OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI ON THE URGENT NEED TO DREDGE THE ESCRAVOS BAR MOUTH

Your Excellency,

Let me start by commending your unflinching determination to fight the Boko Haram insurrection and corruption in all sphere of our economy, particularly the on-going sanitization and repositioning of the oil industry through the visible restructuring in the NNPC.

I must also not fail to thank your Excellency for appointing one of our own, Delta born Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu as new Group Managing Director, GMD of NNPC. This has strongly proven the fact that your administration is poised to appoint the right caliber of persons to various positions in the MDAs no matter which part of the country he or she hails from.

Mr. President, the appointment of a new Managing Director of Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA, Mr. Habib Abdullahi  by your administration is also noteworthy of commendation. It is on this premise that I want to appeal Sir that you as a matter of urgent economic and social necessity direct the management of NPA to set up machineries in place for the dredging of the Escravos Bar Mouth in Warri South-West Local Government Area, Delta State.

Information within our disposal indicates that contract had been awarded for the dredging of the Escravos Bar Mouth by the NPA in the past, but shockingly no proper dredging has been done in the last 20 years despite several complains made to various government agencies such as NPA and previous Federal administrations on the negative cost implication of the current state of the Escravos Bar Mouth as it affects Independent Petroleum Marketers who make use of that route. This is even more heart-broken, considering the huge cost of importing Petroleum Products via Warri and Port -Harcourt waterways which has been tagged War Zone. Sir, it might interest you to know that only occasional minor sweeping work had been done by oil giant, Chevron in the last decade as a result of the huge vessels the company used during the construction of Escravos Gas To Liquid Project, EGTL at Escravos.

The non-dredging of the Escravos Bar Mouth by NPA, NIMASA and other relevant government agencies in the last two decades is frustrating business and economic activities in the Niger Delta, as independent Petroleum Marketers and other investors who make use of the channel in the transaction of their businesses often face monumental economic loss. Their vessels are daily grounded and the Independent Petroleum Marketers are compelled within their limited resources to hire other vessels for transshipping of products, thus incurring monumental loss, while demurrage is continuously paid to vessel owners at the expense of independent Petroleum Marketers. It is pertinent to note that from last week Friday, August 21 through Monday August 24, no Independent Petroleum Marketer was able to ship-in products through the Escravos Bar Mouth due to blockage by already grounded vessels.

Your Excellency, the implication is that investors run at a loss, workforce is downsized and the price of petroleum products are marginally increased, thus impacting negatively on the consumers with its attendant effect on the larger society.

Mr. President, apart from the effect the shallow Escravos Bar Mouth is having on Independent Petroleum Marketers, experience and engagements with stakeholders also reveal that it is discouraging investors in the non-oil sector and the dream of the $16 billion Export Processing Zone, EPZ Project in Ogidigben, Warri South-West Local Government Area may not be achievable if the present state of the Escravos Bar Mouth is not immediately addressed.

Mr. President the sorry state of the Escravos Bar Mouth has contributed immensely to the near comatose of the Nigeria Ports Authority, Warri which ought to serve would-be importers and exporters in the South-South, South-East geopolitical zones and other parts of the country, thus putting undue pressure on the Lagos Port.

Your Excellency, as you painstakingly work towards diversifying our economy from over-dependence on crude oil, it is my humble appeal once more that you immediately direct the management of NPA to facilitate the dredging of the Escravos Bar Mouth so as to compliment your genuine efforts in job creation from non-oil sector and opening our economic frontiers for more foreign as well as local investors to do business in Nigeria.

Thanks in anticipation

Chief Ayirimi Emami

The Ajuwaoyiboyanmi of Warri Kingdom

A.K.A. Akulagba

kesvent@gmail.com, kesvent@yahoo.com

08064917181

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