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By Bolade Omonijo
Posted to the Web: Tuesday, June 14, 2005
ABUJA — FAILURE by the leadership of the National Political Reform Conference to reconcile warring sides over contentious issues led to an unplanned adjustment of proceedings yesterday.
Hardly had delegates settled down to resume deliberations than the Chairman, Justice Niki Tobi announced to bewildered delegates that the meeting of the leadership with state delegation leaders failed to narrow areas of disagreement. He apologised and adjourned to allow another attempt at amicable solution.
Justice Tobi tried to assure delegates that the situation was not beyond redemption. He said, “we have all things under control, the important thing is that we will get to our destination. Nigerians have a way of fighting but they also have a way of resolving their differences. Your leaders are great men and women. They are doing fine and will continue to do fine.”
Vanguard gathered that the leadership wanted to prevent a showdown on the floor of the conference that could lead to walk out. The source said: “Justice Tobi is conscious of the burden placed on his shoulders. He doesn’t want to go down in history as one who failed to achieve the objective of the confab. He knows that a walkout or open fight in the hall would exacerbate the tension in the political system which would worsen the state of things in the country. The conference was called to find solutions, but if it breaks up now, it would have achieved opposite of that objective. The money, time spent and hopes would have been wasted.”
The source further hinted that the two-man committee comprising Prof. Joe Irukwu and Alhaji Umaru Dikko set up after last Thursday’s meeting might have failed in its mission as neither side of the divide was willing to make critical concessions. It was expected that Justice Tobi would use the meeting of all the leaders to appeal for caution and spell out the implications of failure to reach a consensus. The conference leadership is said to be contemplating a one-week adjournment to sort things out in view of the hold state governors have on delegates.
It would be recalled that, last week, the conference experienced uproar over resolution of such items as resource control, which the South-South delegation maintained that only a 50 per cent derivation in addition to control of the exploration and exploitation would be acceptable to them. The North, however, insisted that, while not opposed to the idea of an increase in the percentage for derivation, the actual percentage should be left to a technical fiscal commission to work out.
The South-East delegation had also insisted that at least one new state should be created for the zone with a view to bringing it to par with most of the other zones. This was resisted by many other delegates who argued that parity along zonal lined did not amount to equity. According to delegates from the North-West, the zone deserves its seven states on account of its official population.
Other issues on which delegates clashed were the proposed disqualification of former rulers, rotation of the presidency and recommendation to delete the local governments as a third tier of government.
Speaking on the deadlock over rotation of the presidency, a chieftain of the Niger Delta, Chief Edwin Clarke told newsmen after the abrupt adjournment that his delegation was unwilling to concede the point. He dismissed suggestion that the Niger Delta delegates were just using it as a bargaining chip.
His words: “We are not ready to concede that one. We want it and we deserve it. The South-South is the only zone that has not produced the President of Nigeria even for one day under any system. The North has held the Presidency for a long, long time. So, it is not bad if they concede it to us. It should be noted that every part of the country is able to produce the President. We won’t concede that one to anybody.”
Addressing fears of other delegates on the implications of resource control, Chief Clarke said: “As far as we are concerned, giving us 50 per cent will not affect other states.”
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