Nigeria: Young Governor Re-Brands Niger Delta

AllAfrica
Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, the Governor of Nigeria's Rivers State.
13 February 2009
interview

Washington, DC — Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, the governor of Nigeria's Rivers State in the oil-rich Niger Delta, has vowed to transform his state from one marred by violence to one marked by development.

Amaechi, who is 43 and has his own Facebook page, notes that the average age of a governor in the Delta region is 45. He believes that with youth will come change, he told AllAfrica in an interview on conditions in the Delta and his plans for the state. Excerpts:

How do you see the situation in the Niger Delta?

The Niger Delta area requires total re-branding because what is on the ground is not what is being portrayed. Things have started changing at a very high magnitude. All the young governors are pushing things in a different manner. Almost all of us governors in the Niger Delta have started making things change.

The criminal activities that were taking place in the Niger Delta are no longer as rampant as they used to be. Kidnappings are no longer a daily occurrence. They occurred due to the lack of an enforcement of laws. The laws are there, but the government didn't see the need to [enforce them] and people were doing anything they wanted to do with impunity. When some of us took over they said,  "Negotiate with them." I said that I negotiate with those who have ideological intentions. I didn't see anybody among those who claimed to be fighting for the Niger Delta with any ideology.

How much of the violence would you characterize as criminal activity?

Currently, 80 percent. But there are genuine, very genuine people who are not involved in kidnapping, they are not involved in killing and shooting people but are involved in the struggle for the emancipation of the Niger Delta people. There are even among the Ijaw young men… some who are there for the injustices perpetrated against the Niger Delta people, but they are being overtaken by these criminal elements. So we really need to eliminate the criminal elements for us to see the genuine activists.

How have you been trying to improve conditions?

We believe that one way to transfer ourselves from our own injustice is to ensure that you look at the quality of education, infrastructure, the availability and quality of teachers, the training and re-training of teachers. Education is an essential element in the progress of our people, because, at the end of the day, there is a competition in the committee of states and if you are not properly educated you cannot compete. And you the governor will have visited injustice on your people if you don't address that.

The law says that primary education is the responsibility of the local government council. But what we've done because of the incapacity to develop that area, we've taken it over from them. We are currently building 250 primary schools. Before the conclusion of the construction of those schools we intend to train and retrain teachers and hire more teachers.

Is primary education free?

Primary education is free. This free education they used to have in Nigeria, instead of calling it tuition-free education, they call it free education. You go to school, you don't pay school fees, but there are no desks, there no teachers, no books, no library, no facilities, and they call it free education.

Now, when I say free education, I am talking about the fact that I will provide libraries in the primary schools, I will provide computer education, I'll provide teachers, I'll provide desks. We are also planning to provide uniforms. We feel by June we should be able to complete the construction of 250 primary schools, then we'll begin to equip immediately. By September when [students] resume for the next term, they should be able to see all this in place with teachers.

What are you doing in regards to health infrastructure?

Right now we are building 150 primary health care centers. In Africa, construction is always going on; maintenance is the problem. I will outsource the maintenance. People make a lot of money from running those health centers so service deliveries may not be as expected, but if you outsource it output will determine the input. That's my thinking but I have to call the doctors and ask them their view. Maybe at the end of the day it might not be a good policy but I'm compelled by the system.

What about the plan beyond?

We are looking at expansion, and we decided to provide for it in the budget, but that was before this American financial crisis and our resources began to dwindle. The contemplation now in the executive council is, "Oh, Mr. Governor, you say it is commercially viable so why can't the private sector invest?" It is one of the things we will try in the market to see if we can get investors. If we don't, it will force us to fund it a bit this year and a bit next year.

We are also doing a 1,000-bed hospital for 150 million dollars and we think that before the end of next year we should also have done some secondary health institutions, what we refer to as general hospitals in Nigeria – maybe just five or six of them to serve as referral points from the primary health centers. We believe that most of the ailments that take people to the general hospital are ailments that can be cured, so anything that transcends the capacity of the health center will then be transferred to the secondary institution.

Tell us about the syringe factory in Port Harcourt, which is being established by the Pan African Health Foundation.

