A Facebook post by Abdulaziz Dewat, a northerner, has triggered a debate over regional development, infrastructure and the latest investment announcement involving Ogun State.
Dewat lamented that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu travelled to Paris and witnessed agreements involving more than $7 billion in initial investment for the development of the Gateway Deep Sea Port at Ogun Waterside and the 10,000-hectare Ogun State Blue Marine Special Economic Zone.
He questioned why Lagos and Ogun continue to attract major maritime investments while several proposed seaports elsewhere remain at various stages of development, arguing that the North appears to be receiving fewer comparable economic opportunities.
That concern deserves discussion—but so does the accuracy of the argument.
First, the Ogun announcement is not simply a $7 billion cheque written by the Nigerian government for Ogun State. The agreements were signed between the Ogun State Government and DP World MEA FZE, the global ports and logistics operator. The Presidency says the agreements envisage an initial investment of more than $7 billion, with the projects expected to create more than 50,000 direct jobs when fully developed.
The proposed Gateway Deep Sea Port is designed with a four-kilometre berth and an 18-metre draft, allowing it to accommodate larger vessels and potentially reduce pressure on the Lagos port corridor, particularly Apapa and Tin Can Island. The accompanying Blue Marine Special Economic Zone is intended to connect maritime logistics with manufacturing, processing and export-oriented industries.
That distinction is important because describing the entire $7 billion as government money going exclusively to Ogun creates a misleading impression.
The Federal Government and Ogun State are providing regulatory, institutional and enabling support, while the investment framework involves DP World and other private-sector interests. The Presidency has also identified connectivity—including the Ogun section of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway—as important to making the corridor commercially viable.
There is another important fact: Ogun is not the only state pursuing a deep-sea port through private-sector or public-private arrangements.
Akwa Ibom, for example, has been pursuing the Ibom Deep Sea Port for years. In January 2026, the state government signed an MoU with Interaf Group Consortium concerning the development and operation of the deep-sea port and Ibom Industrial City. In June, Governor Umo Eno also held discussions in Paris with Africa Global Logistics over the project's technical feasibility and investment pathway.
The Nigerian Ports Authority also lists the Ibom Deep Sea Port among Nigeria's greenfield port projects and describes it as a public-private partnership involving the Federal Government, Akwa Ibom State Government and operating partners.
Cross River has similarly promoted the Bakassi International Deep Seaport as a proposed $2 billion PPP project, with the stated objective of serving markets beyond the state through road, rail and inland-waterway connections.
So the larger lesson may not be that one region is receiving everything while another is deliberately being ignored.
Perhaps the more uncomfortable question is: what are regional governments doing to aggressively attract capital, structure bankable projects and convince global investors that their states are ready for transformational investment?
The North does not have an Atlantic coastline, and therefore cannot build a conventional seaport on its own territory. But that does not mean northern states cannot build economic corridors around ports elsewhere, develop dry ports and inland logistics hubs, strengthen rail connections, process agricultural commodities, attract manufacturing and create export-oriented industrial clusters.
There is also a legitimate political argument about what previous administrations did with opportunities available to them. But that argument should be based on documented records rather than blanket claims.
Ultimately, the Ogun deal should perhaps be viewed less as a competition between North and South and more as a reminder that investment follows infrastructure, planning, political coordination, credible project structures and investors who see a commercial opportunity.
If regional leaders want similar transformational projects, the question should not simply be, “Why Ogun?”
It should also be:
“What project are we preparing, what investors are we courting, what infrastructure are we providing, and why should global capital choose us?”
That is the harder question—and perhaps the more productive one.
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