decades, but has been put off by successive governments.

At the signing-off ceremony in Lokoja, President Umaru Yar'Adua said the dredging - which is expected to take six to eight months - would ensure "all-year-round navigability".



"It will provide an attractive, cheaper and safer means of haulage of goods, while engendering linkages and promoting trading activities between adjoining communities," he said.

About 572km (355 miles) of the river will be dredged - from Baro in central Nigeria to Warri in the Niger Delta.

Our correspondent says the build-up of silt on the river bed has reduced the Niger's retention capacity, resulting in floods and limiting the possibilities of transportation.

Officials are also concerned that the silt build-up is limiting the amount of electricity generated by the Kainji dam in north-western Nigeria.

we have over loaded seaports in lagos and ph

we are even unable to transport electricity plants to where they can be installed

we should stop being selfish in Nigeria.

it is an idea if properly executed(properly managin d environmental issues) will be very helpful for d nation by creating an alternative transport means 4 ferrying goods n humans frm d delta area to d middle belt. It will open up a lot of rural areas around d niger to commerce n development. It will also lessen d pressure on d major niger delta - hinterland area roads. Again an important factor is enablin d capacity of d niger to retain water due to d de-siltation thereby aiding hydro-thermal power plants. Bottom line it is a good idea