President Goodluck Jonathan has a date with the long suffering people of the Niger Delta and he alone would have to decide how he wants history to judge him. For the first time in the history of this country, a son of a fisherman from Otueke, a remote village in Bayelsa State, emerged as president of Nigeria against all political permutations. The general belief of the region, in the last 365 days or so, is that if somebody from a minority could be president of a nation with a population of over 160 million people, then, there is hope for the region and others.

Along with his plans for the entire nation, the people of the region are anxiously waiting to feel the sense of belonging in the equitable distribution of the national resources – in terms of human and physical developmental projects. And from the look of things, this would be the sole parameter they would use to measure his performance or otherwise at the end of his first term in 2015. And if there is one project the people look forward to, for the president to complete before his tenure, it is the planned 704km East-West coastal road. They believe strongly the project would inestimably help in opening up the Niger Delta region for development, unlock its economic potential and assist in dousing the brutality which impede the movement of goods and enable the people to perk up their living standards.

From the design, the project sprawls over a total of nine coastal states: Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo and Rivers. These states, according to experts, account for 25% of the nation’s population with coastal areas stretching inland for a distance of 15km in Lagos, in the West to about 150km, in the Niger Delta about 25km.

From documentary records, the resources in the coastal and marine environment have high implications for our nation’s economy. The oil and gas from the region form the main spine of our economy because it provides nearly 95% of foreign exchange earnings and about 65% of budgetary revenues.

The proposal for the sustainable development of the Niger Delta region, as prepared by a Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) under Timi Aliabe’s leadership, laid the theoretical groundwork for the project in 2004. Before the master plan, the Niger Delta Environmental Survey in formulating development priorities for the region, also proposed the construction of the coastal road in 1998. Again, the international conference on the development of the Niger Delta Region held in Port Harcourt in December 2001, under the aegis of the NDDC and UNDP, emphasised the urgent need for the road.

Indeed, the conference attended by experts around the world came to a reasonable conclusion that there could be no meaningful development in the region without the proposed coastal road. According to them, it was designed to serve as a strong east-west spine from Calabar towards Lagos, with several north-south “ribs” connecting growth poles – central and northern Nigeria.

The aims of the regional road are to link centres of economic activities with their business connections, raw materials and markets; to provide fast links between sub-regional roads and expansion poles; and to give attention to regional traffic on a few routes that would give good reason for a viable rail transport.

From the economic evaluation and other studies conducted, the coastal road was identified to assist in giving direct access to waterways that are presently not utilized, and encourage the setting up and growth of maritime industries such as ocean terminals for deep anchorage, ship repair/maintenance and engineering facilities to handle large ocean-going vessels, boat building facilities, passenger cruise terminals, fishing terminals etc, and help to improve fishing activities in the coastal region by at least 27.5%. The majority of the coastal people engage in fishing.

Among others, the coastal road was also planned to boost trading activities within the region by 24.4%, generate-revenue drive, curtail rural-urban drift because the rural people (fishermen, traders) will benefit most, open up opportunities to the unemployed (skilled and unskilled), reduce unemployment rate across the region, aid investment in the region and encourage the growth of local technology. The road is to serve as the shortest route linking Lagos to the coastal areas of Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states and also connects the north-south vertical routes.

As one international expert with wide knowledge of the Niger Delta challenges once put it, “This road is crucial not only because of the vital communication links that it would provide, but the wider benefits of acting as a catalyst in the development of the region and unlocking the vast tourism potentials and opportunities in the region”.

But crucial as this project is to the economic and social well-being is to the most economically brutalised region in the country, the Niger Delta, the federal government – especially the NDDC, the Ministry of Niger Delta and others – have continued to foot-drag on the project. Understandably, a couple of challenges have been identified by the minister of the Niger Delta, Elder Goodsday Orubebe, as hindering the execution of the project, especially the issue of funding.

True, from the project’s budget, the planned coastal road is expected to cost a total N1.8 trillion ($6.5 billion). And weighing this huge cost, some other alternative means of funding the project have also been suggested - including soliciting the support of state governors whose states lie along the corridor of the road, oil companies, international donor agencies and willing investors. While this option looks reasonable for President Jonathan and Orubebe, it is important that they also devise some internal mechanisms that could further assist them in sourcing significant finance to carry out the project. As experts have said, this could come in the form of deductions from oil revenues, which are principally generated from the coastal states. This suggestion borders on the consciousness of the people that the coastal road is crucial to life of the coastal states - they need this infrastructural development to enhance the economic base of their areas.

But come to think of it, Orubebe’s excuse of lack of funds for abandoning the project is unreasonable. Brainless as his reason might sound, I doubt whether he knows the huge problem he is indirectly creating for President Jonathan - by not insisting on the completion of the project before 2015 – because the president might have no home to return to if he fails or refuses to finish the project before the end of his tenure. He might as well stay in Abuja till the rest of his life. I am too sure the people of the Niger Delta will not take any excuse from him. Since that project was initiated, the federal government has taken billions of dollars from the resources generated from the region in expanding Abuja for the comfort of the rich.

If there is no fund to execute this very important project, as they are saying, where did they get the trillions of naira they wasted as petroleum subsidy? The minister should give that excuse to fools and slow-thinking people and not the aggrieved people of the Niger Delta. The president and Orubebe would have to go and look for money, even if it means stealing, to execute the project. For the people of the region, I am sure the coastal road is a matter of life and death.

http://leadership.ng/nga/iyobosa_uwugiaren/25502/2012/05/23/playing_life_niger_delta.html

This particular issue disgusts me to the bone. I've not seen any impact of the President on the Niger Delta. Not a single one. I have continued to say it that inspite of killing Saro Wiwa, Abacha did far more fore the Niger Delta people than any other President we've ever had. Even that NDDC secretariat was built by Abacha as a personal investment in Rivers State.

Why should he do anything in particular for the Niger Delta that he has not done for other parts of the country? He is president of Nigeria, not of Niger Delta.
I have asked this so many times over the years and I will say this again, what are the Niger-Deltan Governors, and local officials doing about significantly improving life in Niger Delta? These ought to be the ones held responsible for the state of living in the Niger Delta. Where is the money the states in the region get? The answer is with the Governors, and local officials, not with the Federal Government.
As for Federal Government projects, well, no one state, or group of states, should receive preferential treatment, not even the Niger Delta.