The Case for a Sea Worthy Port in Tinapa -By Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba

On Apr 20, 2020, at 3:31 PM, Chris Udoh cus.udoh@gmail.com wrote:

Ola, note that I never talked about the aftermath of Tinapa. I was talking about the wickedness against Tinapa by a section of the country from its embryonic days. 

What could be more destructive for a child’s head to be slaughtered on the day of its birth.
Sir, why was customs and other security agencies stationed on the road to attack and cease goods people bought from Tinapa on its first day of opening? What escalated sea pirates all over the waters just by that time and season?

Why did Nigerian government stop second hand cars from berthing in calabar seaports?

Why was Ambode removed after he told federal government to develop seaports in other parts of the country? He violated and unwritten conspiracy and hate against another section of the country!

You  and your brethren need to hear it raw as it is, without an iota of pretence or diplomacy.

Answer these fundamental questions, then we can move on with further discussions.

You saw what you wanted to see in Calabar, you judged the symptoms but forgot to find the disease. You never bothered to find out the root cause of the failure and the anger. All that you know is that someone was angry. And it stock from 2009 till date.

Do you know that one of your brothers, a manager then in Mobil, told us to our face that the reason Mobil cannot employ us is that we are carpenters. According to him “we cannot give technical jobs to carpenters” meanwhile in my family alone there are 5 graduates in different areas of engineering. But a company operating and raping our land has a “Gate” who does not belief that others should survive. If you were part of us, will you begin to quote tutsis?

I don’t care if the tutsis come from Nigeria but this fundamental conspiracy must be acknowledged and corrected

Chris Udoh

On Mon, Apr 20, 2020, 4:21 PM olakassimmd@aol.com olakassimmd@aol.com wrote:

Their greatest enemy are the Igbos, Yorubas and Hausa people are so afraid because of the 1967/70 civil war. They hate the Igbos. They are comfortable if Igbo businessman keeps importing goods from Lagos so that they can closely monitor them, than for Igbo man to clear his goods from Rivers, Calabar or Akwa Ibom. As long as we are still answerable to these Satans, there will be no functional seaport around here except it is owned and run by a Fulani just like One. And they made it more expensive for ships to berth there. Only oil companies are allowed—Chris Udoh

Dear All:

The Rwandan Genocide (April-July 1994) in which over 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were butchered to death by marauding machete- carrying Hutu mobs were preceded by xenophobic tirades, some of which were even less hateful than the above piece in Chris Udoh’s latest diatribe and in his recent previous posts..

However this piece is not about Chris Udoh’s hate speech.

It is a reflection about my family’s only visit
to Calabar-which was both a mixture of hope and what is best about Nigeria and the utter disappointment
about the failure of Nigerians to build, maintain, operate and manage simple, medium and complex projects.

Calabar and Cross Rivers state and the Tinapa Project are a case study about what is good and bad about Nigeria.

The Tinapa Port and the Tinapa International Trade Center projects were compromised
more by the incompetence of the Governor of Cross River State, (Gov Donald Duke) when it was built and the inability of his immediate successor to hold on to or even operate successfully less than 10% of what his predecessor left him.

The failures of these projects have nothing to do with any conspiracy by any other level of government or hatred of the Igbo, Efik or any other ethnic group in Nigeria by any other ethnic groups.
Commerce follows opportunities and where more money could be made. If it was more profitable for the merchants in the SE and other neighbouring states to import and export their goods through the Tinapa Port they would have done so.
Why should the Federal government be pouring in additional funds to dredge a port when
less than 10 to 20% of the available facilities were not being used?

My family and I have only visited Calabar once to attend a 3 day Nigeria Diaspora Day Conference in 2009, which was the first time the event was held outside of Abuja. We moved the event to Calabar purposefully to showcase the beautiful City of Calabar, her historic well preserved monuments including statues to Mary Slessor and many others, the Slave Museum built during the administration of Governor Duke and to promote to the visiting Diaspora and foreigners the nearby  Obudu Estate
and the Tinapa International Trade Centre and Port as the future of tourism in Nigeria.

