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Friday, April 29, 2005 GUARDIAN
South-South delegates want derivation raised to 60 per cent
From Mohammed Abubakar, Abuja
DELEGATES from the South-South geo-political zone to the National Political Reform Conference (NPRC) have restated their demand for a true federalism, where the littoral states would be given the autonomy over their resources.
In the event of majority of Nigerians opposed to the demand, the delegates requested that the derivation formula should be raised to 60 per cent.
At a press conference in Abuja yesterday, the conferees under the aegis of South-South Delegates Forum, decried what they called the politics of isolation and injustice being meted out to the people of Niger-Delta and the refusal of some confab members to appreciate the enormity of the problems faced by the region.
The press conference was jointly addressed by notable leaders from Bayelsa, Cross River, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Edo and Delta states, which make up the zone.
The group's chairman and First Republic Minister of External Affairs, Chief Matthew Mbu said it was regrettable that after four-and-a-half decades of living together under one flag, searching for, and learning how best to relate with one another, "some Nigerians are yet to imbibe the lessons of mutual tolerance, justice and fair play.
"Such lessons like truth and honesty in our interaction with one another, fairness and justice in the allocation and distribution of resources and opportunities are thrown overboard, and in their place, hard-hearted, uncompromising take-it or leave-it stance.
"This unwholesome attitude has been exhibited in more ways than one during the plenary session as well as during the committees. In the event, the very fundamentals, on the basis of which this conference was convened are being violated," he stated.
Referring to President Olusegun Obasanjo's inaugural address to the conference on February 21, where he stressed the need for the reassessment, refocus, redefinition and redesigning the country's political direction, Mbu said: "So far, the signals coming through the committees, portend an ill wind that will blow Nigeria no good. Unguarded utterances by some delegates have touched on the raw nerves of the peoples of the Niger-Delta," he declared.
Mbu cited the examples of the call for the relocation of all the inhabitants of the Niger-Delta ostensibly in view of the much complained of environmental despoliation and the threat to reduce the 13 per cent which "we have already given to you, unless you explain satisfactorily what you have done with it.
"Needless to say, that call for relocation, conjures up eerie feelings of that most infamous of events - the holocaust - the practicalisation of Hitter's bid to eliminate an entire race from the face of the earth".
According to him, the idea of a reform conference was borne out of the desperate need to correct the structural imbalances in the Nigerian polity, deliberately or inadvertently inflicted on some sections of this country, including the Niger-Delta and in the process, set a new nation-building agenda for a reborn Nigeria.
"Such patriotic ideals could be realised only if each delegate came to the conference with an open mind, not to negotiate away their freedom and the right to the good life, but to act in concert in order to realise greater sustainable freedom and collectively facilitate the right to the good for all Nigerians," Mbu added.
On the demands by the South-South to a measure of control over its natural resources, the Ffrum said it was basic and recognised by all laws and international instruments.
It said: "Resource control means the right of the states and communities mostly directly concerned to the management of resource within their respective territory including the rights of exploitation and disposal of harvested resources.
"The communities insists on a planned and controlled production to ensure the progressive replacement of the non-renewable resource by a reasonable product that is free of pollution and other environmental hazards," noting that mere increase in revenue without control and management is short sighted and deadly as it condemns the host communities to perpetual servitude and a present without a future.
Citing article 1803 of the United Nations, which affirms the principle of permanent sovereignty over natural resources, Mbu said such view as resource control as the ultimate aim of fiscal federalism has been recognised globally.
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THISDAY
Dialogue: S/South Proposes Sharing Formula
Wants states to keep 60%, FG 15%, Tax 20%
From Paul Ibe and Chuks Okocha in Abuja, 04.29.2005
Resource Control
South-south delegates to the National Political Reform Conference (NPRC) have put forward a sharing formula that will see states retaining 60 per cent of revenues from resources found in their territory, conceding 15 per cent and five per cent to a distributive pool and relevant zone respectively. The remaining 20 per cent will be appropriated as tax.
But the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) has said that the panacea to growth and development lies in good governance and not resource control.
