Emma Amaize
10 August 2008
Niger Delta leaders say their minimum demand for peace in the oil rich region is the enthronement of true federalism and abrogation of laws that infringe on their rights as a people.
IF you are a South-South crusader; or you are not even from the South-South, but you truly want to know what the people of the Niger-Delta want from the nation; why they are livid; why some of the youths relocated to the creek and are not prepared to drop their guns; and you were not at the two-day "Legislative Retreat on Constitution Review" in Port Harcourt, organized by the Vanguard Newspapers, then you not only missed, you neglected and let pass a very important opening to deepen your knowledge.
How would you have known that despite your perception of the vice president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, he believes very strongly that the various laws promulgated by the military, which deprived the Niger-Delta people of their lands and oil, were repressive and should be repealed since you were not there? And do you know that despite his reported condemnation of armed militancy, as a way of returning the nation to true federalism, Rivers State governor, Chief Rotimi Amaechi, probably was ready to sponsor the Niger-Delta struggle with the funds of the state government if the militants were ideological in their struggle?
Do you also know that in spite of the impression by many people that the people of the region are hostile and inhospitable, it is the view of Delta State governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, that "there is as yet no group of people more open to foreigners and to the concept of new ideas, human progress and mutual co-habitation than the people of the region?"
Will it sound crazy to you that even when the militants themselves wear hoods to hide their identities and some people deny them because of the criminalization of the struggle by some bad elements among them, that there are people who are ready to identify publicly with them? Among them is a Kalabari elder, Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe, who stated at the retreat that he is a militant.
Former PDP female presidential aspirant from Delta State, Ambassador Elizabeth Ogbon-Day, said it was the militants that made the Niger-Delta not to be a conquered territory by the Nigerian nation today and called for more action by the region to achieve its quest for true federalism while Hon. Dr. Daba Boyle of the Niger-Delta Women in Business, speaking for the Niger-Delta mothers, left no one in doubt that the militants were children of the Niger-Delta and the women were behind them in the devoted battle to emancipate the region.
She argued that the fact that some criminals had infiltrated the struggle would not make her to reject them; rather, the women of the region were ready to enter the creek to speak to their sons that have criminalized the struggle to abandon the appalling path and tread the "righteous" path. In fact, one of the former "super" federal permanent secretaries, Chief Phillip Asiodu, said pointedly that the militants should not be demonized because they were involved in a battle to liberate their region.
In all, what the Niger-Delta people want, from speaker after speaker, at the retreat, is simply true federalism with all its accompanying ingredients which include resource control and abrogation of all obnoxious laws that deny them the benefits of the God-given resources in their land. Interestingly, when it was practised in the past, the principle of true federalism, according to Uduaghan "stimulated all the regions/geo-political zones of Nigeria to exert themselves, exploit their resources and fully express their unique endowments."
The chief convener and chairman of Vanguard Media Limited, Mr. Sam Amuka, actually set the ball rolling when he challenged the political leaders and people of the region to articulate a common and coherent voice in response to President Umaru Yar'Adua's call for peace in the region for the Federal Government to develop the area.
Amaechi, who delivered the keynote address, took a swipe at the militants for destroying the economy of the region and lacking ideology in their fight, which, from the present-day realities, was clearly a criminal action that requires to be dealt with by force. His eyes bulged as he spoke in his characteristic blunt manner, narrating the economic losses militancy had caused to Rivers State, saying that the story was the same in all the south-south states.
It was obvious that while Delta governor agreed with his Rivers counterpart that militancy was a criminal act, he felt the people should not be castigated the way Amaechi put it as he pointed out: "My contention is that it is a national problem that festered because of absence of justice, accountability, respect and a sense of reciprocal partnership."
Uduaghan, who later delivered a paper entitled, 'Solving the Niger-Delta problem- The law and the people: An overview of Legislations impeding on the Socio-Economic Development of the South-South region.
The Land Use Act as a case study,' said, "With the growing awareness and increasing availability and access to information by the youths of the Niger-Delta, only a timely adjustment of the outdated and repugnant military legislations can guarantee the unity of the country." Warning that the time to act is now, he noted, "Very importantly, the issue of gas flaring must be frontally confronted now to stop the continuous wasting of the ever depleting non-renewable gas assets of the Niger-Delta region, the volume of gas flared annually as we now know can sufficiently generate enough energy to power the entire country and even beyond.
"I wish to say that the solution to the seeming stubborn South-South question is not an abstract one, it is real and it is within achievable distance. It only demands political will, a genuine return to the basic principle of justice, equity and respect", he said.
He was aghast that the solution to the Niger-Delta question had been discovered long ago but the there was no political will to tackle ill. The Delta governor went on: The Willinks Commission Report of 1957 has continued to haunt the country because it carried out a thorough analyses of the circumstances of the Niger-Delta people, came up with far-reaching recommendations which included, among others, giving a special status to the Niger-Delta among the federating units of Nigeria with a view to effectively ensure balance of interest in the face of imminent dominant hold on power by the major ethnic tribes."
It is regrettable that 50 years after, what the country has done is merely nibble at the Commission's recommendations. By 2005, another opportunity arose to deal with the concerns of the region at the National Political Reforms Conference, the representatives of the region at the 2005 conference demanded for a phased increment of the percentage of derivation from 13 per cent to 25 percent and gradually to 50 percent, this modest and reasonable demand was stoutly rejected.
That missed opportunity, perhaps, sent very clear signals of a grand conspiracy to keep the Niger-Delta region perpetually under-developed and neglected. Obviously, there is no constitutional impediment to the demands for at least 50 per cent derivation, after all, section 162 (2) of the 1999 Constitution provides for 13 per cent as the minimum. The failure of the National Political Reforms Conference to address the problems of the Niger-Delta region dashed the hope of the people and opened the floodgate of the current restiveness in the region. Barely a year after the conference, a new culture of youth militancy has evolved in the Niger-Delta".
Uduaghan dismissed the contention that the South-South people were hostile and inhospitable because of the now notorious incidence of hostage taking and attacks on oil and gas installations, saying, "Nothing can be farther from the truth, as history shows, there is as yet no group of people more open to foreigners and to the concept of new ideas, human progress and mutual co-habitation than the people of the region."
The governor said the source of the current aberration was a national problem that festered because of "absence of justice, accountability, respect and a sense of reciprocal partnership."
Starting with the Petroleum Act, Cap P10, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, he said the Act, which was promulgated by General Yakubu Gowon in 1969 and vested ownership and control of, and all on-shore and off-shore revenue from the petroleum resources in the Federal Government, as a war time instrument of achieving national cohesion and even development, "has grown into a monster in our statute books" and was the origin of the unification of the power to govern that power of ownership of oil and gas resources in the Federal Government.
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