The best and most lasting memory of our 4 days in Calabar and Tinapa were the friendly and always smiling courteous peoples of Calabar–which remain then and up till now in my own opinion the cleanest and most hygienic jurisdiction in Nigeria. All locals in Calabar from the poorest to the wealthiest, men, women and the children that we met managed to always wear simple attractive and always clean attires. I did not notice a single litter on the streets of Calabar and on our daily commute to Tinapa. Calabar also had the most thriving nightlife with eclectic nightclubs and superb DJs and visiting musicians anywhere outside of Lagos in Nigeria.

Calabar is the only city in which after exiting a restaurant, really a bukka after dinner we were greeted by a plain clothes
young man from the taxation department who after greeting us showed us his ID card identifying him as a government official. He asked whether or not were issued a receipt when we paid for our dinner. He asked
to see the receipt and examined and took a picture of it with his mobile phone. He thanked us for our cooperation, said goodbye and made his way into the restaurant. We could only imagine what he would have been doing immediately after entering the restaurant. I have never received a receipt in a bukka in Lagos or Ibadan where I spent most of my days growing up in Nigeria.

The visit to the Slave Museum was excellent as it was staffed by young, well educated staff most of whom
had had 6 months training in Jamaican and other Caribbean Resorts before assuming their duties.

Unfortunately the above accounts were the end of the good news about our foray into Calabar and Tinapa. The organization and execution of the main business we were in Calabar for left much to be desired. The state government officials who had promised in writing the use of the facilities in Tinapa were unable to deliver on most of their promises. We started the first session about 4 hours late because a senior bureaucrat in the state government had become aggrieved that the permission to use the facilities went over his head and was granted by the officials in the governor’s office.

Even when he finally allowed that the doors to the main conference hall be opened for us he informed us
that he would not consent for the use of several smaller rooms for our breakout sessions because
he does not have enough in his budget for the additional electricity and cleaning expenses that would be required before and after our meetings on  each one of the 3 days of the meeting.
We ended up having to hold sometimes up to 8to 10  breakout sessions in the corners and central areas of the big conference room that could out up to 1,000 attendees at a time without any dividers to muffle the sounds from one session to the other.

The rest of the entire complex of which we managed to use just only about 5% remainded desolate, dusty neglected and deserted.
The Tinapa International Trade Centre was an ambitious project that included in addition to numerous large auditoriums, and many small, medium and large meetings also featured a Performing Arts Theatre and facilities for Visual Artists, Photographers, Musicians and others to use as their workshops and to display their works.
It ended up being an over built elephantine project that failed to attract customers not only from
Nigeria from around the world.

We did not have the time to visit the privately owned and operated Obudu Estate which remains a a highly  rated vacation resort–but we are still looking forward to spending some
vacation time there.

For Cross Rivers State to succeed as a vacation destination, she would need patronage from
visitors from all over Nigeria and around the world. Chris Udoh’s repetitive diatribe and xenophobic
postings are unlikely to help achieve this noble objective.

Bye,

Ola

On Apr 19, 2020, at 1:15 PM, Chris Udoh cus.udoh@gmail.com wrote:

Tinapa was destroyed by a conspiracy by the Yorubas and Fulanis the very day it was opened.

Yorubas ignorantly thought that Tinapa will take away business from Lagos without thinking about  synergy that comes with additional ports in other parts of the country.

The Fulanis believe that having a seaport in this part of the country will empower us against their takeover plans. They believe that seaport will provide a route to bring in arms and ammunitions to defeat them the war starts. They also believe that a seaport will bring in food, so they will not be able to use food blockade to paralyse us in event of war. Surely Fulani still believe they will overrun us one day. Have you noticed that the only functional seaport at Onne is owned by a Fulani. MD of NPA is a Fulani. The comptroller of Customs is a Fulani.

