George Onah
12 January 2009
opinion
PRESIDENT Umaru Musa Yar'Adua,on assumption of office, had promised to tackle the seeming intractable problem of Niger Delta. He actually made it a campaign promise and, in fact, adopted it as one of his administration's seven-point agenda.
Yar'Adua complimented his words with actions by setting up Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs. Stakeholders had, however, expected a person from the core region to head the ministry. Not so with the president. He preferred a moderate and found one in Ufot Ekaete. The choice has been generating mixed reactions.
Former Aviation Minister, one time Minister of Youths, Ijaw Leader and Elder Statesman, Alabo T.O. Graham Douglas, bared his mind on this. He also spoke on the electoral system, dismissal of Mallam Ribadu, youth restiveness in the Niger Delta, role of the NDDC and Rivers Governor Rotimi Amaechi's performance. Excerpts:
Alabo Graham-Douglas
The appointment of Chief Ufot Ekaete as Minister of Niger Delta has generated a lot of controversy and condemnations from interest groups, like the Ijaw Youth Council and others. As an Ijaw elder and elder statesman, what is your reaction to this?
Well, I will be the wrong person to ask the question about Chief Ekaete. But if I am asked as an Ijaw elder, I would react to it because, knowing the area very well, I think that it is somebody from the core Niger Delta, from Ijaw extraction, that would appreciate the enormity of challenges that the office would face.
I have worked intimately with Ufot Ekaete in Gen. Babangida's administration. When I was the minister of social development youths and sports, at that time, he was the permanent secretary of that ministry. I can vouch that his efficiency, loyalty and assiduity are unchallengeable. He is a very humble person that can get on well with anybody.
I also worked with him when he was appointed Secretary to the Federal Government under Obasanjo's administration. He was, no doubt, a very experienced bureaucrat and a core civil servant. For anybody to work with Obasanjo for eight years without break, you must give him kudos, because he must be an exceptional breed. So, to that extent, I will not make any comment.
But his assignment as minister of Niger Delta is an entirely new and intricate challenge, which has to deal with peculiar circumstances, unique human beings and hazardous and harsh environment. His success will, no doubt, depend on his innate and deep understanding of the psyche and resolve of the people of the zone.
A mere academic and bureaucratic approach will not help. Hence, at the time, some of us, the Ijaw elders, campaigned that one of the sons, Godsday Orubebe, be given that office. But now that Ekaete is there, he has to work and depend on the people who know the terrain very well. The appointment of Orubebe as the minister of state can be the saving grace. This is because Orubebe is a highly respected, committed, courageous and very popular person in the affairs of the core Niger Delta politics.
I also believe that the Federal Government is going to demarcate their functional responsibilities, so that Orubebe would have his job to do and the minister would have his job to do. With the harmonious relationship between the two of them, the burden would be less for him. But, you see, the fear is that, is the Federal Government really sincere about the creation of this Niger Delta Ministry. So if you want to create the Niger Delta ministry the headquarters is very important.
Before we go to that, Ekaete came here (Port Harcourt) to say that he would employ youths, develop the place or community development and complete the East_West road to boost the economy of the area, do you think that is a good start for him?
That, I believe is not a fair start, there is first of all suspicion, there are restive youths and there is massive youth unemployment, there is a psychological problem here. You need to re_orientate the inhabitants, not only the youths but the adults as well.
The neglect by successive federal governments has created a situation of indifference and apathy by most people to promises of federal government. So, those promises of making the East_West road and employ boys, you see, you have to create the jobs before you employ people. Even the East_West has been contracted out to Julius Berger and so on.
What type of job are you going to do. What we want him to do is to carry out a critical examination of the problems; there are a number of literatures, a lot of documentations, where marine engineering in the days of the colonial masters, there was the inland waterways, ports authority, maritime authority, these are all the things that we want him to examine.
