By Inwalomhe Donald
IN this economic recession, investments and job creation are what the economy of Edo state needs to sharpen its edges. Gelegele Port is expected to achieve many things. It will bring shipping services and export free zone to the doorsteps of shippers in Edo State, Kogi, Ondo, Delta and other states. In its efforts to make transportation of goods easier and also create job opportunities for youths, the Edo state government has given assurances that it is committed to completing the Gelegele Port. It is important to note that this was conceived to facilitate efficient cargo delivering to Edo State, provide access to port services, stimulate Edo economic development, boost export of agricultural commodities, provide employment opportunities as well as increase revenue generation in Edo State.
If you do not go to Lagos, your goods will be brought to Edo State. It means the cost of transportation will reduce. It means we are replicating the economy of Lagos in Edo State. There will be a lot of incidental issues, transportation, warehouses, factories, because these will be a gateway to export. Gelegele Port will expand economic value chain and open up new business opportunities to the citizens of Edo State. Developing Gelegele Port will improve the welfare of Edo people through appropriate social, political and economic conditions. The expected outcomes are quantitative and qualitative improvements in human capital (e.g. income and education levels) as well as physical capital such infrastructure (utilities, transport, telecommunications). While in the previous decades in Edo State, development policies and strategies tended to focus on physical capital, in the past seven years, it has seen a better balance by including human capital issues.
Irrespective of the relative importance of physical versus human capital, development cannot occur without both as infrastructure cannot remain effective without proper operations and maintenance while economic activities cannot take place without an infrastructure base. Because of its intensive use of infrastructure, the transport sector is an important component of the economy and a common tool used for development. This is even more so in a global economy where economic opportunities have been increasingly related to the mobility of people, goods and information. A relationship between the quantity and quality of transport infrastructure and the level of economic development is apparent. High density transport infrastructure and highly connected networks are commonly associated with high levels of development. When Gelegele Port transport system is efficient, it will provide economic and social opportunities and benefits that will result in positive multiplier effects such as better accessibility to markets, employment and additional investments.
When Gelegele transport system is deficient in terms of capacity or reliability, it can have an economic cost such as reduced or missed opportunities and lower quality of life. At the aggregate level, efficient transportation reduces costs in many economic sectors, while inefficient transportation increases these costs. In addition, the effects of transportation are not always intended as it can have unforeseen or unintended consequences. For instance, congestion is often an unintended consequence in the provision of free or low cost transport infrastructure to users. However, congestion is also an indication of a growing economy where capacity and infrastructure have difficulties keeping up with the rising mobility demands. Transport carries an important social and environmental load, which cannot be neglected. Assessing the economic importance of transportation requires a categorization of the types of impacts it has. These involve core (the physical characteristics of transportation), operational and geographical dimensions: In his New Year broadcast to the people of the State, Governor Obaseki said that the development of Gelegele as a port and industrial zone was of high priority to the government and people of Edo, adding that it will improve the state’s economic competitiveness. He explained that he had met with the minister of transport and they plan to make the gelegele sea port a container terminal so that economic activities will be improved in the state.He also said that the facility will also house an agro-industrial park that would increase exportation of agricultural produce from the state.
Gelegele is a major Oil and Gas bearing/producing community in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State that hosted the Philip’s oil company limited subsidiary of Philip 66 of Texas, USA in 1963. The assets and liabilities of Philip Oil Company in OML 96 were divested to Dubri Oil Company in 1987. It has made Edo state one of the oil and gas producing states in Niger Delta.
Gelegele has a landing jetty built by the then President Alhaji Shehu Shagari administration in 1980/1981 for the transportation of goods and services to other part of the world by sea. It is in this vein that both former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan proposed a seaport at Gelegele. Gelegele Community (Gelegele-gbene) is an ancient Olodiama Ijaw speaking Community founded by PA OLUGBO IKPITI several centuries ago. It is surrounded by other Ijaw communities in Olodiama clan, which are Ikoro, Inikorogha, Iboro, Igbeleuba, Kusangha {Ekenwan} with Ikoro as the Traditional head quarters. Gelegele is a border community between Bini communities and Ijaw communities on one hand and also is a boundary community of Olodiama clan and Egbema clan of Delta and Edo states.
Some of the Bini communities near and around Gelegele are UGHOTON, IKPAKO, EGBETAN, ODUNA and UGBINE etc. And these communities have one thing or issues at one time or the other, both for good and bad. Gelegele is an Ijaw word meaning mountainous, hilly, Eeevated or high and gbene, meaning community, town or village. Gelegele-gbene, therefore, means mountainous hilly or elevated community. Gelegele, an oil rich community in the Niger Delta, a small riverside village that lies at Benin River, is a graphic contrast to its economic and historical significance.
A lot of activities that are very vital to the history of the ancient Benin kingdom are linked to Gelegele. It is in history that the slave trade and trade in cocoa, cowries and other precious items with the Germans, Portuguese and later British were all done through this port as the major seaport in the region. Today, the famous Gelegele seaport has been reduced to a mere waterside where only fishing by the local people takes place. Also, the Portuguese and British governments used the Gelegele sea port extensively for more than half a century before the 1897 infamous British punitive expedition.
Gelegele is a community situated in Ovia North East Local Government Are Of Edo State. Historically, it was through Gelegele that the Europeans entered Benin City. The previous administration of GEJ approved the construction of a seaport in Gelegele in 2013. The construction of Gelegele seaport will provide employment to thousands of Edo indigenes and even non indigenes. The seaport will increase the Internal Generated Revenue of Edo state and boost the transportation of the largest deposits of Crude Oil recently discovered in Gelegele community. The dredging of Gelegele ought to have been completed by now.
Donald, a public affairs analyst, writes via