Endless Political Gimmicks On The Second Niger Bridge. By Peter Claver Oparah

Like programmed choreographers, some Igbos of the
PDP and its allies’ hue are dancing themselves to stupor
over the so called ground breaking ceremony of the
second Niger Bridge. Their handmaidens, like in such
similar vain orgies in the past, are spinning syndicated
applauses to invest a non event with the halo of an
achievement. Yes, it is a ceremony that is materially
empty and of no value but which holds so much for the
Igbos that have nestled in the PDP in their desperate
bid to reserve Igbo votes and support for their flailing
party en route 2015. Typical of the PDP and its well
known penchant to take Igbo for a ride, nothing was
spared to celebrate the so-called ground breaking
ceremony of a one and half kilometers bridge over the
Niger.
Mounting such vacuous revelry has been the favorite
spot of the PDP since it perfected the art of selling
placebo to the Igbo in exchange of their votes since
1999. Yes, they can even exchange Igbo votes for wads
of counterfeit currency for Igbo are being made to look
as if their votes and support count for nothing. Let us
remember that the PDP and its cahoots in the South
east mounted similar shows when they were
commissioning the sham they called Onitsha seaport
and during the commissioning of the ludicrous Enugu
‘international’ airport. It is a vote catching gimmick
meant to create motion where there is none. Such
shows are mere political gimmicks that are meant to
deceive Ndigbo and nothing more.
The revelry over the Niger in the name of a second Niger
Bridge has been an attractive weapon the PDP employs
to con and deceive Ndigbo. In 2003, then President
Obasanjo mounted a prodigal carnival in the name of
flagging off the construction of the second Niger Bridge.
It was election year and he badly needed the Igbo votes
so he came to Onitsha to engage in a vain ceremony
that can only con any race that attaches no worthwhile
value to the power of their votes. Then, as at today, the
PDP and its enablers celebrated and listed the empty
ceremony as one of the ‘achievements’ they have
wrought in serially abused Igboland, as they are doing
with such similar ceremony eleven years after!
Obasanjo walked away with overwhelming Igbo support
even when he was contesting against Odumegwu
Ojukwu. The very same forces that are at play today
were at their best then, telling Ndigbo how Obasanjo as
a ‘good in-law’ as they put it then deserves total Igbo
support in preference to Ojukwu.
Goodluck Jonathan, when he was campaigning for Igbo
votes in 2011, didn’t bother himself to mount a fresh
revelry over the Niger. His task was made easier for him
by the evergreen Igbo PDP lobby who quickly adopted
him as an Igbo. He was quickly baptized with an Igbo
name; Ebele Azikiwe. With such flattering wave of
approval, he simply needed to add nothing to walk
away with Igbo votes. But then, he promised. He
promised to build a second Niger Bridge, promised
superlative highways in the South East, promised
refineries, promised industries, promised additional state
funding, promised to redress the marginalization of
Ndigbo, among truckloads of promises he made to
seduce the trusting Igbo into giving him the totality of
their votes in 2011. Igbo did not look back as they
packed all their eggs in one unsure basket. With a
fervency that surprised Jonathan and his people, they
hooted, thumped and fretted and indeed cried more than
the bereaved in endorsing Jonathan. When told that
Igbo have indeed regressed in value since 1999 when
PDP’s hold of the country’s rein of power began, they
said they won’t count such in supporting the party and
Jonathan. PDP and Jonathan, so surprised at their good
fortune, threw a ball and made all the noises about their
readiness to address the woes of Ndigbo.
How he had kept faith with his promises to Ndigbo is a
matter for another day but the state of Igbo today is
enough to tell the story. However, we remember that he
vowed to go into exile if he did not deliver the Second
Niger Bridge before his tenure runs off in 2015. We
remember he did not vow that he would mount another
vote conning gimmick of flagging off the second Niger
Bridge, which may come to nothing at the end of the
day. It took the Obi of Onitsha to recently remind him of
his vow and pronto, a loud ground breaking ceremony
was organized where all the horses and men of South
East and South South PDP gathered to recite their usual
campaign platitudes Igbo have grown real weary of.
