Who is Afraid of Another International Seaport in the South-South or South-East?

I am not a Ndigbo. I am a Nigerian of Esan extraction. I am a patriot and a law-abiding stakeholder, endowed with equal rights and responsibilities as any other Nigerian, in the affairs and progress of my beloved nation-state, Nigeria. I am not a trained writer or a Journalist by profession. I am a public policy pundit and I write policy statements. Most often, I write or comment on issues that are not even on the news. And most often, does not make sense to many people. In that category was my last December 07, 2020 coverage of the gridlock on Apapa Wharf in Lagos and why the power behind the scenes in Nigeria is seemingly opposed to opening up the Southeast Seacoast of Nigeria to the outside world. Today, and for the first time, courtesy of my good friend, Mr. Alfonsus Nannan, I am seeing another Nigerian addressing the issue. Economically, it makes sense, and I am sharing the opinion that you are about to read not because I am a Biafran sympathizer or IPOB wannabe, but because I am a Nigerian who believes it is high time we jettison ethnic and religious factors in the approval and allocation of projects anywhere in Nigeria. We are either one country or we are not. Happy reading and watching. 

Please, find below, some excerpts from "Nigeria: Overcoming the Uncomfortable Truth in the Search for Economic Development. (The Ultimate Solution)" December 07, 2020.

"Our economy has long outgrown the capacity of the Apapa Wolf and the Tin Can Island Sea Port. How come we've never considered it economically prudent to build other Tin Can Island capacity Ports at Ugheli, Warri, Yenagoa, Onitsha, Port Harcourt, Calabar, or Bakassi Peninsular in other to decongest the Igunmu/Apapa/Mile2 axis of Lagos? Just for a second, forget about the job opportunities and the expansion of our revenue base from such new ports, and dwell on the traffic gridlock at Apapa."

"Also, it is faster and more economical to move goods from Akwa Ibom or Bakasi Penisular to Adamawa, Gombe, Yobe, Borno, Bauchi, Taraba, and Benue States than from the Apapa Wharf. The economic advantages of that link to the North-Eastern states and Nigeria's GDP cannot be quantified in monetary terms. Then, why are we lackadaisical in opening up Nigeria to the rest of the global community through the South-South coastline?"

"Or is this a conspiracy of the Yoruba and the Hausa/Fulani to undermine the economic strength of the Igbos and the Niger Delta? It is more than punishing the South-South and Southeast or undermining their economic strength."

"The reason for not doing it is not for lack of bold visions or the financial wherewithal to manage additional international Seaports. But control. Do they have the manpower to manage the volumes of commerce coming in and out of Nigeria via the South-South corridor? The question is not whether Nigeria has the management expertise to run the volumes of trade, immigration, and Customs formalities. But whether the North can generate the number of Customs and Immigrations senior staff required to head the sector. They don't."

"If you have three or more Tin Can Island capacity Sea Ports on the South-South coastal lines, comes the demand for qualified Immigration and Customs Officers to man the ports. They don't have the trained manpower or a ready pool of college-educated Northerners for the top positions. If they lack the manpower, invariably they would lose hold or control of one of the greatest revenue-earning establishments in Nigeria. If Lagos is all that their oligarchs and commission agents can dominate and control, good enough for Nigeria. And they have done that over the last 50 years."