By; MOHAMMED KAWU, Bauchi
Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi has given assurance that he would not fight his neighbouring Gombe state because of the recent oil discovery straddling the two sister states, thereby putting them at loggerheads.
According to him, the recorded 10th and 11th member oil producing states in the country has instead, been deepening community and harmonious relationship between the states and other generality of Nigerians so that there wouldn’t be any conflict over oil discovery in their domains.
The Bauchi Chief Executive said, “We are learning from the experience of Niger Delta. By the grace of God, I promised Mr. President that there wouldn’t be conflict between me and my neighbours because of oil”.
Mohammed, who was speaking while receiving course participants 31 of the National Defense College in Bauchi Monday during a study tour to the state, further assured that oil can’t be a curse, but rather a blessing with the people in the entire geopolitical sub-region and Nigerians generally leveraging on it.
“As you said, Oil can become a curse rather than a blessing, but we are already taking steps to ensure that there wouldn’t be environmental disaster because we are farmers”, the governor answered one of the course participants who posed him a question on whether oil wouldn’t be a defendant to the detriment of other developmental initiatives.
Senator Bala Mohammed who thanked God Who does what He likes, for such an oil blessing, said however that, “Certainly I have never taken it as I have been telling my people that it is not our oil, it’s the oil of Nigeria. It is the oil of Northern Nigeria, it is the oil of Nigerians, it’s for everybody”.
The governor while describing oil and gas as a carbon phenomenon that is ubiquitous which can be anywhere, said the oil deposit that has been in his Alkaleri Local Government Area has been there for over 200 million years only to be discovered now during their humble tenure.
Governor Mohammed, while noticing that the Alkaleri discovery was an offshore having been a hinterland exploitation that has reserve of I billion barrels of crude oil and 50 billion barrels of gas, said when exploited to the fullest it would be ‘ins-tu’ meaning that it would have a lot of bio additions.
“Already I have seen in some papers that $1.4bn was committed by a company. This is a private sector development under the purview of the federal government. And that blocks it belong to NNDC, but they didn’t have the resources to do it, and that why NNPC is taking over to unbundle it, so you can see the ownership is generic, its national”, the governor said.
“It has to be refine there because there is no seaport to transport it, we would be free from all those oil thefts because it is in the hinterland, the country would benefit more. We would have gas plant for domestic use and for power generation that would provide power and industrialization”.
The governor added, “We would have fertilizer petrochemical industry there that would provide fertilizer and other chemical needs of the country. Then we would have depots and distributions, so there would be a lot of economic activities”.
“We want to leverage on it, and that’s why immediately we had it was coming, we established the Oil and Gas Academy in Alkaleri, so that we can train the manpower needs such welders, masons, bricklayers, carpenters, not in the mundane level, in the highest level because welding is very technical, and we are getting accreditation from PTDF which is helping us”.
“We have developed the curricular that is internationally recognized, and we want to mop-up those youths, not only in Bauchi, but within the northern region that are exposed to the beggaries of insecurity or terrorism to come and learn trade”, he stated but however warned locals not to be selling their lands anyhow to speculators who have already besieged the area.
Governor Bala who opined lots of oil services and the rest in the area, also called on the people to establish companies in conjunction with other Nigerians or international partners to leverage on the blessings.
He assured of the state government’s working very hard with emirs and chiefs, and at the government to government level, with the Federal government that has been assisting the state to ensure the successes which, he argued, are already successful.
Earlier, the Provost of the National Defense College, Professor Adam Okene Ahmed who led the 21-member team A of the 57 participants of course 31 of the college, said that Bauchi was one of the six states selected for the national strategic study tour of the college.
Provost Adam Okene said that Bauchi was clearly known how the state was, and now know how it is under the able leadership of Governor Bala Mohammed whom, he noted, has within the past three years transformed the state into enviable heights.
