Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, minister of petroleum
resources, on Monday, June 13 in Uyo demonstrated to Rotimi Amaechi,
minister for transportation on how to be a statesman and not a partisan
crusader in political office.
At a federal government town hall
meeting in Akwa Ibom State, Amaechi tried to justify why he scrapped the
Maritime University located in Okerenkoko, Delta State and Kachikwu
demonstrated class and leadership by telling him he was dead wrong to
stop a government project just because he felt the project was
over-valued.
The town hall meeting was organised by
the federal ministry for information and it was the first held in the
oil-rich South South region of the state.
Amaechi, in his usual
attack-and-blame-Jonathan mode, said that the previous administration
had paid too much to acquire a site for the university thus, he,
Amaechi, had announced the scrapping of the project, which was to be
financed by the Nigerian Maritime and Safety Administration Agency, a
parastatal under his ministry.
Amaechi claimed that the land was bought
by the federal government for N9 billion which was too much and he had
ordered that “they go and bring me the money”. That if “they bring me N6
billion from that N9 billion, I will build the school”. His use of “me”
and “I” is a clear sign of an ego-driven government official.
Amaechi is the only minister in Buhari’s cabinet to be indicted of corruption by a judicial panel of inquiry.
“I am not against the University. I hope
you people appreciate that. My argument about Okerenkoko [the Maritime
University] is that the land alone is N13 billion,” the former Rivers
governor said.
“If you give me N13 billion I will buy
half of Lagos. That N13 billion has built the university already so
there is no need to spend more money. Let EFCC retrieve the money from
them and then release them and we would build the University.
“I believe the Federal government has no money to continue. When we have money we would continue.”
Harvard trained Ph.D, Ibe Kachikwu,
during his time to speak, disagreed with Amaechi on his stance on the
development of the Maritime University saying that any government
project in the South South region should be developed.
“First, let me say on Okerenkoko
University, I disagree with the Minister of Transport,” Kachikwu said,
attracting a loud applause from the audience.
“Any facility that is located in the
South-South we should work close to developing it. I don’t care the
circumstances under which you are placed.
“It’s not in my position to determine
whether land was valued at 3 billion or 10 billion. The appropriate
institution which is at the cost system will determine that. That has
nothing to do with development of infrastructure. And as far as I know,
so much has already gone into the university,” Kachikwu said.
“That has nothing to do with development
of infrastructure. As far as I know, so much has already gone into
that, so much fiscal asset has been developed. We are not going to throw
away the baby and the bath water.
“So much physical of assets are being
developed. We are not going to throw away the baby with bath water. We
deal with the issues but the university will be developed. If he
(Amaechi) does not want it in Maritime, I will take it in petroleum,” he
said.
Kachikwu also disagreed with Amaechi’s
militant approach to the matter of renewed militancy in the South South
region where new militant group, Niger Delta Avengers has been waging a
campaign against oil production in the country.
“On the issue of negotiations, again I
disagree with him. There’s no theatre in the world where conflicts are
being resolved through battle. It doesn’t matter who’s right, who’s
wrong.
“I have so many objectives; present
production, generate the revenue, because if we don’t, all the things we
are talking about here is just a joke.
“I will explore, and this is not
weakness; the military strength of this country is not in doubt, and I
think if anybody doubts that, just see what has happened to Boko Haram.
We will first discuss, we will first negotiate, if it doesn’t work, we
would know what to do,” Kachikwu said as any responsible leader would
do.
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