EXPENSIVE SAND

“All politics are based on the indifference of the majority”

James Reston, American Journalist.

By the time you read this piece, a pile of sand around the Asaba Airport which had been planned for removal at the reported cost of N7.4b to allow President Goodluck Jonathan’s presidential plane to land at Asaba may have been cleared, or may still be there. The pile of sand was adjudged to be an obstacle to the desire of the government of Delta State to have the President land in the State capital, rather than in far away Benin, and then drive to Asaba by road. The President was expected in Asaba for the south south summit on Wednesday last week. As at Wednesday last week, what the State Government referred to as a hill, but for all intents and purposes is a pile of sand, was still visible and present. It may still be there today, either in its original form as part of the natural landscape of the area, or in a slightly modified form. The N7.4b estimated for removing the offensive obstacle may still be there, or may or may not have been committed, in part or in whole. The President did not land in Asaba, or Benin. In fact he did not attend the summit at all. He was represented by the Vice President who, among other things, praised the Airport at Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

If this pile of sand is eventually removed and a plane the size of Mr President’s eventually lands, it may quite possibly be among the most expensive ventures embarked upon by any government. The hill or pile of sand story reminds one of the story behind the legendary Fela Onikolapo Kuti’s album which he named, “expensive s..t.” The story was that Fela was about to be arrested for possession of a rather large wrap of Indian hemp, which he promptly swallowed. The police, desperate to prove he had injested the substance, detained him for days, and duly collected and submitted all his excretions to a laboratory for analysis. Fela said it was the most expensive excretion ever made, and lambasted the Nigerian State for wasting public fund in vain.

The government of Delta State said this pile of sand is a hill that must come down, so that it can expand the runway to accommodate President Jonathan’s plane in time south south summit. Others said the hill is just a pile of sand, the same type of sand that needed to be cleared before the existing runway was constructed in 2007. Experts insist that evacuating the sand alone will not amount to expansion of the runway. Those who know of the history of the airport project say it was initially to cost N12b, which then went up to N17b, then N24b and is now costing more than N40b. There have been flights in and out of the airport the way it is, but not Mr President’s. The people of Delta State, whose N7.4b is planned to be spent have not been told the long-term economic utility of the airport, and you dare not say without being labeled enemy of progress. If a Deltan or another Nigerian had said the President could land in Uyo, or Benin and then take another smaller plane to Asaba, or even go by road to see more of the economic potentials and assets and the people of the south south, he would have been condemned as an even worse enemy.

To be fair to him, one cannot say with any certainty that President Goodluck Jonathan was privy to the decision to spend N7.4b to clear a sandly hill so he can land his substantial presidential plane in Asaba. If he knew of the decision of his state Government and did not advise against it, he is also as guilty of insensitivity as the Delta State government itself. If he did not know that such expenditure was being made within a few days just to have him land in Asaba, it is worse. A nation which has been told that the former Bayelsa State Governor had set new standards in waste and profligacy, including abandonment of some of Mr President’s former projects, and that this new one anointed in Abuja will be better, will not be impressed, by what may appear to be some distance in improving the quality of governance in the south south by Mr President.

As it turned out, Mr President did not land in Asaba, or Benin, or Uyo. In fact, he did not attend the summit at all. He travelled out of the country on ECOWAS matters. So it is legitimate to ask: is work to remove the sandy hill at the reported cost of over N7b going on? Would it go on, and perhaps feed another expansion project, until the runway is large enough to allow President Jonathan’s plane to land in future? In the end, how much will it all cost? Whose plane of the size of Mr President’s will land at Asaba airport when President Jonathan is no longer President?

Or, as most Nigerians will hope, has the project been abandoned? Will the N7.4b now be used to reclaim land so that more Deltans will build homes and have farmlands? Will part of it be used to provide potable water and build rural roads and improve power supply? Will it improve skills acquisition and build more classrooms in a State which is among the poorest parts of the south south?

It is almost heresy these days to tell South South governors that they have a responsibility to spend their comparatively – stupendous wealth judiciously. Niger State governor, Muazu Babangida Aliyu, invoked their full wrath when he hinted that South South States do not spend their undeserved share of the national wealth as they should. Well, it should not be the last time leaders of the south south would hear that having all that oil money tends to produce Iboris, and Alaiyemesiaghas’ and other governors who spend N7.4b to clear sandy hills so the President can land his plane on a particular day. The existence of poverty and crime in some parts of the country is in part a function of unearned wealth and insensitivity in other parts. The South South may not be directly responsible for the crushing poverty in many parts of Nigeria,and its is citizens are entitled to live under its full benefits. Because they are Nigerians, they also need to know that N7.4b will make a huge difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of fellow citizen currently living under the twin effects of terrible violence and depressing poverty.

The grandmaster, Chief (Dr) E. K Clark, as well as other leaders like Peter Orubebe, Ken Gbagi, Chief Godwin Ogbeluo, Dr Cairo Ojugboh, B. K Alasen and Simeon Efenudu among others will find that their job of providing cover for President Jonathan is made much easier if they improve the manner the South South is run. When they tell other Nigerians to back off from the incessant, nationwide critique of President Jonathan’s competence, it should not be because other Nigerians have no right to inquire into how fellow citizens in Delta State and the South South live under their governments.