Governor Peter Odili

Rivers Banks on Allanblackia

The Rivers State government, in partnership with Unilever, turns a local plant to gold

By Osamudiamen Ogbonmwan

This plant is regarded as noth-ing. It is, afterall, a wild plant with lots of useless seeds. It is a nuisance. And even, doesn't have a nuisance value. Farmers found it an obstacle to their farming. Every farming and harvesting season, they resorted to burning the wild tree and its thousands of fruits. The tree is only good for destruction. But that was then. Now, there is a new awareness.

Unilever Plc says the wild tree which bears the “useless” fruits is a gold mine. The company says the tree bears nothing but money in the name of fruits. For years, Unilever Plc had been looking for this particular plant. And it was in Rivers State that they saw it, growing all over the place, basking in the freedom of nature, and waiting to be burnt by the farmers when the planting and harvesting season come.

The local people call the plant Ucha . But in Holland, from where the Unilever Plc bosses came all the way to see the plant, they call it Allanblackia . That must be its biological name. In Rivers State, the people may not worry about the strange name. But they are rejoicing at the wealth the plant has brought forth to them.

On Wednesday, July 5, the investor-hungry governor of Rivers State, Dr Peter Odili, proudly led members of his executive, friends of the state and the very happy members of the public to flag off a campaign for the mass planting of Ucha (Allanblackia ). The flagging off ceremony took place at a town called Ubumini in Emohua LGA. Incidentally, Allanblackia is found in 15 local government areas of the state.

The people of Ubumini couldn't contain their joy at this new found wealth. They noted that it was the first time a serving governor would visit them. But what is more, he brought them news that they had been sitting on a gold mine; that they had bags of money in their backyard without knowing it. They suddenly realised that what they had been burning and using as firewood was money. An excited Odili hailed the more excited people to no end. He told them that this was their own resource which only they will control, which is better than oil, which God had given them and which they needed no federal government permission to use as they wanted. When he said that, the people leaped up in joy. Their youths jubiliated. Their women wriggled their waists in appreciation. And their traditional chiefs and rulers grinned from ear to ear in a dignified manner.

The governor sent them into wild jubiliation when he told them, in simple analysis, how much they would make. For each bag of the fruits of Allanblackia , brought by anybody, Odili told them his government would pay the sum of N10,000. For the same bag, Unilever would also pay them. He then urged the people to enter into the bush, their farmlands, and pick the fruits of Allanblackia . He urged them to guard the trees jealously and appealed to the traditional rulers and the chiefs to provide parcels of land for the mass planting of Allanblackia . The governor also promised that the plant would be planted in all the local government areas in the state. He immediately set up an implementation committee to kick-start the project. Aside from the immediate profits the people would make, the planting and production of the plant would provide employment to hundreds of the unemployed youths, thus, keeping them busy, and out of mischief.

Before the governor spoke, Dr Harrie Hendrick of Unilever Plc, who came all the way from Holland, disclosed that Unilever discovered the usefulness of the plant seven years ago. He said that Unilever would partner with Rivers State government to make a success of Allanblackia and would readily buy the fruits in large quantities from the people when harvested.

Allanblackia fruits will be used to produce Blue Band Margarine and Key Soap. For Rivers State, wealth creation under Odili grows by the day, even from trees.