Niger Delta

C’River Inaugurates Smart City Project Committee

Published

8 years ago

August 7, 2017

The steering committee for the Cross River State Smart City Project has been inaugurated and charged with the overall objective to have a working and an effective Smart City within the next six months.
Speaking during the ceremony at the Deputy Governor’s Conference Room, Government House, Calabar, the Deputy Governor, Prof. Ivara Esu, stated that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is one area that would bail the State out of recession as the State is desirous of being a pioneer in the country to use ICT to generate funds for development.
Performing the inauguration, Prof. Esu congratulated the committee members on their appointment and charged them to offer expert advice to the Gold Spot ICT Company that won the contract for the project in order to achieve success.
The Deputy Governor listed the terms of reference to include, providing enabling support and guidance by resolving any issue that may be encountered in the process of carrying out the project and to ensure an enabling environment that would guarantee the attainment of the success expected from the project.
According to the terms of reference, the committee is expected to meet at least once a month to resolve issues that would emanate in the course of the project that may affect the progress of the project.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Steering Committee and Commissioner for ICT, Chief Offu Aya, said the setting up and inauguration of the committee followed the Governor’s desire to establish a formidable Smart City in the state to enhance and fast- track development and revenue generation and maintained that the inauguration is to set in motion the committee towards actualising the project.
The committee has 25 members made up of 10 commissioners from the state ministries.

Friday Nwagbara, Calabar

Niger Delta

A’Ibom CP Cautions Youth Against Violence In Oil Producing Communities

Published

1 min ago

February 5, 2025

The Tide

The Commissioner of Police, Akwa Ibom State Command, CP Baba Azare, has warned youths against indulging in violence, especially in oil producing communities to ensure development in the state.

Azare said this during a meeting with youth leaders and representatives of International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the state in Uyo, yesterday.

The Commissioner warned the youths against taking laws into their hands by blocking roads in oil companies whenever there was any dispute.

Azare attributed the misunderstanding between the host communities and oil companies to a breakdown in communication.

He emphasised that there could not be any development without peace, and urged the youth leaders to work hand-in-hand with the police to resolve all disputes, stressing that the Command would not take it kindly with any group of people who disturbed the peace of the land.

The Commissioner said dialogue became important to ensure an enabling environment for oil companies to operate.

“No one should block the free flow of operations of these companies.

Without development, we cannot grow the economy. If you have any problem, inform us immediately, so that we have a common ground to resolve issues amicably.

“The factory sited in your community is for empowerment and development of the community and state”, Azare said.

He urged the youths to exhaust all avenues for dialogue and not to resort to violence.

“We are ready to partner with you, going forward we expect that peace reign in all your communities”, he said.

Responding, the Security Manager at Seplat Energy Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Mr. Johnson Oboh, blamed the community leaders for not involving the youths as contained under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

Oboh noted that the PIA directs oil firms to spend three per cent of their operation cost on the communities.

He advised the youths to be conversant with the Act which has taken much of the burden of Corporate Social Responsibility from the oil companies.

He promised that going forward the oil companies would initiate communication avenues to resolve all lingering issues.

Niger Delta

Environmentalist Makes Case For Oceans Preservation

Published

2 mins ago

February 5, 2025

The Tide

A renowned Environmentalist, Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, on Monday called for concerted efforts by stakeholders to save the oceans from indiscriminate pollutions.

Bassey made the call in a statement by Miss Kome Odhomor, Media/Communication Lead, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF).

The environmentalist was speaking at a workshop at Nigeria Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR) in Victoria Island, Lagos.

The Tide’s source reports that the workshop was jointly organised by HOMEF, NIOMR, and International Ocean Institute, Nigeria.

Bassey noted with concern that the Ocean had suffered indiscriminate pollution by uncontrolled human and industrial and extractive activities.

“We gather today to consider the state of our ocean, not as a commodity to be exploited, but as a common good that sustains life, livelihoods, our culture and spirituality.

“Our oceans are under siege, and the communities that depend on them bear the brunt of pollution, displacement, and human rights abuses.

“Across the coastline of Nigeria, community folks are being forced from their territories, deprived of their resources and left to grapple with the consequences of laxly regulated natural resource exploitation.

“The economic forces driving this destruction prioritize profit over people, extracting resources beyond the ocean’s capacity, and leave behind a trail of ecological devastation”, Bassey said.

