DEVELOPING OGUN, THE GATEWAY STATE: LESSON FROM ANAMBRA By ‘Gboyega Nasir Isiaka (GNI)

 

I try as much as possible to read Newspapers from all divides on daily basis in order to take readings from all angles even when am outside the country through a click on the net. However having been in transit for most of 30th August and 1st September, 2012 I missed out on the newspapers for these days. Fortunately, on a visit to a friend some days later, I stumbled on a copy of The Nigerian Punch newspaper of 1st September. Amongst other things that caught my attention was a news report on page 10 of the newspaper titled ‘’Ex-govs, Obi fight over Anambra Oil’. On seeing this, I was really not surprised knowing the war going on ‘’right under my nose’’. Nonetheless, I took time to read the news if only to compare notes. 

The story written by one Emmanuel Obey stated that the fight occurred at the official inauguration of exploitation of crude oil by the Orient Petroleum Resources Ltd effectively making Anambra State to join the league of oil producing States. One of the former governors, Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju (PDP, 1999-2003) had told the gathering that he set up the committee that established Orient Petroleum, appointed its first board and secured oil license for it to exploit oil in 2002. He demanded that he should be given the credit for conceiving the vision. Dr Chris Ngige (PDP (now ACN)2003-March, 2006) demanded to be given the credit for converting Orient to a public company, inviting investors from far and wide to invest in the Company and invested an initial amount of N100million with promise to make available more funds. Mrs. Virgy Etiaba (APGA, 3rd Nov. 2006-9 Feb. 2007) demanded recognition for not relenting in her efforts to sustain the project during her three –month tenure. Although the story did not report the comments of Governor Peter Obi (APGA, 9 Feb. 2007 till now) but I imagined he would have supported the project and perhaps provided additional investment in line with the promises of Governor Chris Ngige.

Also, former CBN Governor, Prof Chukmuma Soludo who indeed contested an election against the incumbent commented that Orient will ‘’jump start aggressive and strategic socio-economic development’’ of Anambra State. 

After reading the details of the fight, not only did I hail the fight and the fighters, I prayed to God to cause this kind of fight to repeat itself in every nooks and crannies of Nigeria. It is always said that when two elephants fight, the grass suffers but in this case the fight is happening after the elephants have sufficiently provided water for the grass to continue to grow and blossom. The elephants have done well. They have put political fight or war aside to provide opportunity to create employment, enhance revenue generation and generally improve the socio economic development of Anambra State. It is a people-centered fight. A fight that benefits the common man. Again, may God bless the fight and bless the fighters.

I left my friend’s house leaving the newspaper behind. Throughout that evening, I kept imagining how the kind of Anambra fight can accelerate the strategic socio-economic development of my dear State; the Gateway State. I begin to imagine what will happen to the life of the common man if Anambra fight is repeated over some major life changing projects that I am privileged to know about by virtue of the position I held in Ogun State between 2004 and 2010. I thought of so many of such vision or project a few of which are highlighted below: 

1. AGRO-CARGO AIRPORT

The immediate past administration in Ogun State secured an approval to set up an Agro-Cargo Airport at the Ogere/Iperu axis of this State with the objective of transforming the State into a major cargo hub given its strategic geographical location as the Gateway to Nigeria and West Africa. This initiative was pursued by the then Office of the Economic Adviser’s office and several preliminary steps have been taken including preparation of technical studies and discussions with the private sector investors under the Public Private Partnership model of that administration. To underscore the need for such airport in Nigeria; just a few weeks ago the Federal Minister of Aviation stated that ‘’as part of efforts to harness the agricultural potentials in the country, the Federal Government of Nigeria has designated seven airports as agro-perishable airports’’. I am wondering what is the thinking of the present administration on this project, and what can be the fundamental, non-political reasons for the possible discontinuation of the project? 

2. SHOPPING MALL COMPLEX

A park comprising of retail shopping malls was meant to be constructed at the Isheri end of our dear State. Several pre-construction steps have been taken leading to interest in writing by Vectis Nigeria Ltd and FBN Capital to invest $10million each as equity in the project and Standard Bank/Standard IBTC Bank indicative term sheet of August 2010 to provide $30.5million debt finance for the project. In addition, Shoprite and Games have not only indicated interest in writing to be anchor tenants for the mall, they have opted to finance the construction of their ‘boxes’ and indeed at some point Shoprite commented that this may be their biggest site in Africa. 

