Cyril Hart, former CTC Chairman,  Bonny LGA

Bonny Island, the gateway into Nigeria’s south eastern economic hub, host to high profile economic behemoths, NLNG, Shell, and Mobil, remains underperforming in terms of its development profile. Findings reveal that the community’s enormous tourism and economic potentials remain largely untapped thus stalling the multifaceted development that should have been its lot.

But new developments give hope of the island finding its feet again such as the Bodo-Bonny road project which would link the hitherto shrouded island to the upland and thus unleash vast opportunities for investment. Also at the verge of commencement is the LNG trains 7 and 8 and the deep seaport mooted by the federal government recently. Charting a roadmap to leverage the inherent opportunities in these developments remains the challenge as the community’s stakeholders seem at a loss on how to forge a functional synergy to pursue these prospects.

On hand to analyze these challenges was Cyril Hart, the transition Chairman of Bonny Local Government Area, who spoke to Kristina Reports editor-in-chief, Godswill Jumbo. He acknowledged that the challenges were surmountable and the potentials of the community were unlimited but concerted efforts need to be made to actualize the dream of making Bonny Island, a dream Dubai. 

You just left office in a blaze of glory kind of…what are your take-homes as per how political leadership could impact development?

Leadership is about service and service is development. If leadership does not bring about development then it is not leadership but self-serving. Leadership at all levels must translate to quality of life for the people. And that was the guiding principle of my little time as Caretaker Committee Chairman of Bonny Local Government Area. But, overall, leadership starts with personal development because you can’t give what you have not ingested.

Some think Bonny has top notch economic potentials that can make it another Dubai, do you agree with this and what do you think should be the way to go?

Yes, I strongly believe that the mini Dubai dream of Bonny is possible. But if you look at the Dubai story; it was resource and ideas driven. Simply put: using your resources to fund your ideas. The story of Dubai is a story of excellence in leadership. Oil money was divested to tourism. So first, we must have the resources then think of divesting it to areas of comparative and competitive advantage. Development and success doesn’t happen by accident. Thinkers cause them to happen.

So, which resources are we considering here?

I won’t pretend about this; we don’t have enough human resource to make Bonny a Dubai. Do we have enough money to make it happen? The answer is also no. The mini Dubai talk about Bonny was mentioned in the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) and Bonny Kingdom to develop a masterplan of mini Dubai of sorts. This plan will be funded by NLNG at N3 billion annually for 25 years. So, you see we never heard about mini Dubai until we heard of N3 billion. Therefore, the only prospective resource is funds. And like the Bible says: “Money answereth all things”. It means with money we can develop the human resources that we lack to make Bonny the Dubai of our dreams. So we will do two things simultaneously: human capacity development and infrastructural development. And that will happen when we begin to access the N3 billion.

But with the funds hanging due to legal issues, what do you advise in the interim?

I advise the funds should be “unhanged”. Dubai used oil money to fund the ideas. We need the funds.

There are concerns that Bonny isn’t ready for the expected impacts of the Bodo-Bonny road. Do you share these concerns?

The road itself is a greater concern for every good thinking Bonny person. The concern of not having the road supersedes any concern on impact. You talk about mini Dubai. Do you know the first consideration to building a city? It is gateway: access. Dubai first built a seaport and airport to ensure access. No safe access to investor, no mini Dubai. Therefore the road is a critical infrastructure to building the mini Dubai dream of Bonny.

Some think there should be some structures in place to manage any unsavoury fallouts like security challenges.

Every project has an environmental impact assessment (EIA), and it contains the impacts and mitigations. So, I would expect the Bonny-Bodo road project too has an EIA that would address those security concerns and a lot more. Let me also add that Bonny needs an economic summit and a discussion on the way forward for the NLNG train 7 project to right the wrongs of previous projects.

Let’s talk politics. Recently, several National Assembly lawmakers defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to your party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) few days ago. What does this portend for the polity ahead of the 2019 elections?

For me, the defection was even belated. And I expect more persons. But the greater defectors are the Nigerian populace. Nigerians have rejected the Buhari led federal government long before the NASS defection. And the populace is ready to change the government at the centre.

Why do you say Nigerians have rejected the Buhari government?

The Buhari government came with a lot of promises to better their lives. Three years after, hunger, poverty and death remains the legacy of this government. Nigerians cannot endure another four years of this administration. Over 10 million jobs lost, none created in three years, inflation of goods and service. And ultimately death by Boko Haram and the killer herdsmen. Why will they vote for their own death in 2019? Nigerians are not stupid. Even some APC members will not vote Buhari. They may vote for their candidates at the states and not Buhari. Nigerians can’t endure another four years of this administration.