Why Akwa Ibom Leaders Rejected Nuclear Power Plant

THE Akwa Ibom State Leaders Caucus has rejected plans by the Nigerian Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC) to site nuclear power plant in Itu local Government Area of the state.

They attributed their action to the disasters which the failure of nuclear plants had brought to several cities in more advanced countries.

The caucus questioned why Nigeria, where perennial incompetence in matters of safety and security had become legendary, should undertake such a risky project, when countries like Germany, Italy, USA, Russia and Japan, known for their expertise were shutting down such plants.

Addressing a press conference in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, the caucus, represented by Senator Anietie Okon, said gambling with such risky issue by Nigeria, with its famed lack of maintenance culture, was a clear and deliberate invitation to disaster of monumental proportions.

Declaring Akwa Ibom as grossly unsuitable for such projects, the leaders stressed that nuclear plants all over the world had always been located far away from human habitation, adding that Akwa Ibom, small and compact, had no distance across the state beyond 50 kilometers.

“The location of nuclear plants all over the world is done far away from human habitation. For instance, the Japanese project is mostly offshore.

“It was the surge of the Tsunami that created and blighted major areas of the Japanese coastline, to the extent that people have been evacuated and quarantined.

“Women in those areas have recently been giving birth to monstrous-looking creatures in the name of babies. Given the above scenario, one wonders what qualifies Akwa Ibom State for such project.

“The state has a total land area of only 7,081 km2 with an estimated population of about five million persons. That spreads out to 706 persons per kilometer density, which is one of the highest in the country. Where then will the plant be sited?” he asked

Okon called on the Federal Government to partner with the state to facilitate realisation of the Ibaka Deep Seaport project and quick implementation of the conversion of Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron, to a degree awarding institution.

He regretted that the only visible direct Federal Government industrial projects in Akwa Ibom in the last 40 years are the moribund Nigerian Newsprint Manufacturing Company (NNMC) in Oku Iboku, and the Aluminum Smelter plant in Ikot Abasi. “This particular move by the Federal Government looks a Greek gift and it is becoming more obvious that Akwa Ibom State is viewed by the central government as Siberia, where projects with extreme disaster potentials, are targeted and located,” he added.

The leaders, who drew the Federal Government’s attention to the need to explore other available and harmless sources of power in the state, including the Ibom Power Plant, challenged the Rostaom, the Russian firm commissioned to build the nuclear project, to declare one of such projects they had completed anywhere in the world. Rostaom, according to the leaders caucus, came into being in 2007.

The statement, jointly signed by Air Cmdr Idongesit Nkanga 9rtd), Sen. Anietie Okon, Sen. Effiong Bob, Ndueso Easier, Larry Esin, Offiong Akpabio, Esio Okwong Udoh and Augustine Usoro, stressed that if the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) had been found wanting in the management of common flood and fire disasters, a nuclear disaster would diminish the agency.