By Engr. Okon Nkpubre
Unscrupulous consultants have, in no small measure, contributed to the underdevelopment of Nigeria and many other African countries. This is despite the continent’s enormous natural resources and vibrant human capital.
Many of the strategic infrastructure projects that should have accelerated Nigeria’s industrial and economic transformation have either failed outright or become dysfunctional. These projects were conceived, studied, designed, constructed and commissioned under the supervision of consultants who were expected to uphold the highest standards of professional competence and integrity. Regrettably, many of them succumbed to political pressure from vested interests, implementing decisions they knew were technically unsound in order to satisfy powerful individuals pursuing selfish, ethnic or political agendas.
Whether motivated by financial inducements or other considerations, the consequence has been the same: billions of public funds have been expended on projects that have failed to deliver their intended benefits to the Nigerian people. Among such projects are the Ajaokuta Steel Complex, the Delta Steel Company at Aladja, the Oshogbo Machine Tools Factory, the Aluminium Smelting Plant and numerous other strategic industrial facilities. These projects possessed enormous potential to transform Nigeria into an industrial powerhouse, yet today many of them remain moribund despite the huge investments committed to them.
A fundamental principle in design philosophy is that whenever natural systems are modified, they naturally tend to return to their original natural state of equilibrium. The cost of mitigating this tendency is always high. Consequently, in systems design, it is important that attempt is made as much as possible, to avoid designing systems to operate against their natural state of equilibrium.
A classical illustration is the Calabar Seaport which was influenced by a powerful individual, against all engineering design considerations, to be located about 84 kilometres up the shallow Calabar River, to make the Seaport as close to his community as possible. The naturally shallow Calabar River which is the approach channel to the Calabar Seaport would always tend to return to its naturally shallow state, after each dredging operation, thus requiring frequent Maintenance Dredging. The Calabar Seaport located up the Calabar River, against the result of studies which recommended a location in Ibaka Bay, has failed to contribute meaningfully to the development of the Nigerian Nation, despite the huge resources spent on its construction, due to the unsustainable cost of maintenance dredging. The same fate definitely awaits a Deep Seaport built in a dredged shallow seafront or in a Dugout Basin.
It should be of interest and concern to the Nigerian engineers and engineering regulatory institutions, that a team of consultants, named, Felak Concept Ltd. and Marine and Transport Business Solutions (MBTS), working with the Federal Ministry of Transport’s Project Delivery Team (PDT), produced a comprehensive Due Diligence Report in January 2013, after extensive technical investigations which included location assessment for an ideal site for the Deep Seaport. Yet, within a period of about fourteen months, the same consultants unilaterally issued another document titled “Overview – Site Selection,” which contradicted and reversed the outcomes of their earlier Due Diligence Report.
If there was any genuine need to review the Location Assessment in the Due Diligence Report, which was meticulously carried out, with Nautical Charts produced for all locations, professional technical review procedure demanded that the consultants should have made reference to the technical parameters employed in the Due Diligence Report and given reasons for review.
Instead of following this simple approach, Felak Concept and MBTS abandoned the detailed Engineering Evaluation procedure contained in the Due Diligence Report, and arbitrarily assigned “+” , “-” and “0” signs which have no quantitative values, to meaningless and strange attributes for locations assessed during the Due Diligence Studies. The Consultant manipulated Seaside (Ibeno) location which came 4th amongst the 5 locations to become 1st as the new preferred location. What is the meaning of the attribute – “Location should comply with requirements established in Technical Program of Requirement”, used in the scandalous location review by Felak Concept and MBTS?
It is the questionable activities of our so-called consultants which have contributed to the failures of most of our development infrastructure. After my retirement as a public servant, I ventured into Engineering Consultancy. My Consultancy Firm was contracted as a Corrective Works Consultant to try and resolve errors in a Boatyard Construction in Maritime Academy of Nigeria, MAN, Oron. We found a 200 metre Concrete Highway, heavily piled, and covered with reinforced beams and slabs constructed to the Sea as a Slipway. After a thorough evaluation It was sad to inform the Management of MAN, Oron that nothing could be done to make the structure constructed for them, to function as a Slipway and be used to pull Boats out of water. The consultant they contracted for the Slipway gave them a wrong design.
May I use this medium to call upon the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), and the Association for Consulting Engineering in Nigeria (ACEN) to rise in defence of the integrity of engineering practice in Nigeria.
The role played by Felak Concept Ltd. and MBTS in the Ibaka Deep Seaport controversy, which has contributed to frustrating the development of this critical national infrastructure for well over a decade, should not remain unquestioned. The consultants should be invited to explain the technical basis for the document titled “Overview-Site Selection “ which they issued to justify the relocation of the Deep Seaport from a location in Ibaka Bay, selected after a comprehensive Due Diligence Studies.
The selection of a location in Ibaka Bay for the siting of a Deep Seaport by the Nigerian Federal Government, could not have been questioned by any rational or unencumbered mind. Previous studies for the location of facilities requiring maritime transportation in Nigeria had always pointed to Ibaka Bay, due to the availability of a Natural Harbour with a Deep drought there. Such include studies for the Calabar Seaport which was ignored, the Mega Shipyard for maintenance of Supertankers and FPSOs, the Export Refinery, and the former Mobil Oil Terminal. Studies by Worley Parsons & Delta Afrik, who were the Consultants for the Ibom Industrial City (IIC), in 2009 arrived at the exact preferred location in Ibaka, Bay, selected during the Due Diligence Studies carried out by Felak Concept and MBTS, working with the Project Delivery Team of the Nigerian Federal Government.
Also, in 2021, while the controversy over the Deep Seaport location persisted, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Akwa Ibom State Government to establish an Oil and Gas Solution Hub at Ibaka. The proposed development included a Logistics Base with a Deep-Sea Facility for accommodating large Petroleum Tankers. Sadly, that project was frustrated on the ground that the State Government lacked the funds required to pay compensation for acquisition of land for the project.
Recently, there have been copious submissions by political pundits struggling to justify the relocation of Ibaka Deep Seaport by Akwa Ibom State Government from Ibaka Bay to be built as a Dugout Deep Port at Ibeno (Seaside). However, I have no doubt that these writers know the truth. They are only trying to be politically correct. A journalist friend of mine once told me that a good Journalist should be able to write convincingly for and against any issue, depending on where his interest lies. My concern is the effects that publicly defending what is manifestly wrong could have on society.
I consider, using a false document to deceive and deprive a people of what is due to them, Very Wrong. Ethnic chauvinist in the last government of Akwa Ibom State, probably influenced the consultants to cook-up a false document to justify taking away, a Deep Seaport, located by the Federal Government of Nigeria, in Oron Nation. Supporting this wrong openly, could negatively impact our morals and societal ethics. What examples are we setting for our young people?
The world is in turmoil today with fighting, killings and destruction everywhere because humanity has abandoned the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is: “Love Your Neighbour as Yourself and don’t do to others what you wouldn’t want done to you.”
Your Excellency, Pastor Umo Eno, PhD, we know that the Ibaka Deep Seaport controversy was not created by your administration. I am hereby again humbly appealing to you, as a Man of God, to show magnanimity. Please honour the Almighty God and cause the Deep Seaport in Akwa Ibom State to be returned to where the Federal Government of Nigeria located the Seaport. The Foundation Stone for the Deep Seaport is still standing there.
Engr Okon Nkpubre is a former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Niger Dock PLC.
