New Telegraph

Clark: Kano naval base project, ill-conceived, waste of resources 

* Says there must be limit to nepotism, parochialism

Leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, Monday, condemned the move by the Federal Government to set up a Naval Base in Kano State, describing the project as a waste of resources and the height of nepotism and parochialism.

The  Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Zubairu Gambo, an indigene of Kano State, recently announced plans to set up the base while Governor Umar Ganduje of Kano State has already donation a hundred  hectares of land at Dawakin Tofa Community for the purpose.

Clark, a former  Minister of Information and Culture, said that building  a naval base in the middle of the Sahel region, which is a  dry land, under threat of fast spreading desertification, was  ill-conceived and  not in the interest of the nation.

In an open letter addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari and read to journalists at a press conference in Abuja, Clark reminded him to always take decisions based on national interest and rational considerations as every decision taken while in power would be subjected to public scrutiny in the future.

The elder statesman dismissed the claims by some persons of the existence of two rivers in Kano State, describing it as a futile attempt to justify a maritime project in the middle of the desert, totally inaccessible by water.

“The citing of naval base the world over, is mainly for provision of security along the waterways of a country and in order to provide security for the nation’s internal waters and its territorial integrity. This is done where there is water and not in the heart of a dry land. It is even difficult to decipher and more curious why you intend to crowd the north which is already saturated with heavy military infrastructure, especially in places like Kaduna and Kano states. There must be limit to nepotism and parochialism.

 “It is indeed nonsensical, unprofessional and parochial for anyone to compare the situation in Nigeria to that of the United States of America (USA). But even in the USA, the major naval bases are clearly situated at the riverine and oceanic towns of the country. Perhaps it will interest Nigerians to know that if it is the same Mississippi River in the USA that they are referring to, let me briefly describe it. Mississippi is a state located in the southern part of the USA, with the Mississippi River to its west, the state of Alabama to its east, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south; from this description, it is shown that Mississippi is a state surrounded by water.

“Your Excellency, please in the interest of Nigeria, build the naval base where it will be economically efficient and viable, and provide security for the nation’s territorial waters. Nigeria is dying economically and politically. Yet here we are, deploying scarce resources to embark on projects on nepotistic reasons, rather than on viability. As President of the entire country, you will save huge resources doing the right thing and improving the economy, if objectivity and national interest are your watch words,” he said

Clark argued that rather than waste scare resources on such a project in such a location, the government ought to have expanded existing naval bases along the Atlantic coastline in Southern Nigeria.

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