Mustapha Isah Kwaru
6 October 2008
Maiduguri — Shehu of Borno Alhaji Mustapha Umar El-Kanemi yesterday stressed the need for the commencement oil exploration in the Lake Chad basin and the Benue thorough for the socio-economic development of the North and Nigeria in general.
El-Kanemi made the remark when President of the Borno State Chamber of Commerce, In-dustry, Mines and Agriculture (BOCCIMA) Alhaji Moham-med Rijiya paid a courtesy visit to his palace.
Six drilled wells sit just less than 40 kilo metres north of the Shehu's palace in Gajiganna. Several others exist further north in Kukawa, all drilled by the NNPC in the 1990s when oil exporation was at its height in the Chad Basin.
In 1990, an NNPC project en-gineer standing beside the fourth capped well in Gajiganna told former Petroleum Minister, Rilwanu Lukman who visited that there exists in the well gas in commercial quantity but that Nigeria was not looking for gas but crude oil. He added that any time Nigeria wants to export gas it could return to that well.
Also, during similar visit to Kukawa by Pro. Jibril Aminu, who succeeded Lukman obser-ving that there was oil in bor-dering regions of Chad, Niger and Cameroun remarked "Un-less Nigeria is monumentally unlucky there must be oil on our own side."
The royal father, continuing, admonished the Conference of Northern Nigeria Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture as well as stakehol-ders to join the crusade for the actualisation of oil exploration for the benefit of all Nigerians.
Oil exploration in the two areas, he said, would not only boost the economy of the North but also the nation's economy generally. He, therefore, said all hands should be on deck to ensure that the move succeeds.
He commended the efforts and foresight of the association for its strategies aimed at improving the Northern economy that is in a dire need of revival.
In his remarks, the president of BOCCIMA, Alhaji Mohammed Rijiya, said they were in his palace to intimate him on the forthcoming Northern Economic and Investment Summit slated to hold next week in Abuja.
The president said the forum would provide a diagnostic platform to understand and analyse the current socio-economic reality of the region.
He solicited for the blessing of the royal father so as to make the conference a success. He said he had already visited stake-holders especially financial institutions, individuals and corporate organisations in the state to inform them of the event.
Rijiya gave assurance that all the problems hindering rapid economic development of the North would be tabled for discussion during the summit so as to proper lasting solution to them.
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