NIGERIA: The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has challenged President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to explain why the Ibom Deep Sea Port is being presented as a fresh presidential approval when the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had already approved a key stage of the project in December 2020.
The opposition party accused the APC of turning the long-awaited port into a recurring campaign promise, describing the latest announcement as another attempt to secure political support in Akwa Ibom State without providing a clear implementation commitment.
Tinubu announced the approval on Friday, November 6, while addressing supporters at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo during a political rally organised in his honour.
The announcement followed a request by Akwa Ibom State Governor, Umo Eno, who had pledged that the state would deliver two million votes for Tinubu’s re-election in 2027 if the Federal Government approved and facilitated the development of the port.
But the NDC questioned the significance of the announcement, insisting that the project had already received FEC approval under former President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Osa Director, the party recalled that the FEC approved the Full Business Case for the first phase of the $4.6 billion Ibom Deep Sea Port project on December 16, 2020.
It said the approval identified the Bolloré Africa Logistics–PowerChina consortium as the preferred bidder and was intended to advance the project towards construction.
The party asked: “How many times will the APC approve the Ibom Deep Sea Port?”
It also recalled that Tinubu, during his presidential campaign rally at the same stadium on January 30, 2023, had promised to build a seaport for Akwa Ibom.
According to the NDC, the latest announcement amounted to a repetition of a campaign commitment that had yet to translate into a completed project.
The party described the development as “grand deceit and endless lies”, accusing the APC of making promises without delivering the expected results.
It said: “In a brazen display of ignorance of statecraft and the elevation of grand deceit as a campaign strategy, President Tinubu, as APC presidential candidate, first promised the port during his 2023 campaign.”
The statement added that more than three years after that promise, the President had returned to Uyo to announce another approval for the same project.
“Obviously, this is another round of cheap promises that will not be kept or honoured. Just as before, so it will be now — empty promises. All talk and no action,” the party said.
The NDC also compared the port promise with the APC’s commitment to uninterrupted electricity supply, arguing that Nigerians were still waiting for improved power delivery while Akwa Ibom residents continued to await the realisation of the seaport project.
It urged Nigerians to reject the APC at the polls and support what it described as the possibility of a new Nigeria under the NDC.
The port project has, however, passed through formal planning and approval processes. A Japan International Cooperation Agency report on Nigeria’s transport and logistics sector listed the FEC’s December 2020 approval of the Full Business Case and identified the project as being at the pre-commercial-close stage.
The distinction between approval of a business case and the commencement of construction is important. The President’s November 6 announcement has renewed questions about the precise stage of federal authorisation, the project’s financing, procurement arrangements and when physical construction will begin.
Neither a construction timetable nor a detailed financing plan was announced in the President’s public declaration at the Uyo rally.
The NDC’s challenge therefore places the focus on whether the latest announcement will produce concrete implementation steps for a project that has remained a major infrastructure expectation in Akwa Ibom.