The proposed sharing formula devised to, ostensibly assuage fears of opponents of resource control, is, however, a compromise position as some of the zone’s delegates described as “radical federalists” are still insisting on 100 per cent resource control and ownership “counterbalanced by effective and democratic taxation.”
Addressing a press conference in Abuja yesterday, Chairman of the South-south Delegates Forum to the national dialogue, Ambassador Matthew Mbu said fiscal federalism including control of resources by states in which they are located must be upheld if the principle of true federalism is to take firm root in the country.
The zone recommended that each state government “should identify, collect and be directly responsible for all the revenues from its resources.”
Mbu, a Federal Government nominee and Chairman of the conference’s Committee on Foreign Policy, International Development Policy Reforms, said there is abundant evidence that each of the federating units has “sufficient natural resources in its constituent state to sustain its government and people.”
He said every nook and cranny of the country is blessed with untapped natural resources and that it was a disservice to the country to focus on just oil and gas.
“…Nigeria has abundant natural resources that are yet to be tapped and developed apart from oil and gas.
Indeed, the ordinary meaning of natural resources ought to apply to such things as forest, waterways, solid minerals, vegetation, cash crops and the wild, etc. These potential sources of huge revenue are spread across all states of the federation,” he said.
He said a recourse to the principle of true federalism will be a positive impetus for development, foster healthy competition and greater accountability, empower communities to take greater interest in the repair of their damaged environment, confer on them the responsibility to plan for replacement of their assets and give them more say in determining how their resources should be exploited.
He said the zone had hoped that delegates will seize the opportunity of the conference to “reassess, refocus, redefine and redesign our political landscape,” as President Olusegun Obasanjo had charged at the inauguration of NPRC. Mbu also said “so far, the signals coming through from the committees, portend an ill wind that will blow Nigeria no good.”
He observed that after four and half decades of existing as a nation, “some Nigerians are yet to imbibe the lessons of mutual tolerance, justice and fair play,” and regretted that “this unwholesome attitude has been exhibited in more ways than one during the plenary session as well as during the committee meetings. In the event the very fundamentals, on the basis of which this conference was convened, are being violated.”
He described as insensitive “unguarded utterances by some delegates” to relocate all inhabitants of the Niger Delta ostensibly because of the “much-complained-of environmental despoliation,” and threat to reduce the 13 per cent allocation to NDDC (Niger Delta Development Commission) states on account of non-performance by their governments.
“That call for relocation, conjures up eerie feelings of that most infamous of events – the holocaust – the practicalisation of Hitler’s bid to eliminate an entire race from the face of the earth,” he said.
"When we think of the ongoing plight of the inhabitants of Dafur region in next-door Sudan, our blood runs cold," he said.
He said that the conference was convened to correct the structural imbalances in the Nigerian polity, imbalances, which he noted were “deliberately inflicted on some sections of this country including the Niger-Delta, and in the process, set a new nation-building agenda for a reborn Nigeria.”
Also, the zone called for the abrogation and repeal of “all laws that expropriate the rights of the people to control their resources,” appointment of a Minister of Petroleum Resources from the zone, fixing the deadline for ending gas flaring in the country at December next year and relocation of the headquarters of oil and gas companies to their respective areas of operation in the Niger Delta.
Mbu listed the obnoxious laws to include Territorial Waters Act, Cap. 428 Laws of the Federation 1990 as amended by Act No. 1 of 1998; Exclusive Economic Zone Act, Cap. 116 Laws of the Federation 1990 as amended by Act No. 42 of 1998; Land Use Act, Cap. 202 Laws of the Federation 1990; Interpretation Act, 1964 Cap. 192 Laws of the Federation, 1990 and Oil Pipelines Act, Cap. 338 Laws of the Federation 1990.
Others according to him are Petroleum Act, Cap. 350 Laws of the Federation 1990 as amended by Act No. 22 of 1998; Minerals and Mining Act No. 34 of 1999; National Inland Waterways Authority Act No. 13 of 1997; Section 44 (3) of the 1999 Constitution and Item 39 on the Exclusive Legislative List of the 1999 Constitution.
