FDI: Our own worst enemy (Asaba Airport as case study) – 1

[MrVan]

By Dele Sobowale

Unless we stop this nonsensical and needless controversy about the Asaba Airport, we run the risk of missing FDI which it is designed to attract and the employment opportunities it will provide. The world is watching us. Read on.

To state that Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, is a global scarce resource eagerly pursued by all nations and even sub-sections of countries is to state the obvious. Its major benefits include, but are not limited to, employment generation, economic and social development and, even, technology transfer. Increasingly, as the global village shrinks in scope, thanks to advances in ICT and aviation, investments in aviation have become one of the leading areas for business people, even as the land available for constructing airports is also dwindling worldwide. The Environmental Impact Assessment studies that have to be undertaken and the more stringent safety requirements for the location of airports have made it more difficult to build them; as the need for them multiplies. The reason is simple.

Air travel saves time and, although most people don't know this, time is an economic resource very much at par with capital, labour, and raw materials. The Far Eastern countries, led by the Japanese, pioneered the concept of Just-In-Time, JIT, delivery of raw materials, components and other inputs to manufacturing and construction sites and effected substantial savings in inventory management, warehousing costs associated with rent, losses and pilferage. The back bone of JIT was air cargo which made it possible for parts manufactured in one plant to be available at another plant within hours – not days as was the case before.

The Japanese, the South Koreans and Taiwanese exploited that strategic advantage for decades until the rest of the developed world caught on to the game. Now, the Chinese are doing the same thing. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the only region of the world where raw materials are trucked over thousands of miles to be deposited in warehouses for months before being put on the production line. We run twelfth century plants in the twenty-first century and hope to compete with the rest of the world.

Nigerian manufacturers cannot practice JIT for many reasons, which will be explained later and that accounts for the almost total location of all manufacturing and commercial activities in Lagos. Why site your plant in Akwa Ibom or Kogi or Taraba when all your raw materials and components land at Apapa Wharf in Lagos and have to be trucked inland over uncertain roads and safe arrival is not assured – let alone Just-In-Time. The growing population explosion occurring in Lagos State is partly a result of our refusal or failure to encourage the development of air cargo from airports based inland which can then promote the growth of manufacturing for light weight items numbering millions in virtually every state of Nigeria.

The recent development of airports at Gombe and Uyo and, now, Asaba, to add to Benin, Warri, Portharcourt, Enugu, Owerri and Calabar, in the fastest growing region of Nigeria – the South East and the South South  has opened up enormous opportunities in this regard, which, incidentally, had been noticed by foreigners more than Nigerians. In fact, the Asaba airport is the last piece in jigsaw puzzle revealing a cluster of airports which can be reached very quickly and easily irrespective of take-off point.

Interest is developing; so much so that a group of investors asked me to conduct a survey of the airports for them to determine which is the best for their venture. I landed at all the other airports in the cluster several times in the past; but I still visited them all.

The only one, and the last to visit was the Asaba airport. Half an hour after arriving at the airport, it was clear to me that this is IT! This is the airport that will meet all the requirements of the investors – if only it could be made to accommodate bigger aircraft. I arrived at this conclusion without consulting any official of the Delta State government and without any attempt or opportunity to look into the issues now generating controversy.

The idea was to determine first if this airport has potential to attract foreign investment and it does. A report was filed to that effect in March and I was asked to obtain more information from the Delta State government about the future development of the airport and the time table for each phase of development. Everything was going smoothly, I was persuading the potential investors that Asaba is viable, even though I am from Lagos State and will never be employed there. But, I know that the venture will generate thousands of jobs and that is all that mattered to me.

Suddenly, a controversy had erupted about the leveling of "some ant-hills at N7.5 billion" as the critics allege; and the nervous potential investors are frantically asking me: Dele, what's going on? From my point of view, what is going on is quite clear.

We are allowing a needless controversy, "a tempest in a tea pot", to jeopardize investments at the airport that will eventually dwarf the N7.5 billion reportedly spent leveling the ant-hills.

To begin with, it is doubtful that any government, Delta or not, will spend N7.5 billion just to level ant-hills. Political opponents of governments always exaggerate the corruption attributable to the particular government. Truths, admittedly, are provided; half truths, not often are added; and outright lies top the bundle of what is offered to the public. That is true irrespective of party in power and who constitutes the opposition.  Ask PDP or ACN members about Mimiko in Ondo State and you would conclude that the man should be shot on sight. Turn to Edo and ask the same question of PDP about Oshomhole and the fellow deserves to be guillotined. That's politics Nigerian style.

But, when the issue at stake is long term economic development of Nigeria, a region, a state or even local council, the media practitioner must be totally non-partisan when commenting on any controversy. So let me start by taking on the issue of N7.5 billion spent to "level a few ant-hills" just because President Jonathan was expected at the BRACED Summit at Asaba. The way I understand it those "few ant-hills" presented a hazard to the landing of the President's aircraft in Asaba.

The other options were Benin (130 km away); Enugu (125 km away), Warri (130 km away),Owerri (165 km away); Portharcourt (over 200km away) by road. Who in his right senses would suggest that the President of Nigeria should travel these distances by road. He had to land in Asaba; it was as simple as that. And, at whatever cost to us. Unless, of course, anyone is broaching the idea that he should not respond to the call of the "hands that feed the nation".

For the umpteenth time, it needs to be repeated that I never voted for Jonathan; in fact I campaigned against him. But, by overwhelming majority vote, he was elected. That is a fact which nobody in his right senses will deny. That election had raised a lot of demons in the polity which are threatening, not only the economy, but the unity of the country as well. Given that scenario, the only person who cannot or should not die, by any means, today in Nigeria is President Jonathan.

Anybody else can die. His death, through carelessness, on our part, or the deliberate actions of terrorists will plunge this nation into such turmoil that within the first two days of the occurrence Nigeria would have lost over N1 trillion. So, if the Delta State government had decided to spend N7.5 billion to safeguard Jonathan's life, to me, it was cheap insurance policy. That is not supposed to mean that I believe that the cost of the project could not have been less. But, all things considered, Jonathan, wherever he goes, from now until 2015, is insurable for N7.5 billion or more; anytime, anywhere and any day.

Vanguard Nigeria