Oscarline Onwuemenyi
08 June 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Federal Government was promoting a new way of thinking and engagement that would secure the development of the Niger Delta and the entire country, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo said.
He made this known in a meeting with a delegation from Bayelsa, led by Gov. Seriake Dickson, at the Vice President’s Office within the State House, Abuja.
He told the delegation, which included executives of the 3.6 billion dollar Brass Fertilizer and Petro-Chemical Company expected to come on stream soon, that the new approach, called the New Vision, involved active and effective collaboration between government, the private sector and communities.
Osinbajo explained that “this approach will ensure that we finish whatever we start.”
He pointed to effective collaboration with the private sector and cited the NLNG as one instance of such effective collaborations.
He said the new approach was adopted “because only 12 per cent completion rate was recorded in many projects undertaken by Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs in the past years, with the rest abandoned.
“The Buhari administration is committed to finishing whatever we start,” Osinbajo stated.
In his comments, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, described the idea of the Brass Fertilizer and Petro-Chemical company as “a game changer that we need to encourage.”
The minister added that “such ideas have the potential to change the economic model in the Niger Delta.”
Also speaking, the Bayelsa governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, who was accompanied by the Amanyanabo of Twon Brass, Commodore Alfred Diete-Spiff (rtd) and a team of private investors, said they were on a thank you visit to acting President Yemi Osinbajo.
Dickson told state House Correspondents after the visit that the project would create enormous jobs and transform the economy of the state and country and assured the investor of adequate security of the investment.
“We came to discuss issues on the Brass Fertilizer Project billed to take off in Bayelsa. That is a big ticket investment running into billions of dollars. The government team is here, the traditional ruler is here because the project is taking place in his domain.
“We are here to assure the Federal Government that Bayelsa is safe. We are here to assure all the investors that Bayelsa as they all know is one of the safest states in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“We have worked hard in the last five years I have been governor to bring that about. And we have assured them that the state is safe enough for investors to come in to execute this very important project for our country.”
According to Dickson, the investment runs into billions of dollars from the investors while the state will take 10 per cent equity to boost confidence to the transaction.
The governor also thanked the federal government for its new approach to pursuing integrated development in the country based on partnership and collaboration evidenced by the fertilizer plant.
Dickson acknowledged the acting President’s dialogue, on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, with the Niger Delta stakeholders, saying that a new understanding was emerging for stability, security and development in the area.
“It is when we bring big ticket investments, create jobs and we affect the economy and create other legitimate options through which young people can survive that some of the crises that we see here will be addressed.
“And this is a good way to begin to address that and that is why I am here to assure the federal government and the investors and also thank the federal government for the steps that it has taken,’’ he stated.