By Donu Kogbara
LAST Monday, Daily Trust, a newspaper that is circulated nationally but regarded as “Northern”, published a report titled “Niger Delta Gets 86 percent of FG Projects”.

Dr. Reuben Abati, the Presidential Media/Publicity Adviser, swiftly and robustly responded to this allegation by saying that there is absolutely no truth in the insinuation that the Jonathan administration is favouring the Niger Delta region at the expense of other geopolitical zones. Abati pointed out that:

“It is a verifiable fact that the Niger Delta projects listed in the Bureau of Public Procurement publication which formed the basis of Daily Trust’s mischevious report were initiated, not by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, but by his late predecessor, President Umaru Yar’Adua”.

And that “…[these] projects, which were envisioned by the late President Yar’Adua to give full effect to his admirable commitment to redressing the under-development of the Niger Delta, are all contained in the Appropriation Act passed by the National Assembly which represents all sections of the country”.

And that: Daily Trust was guilty of “fanning the embers of disunity and ethnicism”, even though President Jonathan is “fully committed to ensuring equity in the allocation of national resources…”.

Abati also accused Daily Trust of deliberately excluding data that would have discredited its “misleading analysis” and of peddling blatant falsehoods – when it claimed in its report that no Federal Government project had recently been assigned to the North Central zone – which, according to Abati, currently has ongoing Federal Government projects valued at over N1 trillion.

OK, so Abati has done his spokesman job well and I understand why Jonathan is keen to prove that he is not dishing the lion’s share of goodies out to his home zone. And I believe them when they say that the 86 percent story is a pack of lies.

But when I was first alerted to the 86 percent story, I assumed that it was accurate; and my instinctive reaction was: “SO WHAT IF THE NIGER DELTA IS GETTING THE BIGGEST CHUNK OF FEDERAL PROJECTS?!”

This country was almost entirely built with funds that were generated by the oil that flows from our ancestral lands and creeks. And we have paid an extremely high price for providing Nigeria with its main economic asset.

The recent United Nations report on pollution in my native Ogoniland highlighted the environmental devastation that we have endured…the poisonous drinking water, the toxic gas flares, the messed-up soil and waterways that not only undermine our ability to fish and farm but will take 30 years to fix.

And Ogoni is not, by any means, the only part of the Niger Delta that is suffering from these terrible problems. And, to add insult to injury, while a whole host of fat cats from other parts of Nigeria have made endless billions from oil revenue without adding any value AT ALL to national development or their own zones, the average Niger Deltan is pathetically poor and doesn’t have access to basic amenities such as decent schools, hospitals, roads, etc.

So what on earth is Daily Trust bellyaching about?

Even if Jonathan wasn’t bending over backwards to show the world that he is completely objective and not elevating his peoples’ needs above everyone else’s – even if he WAS indeed favouring the Niger Delta – would that be a crime?

In many foreign countries, oil-producing areas are affluent. And I have long been very upset about the fact that there isn’t a single city in the Niger Delta that is a patch on Aberdeen, Houston, Rio De Janeiro, Jeddah or Kuala Lumpur?

Lucrative cash cow

Isn’t there something fundamentally and profoundly unjust about the fact that Abuja is so much nicer than any location in the Niger Delta? Or about the fact that very few Niger Deltans own property in a capital territory that wouldn’t have existed if the Niger Delta was not such a lucrative cash cow?

Jonathan comes from a community in which most indigenes are far from comfortable, despite being residents of the LGA that produced the first barrel of export oil over 50 years ago. And I wish that Jonathan WOULD channel 86 percent of Federal projects into his zone because he is morally entitled to do so.

I wish he would invite top-class contractors to construct a coastal highway and drive other desperately-needed capital projects that are too numerous to mention. I wish he would tell Niger Deltan Governors, in no uncertain terms, that he won’t tolerate mediocrity or failure. I wish he would aggressively develop and promote his zone without feeling obliged to apologise to anyone.

Interestingly, a senior Northerner I know totally shares my view. His exact words to me were: “Nobody reasonable can deny that the Niger Delta deserves to be treated like a special case.

Now that you finally have your own man as President, he should make up for lost time and not listen to those who will try to blackmail and deceive him into treating his people like everyone else.”

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STEVEN JOBS, the Apple boss who died last week, was a truly inspirational personality. While I was watching the TV tributes to his amazing achievements, I heard a statement he made that will forever stick in my mind:

“Live each day as if it was your last day.” I have squandered so many days of my life, but I am going to listen to this fantastic advice and I hope that Vanguard readers will too!

I would also like to say “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SIR” to Desmond Tutu, the South African archbishop and humanist who turned 80 this week and once said that:

“If you stand out in a crowd, it is because you are being carried on the shoulders of others. Nobody can be a Leader without followers”.

Bob Geldof, the British musician and anti-hunger campaigner, once described the diminutive but powerful Tutu as “the smallest giant I have ever met”.

I couldn’t have put it better myself