This is a straight forward project that is capable of opening up the entire axis of Isheri. In my sincere opinion, politics aside, there is nothing wrong with this project that cannot be corrected with the things that are right in it and how I wish the State Government will encourage, support and facilitate the execution of this project in the interest of the State. 

3. OGUN GUANGDONG FREE TRADE ZONE

The Ogun Guandong Free Trade Zone was practically “snatched’’ away from Imo State in 2007. Given the countenances of the then governor of Imo State, I wouldn’t know if he has now forgiven the immediate past governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel for this act. I was at the FTZ sometime in 2010 during the visit of Mr. President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan and the work that had been done was marvelous. Curiously, what I am hearing about the present state of the place does not appear encouraging. The fact of a disagreement by the present administration on the composition of the a board in line with the request of the investors, a board that has not even been constituted, is not enough to kill such a major life changing initiative. There are of course several ways to resolve such issues if the motive is not political. In my view, the State Government should actually lead the initiative to encourage investors into the FTZ for generation of employment and boost economic development. This should be the spirit.

4. INDUSTRIAL PARK

The Industrial Park, off Lagos- Ibadan express was co-sponsored by private investors from Shandong and Zhenjiang Provinces of China with the support of the governments of both provinces. With a combined GDP of $1.2trillion, the economy of the two provinces is about four times the economy of Nigeria. In 2009, the Deputy Governor and Governor of Shandong and Zhenjiang provinces respectively visited three countries in Africa at different times. One of the countries visited was Nigeria and the only place visited in Nigeria was Ogun State including the site of the Industrial park. The park was meant to attract investments in excess of $1billion from the two provinces into several ventures including manufacturing and truck assembling and to employ thousands of Nigerians especially from the State. I understand the fence of the project site was pulled down at odd hours and as we speak cases are in courts and the project is on hold. I am also aware that while this lasts, the investors have moved to a neighbouring South West State. I do not intend to comment more on this as it will be prejudicial. Suffice to say, the loss of the State is already the gain of other locations. Should this happen in the Gateway State?

5. GATEWAY SAVINGS & LOANS

Gateway Savings and Loans was established by the last administration to support the housing programme of the State Government. The bank needs to be recapitalized and of course all routes are available to the State Government to achieve this. The only route that will be anti-people is to allow the bank lose its license following the deadline for recapitalization to mortgage banks which is coming up soon. The now popular Aso Savings & Loans Plc which was hitherto fully owned by Federal Capital Territory Administration passed through the same route. Today, it is one of the highly capitalized and successful mortgage banks in the country. 

With support and strict nonpolitical decision from the State Government, Gateway Savings and Loans can has equal potentials; thus further supporting people to own their houses.

6. OK DEEP SEA PORT

Within the Olokola Free Trade Zone which the last administration in conjunction with Ondo State Government promoted is the OK deep sea port. With its natural and God endowed advantage of having the deepest point on the proposed site for the port in Ogun State, the State has a natural comparative advantage in siting and development of the port. The proposed port has the capacity to serve the whole Continent of Africa. Initial pre-feasibility have been done and private investors and developers were being sought after. The business mogul; Alhaji Aliko Dangote recently commented thus in relation to the port: “Ogun state has what it takes to become the giant of Africa. As you know, the state has a place where it shared boundary with Ondo state and that is the place we call Olokola.

The Olokola free trade zone is a place where we can build the biggest seaport in Africa. If Ogun is able to get the right, genuine investors to put up massive infrastructure, we’ll have more businesses than what we have put together in the whole ports in Nigeria because today, as we are talking, we don’t have any deep sea port in the western part of Africa and by setting up one, it means that much of the businesses will come down here’’

It is my opinion that the present administration should take a real lesson out of this? Will it not be good for the State to see an “Anambra fight’’ between the initiator of this project Otunba Gbenga Daniel, his successor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun and perhaps others each drawing attention to their contribution to a project that is capable of changing the course of history for the better for Ogun State by making the State the hub of port activities in the African continent. Shouldn’t this be the motivation? 

7. KAJOLA RAILWAY INDUSTRIAL ZONE

The Kajola specialized railway Industrial Zone was initiated and designated to integrate the railway modernization program of the federal government and the plan of the last administration to create a railway industrial village along the Kajola axis , as a means of attracting specialized industries as well as businesses offering logistics and ancillary services to this zone. Preliminary plans and applications were made on this project and I think approval obtained. How does this fit into the overall developmental programme of the present administration? What are the fundamental nonpolitical reasons for possible discontinuation and loss of the approval obtained?