I don't think Nigeria has more than one or two. Our syringe factory has a very low capacity now because it is producing 166 million syringes, but for us to break even we need to produce at least 800 million syringes and the implication of that is that we have to expand the facilities. [It's] a big sum of money.

As a governor watching the oil prices fall over the last six months from  $140 to $40 a barrel, how does that affect your ability to plan the budget? I know you have a free pre-natal program in Rivers State. Will a program like that suffer?

No. Those are little problems. We can fund that until we leave office. The bigger problem to solve will be the construction of a new city. We are about to build a new city because Rivers State has always been a one-city state – Port Harcourt.

Currently they want us to develop the new city because we have a new city master plan. The master plan also incorporated the old city because we needed to redevelop it. So that to a great extent will suffer because this year we have budgeted 50 billion naira for it instead of the 100 billion that was expected.

The other thing that will be affected is infrastructure development. We have to do a lot of roads but the question is where are the resources? But we are moving ahead hoping that something will happen. What is also saving us is that we were able to save 104 billion naira last year.

You had a surplus?

Yes. Another thing that may be affected is a ring road. Our contemplation was that this year we should have funded the ring road with 50 billion naira. It's about a 150 billion naira for the 125 km of road with two cable-stayed bridges. Then, 120 billion naira was $1 billion, but $1 billion now will be 160 billion naira, which is quite huge. So you can see the damage that's happening to us.

Another thing that may suffer may be the monorail for the old city. The monorail will suffer because we were to fund $188 million this year, so we said let's slow down. So we are giving them only 11 billion naira which is about less than  U.S. $50 million to fund that.  It is a big problem.

Have the criminal activities in the Delta region affected foreign direct investment?

Not to the scale that it was when we came in. Now we are beginning to have some South Africans coming to invest – two hotels are being brought in by South Africans. There is investment in the oil palm company that was abandoned. A South African firm wants to come in to take it over for 25 years.  Some South African firms want to build an Aloe Vera cream plant.

It is gradual. One attraction is that no matter what you do, oil is oil. We are the only part of Nigeria that produces oil so if you want to invest in oil you have to come this way no matter how hot it is. You have to grab the heat and grab the money.

There is a Ukrainian firm that is taking over waste management in Rivers state. The sewage treatment plant we are building is going to be built by a German firm. We have Julius Berger [an international construction company] in Port Harcourt. We have an Indian firm that just took over water about four days before I arrived.

About the environmental concerns: what are some of the things you can do to try to address the oil spills and gas flares and their consequences?

A state governor is limited. Things associated with oil are on the federal list so you may not have power to anything in that regard. The constitution says that where there is conflict the federal law will override the state law.

But that does not mean we are ignoring the environment - absolutely not. We have a ministry of environment that looks at the different standards by which companies are allowed to operate. From time to time they've caused a meeting to happen between Shell and the state government. For instance, we took the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to court over a community where if you take a shovel and excavate the soil you will see oil coming out. That community is quite close to the refinery that belongs to the company. So we believe it is as a result of the refining of the crude in that place – they can't even drink water. We are supplying them water from Port Harcourt. [The case] is still pending. We did that because we had met with them, we had sent for them, but they were being a bit [difficult] about it so we went to court.

Are you having disruptions in oil production in your state?

It used to happen, but in the past six or seven months, no, because we took care of that. Remember, I talked about the implementation of the law. So we took that very seriously. And in most of the Delta states, we've been able to reduce it. I say the word "reduce" not because there have been any acts of disruption but because the oil companies don't believe. They have to get back their confidence that what they are seeing is permanent. So if anyone tells you that these criminal activities are affecting oil production the person is not 100 percent correct. What one should rather say is that it is affecting investment from other parts of the world because of the criminal kidnapping.

And how are you producing your power?

Currently we are sharing between what we are producing through gas turbines and what the federal government can give through the Power Holding Company of Nigeria. But we believe… we will be able to produce up to 300 or 325 megawatts of power – all gas. It's a cheaper source of energy, and cleaner. By June we will be the first state likely to be self-sufficient in power. And that is essential to kick start economic development.

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