The starting point should be familiarization, analysin the problems and proffering solutions from the documentations that are available to government and kick start the ministry. Most of us elders that are conversant with the politics of the area are available; they should go round and ask us for inputs. He should not be in a hurry in kick starting anything. He should take time study the environment and get the confidence of the people to be able to move round. Port Harcourt is just one of these areas.
While in Port Harcourt, he said he would look at the N50 billion given in the budget for the ministry and see whether it would be alright or not and if it would not be he would run to the presidency to ask for more. Do you think he has started displaying his civil service mentality or bureaucracy already?
If you look at the 2009 budget viz_a_vis the 2008 budget, you can see that there is not sincerity in it especially when you marry that against the 2008 N400 billion that was set aside for security of the Niger Delta. What are you securing, if the people are adequately taken along.
If you invest that on industrialization, job creation, social amenities, building confidence, enlightenment, good healthcare, education and all the boys and women are engaged and all the social values are put on focus and people are engaged, you don't need that colossal amount for security.
When you look at the budget for the ministry and the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, I think it is just a child's play. Where does the minister start from.
By the time he sets up the ministry, personnel cost, office furniture, vehicles, movements, utilities, so by the time you go into those expenses, the sum of money you allocated this year would have gone. What are you going to devote for capital expenditure. I think that the starting point and small money is not realistic.
Do you see the NDDC functioning well under this ministry or will it still be there as just another parastatal that is independent of the ministry?
I think that the whole structural dynamics needed to have been examined. When Babangida took the development of Abuja seriously and was later followed by (Gen. Sani) Abacha, followed by (Gen. Abdulsalami) Abubakar , you would see that they created a minister of Federal Capital Territory, that minister was resided in Abuja. If you want to create a Niger Delta ministry the office first of all should move to the core areas of either Port Harcourt, Bayelsa or Warri.
I want us to distinguish between oil producing states of the nation against core Niger Delta areas that were defined by the colonial masters at independence, which is the migrant dwellers of the shores of the Nigerian coastal areas. If you put the ministry in one of those areas then the major oil producing areas can have offices.
I would have thought that when the ministry was created that it should have assumed the NDDC office. That is to avoid building offices in any of the places. The minister should move to Port Harcourt and assume the NDDC office as the nucleus of the ministry. Then there should be immediate set up of these other offices where the managing directors or general managers should function and operate. Those people should be coordinated by the operational minister of state. Staying here would give him advantage where he would have easy access to Bayelsa, Edo, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Cross River, Ondo, Imo and Abia that constitute the oil producing states of the country.
Will the movement of the ministry to NDDC premises not diminish the status of the NDDC?
Well the NDDC can eventually become a functional operation parastatal of the ministry. The ministry is the policy coordination body, you have to create other parastatals, so that if you want to embark on land reclamation, it should be a different unit, including human resources development and so on, it should be a different unit. Now everything is saddled with the NDDC. If you look at the span of control it is very extensive. The NDDC is trying but its impact is not as conspicuous as one would have expected.
There are those who argue that all the ministries are in Abuja, why would the ministry of Niger Delta be an exception?
This is a developmental effort; you are doing a kind of martial approach to development. I have always said that this is the host and the rest of the country is parasitic to the host. If per adventure the host dies the parasite would die. We must be conscious of the fact that the Niger Delta produce about 95 percent of the wealth of this country, it must be seriously guarded and handled.
With the (President_elect of US Barrak ) Obama administration and energy crisis in the world and the determination by the developed world to reduce oil usage in their areas, you would appreciate that oil that was about $146 per barrels is today $35 or so per barrel.
This indicates that when the likes of Obama takes office, they are going to ensure that they use the Texan field with the Russian and the Baku field, all the other unconventional oil things, tama, nuclear, bio_fuel, solar and many others that would be coming in to play. So, if the oil price is reduced, hypothetically to $15 or $16 per barrel the bench-mark used for the budget would completely be obliterated and so, the nation is going to find things very difficult.
