ON January 4, 1966, the
then Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (1912-1966) commissioned
the Onitsha/Asaba Bridge popularly called the Niger Bridge. It was his
last engagement outside Lagos.
The Bridge which was built by
the British, cost £5 millions at that time. The then Prime Minister was
accompanied to the commissioning ceremony by the
then Federal Minister of Works and Survey Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu
Shagari (90) and the then Premier of Mid-Western Region, Chief Dennis
Chukwudi Osadebe (1911-1994) a poet and journalist who was also from
Asaba.
The then Premier of Eastern Nigeria, Dr. Michael
Iheonkura Okpara (1920-1984) who was from Umuahia in the present Abia
State and who at 39 was the youngest premier at that time, boycotted the
ceremony. The ceremonial governor of Eastern Nigeria at that time, Dr.
Akanu Ibiam (1906-1995) from Uwanna, Afikpo, in the present day Ebonyi
State also boycotted the ceremony. There was a political crisis at that
time between NPC and UPGA. The three men, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa,
Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Chief Osadebe and other officials paid toll on the
bridge. Eleven days later, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was murdered.
Now 48 years after the ceremony, the President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan has flagged off the construction of another second bridge to
link Asaba with Onitsha. The second bridge is to cost 200 billion naira
and would be constructed by Julius Berger AIMS Consortium under the
Design, Finance, Build, Operate and Transfer Model. The design alone
cost N325 million under the Public Private Partnership Policy.
The Niger Bridge has obviously become old with frequent complaints by
motorists and experts who believe that regular vehicular traffics and
heavy duty trucks amongst others and indeed old age now cause the Bridge
to become a trap. Most of the nuts and bolts used by the British
colonial government cannot be found anywhere in the world because they
have become obsolete.
That another second bridge is being
constructed forty-eight years after, speaks volumes about our National
Planning. Asaba and Onitsha are not just ordinary cities. Onitsha became
an important trading port for the Royal Niger Company in the mid-1850s
following the abolition of slavery and with the development of the steam
engine when Europeans were able to move into the hinterland Trade in
palm kernels and palm oil which was going on the coast of Bight of
Biafra since 12th century was now moved upwards and other cash crops
also boomed around this river port in the 19th century.
Onitsha
has become today a big commercial, educational and religious centre. It
ranks with Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano as commercial nerve centres of
Nigeria. Regrettably, Onitsha is a textbook example of the perils of
urbanisation without planning or public services. It can boast of a
brewery valued at $110 million, a Catholic Cathedral as large as the one
in the Vatican in Rome and an Anglican Church as beautiful as that of,
Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos. There is a reason for that.
The Anglican was the first missionary in Onitsha in 1857. Later came the
Catholics in 1884. As of today there is a competition for audience
between the Catholics and the Anglican in Onitsha.
When General
Ibrahim Babangida (73) created Delta State - the Big Heart on August
27, 1991 and named Asaba the capital, there was demonstrations in some
part of Delta State. He was alleged to be partisan because his wife
Maryam Babangida (1948-2009) was from Asaba. Only General Babangida can
defend himself on that. But if a wife cannot influence certain decisions
of her husband, not all decisions, then that wife is not fit to be a
partner in a marriage.
Of all the powers in the world none is
more powerful than pillow talk, that is, night talk between a wife and a
husband. The power of a woman is unlimited. That is the way it has
been, and that is the way it will continue to be. And as we all know,
General Babangida was a loving husband until his wife died in a Los
Angeles hospital, California on December 27, 2009. As for Asaba, it is
not just a city. The city has been important long before Maryam
Babangida was born. As a matter of fact, the naming of Asaba as Delta
State capital has today become a big burden to the good and highly
industrialised people of Anioma with nine local governments out of 25,
in their quest to have their child as governor of Delta State. It is to
be hoped that one day, Asaba will be accepted by all and sundry in Delta
State, as their own state capital.
Asaba is strategically
located on a hill at the Western edge of the River Niger. The historic
River Niger is a trans-African link beginning from western, eastern and
northern Nigeria through the River Niger from the north and via the
Asaba Niger Bridge, an east west link and a Nigeria landmark. Asaba lies
approximately six degrees north of the equator and about the same
distance east of the meridian; about 100 miles north of where the River
Niger flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Asaba occupies an area of about 300
square kilometres. It maintains an average tropical temperature of 90
degrees during the dry season and an average fertile rainfall of six
inches during the rainy season.
Asaba was once the colonial
capital of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate. It was founded in 1884. It
hosted the Royal Niger Company, which the British authorities set up to
stimulate trade and the exportation of goods to England. That company
has grown today into the UAC Nigeria PLC. Its traditional ruler is the
Asagba, Dr. Joseph Chike Edozien of American education background.
Be that as it is, we have not given special favours to the people of
Asaba and Onitsha or indeed the whole of South East and South South, if
we today construct a second bridge to link Onitsha and Asaba. By now
there should have been three bridges on that river. Also by now we
should have started the construction of a standard bridge to link
Agenebode in Edo State to Idah in Kogi State, two towns overlooking each
other. Vis-à-vis there should have been four bridges across Lokoja and
same to Jebba. If anything happens to the Jebba and Lokoja bridges, the
North will be cut off from the South.
We can build bridges, construct roads, hospitals and many more if we want to and that is if we reduce the cost of governance.
Our own democracy must rank one of the most extravagant and exorbitant
democracy in the world. Our Economy cannot sustain it any longer. If we
are to uphold and endure this democracy then we have to sacrifice the
execution of capital projects inclusive of construction of bridges. Our
prodigal and spendthrift attitude is killing the economy and hurting our
chance of survival. Imagine how much we are spending on the National
Assembly, National Conference Presidential fleet, seminars, oil
subsidies, presidential and gubernatorial aides, etc.
Apart
from insurgency which we can't find solution to in spite of external
help, the greatest danger to our democracy is the high cost of
governance. We can't continue this way any longer.
Charles
Loius Secondant, the Baron de Montesquieu wrote that "the deterioration
of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it
was founded", while Confucius wrote: "In a country well governed,
poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed,
wealth is something to be ashamed of".
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