RIVERS State government has released the names of 25 waterfronts in Port Harcourt, which will be flattened when government bulldozers roll into the areas to crumble the shanties in December. In an exclusive interview with Sunday Vanguard in Port Harcourt, the state Commissioner for Lands and Housing, Hon. Chidiebere Okwu-Worlu, said a committee headed by the deputy governor had commenced the census (registration) of those currently living in the earmarked settlements to be pulled down.
But the Wakirike-Bese delegation, which endorsed the demolition of the waterfronts, last week, said it was misquoted and that it never “mentioned demolition throughout the meeting with Governor Celestine Omehia. We only discussed the development of the waterfronts.”
Okwu-Worlu listed the settlements that will be reduced to rubbles to include: Aggrey, Ndoki, Marine Base, Bundu, Nembe/Bille/Bonny, Abuja/Prison, Borokiri, Eagle Island, Elechi and Egede. Others are Afikpo, Timba, Abonnema Wharf, Njemanze, Cemetery, Okrika, Ibadan, Enugu, Rex-Lawson, Captain Amangal Street, Bishop Johnson Street, Dockyard Creek, Ojike and Abba Street waterfronts.
Giving reasons for the demolition and subsequent development, he said: First the land belongs to the government. Most of those people who live there have no certificate of occupancy, none of them has approved building plan. “What they have from us is temporary occupation license and the law says within seven days you can revoke it. But this governor (Omehia) came with a plan and he has decided to give them a long time.
“Omehia said this is our land, government land, from now till December 2007, move out or we resettle you. He is an honest governor. A lot of those people who live there have come to me and said, ‘Please Mr. Commissioner, we know you gave us temporary land to occupy there, but we saw people from 1993 building structures and we decided to do the same thing by building too.’ These are the silent majority while those who talk are the vocal minority and those are the people who believe in taking what does not belong to them. But I can tell you that those parcels of land belong to government.
“We are not a heartless government, which is why Governor Omehia informed them that before we take possession of our land, we would do one good thing, knowing that they are the same people who elected this government, building alternative accommodation for the people of those settlements. We have decided to do a direct purchase of the land at Oroigwe virgin land, along Eneka Road, in Obio/Akpor Local Government. We have our layout, everything planned and the next stage is to move in and to start building.
“We shall build 6,000 houses made up of self-contained apartment, one bedroom, two bedroom apartments. There are other areas where as we develop we may begin to look at three and four bedroom apartments. The beautiful thing about it is that we have recreational centres, churches that are well planned, which they do not have at the waterfronts as well as mosques. The governor told us he feels that amongst those people who live there, there could be governors, presidents and highly placed people in the society.
“But as the waterfronts is now, just go there on a visit, you will weep for the people, because those settlements are not liveable places. Any time the Cable News Network of America, CNN, wants to make jest of the Rivers State Government they show those places and the people’s living condition. This is the first government in history that has decided to take a decision and bring our people to respectable places where relations can visit them.
“Right now, no relation that has comfort visits those people and so this is the first time a practical step is being taken to improve the living standard of the people at the waterfronts and I am saying that we are showing concern, being sincere about the comfort of the people. Those who are fighting us are unelected elites who do not want other people to graduate to comfort, that is how I see it.
Fear of residents: “You and I know that change is a very difficult thing. When we were growing up our parents would tell us to change from bad to good and don’t do this so that you become a good person in the society. But it was not clear to us then, because we would show stubbornness and we will argue with our parents. However, later in life we then discover the reason for the warning of our parents, so I am promising those people that we will give them something that they will cherish for life.
I quite understand their fear and plight, it happens all over the world. The promise here is that this governor knows how he became governor. It is God’s miracle. I have worked with him and I can tell you that he is a very sincere man. I was at the Assembly for eight years and those who know me will testify that I don’t put my name on something I am not sure of. I am a Christian and I am saying this with all amount of sincerity that we mean well for the people of the waterfronts.
Effect of bad boys (criminals): I can also tell you the truth that because of these bad boys who operate from the waterfronts that is another reason for the restructuring of the place.
Social contract: The governor in his campaign period told them of the plan to better the lives of the average Rivers man and the need to provide them with good accommodation.
Owner-occupier basis: The houses they will occupy in the new settlement will not be their own houses. This government knows that most of them cannot buy the houses, so government will subsidize the rentage heavily, just to make them have a sense of belonging. But in the long run, for those who wish to stay there permanently, they could own the houses or return to the newly developed waterfronts.
E. K. Clark told the president things about the settlements� You see, Chief Clark is a man that has paid his dues and he is an elder statesman. I was not brought up to insult people who are old enough to be my father or even elders generally. What I know is that Chief Clark does not come from Rivers State. I wonder where he got his information from and he has never been part of Rivers State. He had been in the old Bendel State before Delta State was created, so he is not from Rivers State.
King Alfred Diete-Spiff: I want to remind you that even in the days of King Diete-Spiff as military governor, he had plans to remove the people from the waterfronts. If you go to Ndoki Street, there are some houses that have been built there. It was a waterfront but today, the place is quite habitable. Let us be sincere to ourselves, if am lying to you, I know I am lying. If you are lying you know you are lying, be honest to yourself.
Natural habitat for fishermen: I am not saying that there are no fishermen living at the waterfronts, those waters are polluted. Secondly, 70 per cent of the people who live there are from Akwa Ibom State. But we shall not segregate on that fact because those Akwa Ibom people or other non-Rivers people pay tax in this state and thereby contributing to this economy. Those people live here and they are part of the census when people were counted through which we got more revenue.
It is only in Nigeria where people still ask you about your state of origin. In developed nations it not so.
Benefit: Of what benefit will it be to the government to deprive the people of their places of residents if not for their own benefit.
Alternative accommodation
The government is not anti-people and so, before we do anything we will let the people know about it.”
Okrika chiefs make u-turn: Leader of the Wakirike-Bese delegation, Senator Tari Sekibo told Sunday Vanguard in an interview: “If government plans to do anything like that (demolition) it must look at the dignity of the people and provide them with compensation and alternative accommodation befitting to them.
Minority fishermen: I don’t know when government took the statistics of the fishermen there and am not aware of the population of them I don’t have the statistics either. We presented our position to the government but we never mentioned the word demolition and we never mentioned the word pulling down of shanties or communities.
“What we said was that if you are constructing a road and structures are on the way of the road definitely those structures must go. Again we said if you want to develop then the people must be taken along, let them understand what you are doing. We told the government about the settlement of the Okrika people in Port Harcourt, that it is an age long thing. We also mentioned the agreement with the colonialists in 1913 and so on. All we have said is that we want development for the people but to go and destroy their houses just like that is unacceptable.”