He called on the Federal Government to make payment of backlog of its statutory contribution to the NDDC a priority to enable “the commission discharge is statutory obligations of the provision of basic infrastructure such as electricity, potable water, health facilities, good all-season roads, bridges, human capital development, etc.”
Other recommendations canvassed by the zone are the payment of statutory 3% including arrears by oil firms to the NDDC fund, employment of Niger Delta youths by oil companies, especially those operating in riverine oil communities, total abolition of the onshore/offshore dichotomy and updating and reinforcing the laws regulating environmental pollution in the country and imposition of stiffer penalties for culprits.
Mbu decried the relative “backwardness” of the region in the midst of oil wealth saying it is “a tragic moral contradiction in Nigeria’s national development.”
“From the first half of the 20th century to the opening decade of the 21st century, the description of the Niger Delta has remained nearly as apt as it was described in the Willinks Commission Report in spite of its all-importance to the economy of Nigeria since 1956,” he said.
He said regional control of resources from territories where such resources are located including the continental shelf “was the modus operandi of our fiscal federalism from 1960-1969,” and that it ought to be the “modus vivendi after state creation,” as to “reason otherwise is to facilitate the speedy annihilation of the people of the Niger Delta.”
He noted that some elements in the conference have resolved that the people of the Niger Delta will not own their lands and the resources therein.
“We had made a case for joint control and management of the oil resources between the Federal Government and the states and communities, but the elements refused to accede to our request preferring instead that only the Federal Government should control and manage Niger Delta land and petroleum resources,” he said.
Mbu held that the absentee landlordism syndrome, which sees the Federal Government presiding over the Niger Delta and its resources from Abuja, has conspired with the oil multi-nationals in degrading and abuse of the environment of the region.
He said the Federal Government and the oil firms are not interested in what becomes of the zone’s environment since they are driven by profit motives.
He said the alarm being raised by the zone about the goings-on in the conference is not “a call for war,” but a “call for wise counsel to prevail for the overall benefit of Nigerians."
He reaffirmed the zone’s commitment to the “indivisibility and indissolubility of the Nigeria nation,” but warned that “such sincere expression of patriotism must however never be taken for granted, as it holds true only in the context of a just, equitable and egalitarian polity, where no one is oppressed, repressed or suppressed.”
While calling for understanding of the plight of the people of the zone, Mbu warned that it will be “a grave miscalculation for anyone or group to underestimate the resolve of the peoples of the Niger Delta to protect that with which they have been endowed by the Almighty.”
Although a resolution has not been adopted by the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources Reforms (where the issue of resource control and ownership is being examined), THISDAY gathered that Northern delegates may have offered a compromise position to their South-south zone colleagues.
Details of that position is not yet clear, but it was gathered that the Northern delegates offered that the Solid Minerals Act of 1990, which provides that individuals, communities and states can have right to resource exploitation and management be extended to all other resources including oil and gas.
The position is, however, believed to be in draft form because the committee will take a final decision next Tuesday.
Present at the briefing were Admiral Mike Akhigbe, Chief Mike Ozekhome, Chief Albert Horsfall, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), Prof. Kimse Okoko, Lady Essien Ime Udo, Mr. Sylvester Moemeke, Senator Tari Sekibo, Mr. Tunde Lakoju, Chief Ogban Ebock, Chief Sampson Agbaru, Dr. Ekeng Anam-Ndu and Dr. Amba Ambaowei.
Meanwhile, the ANPP yesterday restated its opposition to resource control, saying as far as extractive industry is concerned in the country, there cannot be zonal or state control.
National Chairman of the party, Chief Don Etiebet, who addressed newsmen on the party position said, "ANPP does not believe that resource control is the problem of Nigeria. The panacea to resource control is good governance.”
He, however, said the South-south geo-political zone is justified in demanding for the control of resources in its area in view of the several years of neglect by successive governments in the country.
He explained that the position of the party is predicated on the preservation of the Nigerian state.
10:46:33 AM 
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