•Nigeria needs functional refineries, not rice, beans palliatives
An industrialist and President of the Aba Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ACCIMA), Chief Jerry Okechukwu Kalu (Oshimiri), has alleged that there is a deliberate policy by the Federal Government to sabotage the socio-economic growth of South-East Nigeria.
The former Chairman of the elitist Aba Sports Club (1926) and pioneer Chairman of Enyimba Football Club, in this interview with OGBONNAYA NDUKWE in Aba, noted that government’s political decisions, policies, actions and inactions have made things difficult for the private sector. These have led to the closure of many businesses in the region as a whole, he maintained.
There seems to be heightening fright among businessmen and women owing to the economic downturn in the country. How are your members and other business people within your area faring?
The ACCIMA is the mouthpiece of the Aba business community and I must tell you that it has not been easy for our businesses to thrive here. I must also let the world know that the superstructures are no longer functional. When I say superstructure, I mean the essential, necessary infrastructure that helps to provide a conducive environment for things to go well in the society. For example, all the major federal roads that connect the city of Aba with other states are in deplorable conditions. These are roads that the Federal Government should look into. For instance, the Aba section of the Enugu/Port Harcourt Expressway links from Obehie, Obigbo to Port Harcourt. We’ve been battling and we’ve been talking. This chamber met the former Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola, complained about our plight. We used drones and snapped photographs and videos to show him the condition of the road. We explained how much money, goods and human beings we have lost on the road through accidents due to its poor condition and pleaded for palliative measures.
He promised to do something about it, but up till the end of his tenure as minister, nothing was done about it. Today, everything is getting worse. A journey from Aba to Port Harcourt shouldn’t take more than 45 minutes ordinarily, but now, it takes almost four hours. We try to look at this as if there is sabotage in which some people want us to abandon the two seaports at our disposal within Port Harcourt. They want to force all of us to the Lagos seaports.
By refusing to do anything about that all-important road linking Aba, our major commercial city to Port Harcourt, the major port city very close to Aba, we see this as a deliberate effort and this has been killing businesses here. Many people from other states, who even want to access Aba for business purposes or go to major markets like the Ariaria International Market, cannot do so anymore. Every aspect of business and commerce is suffering in Aba as people find other routes to go to other places to buy their goods. They are killing our economy here in Aba.
Another point is that of energy, power supply. I don’t understand what the Federal Government is doing. They’re busy now shouting about giving people palliatives of rice and beans and I say to myself, what are these people really thinking? Who and who will eat these rice and beans? This is the wrong show. If their brains have blocked that they cannot reason anymore, they should invite people like us to advise them properly. I don’t understand why a country like Nigeria will export crude to other countries to refine for them and keep crying about not having the dollar to pay to bring it back to sell to us, when we could have fixed our own refineries here and made things easier for everybody. It’s a shame and that’s why I hate to hear these rice-and-beans palliatives of theirs.
The fuel we’re buying above N600 today should be sold for about N120, to help entrepreneurs solve the problem of energy at an affordable rate, to make production easier and reduce cost. The palliative we need is to make petroleum products available at affordable prices. Like the diesel (AGO) we buy for above N800 should be less than N200, to make things easier and people will be happy. What about the major road linking Aba with Akwa Ibom, which is the Aba Ikot-Ekpene highway? The road is gone. Immediately one crosses the Ogbor-Hill bridge and beyond Opobo Junction in Aba, he or she will enter another terrible world towards Akwa Ibom. Yes, the Akwa Ibom section of the road is okay, but we seriously need help in the Aba section to make life easier for commerce. The Federal Government needs to forget whatever it is and help us because our economy is dying fast.
Why is this issue of deplorable federal roads more prevalent in Abia State, because some other states seem to be handling theirs?
Yes, I get your point and I’m happy it is coming from you. A journalist who knows the governors well, both past and present, should be asking them more on their efforts in this direction. However, there is a reason why certain roads were tagged federal roads, which I believe are Trunk-A roads. There’s a reason such roads are called federal highways in Nigeria. They’re very important roads like I said. They’re Trunk-A roads that connect economic and political centres in the country. In fact, they’re national roads that should be done by the Federal Government. Some of these Trunk-A roads will take huge amounts of money to be put in proper shape and it’s not all states that can handle such. However, if I were a governor, I’d meet the Minister of Works to discuss road reconstruction and re-reimbursement, because the responsibilities, are clearly stated. Now, I can tell you that with the kind of federal roads we have in Abia and their current conditions, our state doesn’t have the capacity to handle them.
I can tell you this because I see the analysis and the money they receive. As president of ACCIMA, I know a lot of statistics when it comes to monetary allocations in states. I probe into all these things and I know that we’re not near states like Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Delta. Probably, those in Imo State, handling their own federal roads from the available examples, may have met the Minister of Works and agreed for the governor to handle it before embarking on such projects. I recall the experience the past administration in Abia shared with us about their dealings with the Federal Government on the Old Aba/Owerri Road (Ekeakpara Road). It was everywhere and widely reported how Abia Government tried to fix that road and the Federal Government stopped them. That kind of thing, I don’t understand it.