8. LAOGO PARADISE ISLAND

The Laogo Paradise Island is a serene Island located on the South Coast of Ogun State, on the Lekki Lagoon next to the birth of Benin on the Atlantic coast line and also close to the Olokola Free Trade Zone. The development of this Island was initiated by the last administration and pursued from the office of the Economic Adviser. Put simply, the project was created to give opportunity for the wealthy and rich to spend their money within the State thereby generating revenue, enhancing economic activities and creating opportunities for our people to tap into . I can recollect that a master plan has been prepared and investors were being sought for infrastructural development etc. What is the possible fate of this project?

9. BITUMEN DEPOSIT

Ogun State has a large deposit of bitumen. However, because of the kind of federalism that we run in this country where all natural resources are vested in the federal government, no State can develop resources without the licensing from the federal government. Nonetheless, the last administration set up Gateway Bitumen Company Limited which sought for technical partners from Canada and they jointly bided for a bitumen block from the Bureau of Public in 2007/2008. That bidding process was later cancelled by the BPE/Federal Ministry of Mines on the ground that the bitumen blocks are going to be restructured and re-advertised. Nonetheless, the last administration through Gateway Bitumen and other relevant agencies kept pushing to get a license over the bitumen block. 

We are indeed hopeful that either through this bitumen exploration or through other initiatives that the Office of the Governor was directly pursuing, we shall be able to prove that Ogun State as a littoral State has oil in commercial quantities and should be designated an oil producing State. I think if we put politics aside and we take this fight from where the last administration take it to, we should be able to get the oil producing status sooner than we think?

10. THE CONCESSIONED HOTELS

Having attracted so much comments in the recent past, the case of the concessioned assets while not new projects as above also deserve some mention especially since it also bothers on decisions that influence the economic development of the State and ultimately impact the life of our people. I do not intend to bore with the facts that have been mentioned many times on these. I will only highlight as follows:

i. Up to the time of the concessioning, the Gateway Hotel in Abeokuta has operated for 27years while those in Ota and Ijebu Ode have operated for 16years each.

ii. It cost about $41.63million to construct Abeokuta (at 1979-1981 rates) and $41.9million to construct Ota. The cost of Ijebu Ode cannot be immediately determined.

iii. All successive administration in Ogun State have expended resources running into millions of Naira to maintain the assets of the hotels and in some instances support their overheads.

iv. The total dividend payment to the State Governments from the three hotels for all the years of operation was N24.25million

v. Unfunded accumulated retirement benefit/gratuities for the three hotels up to the time of the concession (before negotiation with workers) was N1.59billion.

vi. Signature bonus from the concession utilized for settlement of gratuities and other liabilities was N520million while estimated revenue to the State Government derivable from percentage of turnover of the hotels as contained in the concession agreement is over N300million.

vii. The State government was not to contribute any amount to the development of the hotel during the concession and the hotels remain the property of the State Government during the Concession period and management revert to the government after the concession period.

viii. The Concessions were done in line with all known due process

I once appeared before a committee of the House of Assembly on this matter and also with the commission of enquiry set up by the State Government. I chose to stay with the Commission for five days during its (open) deliberations, anxious to hear from the stakeholders present which include Captains of Industry, Stalwarts of the ruling political party in the State, Hoteliers, Public Servants, legal practitioners, Union leaders, Students’ leaders and Journalists the exact allegations against the Concession of the Hotels or what went wrong with the process. I left the Commission more convinced that what we did on the assets was in the best interest of our dear State and I told the commission so.

My final comment on this matter still remain that I am proud of the determination of the past administration to find a solution to assets that have become drain pipes to the State Government. I also remain proud with the process taken and the outcome. Of course, in spite of this the State Government is still at liberty to take its decisions but my position will only change when I see a “superior solution” that will enhance the development of our state and our people.

CONCLUSION

The lessons out of these is that life changing projects that can jump start aggressive and strategic socio-economic development can hardly be commenced and completed by a single administration even if it serves the maximum time allowed by the constitution. In Lagos State a good number of the projects Governor Fashola has been executing to my personal admiration have been in the news since the days of the immediate past administration in that State. Much as he has tried, the incumbent (Fashola) cannot even fully execute all of them within the remaining of his administration. 

Of course, there will always be provision for sincere and non-political appraisal and re-appraisal of projects especially in the light of additional information or changes in economic parameters but to subject all projects and decisions on them to political considerations and/or settlement of political scores can only be at the detriment of one stakeholder: THE PEOPLE.

May God bless the Gateway State

Gboyega Nasir Isiaka (GNI) B.Sc, MBA, ACS, FCA, FCS