At that point, whatever development you want to carry out in the Niger Delta would be a flash in the pan. When the problem is like that the person staying in Abuja is not appreciating the enormity of the suffering. That is where i think there was wisdom in the Abuja arrangement of the FCT minister.
I was in Babangida's cabinet and (Gado) Nasko was the FTC minister and he was coming to our meetings in Lagos whenever we had cabinet meetings. He had an office in Lagos and he had an office in Abuja. What we are saying is that he stays here because this is the operational area that he would work and develop. He could be going to Abuja to liaise with the Federal government for funds and others. So, it would not in any way diminish the impact of the ministry if it is here.
Let us look at the efforts of the technical committee on the Niger Delta set up by the President Yar'Adua's administration. Some ethnic nationalities are saying that the committee betrayed the trust reposed on it because it duelled more on the economic aspect of the problems and left the political aspect, which to them are the major problems of the region?
I have not read the report of the committee, I was out of the country when the report was submitted to the president but I realize that we contributed and submitted our position paper to Ledum Mittee which I have a lot of confidence in.
The submission we made was looking at the socio_political aspect. We said that the political structure of the region must be given attention. We submitted that in Rivers State for instance should have another state. When the colonialists were here they had a trading area that was clearly demarcated and this area was very difficult to develop. For eight years of (Governor Peter) Odili's administration not one development took place in those places or one industry put there.
Where is this place?
The area is what we call the oil Rivers State. I would mention Opobo/Nkoro, Andoni, Okrika and the riverine areas of the state which are hazardous. They have quite a substantial amount of oil and have a population of about two million people. So with the declining fortunes of oil, the current governor Rotimi Amaechi has some fantastic ideas.
So, we said there should be a political window in which two more states should be created in the Niger Delta areas such as the Oil River State as well as the Toroebe states to include the Ijaw areas of Delta, Edo and Ondo. For purposes of development some more northern states are asking for more states. Some people are however are looking at it from a myopic view that it is a challenge to empires or breaking up existing areas or so, no.
Today if you look at the economy, when the 12 states structure was created Rivers state enjoyed a lot of revenue and that is why Governor Diete Spiff was able to put up the excellent structures you find today. Then it reversed to 1/18, 1/9, 1/21, 1/29 and today it is 1/36. So, you can see the inverse ration in terms of income. So with the going of Bayelsa, I must say that state has as much money as Rivers state that is why you can find the rapid development going on there. Accordingly, if this new windows are open it would enhance development, job creation, confidence in the system and harmonious co-existence by all concerned in the ethnic nationalities.
Can we look at the dismissal of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu from the police force. While the police are claiming insubordination by Ribadu for refusing to report to Edo State where he had been posted or redeployed, some Nigerians are saying that it is the handiwork of some powerful corrupt people who he had stepped on their toes?
I would be very careful and cautious of any comment I'd like to make. First of all I would imagine that Ribadu being the former boss of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, was superlatively very loyal to the president at the time and the public decried the selective system of arraigning people and prosecuting persons.
I believe as a way of compensating Ribadu, the former president promoted him far above his seniors, which created an aberration. When the new administration came in they tried to correct things. But I believe we administrators always adopt very excellent diplomatic methods. I worked with the expatriates, if I want to fire a man there are many methods I would adopt to let the man go away without sensation.
But the direct demotion and various happenings in the staff college and other push around by the authority were too visible. He on the other hand reacted without the maturity expected of an officer of the force. Anybody in the force must be very disciplined and as we know, he mu
st obey the last order. So the imbroglio that arose, going to court, failing to go on transfer and being confrontational to a constituted authority, were all in bad fate.
I am of the view that the dismissal was rather too harsh to somebody our National Assembly once invited and was acclaimed to be doing a good job and proffered support for him. Also, the international view of appreciating his efforts would now be sort of ridicule. I think that asking him to resign would have been less sensational than the current situation.
