Fresh battle on Port Harcourt’s waterfronts

The event took place on Thursday, October 21, 2010. The messages on their t-shirts, “housing is a human right” and “no to forced eviction,” all pointed to one direction, a firm objection to plans by the state government to demolish houses in Okrika waterfront as part of a new urban renewal policy aimed at restoring […]

The event took place on Thursday, October 21, 2010. The messages on their t-shirts, “housing is a human right” and “no to forced eviction,” all pointed to one direction, a firm objection to plans by the state government to demolish houses in Okrika waterfront as part of a new urban renewal policy aimed at restoring what the government calls, the greater Port Harcourt master plan.
The fear of the residents stems from a similar waterfront settlement called Njemanze, demolished in August, 2009, following which Amnesty’s report said over 13,000 persons were made homeless. With the government confirming it is demolishing all water fronts, the Okrika people believe that the same fate awaits them unless they fight to stop it.
The confirmation came two days before their gathering when the Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, declared at a media briefing on October 19, this year, that there will be no going back on the demolition of waterfronts. The governor said there were shootings weeks back in one of the water fronts.
Weekly Trust learnt that also militancy, shootings and other forms of criminalities emanate from water fronts, while the area serves as transit points for criminals to sail on boats through waters in the area and to escape the wrath of the law after committing wrongs. In fact, the governor said unless the waterfronts are erased, shootings will continue in the state.
The Amnesty International puts the number of water fronts in the capital at about 40 but prominent among them are Abonnema, Bundu, Njemanze; Elechi beach, Marine base, Nembe, Okrika, Enugu and Cemetery waterfronts amongst others.
Residents, however, said contrary to claims by the state governor, criminalities don’t take place in their river bank settlements. During the Amnesty’s report presentation, leader of concerned citizens of Okrika waterfront, Marcus George and Beta Angbara, who is secretary and leader of the women group in the community, said in their different remarks that militancy or any form of criminality does not take place in the area. They, along with many other speakers, said the “Rivers State government was not being responsive to its citizens because the demolition is not a popular policy,” they alleged that it is aimed at making them poorer in their own ancestral land.
Dora Ateke Seminabo who said she has been living at Okrika water front for over 20 years, cried out that she will have no place to go with her 12 children should their small brown coloured flat be demolished. She even claimed that the residents actually made the place suitable for building because they sand-filled the entire area with mud dug out from waters.
She equally cited an estate occupied by some ‘responsible’ persons in the area as against the government’s claim of Okrika being a criminal den, like other water fronts. She was also worried about the futures of vulnerable kids in make shift schools in the area as well as fishermen and other artisans. She said she will never move out from what she called ‘her house of twenty years for no reason’.
Like Seminabo, many other residents also vowed never to allow their houses to be demolished as was done to Njemanze water front on August 28, last year. Their view seemed shared by Amnesty and other human rights groups.
Campaigner for West African team under the African Programme of Amnesty International, Lucy Freeman, while presenting her organisation’s report, said findings are based upon an on the spot assessment, interviews with residents and all stakeholders including officials charged with the restoration of the Greater Port Harcourt Master plan, the basis of which the demolition is being carried out.
Titled ‘Just Move Them’: Forced Evictions in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Amnesty accused the state government of forcefully ejecting people from the water fronts without recourse to human rights laws. It added that residents were not consulted over their own resettlement plans while short notices were given before demolitions began. The report also said the government lacks compensation and resettlement plans which is why the 13, 000 persons whose houses were demolished at Njemanze have remained homeless and without sources of livelihood. The same fate was said to have become of residents in Abonema wharf where about 50 houses were demolished there in February, 2009, while scores were said to have been shot when residents of Bundu water front held protests in October, 2009, against planned demolition, there was brutal use of force and fire arms by security agencies, Amnesty said.
The report also put the figure of people who rely on water around the area to 200,000 and 500,000. The organisation also warned that those who live in the about 40 water fronts in the state were likely to be rendered homeless and without sources of livelihood if their houses are demolished.
“The Rivers State government claims the demolition of the waterfronts is
necessary to implement the Greater Port Harcourt Master Plan, an urban renewal project launched in 2009. The development of the waterfront is a central feature of the Master Plan – which encompasses
the whole city but full details have not been made public. The government must
makes every effort to identify alternatives to evictions, using them only as a last resort. The Nigerian (Rivers) authorities have not developed any resettlement plan to provide alternative accommodation to the hundreds of thousands of people likely to be evicted. Chidi Ekiyor, 15, has been sleeping under a flyover since the demolition of the house he shared with his aunt in Njemanze. Chidi told Amnesty International that he has been arrested five times since he lost his home. Most nights, he and the other boys are harassed by police or
older boys who steal their money or beat them. The Rivers State government claims to have undertaken a buy-out scheme, purchasing all the property on the waterfront and paying owners a replacement value for them. Under this scheme, however, tenants, who make up the vast majority of the waterside population, are completely ignored and can claim no entitlements. House owners who do not want to sell their houses are also given no alternative,” the Amnesty International report said.
