Date Published: 08/31/09
OF A GARDEN CITY AND ITS DEMOLITION
By ANAYO ONUKWUGHA
As part of the urban renewal programme of the Rivers State government, through the Ministry of Urban Development, recently marked and demolished fences of the Government House, Port Harcourt . Other fences marked and demolished by the ministry in the Old Government Residential Area (Old GRA) of the city were those belonging to both federal and state governments’ agencies as well top federal and state government functionaries and politicians.
The politicians include former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyesiegha, National Organizing Secretary of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),Prince Uche Secondus and the leader of Action Congress (AC) in Rivers State, Prince Tonye Princewill. Ironically, the Commissioner in-charge the Ministry of Urban Development, Barrister Osima Ginah is a chieftain of the AC and was nominated by Prince Princewill to represent the party in the state executive council (SEC) of the Unity Government of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.
The marking and demolition of fences in the Old GRA of Port Harcourt was the latest phase in the series of demolition of illegal structures embarked upon by the present administration in the state, which was aimed at returning the city to its original ‘Garden City’ status. Before now, the demolition exercise had been carried out in other parts of the city including Old Port Harcourt Town axis, Port Harcourt-Aba Exoress Road area as well as Diobu and D/Line areas.
Governor Amaechi unleashed a fleet of bulldozers to knock down any fence that stood five metres to the road in both the Old GRA and New GRA. Owners of properties whose fences looked like the walls of a maximum security prison were directed to reduce them to one metre height and that was not negotiable. In these areas, house owners were only allowed to mount iron protectors on the short fences to permit a free view into the premises.
Consequently, in the Old GRA, as it is in the New GRA and Old Port Harcourt Town , actual architectural elevations, rather than the confusing profiles of high fences have become part of the composite street beauty.
To prove that the exercise was not targeted at anybody, a shop in the Old GRA, owned by Lady Judith Amaechi, wife of the governor was pulled down by government bulldozers as the governor’s team, led by the Commissioner for Urban Development, Barrister Ginah will stop at nothing in clearing the streets of Port Harcourt unwanted structures and create breathing space in the city.
The building was found to have encroached on the right of way and was therefore, classified as illegal structure and consequently demolished among other structures in the area.
Giving reasons for the action, Barrister Ginah, said, “The property was an illegal building situated where it is not supposed to be. So what happened to other stores in the neigbourhood also happened to Mrs. Amaechi’s own”.
The demolition exercise, which began in mid-2008 have affected several government owned structures, such as the former site of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), located in the Old Port Harcourt Town as well as the Cultural Centres, located at Abonnema Wharf Road in Diobu and Bonny Street in Old Port Harcourt Town. While the told site of the UPTH will now accommodate a 17-storey hospital, the Obi Wali Integrated Cultural Centre, located along Abbonema Wharf Road has already been taken over by the Silver Bird Group, who built ultra-modern Cinemas there. The state government, having acquired and demolished adjourning buildings to the Cultural Centre, located along Bonny Street intends to build a world-class cultural centre there.
The Silverbird Cinema is a public-private-partnership (PPP) between the Rivers State government and Silverbird Group. The complex, which is already functional, includes a shopping mall, Cinema Hall and Cineplex of eight screens.
Unknown to Governor Amaechi, his pronouncements and back-up actions towards his plans to demolish illegal structures in the streets of Port Harcourt began a culture of people’s direct participation in all aspects of governance. It is like the government bulldozers, which rolled onto the streets to sanitize the ugly and dirty streets, clear illegal structures and expand the cramped spaces, which were violated by the people themselves, rekindled in the people of the state something bigger and larger than what the Amaechi-led government anticipated.
Missing here was the usual tradition that unless government comes to demolish any particular structure, nobody would dare touch it. The people saw government as a devil, and used a long spoon to dine with it.
All over the state capital, from Borokiri to Diobu, from Choba to Elelenwo, one can easily see the acceptance of the demolition exercise was welcome as every affected person cooperated with government. Landlords and tenants went ahead on their own to re-align the lines of their property by voluntarily bringing down illegal parts of their structure, houses and fences.
The demolition illegal structures in Port Harcourt have been able to create jobs for the jobless who were engaged by owners of marked properties to re-align their structures.