Let us return again to the Niger Delta. What would you advise President Yar'Adua to do about the budget to the region now particularly as it has attracted condemnation from Niger Deltans and other Nigerians alike?
I think he should have a meeting of selected experienced persons across the Niger Delta and have input of the core requirements. In those days we used to have five_year development plan. There are lots of documents and information available about the Niger Delta. But it is the advice that is placed before the president_in_office. Going to give any hypothetical figure now about the region would be unrealistic. I think that what he wants to do is industrialisation.
There are several companies, including foreign companies that are a bit sceptical. But there again, I see some other countries that have confidence in Nigeria that would like to come in here and they are oil related. They want to be able to participate in the oil industry and they want to take part in the manufacture of oil related field.
There are many permutations if you like, but a straight_jacket amount of money, no. The needs of the various sections are different. There are some places development has not reached since independence. The fear of most of us is that what has happened at Oloibiri may happen again. Oloibri was the first place oil was found in 1958 or thereabout, that launched Nigeria into the oil world.
But after many years the oil fields in Oloibiri today are overgrown by swamps. From the (Alhaji Shehu) Shagari administration of the planned museum of the planned network of roads became a flash in the pan and nobody talks about it.
Now, Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has spent over one year in office, how would you rate his overall performance, including the ban on Okada, security situation and the ongoing demolition of illegal structures?
Amaechi first of all is a true son of Rivers State, he is from Ubima. We know his father's house and we know the mother's house, we know his family lineage. He group up in Port Harcourt, like every one of us. He has a lot of friends in Port Harcourt, so his orientation is towards Port Harcourt. For now he has no ambition to work for a second term that was a distraction and disaster in the history of our state between 1999 and 2003.
So coming to become governor by devine intervention, after he had been written off by the powers that be at the time, the circumstances that played out that made him governor gave him a challenge to be focused to ensure that he gives the state a sense of direction and planning and making proactive plans far beyond his age and imagination.
The security and approach to security, using the JTF, he is succeeding. But I want to say that it has to have also political approach, human approach to be able to contain and sustain the gains of the preambles of the efforts of the JTF. If you look at Afghanistan, Iraq and so on, you may win the war but the ability to be able to contain and sustain it ad_infinitum becomes a problem.
I would want to advise that there is dialogue at every point, using the elders and the parents because the children that created the insecurity come from homes. What brought about the fracturing and the collapse of security measures was the last administration because the elders' forum was discarded. Young boys that hardly earned N10, 000 a month became patronised by the system and there was sudden metamorphoses where they had sudden money and started buying great cars. With a lot of money they started to despise their elders and the society became fractured.
I know Amaechi is looking into it. On demolition of illegal structures, my fence was affected, but am not going to frown about it because of the good intention he has and there is nothing negative about the demolition. But there should also be enough public awareness campaign. The economic situation in the country today is such that it could cause hardship.
You cannot knock down a man's wall without compensation; those things should be looked at no matter the circumstances. With regard to Okada, you would realise that the delinquency in Port Harcourt and the petty stealing, snatching of bags, kidnappings and series of the crimes perpetrated during the day time are Okada promoted. They create a lot of nuisance and congestions on the road. So if they are leaving let there be an augmented mass transit system of the state
Our youths are still in the creeks and forests carrying arms, in this New Year what would you say to these boys.
At no time will I encourage youths or people to carry illegal arms for nefarious activities, intimidating and bringing threat to lives and property. I like to look at it from a realistic point of view. These children are terrestrial habitat and the forests and creeks are inhabited by snakes, monkeys and other wild animals. For these children to now change their position with these animals is a very unfortunate and pathetic factor.
We elders know the plight and they would ask you, if today I come out of the swamp, where do I fit into the system. There is no job, no food and just nothing. But the government is trying by setting up rehabilitation centres, bodies and institutions to cater for them, but the confidence has not been built. We want to build the confidence for this boys for them to realise that government is genuine.
How can this be done?
