'Akpabio is the problem of the Niger Delta,' an Ogoni leader said.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has accused the people of Ogoni ethnic nationality of stalling the East-West Road project.
The about 388-kilometre "challenging" road project, which began in 2006 during President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration, is meant to connect the states within Nigeria's Niger Delta region. It has remained uncompleted to date.
"The East-West Road would have been completed under my tenure as the minister of Niger Delta Affairs under the last administration, but some stakeholders, particularly of Ogoni extraction, led a delegation to meet with the then President Muhammadu Buhari to inform him that they did not want the Ministry of Niger Delta to complete the road," Mr Akpabio, a former minister of Niger Delta Affairs, said on 12 July at the Niger Delta Stakeholders Summit 2024 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The Niger Delta Development Commission organised the summit.
Continuing, Mr Akpabio said, "They (Ogoni people) wanted the road transferred to the Ministry of Works at that time headed by my brother, the former governor of Lagos State, (Babatunde) Fashola.
"I was very shocked. We had just secured about N75 billion to conclude, at least from Eleme Junction, when that came. And the president said, 'Well, if that is what you want, so be it.'
"Therefore, the road at that time was transferred to the Ministry of Works, which had no budget that year for the East-West Road. Even the N75 billion we got from Sukuk could not be used."
The Ogoni people are part of Rivers State. They have been among the leading figures in the struggle for economic and environmental justice for the Niger Delta, which has remained polluted and impoverished after decades of oil exploration by the Nigerian government.
"I am saying it is Niger Delta that sometimes brings down Niger Delta," the Senate president said, apparently implying that the action of the Ogoni people was a betrayal of the interest of the Niger Delta region.
"This summit must resolve to abolish the pull him down syndrome," he added.
Mr Akpabio said the Ogoni people were afraid that he was going to "make money" from the road contract.
"They were afraid that the son of Niger Delta was going to utilise the money in case something remains from there so that he would not make money."
He said the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs inherited the project when the work was just eight per cent done but that "no progress has been made till today" since the ministry "stepped out of that road".
"So it saddens me when the narratives, years after, is still about East-West Road that should have been put behind us by now, of course, knowing my antecedent as a man who could bring out water from the rock in terms of transformation like I did in Akwa Ibom (State)," said Mr Akpabio who claimed the Niger Delta region was "lucky" to have him as the president of the Senate.
Ogoni leader reacts
An Ogoni leader, Celestine Akpobari, was present at the meeting with President Buhari and Mr Akpabio over the East-West Road.
The meeting was in October 2022 at the presidential villa, Abuja, he said.
"I led a week protest on that road, which led to the meeting with Mr President," said Mr Akpobari, the national coordinator of Ogoni Solidarity Forum.
"Akpabio is not telling us the truth," he said.
"As at the time, Akpabio was minister of Niger Delta Affairs, that ministry did not have one kobo (for the East-West Road project). They were expecting money from Sukuk. When the money came, they gave Akpabio's ministry only N10 billion and the rest to Fashola's ministry."
Mr Akpobari said the Ogoni people wanted the project taken from the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and handed over to the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) to achieve speed.
He said they were unable to get Mr Buhari to accept their request because Mr Akpabio allegedly frustrated their effort.
"When we left, Akpabio lobbied the road back to his ministry; he did not allow PIDF to take over the road construction.
"Ogoni people booed Akpabio; we did not allow him to talk. It was a shameful thing. (Rotimi) Amaechi was there. The group managing director of the NNPC was there.
"Akpabio wanted to give us money, we rejected it," Mr Akpobari said.
Our reporter told Mr Akpobari that the Ogoni and other ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta would need a cordial relationship with Mr Akpabio, now that he is the Senate president, to attract government projects to their communities.
"Ogoni people don't need him. If, as a minister of Niger Delta, he could not do the road that his people pass through to Port Harcourt, we don't need him. He should go and develop his village," he responded.
"Akpabio is the problem of the Niger Delta because he is not contented with anything.
"Can he tell us the projects he did in Niger Delta, apart from the Ghana-Must-Go bag we saw him carry when he visited Tompolo," he added.
What Buhari said to Fashola and Akpabio
PREMIUM TIMES could not immediately reach the former minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, for his response to the Senate president's remark.
But the Ministry of Works and Housing, in a statement it issued on 4 November 2022, clarified that President Buhari directed Mr Fashola and his ministry to take back the "challenging" East-West Road from the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, 13 years after it was taken away from the Ministry of Works and Housing, signifying that the president may not have been satisfied with Mr Akpabio's handling of the project.
This happened when flooding had destroyed some sections of the road.
Mr Akpabio, in March 2022, during the handing over of the East-West Road to the Ministry of Works and Housing, said the project was at 80 per cent completion.
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Mr Buhari's administration, in October 2022, approved N260.5 billion as a variation to repair the damage done by flooding and for the completion of the various sections of the East-West Road.
The variation covered Section III, which is the Port Harcourt (Eleme Junction) - Onne Port Junction, Rivers State, with N156.7billion, being handled by RCC Nigeria Limited and Section II, Subsection I, which is Port Harcourt - Ahoada, Rivers State, with N64.3billion, being done by Setraco Nigeria Limited as well as Section II, Subsection II, which is Ahoada - Kaiama, Bayelsa and Rivers states, with N144.7billion being handled by the same company, according to the Ministry of Works and Housing.
"Others are Section IV: Eket - Oron Road in Akwa Ibom State in the sum of N64.3B being handled by Messrs Gitto Nigeria Limited and Section IV: Eket - Oron Bypass in Akwa Ibom State in the sum of N76.8B being handled by the same construction company.
"With the approved variation order, the contract sum for the East-West Road project Sections I - IV has changed from N246 billion to N506 billion," the ministry said.
The East-West Road has remained uncompleted a year after President Bola Tinubu took over from Mr Buhari.
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, two months ago, criticised RCC Nig Ltd over the project delay.
"We are very sad with the manner and behaviour of this contractor, RCC. The federal government has paid over N40billion on this project, and not even one kilometre has been completed," Mr Umahi said.