According to Odumegwu Onwumere, a resident of the city, “the fact remains that the demolition exercise is hard on the rich and opulent, but through it, the less privileged, poor, down-trodden, mostly artisans, like carpenters, masons, welders and labourers are empowered as they are being busy eking a living through the exercise”.
At a time when some governments, who embarked on similar exercise, put a bold face to demolition of illegal structure, arguing that most of the displaced people were not supposed to be at the affected areas, the Amaechi-led government is showing that despite its might and legal rights, government can still be humane and sensitive.
This was exhibited recently when Governor Amaechi announced plans to pay over N 20 billion as compensation to people whose property were demolished in the bid for urban renewal and cleaning up areas that provide settings for crime. Out of this sum, a whopping N3 billion have been paid to owners of properties, who were able to produce their certificates of occupancy (C of O). The areas seen as places that provide cover for criminals in the city are mostly the waterfronts.
Although, the Okrika-Ijaw communities, who lay claim to most of these waterfronts, are in the court of law challenging the planned demolition of the areas, Governor Amaechi believes that the decision to demolish the waterfronts, beginning with Njemanze and Abonnewa Wharf Waterfronts in the city was the collective decision of the people of the state.
Hear him; “I waited for the approval of the stakeholders to embark on the demolition exercise. The criminals at the waterfronts hamper the socio-economic activities of the state and when they commit crimes, they use the waterfronts as a hide out. Life is no longer safe for the residents to live there.
The governor also said before the government decided to embark on the demolition of the waterfront in the city, he held a meeting with the Okrika Council of Chiefs led by Senator Tari Sekibo because it was only the Okrika people that protested the plan.
“We had a meeting with the Okrika Council of Chiefs because, they were the only people protesting, so we called them to a meeting and told them what we intend to do. At the meeting, we also told them that we are prepared to sell the land to them if they are willing to buy it when we finish the demolition and reclamation of the land. It was then after that we called a state holders meeting and everybody came and agreed that the waterfronts should be demolished.” Governor Amaechi said.
He noted that the main reason for embarking on the exercise was to rid the waterfront of criminal and give way to proper security of lives and property.
“The reasons for embarking on the exercise were to fish out criminals and enhance security agencies’ effort to perform their legitimate duties of securing houses and property within the state.
“The crime rate in Port Harcourt is so high and we can’t continue to allow lay siege on Port Harcourt . The way to ease tension in Port Harcourt is to demolish all those waterfronts and re-develop them.
Although, almost all the structures in the 21 waterfronts in the city of Port Harcourt are mere shanties and ramshackle homes, sometimes built even on or across gutters and drainage lines, and their owners could not be said to have C of O for them, the state government said it would still pay them compensation.
The decision to pay compensation, according to Blessing Wikina, the Acting Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, show that the state government shares the feeling of victims of its actions even when such action is for the ultimate good of the state.
“The payment of compensation therefore affirms Amaechi’s declaration that he shares the fears, concerns and the pains of the residents of the waterfronts and will do everything necessary and possible to support them.This administration is implementing this policy with a human face and wants to ensure that those that will be displaced will be able to find better alternatives”, Wikina said.
Collaborating Wikina’s comments, the State Commissioner for Urban Development, Barrister Ginah advised residents of the waterfronts in the city to report any attempt to eject them forcefully without due process.
“Anybody that comes to you to forcefully eject you without due process, please, report such person to the Ministry of Urban Development. My ministry cannot enter the business of demolition of any waterfront without prepared enumeration and adequate compensations paid to the affected property owners.
The Commissioner stated that the planned demolition of the waterfronts has no ethnic or political inclination but a mere attempt to restore sanity and security of lives and property to Africa ’s oil and gas hub.
“The government has resolved to pay on compensatory ground, even when it is illegal to do so. It is a moral burden the state government has decided to carry. It is not a matter of tribalism, or ethnic cleansing policy of particular persons in government to displace others or settle skirmishes of the past or present. It is all bout development for decent living for the good of all and particularly, the residents of the waterfront”, he said.
Barrister Ginah’s position confirmed Governor Amaechi’s views at a recent parley with journalists in Port Harcourt where he said the demolition of the waterfronts were not targeted at a particular ethnic group in order to favour another.
