Rear Admiral Andrew Okoja (Rtd), is the Chairman of Mercury Maritime Concession Company Limited (MMCC); the promoters of the $27.29 billion Escravos Deep Seaport project in Delta State. In this interview with Oluyinka Onigbinde, he alleged that Federal Government’s delay in issuing a revalidation letter has hindered the commencement of the ambitious project.
There’s been much discussion regarding the validation letter and issues surrounding the private port development. Can you clarify the current status?
This port has already been approved. All we are saying is that that letter which you approved, try to revalidate it. That’s what we’re asking for. Asides monopoly and all that any port that can deliver better, I think people will use the port. I’m sure some of you have read books like the Free Enterprise Systems. You know, it’s one of the world’s known commerce. Mercantile is a free enterprise system. It’s anywhere you prefer; it’s in your book, you use any port you want, any ship you want, and so on. We cannot dictate to anybody. It is where the shipper wants to go that he goes. I think that is not the issue. The issue is a validation letter issued by the previous government for us to proceed, because the financier wants some level of comfort. So, this is what I would say. I mean, what he’s saying is not even encouraging us. I’ve told you there is no port in the country today that is being developed along with its connectivity. You develop the port, and then you fall back on the national transport system. But we have decided to put that investment to make sure that this is in place. I do know that there are a lot of deep seaports coming up. But a deep seaport has to be viable before financiers can come. Otherwise, if a deep seaport is not viable, it’s probably a political one. And that is why financiers are not coming. So I stand here to refute that. In any case, I do know that within a week when he made this announcement, I don’t know what happened to him.
What is the position between the promoters of this project and the Nigerian Ports Authority, the landlord of the seaports in Nigeria?
I want to tell you something. The case which the NPA is bringing up is a classical case. There is the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) which is in place. And it is the law on which we will develop this private port. Go and read this particular law. It gives room for private port developments. And we have been following it. All we’re saying is NPA going ahead. But this is a private port. It’s the same port, the same concept, which is used in Lagos deep seaport that is operating. If you read the approval we have, they asked us to go to Delta State and acquire the land and bring the Certificate of Occupancy. We are dealing at that level. And then the Delta State government has given us approval to acquire this land. And the financier is saying we should revalidate that letter; that’s all. After the revalidation of the letter is the process of acquisition, which is almost starting, then we’ll now come to NPA to run those processes. I’m sure you have read about the private port. Go and find out how the Lagos deep seaport came into being.
You talked about the fact that if not for the absence of the letter of revalidation, you would have gone 20% into the project. Now, have you gotten the necessary approvals from the ICRC?
You are getting the whole thing wrong. We are still at the ministerial stage. They have approved this. The approval didn’t come from the NPA. NPA is under the ministry. What we are asking for is to give us the revalidation letter of that particular approval. That’s what we are asking for. We expect them to call us or write us formally to tell us from where we got this letter that, look, these and these, we cannot do that. I mean, that is why we are here now, so that you can now pass the message. They should tell us. We are private developers and if you want to develop the country, everybody must be on board. We acknowledge the power of government, and there are regulators there. After the first presentation, the presidency mandated NIMASA to get in touch, and they invited us. And it was out of the input of NIMASA that the cabinet was reshuffled. So, I mean, let’s take whatever regulatory thing that is there and go through it. But we are talking about the kick off. But we haven’t gotten that letter yet. Everybody is working, and the constitution and the laws give room for everybody to participate and lend his own hand in developing the country. And that is what we are doing. Like I told you, we have spent over $15 million. I remember about 18 months ago, when we were relating to our consumption order, the exchange rate was about N400 to N450 to a dollar. Now it’s about N1,800. Things are not getting better for us. How have we caused it? By coming out to support at least within our own capacity, level of knowledge, exposition and the credibility in bringing the financiers and all that to this country. If we have done everything wrong, let them tell us. We are not politicians. We are doing our best in every capacity to make sure that every household, community and government gets support. Apart from that, this project, I know supports the Mr. President’s Renewed Hope agenda massively. And he has demonstrated the support which we have accomplished here. So, is there a dichotomy between them and Mr. President?
Throughout this discourse, there has not been a position of the federal government as to why they have not issued the revalidation. What has been the government’s position and why have they not signed the revalidation?
I do know that the financier that came out with the expression of willingness to finance this project, the message came across and we received it on January, 18th about a year ago. And immediately we got it, we transmitted it to these ministries. I’ll tell you that the Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment invited us once, and then apart from that, we have written several letters. So, this is for you now to engage them, to find out why we are still here. So, we don’t really know.
With the current exchange rate, like you said, how feasible is this N27.29 billion investment?
We are talking of foreign currency now. We’re not talking of Naira. And so, this is not a foreign currency that has been devalued. It’s the Naira that has been devalued. So now, we’re talking of Nigeria needing a lot of foreign direct investment, this is like one of the foreign direct investments. You hear recently that Nigeria wants to generate more oil and sell more oil. The OPEC is stemming it down to about 1.5million barrel. I mean, these are sources we need. This is like any investment that we are doing now. So that’s why we don’t understand. There seems to be a contradiction which Mr. President is saying it seems the Ministers have not made up their minds on this. Let them tell us what the situation is. We are loyal and don’t break rules. We run by your laws.
You said you have invested about $15 million. At what level is the project currently?
If you recall, I told you immediately we got this approval, we mobilized a project team, and they started working. These teams have generated a lot of drawings, all these things you are seeing now, these are drawings and plans and everything, through consultations and so on and so forth. So, this demonstration is starting from here. These things don’t come cheap. From architects, you have your environmental impact analysis, consultation with Professors, and so on. It’s not like building a house, where you see the house. Even when you build a house, it actually takes so much to come up with a plan at the various levels, so you can see the house from A to Z. But if you want to visit us in our office, you can do that. I showed you all these things, and most of them have been authorized. So it’s not a cheap thing. These are what came out; plans and drawings and all that. So when the construction starts, the physicality is moving. These drawings in details, we didn’t just draw them like that. These are done by consultants. I’ll tell you that Port of Antwerp International is the second largest port in Europe, next to Rotterdam Port. These are determining the credibility of this scheme.
How much effort has MMCC applied to ensure that the revalidation letter is released?
Well, you know the means of communication is correspondence, all this data and everything were communicated to them. We communicated all these facts about the willingness and everything by correspondence, and we expected to get a reply. But I don’t know how to tell you this, but even when we got a reply, we got a reply by a third party. We have written up to about eight letters to the Ministry of Industries, Trade, and Investment, it’s only when this new minister came that we started getting a formal reply. The other ones came from third parties. We have written. We told them we are in charge of the project, we are Nigerians. Tell us what you want and prepare to meet officially or privately. We are Nigerians. And we are pleading to Mr. President without being like Oliver Twist, the support he has given us, he should give us this last support, and we would forever be grateful to him for that opportunity to serve our country. But we are not in power. We are not in politics. We don’t intend to go into politics either.