So, if they could stop the state’s intervention on such a small road, although very important to our economy, what do we now expect when they dabble into major highways, despite my knowledge of the inability to tackle such considering our financial status? This is why I see it as sabotage. If it’s not so, let them come and fix our federal roads, so that commerce can go on here, please. We’ve not done anything wrong. Our people are crying every day. I have to speak out. We’re Nigerians and we pay our taxes. Why are we suffering like this?
Can you quantify what the Aba business community loses because of these roads you’re talking about?
I weep for my people. Our economy is crumbling because of what is happening on our roads. What we’re losing is unquantifiable. On the Aba-Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, we lose goods daily and most times, after spending money to even recover the goods in fallen containers, one ends up getting nothing. Our people who want to move their goods from the port in Port Harcourt, now have to pass through Imo State, turning twice round the whole area through Elele, before eventually returning to Aba. Do you know how much these people spend to move their goods from Port Harcourt through Imo State? When they get here after paying so much money to the drivers, the prices go high and the common man on the streets will bear the brunt and the suffering continues. When people complain about the prices of goods and make their comparisons, nobody looks at these points.
The Eastern Rail Line that could have helped your cause, is being reconstructed and rehabilitated. Are you comfortable with the pace of work going on at the track sites?
How can I be comfortable with such a slow pace? That’s exactly what I was trying to make you understand that whatever concerns us from this part of the country is always delayed by the authorities and powers that be. They’ve not been able to tell us what we’ve done wrong. Who doesn’t know the importance of railways transportation in commerce? Who doesn’t know why the railway was linked to strategic places like from the seaports to other locations where goods are produced? Honestly, I don’t understand what’s happening in this part of Nigeria. That’s why we suspect deliberate sabotage. From what I’m seeing, that railway line from Port Harcourt may not pass Aba. It may not also get to Umuahia, because before they started the work you’re talking about, the train was only moving between Aba and Port Harcourt. It was not going to pass through Umuahia, not to talk of heading to Enugu or Maiduguri. I recall how it was in the past when one could move from here to the North through the railway. But everything has collapsed.
Given the precarious situation of doing business in the South-East, don’t you think the governors should come together now to find a common ground out of the quagmire, and then roll out a coordinated economic development plan that will be of benefit to all the states in the zone?
Yes, they should and I advise them to come together, reason together and think of how to maximize the new law on railway and electricity generation and supply ownership and management. We are aware that so many changes have been made recently. Since States are now free to own railways and generate and distribute electricity, they should come together and plan the funding. Such projects will improve the economy of the South East. They, as government, will even gain more, because those of us who will be making use of such facilities will not do so for free. People will pay to make use of power and rail transportation. For now, we are suffering a lot on poor electric power supply. It has contributed to the killing of our economy in Aba.
When Geometrics Power Company came, they said they’ve come to rescue us, but up till now, we’ve not seen anything. I’d like to plead with Geometrics to help us because, we don’t understand anymore. Our people call me often on the issue with Geometrics. I equally make enquiries calling their management based on what the people are asking me. They’ve been making series of promises, saying everything will be okay this September. Let’s watch and see what they’ll do. Let’s see whether they can do anything. Our industries are dying and we know the state governments can equally do something better about it.
We’re Nigerians and before we became Nigerians, we’re Igbo (Easterners). So, I think our people should take advantage of the new laws and improve on what we have. We should borrow a leaf from the Bavarians in Germany who industrialised their land. We can emulate other economic hubs. This is a time when governors should ignore party differences and come together, to think of what way forward. Lagos has already taken advantage of the railway line issue. This is what I call thinking faster. What does it take for the South-East governors to forget politics, come together in consultations with the people and create a railway that’ll connect all our capital cities and commercial hubs? That will be so powerful. Such railway project should have a link with the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport in Owerri and the one in Anambra (Umueri) and the new Chuba Okadigbo Airport in Abakaliki. It should have a link to the proposed Inland Container Dry Port at Ntigha, Isiala Ngwa, in Abia. It should have links to our major markets like Ariaria, Ogbete, Main Market Onitsha, the International Market in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State. This will attract Diaspora investments and repatriate our people’s wealth abroad back home. It’s not magic. We need to think better. We’re business people and we need our political officeholders to think faster and liaise with the business community to make things better.
Does the Abia State government work with ACCIMA in its annual budget planning? Do you make inputs into the budget on the needs of those in the grassroots businesses?
For the first time since the creation of Abia State 32 years ago, a few days ago, I received a letter from the State Ministry of Budget and Planning, that we, (ACCIMA), should be present at the 2024 budget planning, to see what they are doing. This is the first time such has ever happened.
What’s ACCIMA doing to ensure that the Inland Dry Port at Ntigha in Isiala Ngwa is realised after over 30 years of being on the drawing board?