The very day Tinapa was opened was when the Yorubas and Fulanis team up to destroy the project. They sent fierce looking Fulani and Yoruba policemen, customs officers and military to wait on the road to cease everything that people and businessmen bought from Tinapa. The sponsored sea pirates everywhere in the sea, and they maintained a stronghold of conquests.

There was even a time 2nd hand vehicles bathed in Calabar seaports. This was suddenly stopped. Who stopped it and how did it stop? This is traceable to the same conspiracy.

Last year the Fulani NPA MD canceled contracts for dredging of calabar seaport because of the same conspiracy. According to her, N50b was too much to dredge the port. Remember this happens at the same time when N100b was just given to miyetti Allah cattle rearers. It was easy to give N100b to cattle rearers and very difficult to spend N50b to dredge a place that the N100b came from.

Their greatest enemy are the Igbos, Yorubas and Hausa people are so afraid because of the 1967/70 civil war. They hate the Igbos. They are comfortable if Igbo businessman keeps importing goods from Lagos so that they can closely monitor them, than for Igbo man to clear his goods from Rivers, Calabar or Akwa Ibom. As long as we are still answerable to these Satans, there will be no functional seaport around here except it is owned and run by a Fulani just like One. And they made it more expensive for ships to berth there. Only oil companies are allowed.

The unfortunate thing is that our Niger Delta leaders cannot see and cannot understand the wickedness of the wicked against South South.

Chris Udoh

On Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 5:29 PM vincent modebelu vin_modebelu@yahoo.com wrote:
If this was is Dubai or China or Switzerland, they will be crying of VISA denial.
They will sleep with visa 419ers

The Govt should pay attention to this project in cross river.
They should not let it go down.

Other people should come up with a better idea than this state i am seeing here

On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 5:33 PM femi Olajide olajide.femi@yahoo.com wrote:
WS,

We have discussed the technical issues with those ports in the east that makes them uneconomical and commercially unviable.

You just love to repeating your lies despite giving you the reasons for the problems with those ports.

1. Those ports are shallow and cannot accommodate deep hull cargo ships.
2. Silt deposit because of ocean current meant those ports will need regular dredging to keep them open. Thereby making them uneconomical.
3. Shipping lines will only visit ports that are economical and lucrative for them. No eastern port has shown that promise.
4. What people agitating for eastern ports are failing to recognise is that shipping lines and port authorities are commercial ventures, show them the potential to make money and they will follow the money. The eastern ports have not made enough or credible business case for the private sector to come in. 
   Regards,

Femi Olajide

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 4:00, ‘Wharf A. Snake’ wharfsnake@yahoo.com [NaijaObserver] NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com wrote:
Mazi Aduba,

This is evidence of the Yoruba continuing to celebrate the killings of the people of the Eastern Region.  

At the onset of Boko Haram the Yoruba on the board celebrates too that Igbo were getting killed.  I still remember reading Orof Adeboye and Jerome giddy with glee when Boko Haram attacked the Luxury Bus park.
Ejo ni Mushin – Prince 

Agwọ nọ n’akịrịka

monamona ni ologun ngbe, ologun to ba gbe paramole o gbe iyonu.

Sent from my iPhone

The Case for a Sea Worthy Port in Tinapa
We have all had our say about the merits and demerits of a sea port in Eastern Nigeria with our usual curses and defamatory words. The main explainers of why there are not and should not be a sea port in Eastern Nigeria are Mr. Olajide who sees economic and technical reasons and Mr. Udoh who sees political reasons.
Here are some of the reasons against Tinapa and other Eastern sea ports.
Mr. Femi Olajide posits:
We have discussed the technical issues with those ports in the east that makes them uneconomical and commercially unviable.

You just love to repeating your lies despite giving you the reasons for the problems with those ports.

