The basic issue in the Niger
Delta is that since the promulgation of Petroleum Decree No. 51, 1969, the Off
Shore Oil Revenue Decree (No. 9), 1971 and other obnoxious military decrees by
which military dictators dispossessed the Niger Delta of the benefits of its
oil and gas resources, successive Federal administrations have been extracting
the oil and gas in the Niger Delta and using the proceeds to develop other
Regions in the country to the exclusion of the Niger Delta. The activities of
the oil companies were reflected in permanent gas flares, massive coastal
marine pollution and unprecedented levels of environmental degradation without
parallel anywhere in the world. They promoted intra and inter-community strife
by means of selective favours. Regrettably, some youth resorted to militancy
although the vast majority remained law-abiding. All these engendered tendency
towards breakdown in traditional values and confusion among the oppressed
people of the Niger Delta.
The Federal Government consistently
ignored civilized demands for social justice towards the Niger Delta and
remediation of environmental degradation of the area. Rather than show
understanding and ameliorate some of the most pressing issues, Federal
Government reaction was to lay permanent military siege on the Region.
Starting with the Minorities
Commission of 1957, there have been numerous studies and reports detailing the
intolerable human and environmental disaster in the Niger Delta Region. Some of
these include World Bank Report on Niger Delta, UNDP Report on Niger Delta,
United Nations Report on Niger Delta and the Niger Delta Technical Committee
Report. The recommendations in these reports have so far been largely ignored
by the Federal Government.
Several bodies have also been
established by the Federal Government over the years, ostensibly to develop the
Niger Delta. These started with the Niger Delta Development Board, (NDDB),
1959, to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), 2000, among several
others, but all these failed to produce desired results due to insincerity of
the ruling elite. It is crystal clear, from the experience of the past half
century, that the development of the Niger Delta cannot be left in the hands of
the Federal Government.
What is required is that Niger
Deltans should be constitutionally and legally empowered to utilize the
resources available to them to train their children and develop their land.
Niger Deltans do not need the Federal Government to collect their oil and gas
money and then pretend to be helping them by using an infinitesimal part of the
proceeds for a dubious Amnesty programme.
The APC campaigned
on true federalism in the country prior to the 2015 presidential election but
jettisoned the proposal immediately it got into power. The APC also published its
Manifesto on its website, part of which read: “Initiating action to amend the Nigerian Constitution, with a view to
devolving powers, duties and responsibilities to states in order to entrench
true federalism.”
When concerned
members of the public reminded the President of the provision in his party’s
manifesto, Presidency spokespersons claimed that it was not President Buhari
that made the promise.
The high point of the deceptive stance of the ruling APC was rehearsed
on the floor of the Senate and House of Representatives in July 27, 2017. Both
Houses of the National Assembly (NASS) with APC majority voted against
devolution of powers to states in their proposed amendment to the 1999
Constitution. The rejection of devolution of powers to states by the
APC-controlled NASS effectively meant a continuation of the existing
intensively exploitative and inequitable political structure in Nigeria. This
is so far the most resounding REJECTION OF CHANGE in the country. As former
Vice President, Atiku Abubakar put it in his reaction to the NASS voting the
APC had “betrayed its 2015 election
promises.” (Emmanuel Aziken, Atiku,
Ohaneze, women groups others, slam Senate, Vanguard, July 28, 2017).
Finally, in his New
Year speech on January 1, 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari said “when all is considered, my firm view is
that our problems are more to do with process than structure.” (Samuel
Ogundipe, Nigeria: Buhari Rejects Restructuring Nigeria, PREMIUM TIMES online,
January 1, 2018). Apparently, President Buhari
does not want to alter the intensely exploitative poiitcal structure
erected by his military predecessors.
In view of the rejection of the
single most important political demand of Niger Deltans by President Muhammadu
Buhari and his APC, the presidential election scheduled to hold in February
2019 presents a golden opportunity for Niger Deltans to take their destiny in
their own hands. Of all the presidential candidates, only former Vice President
Atiku Abubakar has presented a clear and workable agenda for political
restructuring of the country.