Since our last meeting with the Nigerian Shippers Council, South-East Zonal Office and other stakeholders, including the concession handlers on the issue, we’ve been told to organise ourselves to meet the governor. We’ve written to all the people concerned to come for the inauguration and I believe they’ll be here by next week. After that, we’ll meet the governor to have firsthand discussion with him and then we’ll take it up from there. I’ll not say that he has not heard about the Dry Port before, although it’s a new government. Good enough, the project will be situated in his domain because he’s from Isiala-Ngwa and if I were him, that’s the first project I’ll take on because it’s important. He’s lucky the project is coming there because 80 per cent of those who’ll work there will come from the area. We’ll meet him and I believe he’ll do something positive about it
Apart from infrastructural decay and call for their repairs and upgrade, what else do business people here yearn for?
Well, the major thing we need them to fix are our roads and electricity. Let me tell you, by now we should have been talking about expansion of Aba commercial city, to separate the industrial areas from residential quarters. We should have met up with Umuahia and Obehie southwards, forming a unique urban settlement, as one sees overseas.
We should be talking about moving from Aba to Umuahia and Arochukwu without seeing it as a cumbersome, serious movement. If we can properly link Aba with Obehie, to Obigbo, it’s already linked with Port Harcourt. We should be thinking about such development and not turning round an old urban centre in Aba, without making any inroad into new areas.
I still consider the roads extremely important because people don’t know what we’re missing when important roads like Obohia, Ohanku and Port Harcourt Roads are bad. Do you know that Obohia Road links straight to Onne, where one of the seaports is located in Rivers State? In the 1980s, I used to take my containers from Onne, through Obohia Road, to Aba. Let government build that road and if they like, put a tollgate. It’s a different route to Port Harcourt, just like the Ohanku Road. Those two roads including the Opobo-Azumini road will ventilate Aba’s economy. So, if all the roads are good, commerce will flourish. You can see what the Second Niger Bridge, built by the outgone Buhari federal government has brought to the communities it passes through. Apart from the infrastructure, human capital development is equally a thing business people believe will go a long way in helping our country. It’s important to create avenues where start-ups can get soft loans, and grants possibly that’ll drive businesses. Create channels where people with ideas will come up with funds that can support such ideas.
With your input as the founding Chairman of Enyimba Football Club of Aba, among others, do you still see sports as a tool for job creation?
Yes. Sports can do more than that. I made Enyimba FC what it is today. I want to remind you what happened when Enyimba was about to go into the Nigerian League, during the era of Late Commodore Amadi Ikwechegh as military governor of old Imo State. We had barely 24 hours to register Enyimba in the league. As of then, Ikwechegh was on leave and the late Gen. Abdulkareem Adisa was in charge as the acting governor. We met him in Owerri with his men. He asked me, Chairman, what do we do about this your football and team? I told him what we needed and he said that the state didn’t have the funds to handle such project and that I should go and disband Enyimba FC. However, because of the passion I have for football, I completely forgot that he was a military officer and the acting governor and said to him that I had a question for him. I said sir, I want to know if Kwara Utility Bombers, Ilorin, has been disbanded because he hailed from Kwara State. He told me, right there: “My friend, I don’t care about what’s happening in Kwara State and that I’m telling you about Imo State.” Immediately, I was about to leave, I thought about all the players and what would be their fate in the labour market. Right there, I decided to take the bull by the horns.
I called my members and said let’s go before the man will realise he actually has the power to disband and not me.
I moved to the Sports Council offices in Owerri, broke the news and they all concluded that Enyimba was gone. But I said no. I asked to know who would go to Lagos on the night bus to register Enyimba FC, that I was willing to pay. The deputy director then indicated interest. I thought he was joking, but he quickly went inside and changed. I called my PA to bring my cheque book from my car. It was a Mercantile Bank cheque. I had to use the ancient land telephone in the office to call the people in charge at the bank’s branch in Aba to know someone was coming. At that time, in the 1980s – 1986 or thereabouts – I later realised I still had a role to play.
So, I drove the man willing to go down to Aba and straight to the bank. We withdrew the money and I drove him back to the park where he boarded a bus, went to Lagos and registered Enyimba for the Nigerian Professional League. I did it with my money and also did a small budget for away and home matches with my money until Ikwechegh resumed from leave. I was always at the stadium with them.
When Ikwechegh returned, his ADC who was a strong football follower, informed me and I rushed straight to Igbere, his village, to meet him. He asked me everything and I told him and he was shocked at my reply to Adisa. He said I was very lucky, as the acting military governor could have locked me up, for questioning him about his home state affairs. When he asked me what we should do, I recommended that Enyimba, as a government establishment, should be scheduled into the budget and that it would last forever. I told him that the issue of giving them money on match days should not be the way to go. He asked how much and I suggested N1million annual allocation then and that was how Enyimba became a serious Football Club in Nigeria, Africa and the world. Nobody should worry about their situation now. I believe the club will be better. They have a new chairman, the legendary Kanu Nwankwo (Papilo). He’ll study everything to make it better tomorrow.