OPINION
The $7 billion Ogun Waterside announcement in Paris is real, and it is a direct result of visionary leadership. If you are angry about Eastern ports, your anger is valid – but direct it at the right place.
Let me break down what President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Ogun State Government just achieved:
1. What President Tinubu Actually Approved in Paris:
This is the clearest proof of the Renewed Hope economic model working. The Ogun Waterside Deep Seaport is NOT funded with oil money or federal allocation. It is a state-owned PPP facilitated by President Tinubu’s investor-friendly foreign policy.
Ogun State Government owns the location and did the groundwork. President Tinubu created the enabling environment and personally led the investment drive in Paris that secured DP World of Dubai – the world’s largest port operator – to invest $7 Billion of private capital in Nigeria.
This is not “Tinubu dashing Ogun money.” This is what a President who understands business does: He does not share money, he brings investors. It is the same model that gave us Lekki Deep Seaport, but now scaled to $7 Billion because investors now trust Nigeria again under Tinubu.
This is leadership. Previous governments traveled for photo ops. Tinubu travels and returns with $7B in FDI.
2. Why Investors Are Rushing to the Lagos-Ogun Corridor Under Tinubu:
This is not tribalism. This is the result of deliberate reforms by the Tinubu administration and the Ogun State Government:
A. The Ease of Doing Business Reforms: President Tinubu’s removal of bureaucracy, the new Blue Economy Ministry under Adegboyega Oyetola, and the Presidential directive that any state with a viable feasibility and private investor gets prompt approval. Ogun complied, others are still writing letters to Abuja.
B. Commercial Viability Created by Ogun State: Ogun Waterside faces the Atlantic with a natural draft of 18 metres. You can berth a Panamax vessel without yearly dredging. Port Harcourt is 7-9 metres, Onne is 11-12 metres. Ogun government wisely packaged what nature already gave Ogun, instead of trying to dredge a river and call it a sea.
C. Infrastructure Link: 70% of Nigeria’s industries are in Lagos-Ogun-Ibadan. Thanks to President Tinubu’s Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the renewed Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge plan championed by Ogun, cargo landed in Waterside can be in Alaba in 2 hours. This corridor is now bankable because of federal infrastructure vision.
Investors are not sentimental. They go where a President guarantees policy stability and a Governor guarantees land and political will. Ogun has both.
3. Why Eastern Ports Are Still Struggling and What The East Must Learn From Tinubu/Ogun:
Eastern ports are dead not because President Tinubu hates the East, but because they are still waiting for the old model of federal government building ports with oil money.
That model is dead. President Tinubu has killed it for good reason.
Port Harcourt, Warri, Calabar are federal-owned, NPA-managed, and have been unviable for 20 years because no private capital will enter without state ownership.
The proposed Abia Azumini-Obeaku is technically a river port – 25km inland through Imo River, needs 40km of mangrove road, and can only take 5,000-ton barges. Even China Harbour that built Lekki told Governor Otti the truth: It is not a deep seaport. It is a barge terminal that should feed Onne.
Onitsha River Port failed because after Jonathan’s N36B Niger dredging in 2009, it was abandoned and silted again. No maintenance model.
The Lesson From Tinubu and Dapo Abiodun:
The sabotage is not from Abuja. The solution is what Ogun just did.
President Tinubu has opened the door: Port Autonomy. Any state can now own its coastline, find its own investor, and keep its revenue.
Instead of demanding that Tinubu build Eastern ports with federal money, South-East and South-South governors should do what Governor Abiodun did: Package Onne/Port Harcourt as one Deep Port Industrial Complex, get a real feasibility, fly to Dubai or Paris like Ogun did, and bring an investor to President Tinubu for approval. The Blue Economy Minister has said it repeatedly – bring investor, get approval in 30 days.
Ogun State has shown initiative, preparation, and seriousness. President Tinubu has shown that he is a President for all of Nigeria who rewards any state that is ready for business. He did not ask if Ogun is Yoruba land before facilitating $7B. He will do the same for Abia, Rivers, or Akwa Ibom tomorrow if they bring a bankable project.
The oil money argument is emotional. Oil money is shared via FAAC. Lagos generates 40% of non-oil revenue and keeps only 15%. The East gets 13% derivation. Both are shortchanged by the old system, which is exactly what Tinubu’s reforms are fixing.
Bottom Line: In 3 years, President Tinubu has brought more private port investment than the last 10 years combined. Ogun State Government has proven to be the most investment-ready state in Nigeria.
If we want Eastern ports to work, we must stop the petition writing and learn from the Tinubu-Abiodun model: Stop waiting for Abuja to build it for you. Own it, package it, find the investor.
Otherwise in 5 years, Lagos and Ogun will have 4 deep seaports creating 100,000 jobs, while the East will still be shouting marginalization.
This is not favoritism. This is what happens when a visionary President meets a serious Governor.
*God bless President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. God bless Ogun State Government.*Olori Omoba Otunba Adejare Rewane Adegbenro