1. Those ports are shallow and cannot accommodate deep hull cargo ships.
2. Silt deposit because of ocean current meant those ports will need regular dredging to keep them open. Thereby making them uneconomical.
3. Shipping lines will only visit ports that are economical and lucrative for them. No eastern port has shown that promise.
4. What people agitating for eastern ports are failing to recognise is that shipping lines and port authorities are commercial ventures, show them the potential to make money and they will follow the money. The eastern ports have not made enough or credible business case for the private sector to come in. 
   Regards,

Femi Olajide
Mr. Udoh’s position is as follows:

1. Tinapa was destroyed by a conspiracy by the Yorubas and Fulanis the very day it was opened.
2. Yorubas ignorantly thought that Tinapa will take away business from Lagos without thinking about  synergy that comes with additional ports in other parts of the country.
3. The Fulanis believe that having a seaport in this part of the country will empower us against their takeover plans.
4. They believe that seaport will provide a route to bring in arms and ammunitions to defeat them the war starts.
5. They also believe that a seaport will bring in food, so they will not be able to use food blockade to paralyse us in event of war. Surely Fulani still believe they will overrun us one day. Have you noticed that the only functional seaport at Onne is owned by a Fulani. MD of NPA is a Fulani. The comptroller of Customs is a Fulani…
6. Their greatest enemy are the Igbos, Yorubas and Hausa people are so afraid because of the 1967/70 civil war. They hate the Igbos. They are comfortable if Igbo businessman keeps importing goods from Lagos so that they can closely monitor them, than for Igbo man to clear his goods from Rivers, Calabar or Akwa Ibom. As long as we are still answerable to these Satans, there will be no functional seaport around here except it is owned and run by a Fulani just like One. And they made it more expensive for ships to berth there. Only oil companies are allowed.
7. The unfortunate thing is that our Niger Delta leaders cannot see and cannot understand the wickedness of the wicked against South South.

Chris Udoh

One obvious thing is that if one is looking for reasons for not doing something one would find sufficient reasons and if the search is reasons for doing something, there will also be sufficient reasons.

When Ferdinand de Lesseps built the Suez Canal (1869) there were many people who did not think it was possible and the construction resulted in the deaths of many men due to malaria. But today the Suez is a very important world water way saving many lives and boosting world trade and economy. Fore sight as opposed to blind sight.

When Wallace was appointed by Roosevelt (1904) to head the construction of the Panama Canal many reasons were also advanced including the inefficiencies of locks to guide the ships. In 1904 engineering was not as advanced as it is today. Like the Suez the Panama is “God Sent” to world commerce and economy. Fore sight as opposed to blind sight.

The technical issues raised by Mr. Olajide are nothing compared to the challenges both de Lesseps and Wallace, renowned civil engineers, faced and conquered. Building a sea port in Eastern Nigeria like Tinapa will not be considered a new world wonder.

But suppose that is the truth, what is wrong with a new world wonder in Cross River Nigeria?

Mr. Udoh’s political position is more credible. But I will not get into politics in this case, for I will rather think about economics and security.

My economic position is that a country is best served by having as many ports as possible. Moving goods by water is generally cheaper than any of railways, trucks, or airplanes. If Tinapa port is developed to its fullest capacity it will open up all the land mass from Calabar to Maiduguri, the entire geographical Eastern Nigeria (not political Eastern Nigeria). Ground nuts, Palm oil, etc., could be exported from here. Same as imports. If a railroad is built from Calabar to Maiduguri, movement of people in the geographical Eastern Nigeria will be enhanced and many development ideas will crop up. Add a highway to the equation.

A nation is as good as its communication lines.

Security is another main reason for the development of ports in Eastern Nigeria. The capture of Port Harcourt by the Nigerian forces was the beginning of the downfall of Biafra. Without a port, it became impossible to bring in food and other necessities, yes including arms.

Now consider the situation if Nigeria is at war and the enemy seizes, Lagos port. Nigeria would be in the same situation as Biafra. This security reason is one that will compel a Tinapa and other sea ports in Eastern Nigeria.

We cannot afford to cut our nose to spite our face.

Fore sight as opposed to blind sight.

Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba
Boston, Massachusetts
May 6, 2020