Gov. Bassey Otu.
By Anietie Akpan, Calabar
The Nigerian Navy Hydrographic Department option for the Bakassi Deep Seaport Hydrographic survey served the state government over $77 billion .
Recently the state government had engaged the Nigerian Navy Hydrographic Survey team to do an in-depth hydrographic survey of the Bakassi Deep Seaport and about $3 billion was spent on it.
This expenditure raised eyebrows in some quarters like the civil society organizations (CSOs) that claimed the amount was humongous .
But the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Nsa Gill rising in defense of his boss said the $ 3 billion was the best and cheapest for that magnitude of survey being carried out.
Gill in his goodwill message at the unveiling of the Cross Atlantic newspaper, a community tabloid at the Ernest Etim Bassey Press Centre in Calabar recently, said, “a lot of people have also questioned the project’s about $ 3 billion amount.
“Civil Society Organizations threatened to petition, but the governor appealed to them to bring quotations from any other person or organization in the world. By the time they checked, the least they got was $ 80 billion.
Going by this, findings by Pillar Today showed that invariably the state government may have saved over $ 77 billion for the state for taking the Nigerian Navy option.
Justifying the state government’s action, Gill said “the Navy’s Hydrographic department is used by various countries of the world for such purposes. It was the best option for the job. This administration is committed to the project and it will ba a complete economic turnaround for the state when it comes to fruition”.
He stated that “the hydrographic survey has timeline of about three to four months, so give and take, by April, the project will enter its next phase as we hope for its speedy completion for the betterment of the state and beyond”.
He said a lot of projects are being embarked upon by this administration and “it is incumbent on us as Journalists to live up to our billing by getting the public to know.
“For istance, the Bakassi Deep Seaport is a sincere project. It may have started in a way that seemed unbelievable, but the Governor Bassey Otu-led administration has done deeper analysis on the initiative — the Governor himself speaks of it, commending his predecessor, Senator Ben Ayade, for such a fantastic vision. One may birth an initiative and another brings it into fruition. That is exactly what is happening”.
When Governor Otu took over, Gill said “as much as he accepted the project and appreciated it, he looked at earlier summations in terms of surveys done. Recall some persons had questioned the new hydrographic survey undertaken by the present administration as a repeat of what had already been done. But in earnest, what was there before the present administration ventured into the project was an insufficient aerial survey lacking in-depth analysis. So, when the actual test was done, what was on record was different from what was on ground. So, there was no option left than to bring the real experts to do a proper job.
“In Nigeria, hydrographic surveys are handled by the Navy. The national hydrographer and his team have been conducting the survey”.