Apart from the importance of the bridge to the smooth
movement of Igbo and other Nigerians to and from
Igboland, there is nothing earth shaking about building a
one and half kilometer bridge for a race that had been
handed the shortest ends of the stick in an oil rich
country. In a country where the despised Ibrahim
Babangida built a twelve kilometer dual carriage bridge
over the Lagos lagoon without blaring the trumpets till
completion, it should naturally be condescending and
insulting that Ndigbo should roll out every drum to
celebrate the flag off of a one and half kilometers bridge
that may end up abandoned. Again, this is just one out
of several similar such ceremonies that ended up in
smoke. Also, we are being told that the bridge would be
completed in four years when it took Governor Fashola
of Lagos State less than two years to complete a
suspended bridge of nearly the same length as the
proposed second Niger Bridge, even with more features
and furniture and no one knew until its completion. For
the millions of Igbo that travel to Lagos, those that
have not travelled on the Ore-Shagamu Road in the
past five moths may be shell shocked that Governor
Ibikunle Amosun has erected a nearly one kilometer dual
carriage overhead bridge in Ijebu Ode within the past
five months. This is reportedly one out of about ten
other such bridges the governor is constructing in Ogun
State and no one remembers the governor closing down
the road to flag off construction of the bridge. So why
should Igboland screech to a halt and the president
abandon his duties in Abuja just to flag off a bridge that
may end up in smokes like such other rituals in the
past? If one may ask, when has it become so
fashionable to mount extensive road shows to celebrate
intent to embark on projects?
Of the promised second Niger Bridge, we have been told
that it would be constructed in four years! If this is not
a gimmick to con Igbo votes again, I wonder what it
really is. Jonathan has been in power for four years and
is fighting the battle of his life to remain in power.
Effectively he has only one year left of his present
commission as the probability of his re-election seems
unlikely. so why would he flag off a four years bridge at
the very twilight of the five and half assured years he
has in power? What happens if his successor decides
not to tow his own plan on the bridge? We have been
told that Nigeria will borrow to construct the bridge. We
have been told the for 23 years, the financiers of the
bridge will tax every person crossing the bridge to
recover the hefty N117 billion that we are told the
bridge will cost.
The inference is that the bridge will be tolled from at
least two points, the implication is that Igbo people will
pay to cross the bridge as the second Niger bridge will
be the only pay-as-you-cross-bridge in Niger.
Conversely, there are more than twenty bridges on the
East-West Road that are being constructed and some of
these bridges are as long as the Niger Bridge. Why is it
only in Igboland that people must pay to cross a
bridge? What happens to the petty traders that transact
their businesses between Onitsha and Asaba? What
about the taxis, the commercial buses and
motorcyclists? So they have to pay to cross the one and
half kilometer bridge when all other such facilities in
Nigeria are accessed free?
Again, Ndigbo and indeed all Nigerians must demand to
know the financing schedule for the proposed bridge.
How much of the contract financing plan is assured and
how is the project safeguarded to ensure that it is
delivered on time. It would be very difficult to convince
Ndigbo that there is no money to construct a one and
half kilometer bridge in Igboland at a time when trillions
are being stolen from the treasury and when minions
and hirelings of the present government are building
universities and snapping up choice properties
everywhere. I think that stripped of the vote conning
antics of the PDP and the Jonathan government, there
is little or no value for Ndigbo or why should it take
another approaching election for Jonathan and his PDP
acolytes in the South East and South South to engage
in an unnecessary road show to flag off the construction
of the second Niger Bridge? Your guess is as good as
mine but Ndigbo nigh for the commissioning of the
second Niger Bridge and not commissioning the take of
the construction of the proposed second Niger Bridge.

Peter Claver Oparah
Ikeja, Lagos.

E-mail: peterclaver2000@yahoo.com