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An industrialist, Engr. Captain Briggs Opunabo Dokubo, has said that some of the societal vices happening in the country are partly responsible for the continual noise-diving of Rivers State economy.
Capt. Briggs made this statement while speaking with our correspondent at his office in Port Harcourt.
According to him, the high level of security challenges, sophisticated armed/pen robbery and kidnapping that occur daily in the country in addition to unstable financial institutions operating in the country are enough indices to put fears in the mind of an average investor in the country.
“Investors all over the world feel comfortable to invest in countries that have minimum security challenges with robust economy and stable financial institutions so that they can be sure of making profits at the end of the day; and not investing in an unstable economy bedeviled with numerous security challenges and uncertainties. Such economy would never’ guarantee wealth-creation, employment opportunities and prosperity for the nation”.
Captain Briggs, who is one of the founding fathers of Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State, noted that with such terrible and fearful indices in place, the country’s economy would not easily be pull-out of the current recession, and Rivers State economy would never witness any iota of robustness in the nearest future.
“With exception of Lagos State which probably does not depend on oil revenue and oil derivations, no state in Nigeria today, can boast of robust economy and can comfortably pay workers’ salaries without cap in hand begging Federal Government for fund, this is sad”.
He advised the Rivers State Government to copy the act of conscious economic system and economic blue-print put in place by Lagos State government over the years, that made the state appears investor’s haven and investor’s friendly.
He said the Rivers State Government has a lot of home-work to do to allay the fears of investors coming into the state, especially in the areas of security challenges and double taxation, if investors are to take the State Government serious and Government too, ready to develop the state holistically.
“The political tension, acrimony and unfriendly publications in the state have certainly amplified the security challenges astronomically to near absence of wealth creation and employment opportunities and this too, is very sad signal”.
Continuing, Capt. Briggs said, the industrial sector in the country has not helped the economy situation in Rivers State as the operators are not patriotic to the state, instead of partnering with the state government to address the challenges of unemployment and insecurity, they have rather decided to spend their numerous resources on logistics by operating from outside the state, instead of investing in job creating opportunities and security, “this of course we considered as sabotage”.
“I use this opportunity to call an Rivers State Government to create a synergy between the state government, the operating companies and security forces with a view to creating jabs and providing adequate security for their business and general public, because sustainable jabs are antidotes to crime”.
“I have earlier canvased for one cottage industry for each local government area in the state with a 4 year Industrial Development Plan for the state, but those at the corridor of power never took it serious”.
The state government needs to wake up and engage all the federal agencies with the view to supporting the 4-year industrial plan. Federal Government has to initiate certain economic programmes with the view of growing the industrial capacity of the country and creating at least one industry in each Local Government Area. We need to tap into such programme because of its inherent advantages”, Briggs noted.
He noted that NDDC recently refurbished two rice mills in the state in addition to the recent commissioned of additional fertilizer plant at Indorama Petro-chemical Company by the Acting President, Prof. Yomi Osibanjo should be seen as a pointer in the direction of agricultural revolution coming up in the state, for instance, during the brief stay of the Acting President in the state, the elders of the state and business community should have engaged him on the issue of inclusion of Rivers people on concession and acquisition of oil blocks as a palliative to the perennial restiveness of the youths in Rivers State.
“Again, we should also have engaged him on the issue of airport matters, so as to have a world class airport in the state to boast the state economy “we considered the recent abandonment of Port Harcourt international airport as economic blockage to Rivers people which is totally unacceptable to us”.
“He, (the Acting President) should also have been engaged on the low performance of Onne and Port Harcourt sea ports both situate in Rivers State. This also could be considered as economic blockage to Rivers people. He should also have been engaged on the abandoned East/West Road and the Aba – Port Harcourt City Express way (Federal Road). This has cut us off from the national economy completely,” he said.
Briggs said that “as Rivers people, we have to evolve a process of how to grow the economy of Rivers State for the good of Rivers people. What we expect now, is to see world class human capacity development and opportunities for the youth and not political rhetoric of political differences, full of hate and malice that can take the state to nowhere”.
“Investors should be assured of safety in the state and re-assured them of the unique hospitality nature of Rivers people, so that they can come and work and create enabling environment for business to strive; and companies coming in should have robust corporate social Responsibility (CSR) acts for host communities to avoid unnecessary acrimony”.
“The state presently is hosting the NLNG, ELF Oil company, Agip oil Company and many others, these companies should have robust and fantastic Community Development Programmes for their host communities, apart from their CSR”.
“Only those companies that are politically- driven and have ethnic bias and greed in their templates are quickly selling off their assets and vacating the state to Lagos” Capt. Briggs noted.
