Americans’ Absence At Summit Angers Oshiomhole

The refusal of two American invitees to show up on Friday at the 2nd South-South Summit in Asaba, Delta State allegedly because of security concerns has angered Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State.

The Americans, former Mayor of New York, Ruddy Giuliani and the 17th Chief of Staff of the United States, Mike Mullen, were invited as guest speakers in the summit going on in Asaba, the capital of Delta State, southsouth Nigeria.

Their expected arrival in Nigeria had coincided with the bombing of ThisDay newspaper and The Sun newspaper offices in Abuja and Kaduna.

An announcement by the session moderator that the Americans allegedly turned back at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos on instructions from the American Embassy that the government of the United States would not be held responsible should anything happen to them at the venue of the South-South Summit, angered Governor Oshiomhole who urged “our Western collaborators to encourage us and not tear us apart.”

While sharing his experiences on the security challenges of the country, he lambasted the West for exaggerating the security situation in Nigeria.

He queried the rationale of foreign oil workers who continue to live in remote villages of the Niger Delta to exploit natural resources for their own gains when at the same time, some of them feel insecure because of minor security breaches.

“If a foreigner thinks Asaba is unsafe, how come expatriates in the oil industry are living in remote villages of Delta State where they are exploiting natural resources for their own profit and gains? I think before Giuliani left the U.S. he was assured of adequate security in Nigeria. For me, this issue of insecurity is being exaggerated by the West and our foreign partners, I am not saying we don’t have the problem.

“The issue is that Nigeria is not the only country that has been visited with such security challenges. When New York was bombed, did people stop travelling there? People were still going there. That did not deter them. But what they are doing now is giving the dog a bad name in order to hang it.

“I think what we need to do as leaders is to continue to persuade our foreign partners on the need to re-think their strategies for the mutual benefits of both partners. Come to think of it, the foreign nationals have stopped coming to Nigeria, but they have not stopped importing their goods into Nigeria because there is a market for their product,” Oshiomole said.

While commenting on issues of investment in Nigeria, Oshiomhole chided banks for their consistent failure to grow and develop small businesses but only going after the mouthwatering interest rates for huge deposit from big customers, adding that a potential investor would not want to invest his N100 million for instance if he knows that he will get an interest of N15 million by depositing such amount of money in the bank.

“This will not encourage investment. To encourage investment we do not need to borrow foreign models on economics but we must look inwards to find solutions to our peculiar challenges in the area of insecurity,” Oshiomhole said.

In his contributions, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State blamed the federal government for the responsibilities it shoulders, as a result of which it cannot provide sufficient percentage of development and urged it to offload the excess burden of responsibilities that could be handled by states and local governments.

“We must agree that the federal government must shed its excess weight and focus more in providing security,” Akpabio said, adding that there was need for a new revenue formula that will enhance the federal government’s activities.

—Jethro Ibileke, Benin City