The governor said he has had to contend with the antics of individuals, who are attempting to make ‘political capital’ from the government policy by playing on the sentiments of the people, and making false claims that his administration wants to use the demolition exercise to replace the Okrika people with his Ikwerre kinsmen
Hear him; ‘Politicians are just hatching the issue of ethnic bias because I come from Ikwerre. The truth is that even the areas that belong to Ikwerre are being demolished. The reason for the demolition is to chase away criminals. Nobody should make that argument that what I am doing is ethnic cleansing and pland to give the land to Ikwerre people.
“The land belongs to Rivers State government. They claim they sold the waterfronts in 1819 or 1918, whichever month or year, I don’t want to know.What I want to know is that at least the two parties, I mean, Okrika and Ikwerre sold, and sold to colonial government. They are all government land and they can’t metamorphose into the state government”.
It is worthy of note that the state government intends not only to demolish the structures at the waterfronts but will equally develop the area with modern housing estates, which it plans to sell back to the original residents.
Like other waterfronts across the Niger Delta region, the waterfronts in the city of Port Harcourt are known breeding grounds for all manner of criminality, ranging from drug addiction, serial murder, kidnapping, prostitution, gun-running, bunkering, touting and abuse of law and order. The environment negates the primary ethics of maintaining healthy living.
According to Governor Amaechi,” “In the waterfronts, the criminals there have hierarchy of leadership. What is annoying is that there are different people who are raping and killing people there. From my security report, Tolofari, who lives in the waterfront, is busy raping, killing people and extorting money and we need to check it.
“There was a time we had two hours of shooting with criminals at Njemanze waterfront, just to rescue somebody that was kidnapped and we were able to overpower them and rescue the person- a medical doctor. So, if we did not have the capacity to sustain shoting for two hours, you can imagine what would have happened”.
The surrounding waters are bemused with diseases, which hitherto expose the residents to epidemic. The way houses, mostly illegal structures are constructed would not give room to build social amenities that would better the lives of the citizenry resident in the areas. There are no spaces to construct roads, lay water pipes, build health centres and schools; even, power supply is by use of sub-standard cables, which are meandered through huts, because there are no openings to mount electric poles. The spate of fire outbreak is common in those parts of the state.
Such illegalities, as all and sundry know should not be allowed to persist in an emerging modern city like Port Harcourt .
It is the intention of the state government to re-design those areas of Port Harcourt and build decent houses and other amenities to the benefits and pride of all. Some of the waterfronts would be turned into tourist attraction, recreational and resorts would be built, the real pristine value, the shorelines would be brought to the fore.
Confirming this, the governor said,” the first thing is to reclaim the areas after demolition, so it is not going to be easy. When we finish reclaiming it, we design what it will look like, and then, we look for investors who will develop the place. That is what we will do”.
The miscreants would be denied of hiding places, and then, the security threat to the state would have been ultimately annihilated.
Before going to the waterfronts in the city of Port Harcourt , government bulldozers are expected to roll out to parts of the Obio/ Akpor, Oyigbo and Eleme local government areas that make up the proposed Greater Port Harcourt City in order to create space for roads and other facilities that would be needed in the new city .
To Chief Ndubisi Ekwueme, a traditional ruler, the Amaechi-led administration deserves a pat on the back for seeking to bring Port Harcourt to its original Garden City status and therefore should be joined by all and sundry to redeem the city
Pains and anguish, it may be to owners of properties affected by the on-going execise, but as Governor Amaechi puts it; “all those affected by the demolition exercise should bear the pains in good faith since it is not targeted at anybody but to return Port Harcourt to its Garden City status”.
To Kalabari Prince and the leaders of AC in Rivers State, Prince Tonye Princewill, whose house was affected by the demolition exercise, “the exercise will bring out the beauty of the great buildings in Port Harcourt and by next few years, all of us shall be happy that we supported the vision of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaerchi to build a new modern Port Harcourt, out of debris that used to be Port Harcourt .It will cost our today’s happiness but, will give us the joy of tomorrow”.
Onukwugha, journalist writes from Port Harcourt, Nigeria
