Bio on my mind

Godswill Akpabio

Militancy in the Niger Delta was assuaged with a number of palliatives among them the Niger Delta Development Commission and Amnesty program.

As visuals and figures emerged from the probe of the Niger Delta Development Commission by the Nigerian House of Representatives , Bio came to my mind.

Bio is a metaphor for all the people who have lost their lives in the turbulent waters of the Niger Delta.

Water transportation is the most feasible and cheapest means of transportation in the Niger Delta but the politicians of the Niger Delta have so far failed to see to safer means of carrying the people in that region.

Accidents are a part of life but no one in his right senses walks into an accident. Failure on the part of political leaders of the Niger Delta to modernize water transportation in the Niger Delta beggars belief.

The people definitely have less fear of water than people from outside the Delta area so they may not realize what they are missing. Lives do get lost and by the nature of the area, people from outside the Delta do business there and expect to see safer means of transportation.

The Oil companies rely on helicopters but how many people can afford it.

Not too long ago one of the Multinational Oil Companies got into trouble when one of their staff with a health condition died after an air movement from his place of duty in the Niger Delta.

Somehow he was more comfortable with air travel than a better scenic water travel but the level of investment in water transport in the Niger Delta is nothing to write home about. Yet mind boggling amounts are given for the development of the area.

It is sad that the supervising minister  Godswill Akpabio, is a man famed for uncommon transformation.

The challenge of governance in Nigeria is the security attached to money in politics and weak laws to check the incidence of vote buying. 

This accounts for why leaders see every public office as an opportunity to build a big war chest to buy their way through elections and then loot the treasury to recover their expenses and in the process neglect development and make the masses wait for an opportunity not to ask questions but to follow suit.