But the truth is: Atiku cannot do
it alone when he becomes President in 2019. He needs a clear majority in the
NASS to implement it. Therefore, Niger Deltans must vehemently reject any APC
candidate and vote exclusively for Atiku and his PDP candidates in the National
Assembly during the forthcoming National Assembly and presidential election in
February 2019.
With political restructuring of
the country into a true federal state, federating units and regions would control
their resources and pay constitutionally recommended part of it to the central
government as it was in the First Republic before the military coup of January
1966. This entails fiscal federalism that would enable the people of Niger
Delta to develop their area rather than wait for those who have no stake in the
Region to do it for them.
Niger Deltans must scrupulously
avoid being sidetracked into selfish or diversionary issues such as lobbying
for political appointments, contracts and award of oil blocs to stooges of the
oppressor in the Niger Delta.
Military siege of the Niger Delta
on the false propaganda of maintaining peace is a ruse. Militancy was never the
issue in the Niger Delta. Neither was Amnesty. In this regard, it is also
pertinent to state that the “amnesty” implemented by the administration of late
President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was not at all that which was recommended by the
Ledum Mtee Technical Committee. In fact, Mittee described the Federal
Government version of Amnesty Programme as mere “appeasement”.
In an interview which he granted
Jimitola Onoyume of Vanguard newspaper in June 2016, Mr. Ledum Mittee, pioneer
Vice-Chairman of Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), later
chairman of the organization and also Chairman of Niger Delta Technical
Committee (Mittee Committee) disowned government selection of one item
(Amnesty) out of a body of coherent recommendations in the Mittee Report and
treated it as a “stand-alone” solution to the crisis in the Niger Delta while
ignoring the issues that the Technical Report tried to address.
Mittee likened late President Yar’Adua’s amnesty programme for
Niger Delta militants to “a situation
where people protest over a bad road, cut a tree to block the road because
government ignored them. The government comes to bribe them to remove the tree.
So, the road is not repaired but vehicles still allowed to drive through. This
is the situation in the region.” The
government “equates peace in the Region
with flow of oil.” (Jimitola Onoyume, Niger Delta crisis: how government
missed it – Mittee, Vanguard, June 13, 2016).
It is difficult to believe that anyone who aspires to the
Nigerian Presidency could claim ignorance of these issues. That would be
extremely dishonest and untenable.
When he is sworn in as President of Nigeria in May 2019,
President ‘Atiku Abubakar would fashion out a workable programme or time-table
to remove the constitutional obstacles that hinder true federalism in Nigeria.
Given the general desire for peace in Nigeria, the National and State
Assemblies would cooperate with such a programme of action and give it speedy
constitutional backing.
And it won’t even be that difficult. It would not take more than
three or four pages of legal work to abrogate or amend all the obnoxious oil
and gas decrees and transfer the resources to the states or Regions where they
are found.
Constitutional experts have observed that the Federal Constitution, 1960, had
44 item on the Exclusive Legislative List and 28 on the Concurrent List. “The
Republican Constitution of 1963 had 45 items on the Exclusive List and 29 on
the Concurrent. In 1963, the ratio between federal and regional
responsibilities was 3:2, whereas the 1999 Constitution has 68 items on the
Exclusive List and 30 on the Concurrent.”
Given honesty of purpose and the political will to do right, it
is absolutely simple to return power to the states and regions as it was in the
First Republic. Renowned Nigerian constitutional lawyer, Professor Itse Sagay,
SAN, probably had all the above in mind when he recommended a simple formula to
achieve political restructuring of the country. He said:
“If I look at the present document, all I need to do
is to transfer about 16 powers that are in the exclusive legislative list to
the concurrent list, and then transfer some powers totally out of the list so
that it becomes only for states on the residuary list.” (SAGAY, July 4, 2010, p 66)
This is the first task that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would lead the
country to achieve when he is elected President and Commander-in-Chief of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2019.
Chris O O Biose,
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