Civil Society Coalition Blasts Foreign, Local NGOs Over C/River Superhighway, Urges Quick EIA Approval
A frontline pro-development group, Coalition of Civil Society and Media Executives for Policy Stability (COCMEP), has described as neocolonialism and imperialistic, the ridiculous anti-people position being canvassed by an International Green Foundation, the Henrich Boll Stiftung, a foreign non-governmental organisation (NGO) and its local collaborators against the 260km superhighway project being embarked upon by Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State.
The coalition urged the Federal Ministry of Environment to disregard the position of Henrich Boll Stiftung and conclude the approval process of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the project.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja, President of COCMEP, Comrade Innocent Okadigbo said “the argument that the project would distort conservation is weak, porous and ill-informed because for every one tree affected, two trees would be planted and the State Government has established the Green Police made up of 1,500 young Cross Riverians to protect the state’s rich and vast forest reserve.”
Comrade Okadigbo further deplored the mischievous alarm by those he described as “self-seeking critics.”
COCMEP president urged the foreign and local NGOs and other self-appointed environmentalists to borrow a leaf from credible leaders like the Obong of Calabar, His Eminence Edidem Ekpo Okon Abasi Otu V, who is the custodian of the people and their culture; the champion of the Bakassi people, Senator Florence Ita Giwa, the senator representing Southern Cross River, Gershom Bassey, among other prominent sons and daughters of the state, who have all endorsed the signature project.
According to the coalition, “President Buhari was in Cross River State on October 20, 2015 and performed the groundbreaking ceremony of the project based on Interim EIA report by the Federal Ministry of Environment.”
The coalition described critics of the state’s superhighway project as “hypocrites for refusing to take into consideration similar projects like the 48,000 miles United States Inter-state Highway System (IHS); China’s National Trunk Highway System with nearly 70,000 miles highway as of 2014; the 3,600 miles highway in India and the ongoing 1,600km Trans-Sumatran highway route in Indonesia, all criss-crossing forests and national parks of the aforementioned countries.”
According to the coalition, “It is therefore curious and suspicious why these critics are desperate and hell bent on stopping the project as if they were paid to do so.
“These superhighways in other countries had grave effects on human population and conservation and yet they were executed. What is wrong in replicating such massive infrastructural project in Nigeria? Is Nigeria insulated from modernisation and globalisation?”
COCMEP urged the Federal Ministry of Environment to understand the antics of mischief makers opposed to the project and ignore them and go ahead with the conclusion of the approval process within the ambits of the law for the construction of the project, noting that after all, many developed countries of the world had embarked on more massive superhighway project than this.
The coalition further argued that “the Cross River superhighway will link local areas with the urban centers and bring about infrastructural development. Its sister-project, the Bakassi deep seaport will definitely stimulate economic development of the state, Nigeria and West African sub-region because they will all be interlinked. So, anybody who is opposed to this huge economic project is unpatriotic and an economic saboteur.”
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on Jun 12 2016. Filed under Ben Ayade Desk.
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