According to him, the infrastructure of Nigeria’s economy begins at the shorelines and extends to the deep waters, where resources are extracted.

“The coastal communities who bear the pressures from the land and the sea remain trapped in poverty”, he said.

He explained that environment focused stakeholders cannot ignore the countless oil well blowouts that have polluted the waters.

“Akaso Well 4, Atanba, Bonny Terminal, Buguma Wellhead 008, Santa Barbara, and the ongoing inferno at Ororo Oil Well 1 at Awoye, Ondo State, which has been raging for close to five years now, among others.

“These disasters are ecological crimes that contribute to climate instability, and a worsening scarcity of land and water, placing entire communities and livelihoods at risk.

“We live with the struggles of fishermen and women who set out each day with their nets and baskets, only to find empty waters, enclosed and sacrificed for industrial dredging, multinational oil companies and corporate fishing.

“A Community like Aiyetoro with its history of well-organised governance and industrial strides is now a ghost of its former self.

“It is bashed and washed by unrelenting waves and left to grapple with unrelenting impacts of global warming and possibly heading for complete displacement unless we act”, Bassey noted.

The environmental rights crusader expressed concern over the plight of Makoko’s communities.

He noted that their rights to housing, food, and health had been trampled by forces that would be happy to have the people displaced so the waterfront can be grabbed by speculators.

He explained that the destruction of marine biodiversity disproportionately affects fishing communities, making them the most vulnerable to environmental degradation.

“Our fight to defend the ocean is inseparable from the fight for human rights and justice. We must resist the unchecked advances of transnational polluters in our ocean and demand accountability.

“We must protect our biodiversity, our land, and our water from the destructive forces of exploitative capitalism seeking to privatize the commons.

“It is time to rethink our relationship with nature, to take only what can be replenished and respect the delicate balance that sustains us all”, Bassey said.

He advocated that governments must act, not as enablers of destruction, but as stewards of the environment, ensuring that decisions about natural resources are made with the full participation of the communities who rely on them.

He said that Nigeria had signed so many conventions and treaties regarding the wellbeing of marine ecosystems.

He observed that the country even had designated Marine Protected Areas whose protection is disputable.

“Our constitution may be said to have a tilt towards ensuring the right to life, but there can be no right to life without the right to a safe environment.

“This workshop is more than a gathering, it is a platform for us all as oceanographers, marine scientists, government agencies, civil society organizations, and community leaders to reflect, strategize, and commit to the urgent task of defending our ocean.

“Coming on the heels of the International Wetlands Day, we use this opportunity to take a stand against so-called land reclamation which should rightly be named aquatic ecosystems conversion and grabbing.

“We have seen wetlands and dependent economies destroyed by urbanization and diverse speculators. We are also seeing swaths of the ocean and public beaches being converted into fenced housing estates or so-called superhighways.

“These disregard the fact that the state of the ocean directly affects the climate, reflects on the quality of our lives and the capacity of the Earth to maintain her cycles and support all beings”, Bassey stated.

He urged the participants at the workshop to seize the moment to build a future, where the ocean is protected, human rights are upheld, and coastline communities thrive.

Niger Delta

NACAT Inaugurates South-South Office In A’Ibom Against Corruption

Published

3 mins ago

February 5, 2025

The Tide

The Network Against Corruption and Trafficking (NACAT), an anti- corruption NGO, has inaugurated its South-South Office in Akwa Ibom State to strengthen its campaign against corruption.

The Coordinator, Mr. Michael Ekpo, told newsmen in Uyo during the inauguration that NACAT was determined to fight corruption without looking backwards.

Ekpo said corruption was a common enemy of the nation that required the collective effort of the citizenry to tackle.

He said corruption was the reason behind the failed educational system, unemployment, and dysfunctional healthcare services across the country.

“As an agency, we are going all out to bring down this common enemy of ours called corruption. We urge everyone to join forces as we tackle this monster”, he said.

The Coordinator further said corruption was the reason Nigeria’s common patrimony fell in the hands of few individuals while majority lived in abject poverty.

“Corruption is the cause of unemployment and poverty, it is the reason our shared wealth is in the hands of a few individuals, the fight against corruption is a fight for a better Nigeria”, he said.