Every time there is a major development relating to seaport construction or maritime infrastructure in Nigeria, a familiar argument quickly emerges: some people interpret it through the lens of marginalisation, exclusion and a supposed deliberate attempt to deny the South-East access to a seaport.
The latest example is the $7 billion Ogun deep seaport development initiative, following the agreement with DP World to commence work on the project. By the way, DP World is a Dubai government-owned infrastructure company. They are the ones funding the project, contrary to the fake news factory.
It is worth separating legitimate questions about infrastructure and regional development from the politics of victimhood that often surrounds them.
Ogun State has roughly 30 kilometres of Atlantic coastline, east of Lagos. That is a geographical fact. The five South-East states — Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo — have no sea coastline.
That is not a political conspiracy. It is geography.
Some people, however, seem to think that every body of water they see is a potential seaport — perhaps even a swimming pool, if the argument is pushed far enough. Nigerians really should go and take a two-week geography lesson.
There are important riverine communities and commercial centres in the South-East, particularly around the Niger. Onitsha, for example, sits on the River Niger and has historically been an important commercial centre. But a navigable inland river is not the same thing as an ocean coastline, and a river port is not automatically a deep-sea port.
This distinction matters because the argument is sometimes reduced to the claim that if Lagos, Ogun, Rivers or Delta can have seaports, the South-East should also have one.
The South-East certainly deserves world-class transport and logistics infrastructure. But that does not mean every region can physically support the same infrastructure.
Onitsha already has a river port, and a modern inland-waterway logistics system using barges could connect the South-East more efficiently to coastal ports. That is a practical opportunity worth pursuing.
The much-discussed IPOB propaganda narrative of a “seaport” potential at Azumini-Obeaku in Ukwa East, Abia State, illustrates the problem. It is sometimes presented as being about 18 nautical miles from the sea (whatever that means). But proximity to the coast does not turn a riverine location into an ocean coastline. A river port capable of handling barges is one proposition; a conventional deep-sea port for ocean-going vessels is another.
There is also a difficult geographical reality that is often ignored in these arguments. The Niger does not simply flow through a single, straightforward channel to the sea. As it approaches the delta, the river breaks into hundreds of rivers, creeks, distributaries and waterways before reaching the sea. The region’s heavy sedimentation, shifting channels and complex deltaic terrain make maintaining a deep, stable navigational channel an expensive and technically demanding undertaking.
In other words, the challenge is not simply to dredge a channel once and declare a deep-water port operational. Such a project would require sustained dredging and maintenance in an environment where sediment is constantly being deposited and waterways are continually changing. The geographical and engineering constraints are real.
Azumini-Obeaku is also relatively close to the extensive port facilities around Port Harcourt and Onne. Instead of turning this geography into another political grievance, the more useful question is how to connect the South-East efficiently to those maritime gateways.
And maritime access is only one part of the equation.
The region should be paying much greater attention to aviation.
Akwa Ibom has just inaugurated the international terminal at the Obong Victor Attah International Airport in Uyo and launched an international route to Ghana. Enugu already has an international airport, and its concession should provide an opportunity to transform it into a genuinely world-class regional gateway. The state’s airline has also begun flights to Douala, Cameroon.
That is the kind of thinking the South-East should be encouraging.
The region has enormous commercial networks, manufacturing clusters, entrepreneurs and diaspora connections. Its infrastructure strategy should reflect those strengths.
Enugu offers an instructive example. The state did not wait for an emotional seaport campaign before pursuing economic growth. It has become one of Nigeria’s faster-growing state economies, while its internally generated revenue has risen into the country’s top tier. That progress was not always there; it came from deliberate economic development plan.
The lesson is simple: economic transformation does not require every region to reproduce the infrastructure of another region.
The South-East should be thinking about cargo airports, dry ports, inland container depots, barges, rail freight and modern logistics — while simultaneously building the industrial capacity that will make those facilities productive.
That last point is particularly important.
As Chinese manufacturers increasingly sell directly to consumers and retailers through platforms such as Temu and others, the South-East cannot afford to think primarily in terms of importing goods. The greater opportunity is production.
Industry is better.
The region already has significant manufacturing and trading capacity. The goal should be to produce locally, distribute nationally and across Africa, and eventually compete globally. Ports in Port Harcourt and Onne, emerging maritime infrastructure in Akwa Ibom and other coastal locations, combined with efficient airports and inland logistics, can support that ambition.
Temu did not become a global marketplace simply because it had access to seaports. The larger story is manufacturing capacity, technology, capital, distribution, entrepreneurship and logistics working together.
That is the conversation the South-East should be having.
If South-East investors believe a deep-sea port can be successfully developed somewhere in the region, they are free to commission feasibility studies, assemble the capital and make the case. If the engineering, environmental, cargo and commercial realities support it, there is no reason it should not happen.
But no amount of political agitation can manufacture a coastline where one does not exist.
States should compete for investment. Businesses should compete for opportunities. Regions should build infrastructure around their comparative advantages.
Just like other regions, the South-East has legitimate infrastructure challenges and legitimate grievances over development. But every infrastructure debate does not have to become another story of deliberate victimisation.
The zone needs better roads, modern rail, world-class airports, reliable electricity, industrial infrastructure, efficient inland waterways and logistics systems that connect Aba, Onitsha, Abakaliki, Nnewi, Enugu, Owerri and other commercial centres to domestic, African and global markets.
The objective should not be to reproduce every infrastructure project elsewhere in Nigeria. It should be to build the infrastructure that makes the South-East more productive.
Geography is not discrimination. A river is not the Atlantic Ocean.
Acknowledging that reality does not mean surrendering the South-East’s aspirations. It means pursuing them with greater realism and ambition.
The region should demand more, think bigger and invest smarter.
Sometimes, the smartest answer is not to build what another region has, but to build something better suited to what you have.