President Buhari should send a bill to the National Assembly creating Anioma State with a mandate for it to tap into the economic potential of the River Niger

Ayo Akinfe

(1) The more one looks at the River Niger, the more one sees a criminal waste of a natural resource. Nigeria is grossly under-utilising this river as a source of hydro-electric power, a means of transportation, tourist attraction, fishing resource and as a magnet for investment

(2) It appears that we do not appreciate the significance of being home to the River Niger. Apart from the fact that Nigeria and Niger Republic derive their names from it, the name Niger is a corruption of the Spanish word negro, which means black. We should treat it as a spiritual home of all negroid people worldwide. The River Niger should be like a Kaaba, Wailing Wall, Taj Mahal or Eiffel Tower for black people

(3) Due to our limited thinking, we are still building a second Niger bridge between Asaba and Onitsha some 60 years after independence. Our intellectual laziness has led to senseless wrangling about who should fund bridge construction when we should have different investors building numerous bridges and them fighting to attract passengers. Do you know that the River Thames in London has at least seven crossings made up of tunnels, bridges and ferry crossings?

(4) What I have in mind is the creation of Anioma State with Asaba as its capital, with a mandate to be the policeman of the River Niger. This Anioma State will straddle the River Niger stretching from Agbor in current Delta State and encompass the whole of the Anambra West Local Government Area, including urban centres like Onitsha, Atani, Mmiata and Nzam

(5) Under the terms of its creation, the Anioma State government will be given the mandate to build at least six River Niger crossings. I want to see Ebu-Umuenwelum, Akwukwu Igbo-Mmiata, Illah-Nzam, Aboh-Atani and two Asaba-Onitsha crossings

(6) Anioma State government should also be empowered to build Africa’s largest hydro-electric power plant. Just imagine them building an artificial set of rapids at say Illah and creating a waterfall that can generate 5,000MW of electricity. China’s Three Gorges Dam generates 22,500MW, so it can be done

(7) Anioma State just needs to send it’s experts to China to see how it was done there. For instance, the height of Three Gorges Dam is about 181 meters and the length is about 2,335 metres. This dam creates the Three Gorges Reservoir, which has a surface area of about 1,045 square kilometres and extends upstream for about 600 kilometres

(8) I also want to see unprecedented innovations like underwater railway lines, overhead aquariums that stretch across the river, dolphins parks, specialist fishing colonies, etc. Do you know Canada’s Niagra Falls generates $2bn in tourism annually? I want to see legislation compelling the Anioma State government to match this. Failure to do so after two years should trigger automatic impeachment proceedings against the governor

(9) One of the beauties of Anioma State is that it has some of Nigeria’s finest brains. I would argue that it has the highest concentration of intellectuals of any state when you look at the likes of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Pat Utomi, Godwin Emefiele, Ibe Kachukwu, Tony Elumelu, Phillip Asiodu, Olisa Agbakoba, etc. There is nothing I have outlined here that these lot are incapable of achieving

(10) I also want to see Anioma State charged with dredging the whole of the River Niger so it becomes a means of transportation across Nigeria and I want to see the state woo all kinds of investors including boat makers, ferry operators, port operators, etc to Nigeria. One of our biggest problems in Nigeria is the over-centralisation of power, so it is time to outsource several functions to individual states. Over to you Aniomans. Can you please put together a package making an economic case for your state. The southeast only has five states, so is desperately in need of its sixth state