By Sonny Atumah

The Federal Government has initiated plans for the commencement of sustained economic development in the Niger Delta. The deal which the region yearningly desires would bring lasting peace in the zone. The estimated US$20 billion investment known as the Gas Revolution Industrial Park, GRIP would be located at Ogidigben in Delta State.

Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo met with potential investors on the project at the Presidential Villa last Monday, restating the Buhari administration’s commitment to the development of the Niger Delta.

He announced that the government has put in place a Steering Committee to be chaired by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources. To Osinbajo, the administration was unwavering and ready to make several other commitments that would be accomplished.

The project plan presented by the consortium to the Acting President would encompass contributions from global investors and Nigeria in a public-private-partnership, PPP. The park would sit on 2700 hectares with efficient and effective services from public utilities.

The administration’s move to tackle the problems of development in the Niger Delta is laudable. One had consistently underscored the point that development areas and not warisons for cannonades are needed in the Niger Delta region. One has had the privilege of visiting many oil producing countries and development is key; whether in the United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar or elsewhere.

The cessation of hostilities by militiamen especially on energy infrastructures Nigeria is commendable as Nigeria needs peace dividends. More downstream investments are needed to be in the group of 20 nations, G20 soon. The tax free zone project would have fertilizer, methanol, petrochemical and aluminium plants that would generate 250,000 direct and indirect jobs. But we have had similar projects fully funded by government: National Fertilizer Complex, Eleme Petrochemical Company, Aluminium Smelter Company, ALSCON etc. were all on the block.

As reported the consortium presented the plan to government. Have we considered the inputs of relevant Nigerian professionals in the built environment as necessary in the 27 square kilometre metropolis? We must come to grips with project executions and avoid the exclusion of qualified indigenous people in consultancies.

Much as we know our inadequacies, in inviting investors, primary assumptions should be based on our ability to encourage our professionals to understudy the expatriate experts. Our professional bodies should address their members technical and managerial challenges.

We cannot develop if our public buildings construction works are done by foreigners. We have consistently been put in disadvantaged positions in project executions. The designs and construction works in the three arms zone in Abuja hardly had Nigerian inputs; foreigners still furnish and maintain properties of our seat of power.

We hope materials from steel to wood would not be imported as it had been in most other constructions. The steering committee must ensure we do not have a new Ogidigben that is not part of Nigeria. One is not a securocrat but as a Nigerian one has a genuine security concern.

In the recently approved Keystone XL TransCanada oil pipeline from Alberta, Canada to Nebraska, United States, President Donald Trump’s memoranda signed on the revival and completion of the project insisted that pipeline companies buy materials from the United States. The steel to build the project should come from American manufacturing sources, rather than Canada or India (with better steel), and the United States should have some form of profit sharing in the deal.

In June 2016, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu the roadshow delegation leader, claimed he attracted about US$80 billion in a series of memoranda with the Chinese.

It is yet to be understood why the Chinese Department of International Cooperation, DIC of the National Reform and Development Commission, NDRC was made to fashion a blue print for would be investors, develop an overarching master plan for Nigerian oil and gas, detailed feasibility studies of current status of the existing infrastructure in the industry and develop bankable projects that would attract Chinese investors on the government-to-government platform.

The Ogidigben steering committee which Kachikwu heads should ensure the owner-operators of GRIP see the Niger Delta and indeed Nigerians as critical stakeholders to avoid the pitfalls of the past.

We should have a clear-cut investment policy that shows how best to invest in Nigeria. Being a private driven investment we must show character in universally accepted norms for investments, infrastructures, granting permits, investors protection, enforcing contracts, getting credit, paying taxes, crime and corruption, for the project to become a reality.