However, the state government insists that the residents were well informed and in fact, made requests for their houses to be paid off and demolished and that they have been carried along since the launch of the greater Port Harcourt Master Plan in 2009, in which the demolition of the water fronts forms essential part of the programme to pave way for development.
Findings show that demolition of waterfronts started before Amaechi took over the Rivers government in October, 2007. Amaechi was said to have initially announced suspension of the demolition before he announced in July, 2008, that waterfronts were to be erased to restore the master plan, originally developed in 1975 but which was never implemented.
Government contracted a South African firm to improve on the plan to guide the city’s developmental efforts in the next 50 years and Amaechi’s government launched the improved plan in April, 2009 even though demolitions were said to have taken place in February, 2009 at Abonnema wharf road.
On August 28 and November 6, 2009, demolitions took place within and around Njemanze waterfront. The governor had at a meeting with leaders of the waterfronts on July 9, 2009, said he was deploying armed forces to demolish the areas, Amnesty recalled. On July 14 and 15, 2009, residents thronged in hundreds and staged a protest but that didn’t quite change anything because demolitions went on in August, 2009.
The state’s Commissioner for Urban Development, Mr. Osima Gina, reportedly said however, that the government has it on record as evidence that residents of the water fronts came “on their own, they approached government to take over” their houses after paying them because there was high level of criminal activities going on across the water fronts in addition to consisting flooding which makes the river banks unfit for human habitation. The commissioner said, some of the residents at some point demanded that the houses be demolished before payments were effected by government.
“We even gave them options of payment (buying off the houses) or settlement, they chose payment,” the commissioner said. He noted that the government carried out quality valuation with the Ministry of Urban Development. He said the government chose to start the demolition at Njemanze, after payments were made to residents with proof of legitimate ownership of property.
The commissioner didn’t announce any amount earmarked or spent for the buy-off purchases, but some sources said over N20billion was budgeted to pay for houses at pre-demolition stages. Gina also said the policy is aimed at opening up development in the state capital to establish road linkages and make life better for the entire citizens.
Our correspondent however reports that some residents whose houses were demolished maintained that they were not in any way contacted by government for any discussion, valuation let alone payment.
The commissioner insists that whoever denies the payment was being economical with the truth, adding that the government was in constant touch with all stakeholders – residents, Amnesty International, United Nations World Habitat and other human rights groups with proper explanations made to them. None the less, the commissioner revealed that what appears contentious, is that payment were only being made to people with genuine structures and those who have lived over time around the waterfronts.
He said payments were not to be made on ‘‘illegal’’ and temporary structures, claiming that some people have hurriedly put up structures around waterfronts in anticipation of buy-off by government.
Some of the residents believe that the demolitions are aimed at serving the interest of some corporate bodies regardless of the welfare of poor residents. Amnesty also made referernce to this too in its report.
“Port Harcourt’s redevelopment is to be funded partly by the Rivers State government and also by public private partnership initiatives. The settlements of Njemanze waterfront, Njemanze Street and Abonnema Wharf Road, which have already been demolished, and Abonnema Wharf waterfront which is targeted for demolition are all within a two-km radius of one such project  Silverbird Showtime”. 
“According to UNHABITAT, the demolitions at Njemanze waterfront and adjacent areas, and the planned demolition of Abonnema Wharf waterfront are “motivated by the Silverbird Showtime project’’. UN-HABITAT estimated that the demolitions of Abonema Wharf and Njemanze waterfronts alone would affect 45,000 people. The Silverbird Showtime development consists of an eight-screen cinema, opened in April 2009, and other planned commercial projects including a theme park, a conference centre, a shopping mall and a hotel.
“In a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Rivers State government and Silverbird Communications Ltd, which owns the development, the government agrees to ensure “peaceful evacuation and relocation of present occupants”. It also states that the Rivers State government will ensure neat surroundings within a two-km radius of the site. The Rivers State government provides 20 per cent of the investment for the enterprise, and receives 20 per cent of the profits in return. It is expected to lease the land to Silverbird for 99 years,” the Amnesty reported.
Some other residents have associated ethnic colourations to the exercise, claiming that Governor Amaechi aims at displacing Ijaws who are founders and mostly occupants of waterfront settlements owing to their inherited fishing and gardening businesses. The governor is an Ikwere man whose kinsmen live upland (outside the water sides).
Gina, however, maintained in media reports that government has no interest outside the desire to stop criminalities in the area as well as create long term development for all to benefit. The commissioner also said no ethnic group is being targeted by government and that the policy has a long term positive effect to which all will smile in future.
But the state government doesn’t seem perturbed especially since according to Gina, there was (at the time he spoke) no court order restraining government from going on with its urban renewal programmes and by inference, the demolition, challenging any one with such order to present it.