Dr. Chris Ekiyor, a product of the University of Benin(Uniben), is a former Commissioner in Delta State; the Convener Integration Summit Group, Nigeria; President Emeritus, Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) worldwide and current President, National Association of Seadogs(NAS), Benin City Chapter.
In this interview he talked about the pipeline security surveillance contract that the federal government gave to his kinsman, Chief Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo). He lambasted the government for not acting proactively to address the issue of flooding across parts of the country which he described as a national disaster.
Excerpts:
On the pipeline surveillance contract awarded to Tompolo
I don’t think that I am in the best position to discuss about someone else’s contract. The reason being that that’s a contract. It is not a gift. People prequalify themselves, bid for jobs and they’re given. How the NNPC(Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation) Ltd or the awarding Ministry decides to award such contract is best known to the Ministry. So most of these questions should either be directed to the Ministry or to Tompolo who is the contractor.
But if you ask me whether Tompolo has capacity to do the job. He has proven over time that he has the capacity. That is not in doubt. When he did the global west with NIMASA(Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency) Nigeria recorded over N1.7trillion missing money from LNG alone and a lot of vessels were apprehended for stealing crude. That they’re stealing our crude is not news. It has been on for many years. It is just that the scale got higher and higher and the people got emboldened because of the internal conspiracy between the security agencies, government, the NNPC, the IOCs and the criminal partners that they’ve brought in.
So there is a deliberate policy to divert national wealth to personal gains. This is not done by the so called kpofire people. So, the tough issue before Tompolo is going to be that he is got to deal with the kpofire on one hand and the big players on the other hand. I think he has the capacity. Now, what about the controversy that they say is available in the contract? I don’t see it. Somebody needs to qualify. If NNPC finds the man qualified for a job and they have given it to him, beautiful.
You say why is it Tompolo? Because he qualified himself. There are people who were militants yesterday who are House of Representatives members today who are aspiring to be governors. I said it many years ago. There are militants yesterday who are pilots today, entrepreneurs today, owners of universities today. They have left the stage of arms struggle to the next stage of economic struggle. They have built themselves to the level where they are now struggling to stabilise because my concept as IYC then was to say that you have done enough with the arms. What are you doing to compete with the rest of the world?
You cannot say because you carry arms they should come and feed you. You must qualify yourself to be able to compete. That’s what Tompolo has done. He has built businesses around himself. He has qualified himself. He has been able to attract the Maritime University to his place which politicians could not do. He has been able to attract infrastructural development to his place through power influence. He has been able to attract businesses to his place and he has attracted a contract for himself to help sanitize what the Nigerian state failed in totality to do. JTF(Joint Task Force) is set up specifically for that operation.
The Maritime Navy is there, midship men are there, the operators of the IOC spending billions on security surveillance cameras and all of that are all there. In less than forty days he has started arresting and proving to Nigeria that there are deliberate technical partners siphoning our crude where vessels carrying over 650 metric tonnes can berth and load weekly and take to Tema or Lagos wherever they take it to. It is not something that we should be asking questions any more. I want to close that Tompolo qualifies. If anybody thinks he doesn’t qualify the person can go to court.
On flooding disaster
We expect the government to be on its heels running helter skelter and talking about intervention. This flood is hitting from Baro in Niger State all the way through Kogi State, Edo State, part of Kwara State, Delta State, Anambra State, part of Bayelsa and Rivers States. It is a national catastrophe. It is even as far as Adamawa State through the Benue trove and Lokoja. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes. Federal Highways have been cut off. I am not seeing any helicopter hovering around for national emergency. I have not seen any rescue attempt. People are drowning. I just hear NEMA is trying to do this, government is trying to do this. Speaking grammar.
That’s the kind of thing that the Pyrates Confraternity ask questions about. We ask the question of what should be done, why is it not and what can be done. We find answers. That’s why we are together. We challenge the status quo against moribund convention. It is very moribund for a government to be comfortable and complacent at this stage of our national life. I come from a place that’s badly impacted. So, I am talking about first hand experience. The entire of my building is in water. I cannot remember building a flood plain. I was born there. I am of age and all my life, until 2012, those areas were never flooded. Our forefathers have lived there for hundreds of years. Now, because of the irresponsible nature of governance where they’ve refused over the time to build what you call regulatory dams in our country like Niger and Cameroon have done. And to also dredge the Rivers Niger and Benue that have so far been overtaken by sand in more than 50 percent of its entirety, they have refused to desilt it.
They have continued to award contract of dredging and they have squandered that money illegally. They’re not working with international partners to source for funds to create what you call an international major of dredging to open up the waterways and reclaim land for people. People live in Venice. Venice is entirely water. Lagos is just here. Tinubu and others are reclaiming the ocean to build the Eko Atlantic City. So, why are the federal and state governments not investing our ecological fund to ensure that the River Niger is managed, to do embankment work for communities that are devastated. Are they going to be able to relocate all those communities? The answer is no. I am saying that we need to up our game as a government.
Going forward, it is going to be a matter on the burner of the forthcoming general elections because we (NAS) are taking it up at the Benin Chapter to the centre to ensure that the centre drives it to a logical conclusion. We are going to take it up to the national assembly (NASS) where necessary so that there is a legislation to regular dredging of the Rivers Niger and Benue. Legislation as to the speed with which NEMA must respond to such national emergency. This is a natural disaster. It is not man made disaster. It is not because we built on canals. It is not that the River Niger has overflow its banks and it has no where to put it in. It is overflowing its banks because it is now very shallow. Something has to be done radically and fastly.
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