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Nigeria: Clark Gives Condition for N-Delta Talks with FG, Appeals to Mend Not to Resume Hostilities
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Vanguard (Lagos)
13 July 2008
Posted to the web 14 July 2008
Emma Amaize
FORMER Federal Commissioner for Information, Chief Edwin Clark, says the Niger-Delta will consent to hold talks with the Federal Government on the Niger-Delta, but, not an all Nigerian Summit, only after a technical committee had reviewed all the earlier reports, dating back to 1958, submitted to the government, and come out with a coordinated position that will be endorsed by the people at a regional conference.
Clark, who revealed the new position to Sunday Vanguard, in an interview, yesterday, appealed to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND), which called off the ceasefire it declared a little over two weeks ago, not to resume further hostilities in the name of God to enable the elders and leaders of the region continue with their negotiation with the government on the way out of the crisis.
He recalled that the people of the south-south walked out of the National Political Reform Conference (NPRC), which was a Nigerian Summit in 2005 and vowed not to come back to any such summit, saying that the decision had not changed and urged the government to respect the decision of the people not to attend a Nigerian Summit.
To the MEND, he reiterated, "They should still give us time, there will be no development if there is no peace, we need peace to carry on with our negotiations with the government and I am sure we will not fail, they should continue to listen to us and trust us". An operative of the MEND, who confirmed the group received Clark's message, said, "I am not in a position to tell you our reaction, you will hear from the hierarchy of the group later".
The Ijaw nationalist leader quickly clarified, on the summit "For the avoidance of doubt, I am not saying that we are shifting our position. I only said that we will meet with the Federal Government, the oil companies, security agencies and other stakeholders, not at the kind of all Nigerian Summit that the Federal Government is proposing, but, at a conference of the region after a technical committee had reviewed all the reports on the Niger-Delta, harmonized them and come up with the immediate, short term and long term measures that the Federal Government and other relevant bodies should embark upon. At the meeting, they can now tell us how they want to do them; we will then deliberate and agree.
"We have been in Abuja discussing with the Federal Government on the problem of the Niger-Delta, withdrawal of Prof Ibrahim Gambari and the way forward, which is that all the reports from 1958 till date be implemented, after a technical committee would have reviewed the various reports, our position still remains that there is no need for a summit, an all Nigerian Summit like what the Federal Government has proposed. It should not even be called a summit because that is not what it is. Summit was introduced by a Russian Head of State when he met with his American counterparts, years ago".
Pointing out that the word, summit, is more apt for meetings between countries, he said, "Nigeria is not in a state of war to demand a summit, what they should be talking about in the Niger-Delta is a regional conference of the Niger-Delta people, the Federal Government, oil companies, security agencies and other necessary parties". Clark said the expectation of the Niger-Delta people is that the Federal Government would take the agreements that would be reached at the meeting to the National Assembly for approval of funds because we know that money would be required to execute the projects and they were not provided for in the 2008 budget.
He explained that the leaders of the Niger-Delta would not be able to negotiate and secure the understanding of the government if the freedom fighters do not keep to their ceasefire agreement, adding that they should not be provoked by the report that the British government was going to provide military support for the government to attack Niger-Deltans and that he was convinced that the British Government would not do anything like that.
On the statement by the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) , he said the people of the Niger-Delta should be focused and not allow some northerners who know that the North was not contributing anything as at now to the distributable pool to distract them, pointing out that in the last constitutional conference, it was discovered that while the south-east contribute 2.3 per cent, south-west 3.5 per cent, N-Delta 90 per cent and receives only 17 per cent, the north contributes nothing to the pool.
He said it was it was an insult for the North to be challenging the propriety of the allocations to the Niger-Delta when it got 50 per cent derivation during its time. Clark also asserted, "If our governors are corrupt, that is not a reason for the Federal Government not to perform its obligations in the region.
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Was it not a governor from the north that was said to have donated N10 billion to the Obasanjo aborted third term bid, the north is also corrupt, their governors would do worse under such a situation"
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