I believe that it should be holistically addressed. Some of these boys are criminals or have criminal tendencies, while some may be innocent because of necessities which they find themselves. There must be distinction between these groups. Again using the elders, using the fathers to be able to reach them, but most importantly, not talking about using the JTF to remove them, using the rehabilitation centres to bring them out or other means of getting rid of them and so on.
The federal government should realise that an idea, whose time has come, can never be destroyed and the idea that is being created in the minds of these boys. They may not understand intricate fabric of what they are talking about.
They want resource control, the principle of derivation, true federalism etc. These are the things that started the Kiama Declaration, the IYC, the INC, these are the main burdens. Then the other ethnic bodies such as Ogbakor Ikwerre, the Ogoni MOSOP and others also have youth restiveness and all this is not limited to the reverine or the swamps but the mainland groups also have their agitations. So you have to have a holistic appraisal of the whole thing, not in piecemeal but in totality of the problem. Run a seminar to find out what exactly is the problem and what went wrong and the remediation you want to be able to introduce.
The president had muted an idea about restructuring the electoral system in the country, but suddenly we heard that he was slowing down on that. So many people are agitated, and are clamouring for a change in the electoral system because of what happened in 2007, what are your views on this?
I think that those who love this country and the principal advisers to the president must encourage the review of the electoral system of this country. Presently, the one everybody admires and hails is the conduct of the election in Ghana, our nearby neighbour here.
In the conduct of that election, our former head of state Gen. (Yakubu) Gowon, who was one of the officials that supervised the election said Nigeria had a lot to learn from that country's election. In 1999, the electoral system that produced the former president, Obasanjo, was to an extent, free and fair in party formation, affiliation and determination. But even at that,there were the opposition parties that also made their impact. Thereafter, the political system became fraught with human ambition and manipulation.
Do you want to narrow this to any group?
No, the electoral fault is a general thing and you can see the deterioration of its genuiness and acceptability and as a result, there are several court cases. That after one year, you are still determining the electoral actions and practices and some governors being removed, new ones replaced and more court cases pending.
But if we have an electoral system that is commonly acceptable to everybody you would see that the litigations that arose after the elections, that cost a lot of money, would have been resolved, three months at most after every given election.
I would categorically say, without any apologies, that the Option A4 that Babangida introduced was perhaps the best conducted election in the country when you stood by your candidate, the thing is counted openly, it is recorded, it is immediately channelled to the central position and it was known.
We are almost there. But unfortunately, circumstances that I cannot personally explain came into it and that election was annulled. You can see that the vestiges of the repercussion, which came out of that, are still lingering around our electoral system. So I think that the president must leave a legacy of a free and fair, acceptable system in the country.
I belong to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. There is no other party that is as structured and has been promoted to be as popular as the PDP today in the country. As a result, if the PDP is going for an election today and the Option A4 is adopted the party does not have to worry because the popularity is there.
The other matter is that in choosing candidates, we must look at it democratically; imposition should be discarded because you are not getting the best to represent a constituency or the nation. These are all the fallacies and it also boils down to appointments through the system, there must be a good record.
For instance, if you appoint somebody to a high office who has not got the rudiments of organisational discipline and practices, who has never known how to file papers, who has never known how
to minute a file to a senior authority and getting it back, who does not know the basic principle of financial matters and being appointed to a high office, these are the things that would demune the democratic practice that the president is advocating today, especially under the aegis of the rule of law.
So what system would you like our electoral system to be modelled after?
We have adopted the American system that is very expensive and very elastic. If today, talking as Alabo T.O. Graham Douglas I am to advocate for a political outfit that is good for the Nigerian side, I think I would advocate for the parliamentary system which the colonialist left for us.
In the parliamentary system, you have a definite opposition, a definite government. You must be elected to an office to become a minister, you must be elected before you have a political office and it would be less cumbersome and less expensive.
So we would no longer have a president but a prime minister?
We could still have a president
But not an executive president?
The constitution can make him an executive president.
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