I was amused at the almost physical pain exhibited by Is’haq Modibo Kawu in his column in the Vanguard Newspaper on Thursday 2nd of May 2013, whilst reacting to a recent speech in the U.S.A. by Mr. Kingsley Kuku, the President’s Adviser on the Niger Delta. Mr. Kuku had apparently stated that there would be dire consequences if President Jonathan is not re-elected in 2015.
My amusement stemmed from the fact Kingsley Kuku had simply taken a leaf from the northern irredentists’ political play book. Memories are not so short that we have forgotten the threats emanating from this group about what would happen in 2011, if the PDP zoning arrangements were not adhered to and the candidate did not come from the north. And it was not just the issue of a candidate of northern (Arewa) extraction but a candidate selected by Arewa and presented to Nigeria as such. The question of a record of his achievements, character, programme, merit, capacity, etc, did not arise. The sole qualification was to be Arewa North by birth – a term which embodies a clearly understood language and religion. All the big guns of Arewa North were resolutely committed to this project, Malam Adamu Ciroma, Professor Ango Abdullahi, Alhaji Lawal Kaita, Dr. Junnaid Mohammed, Mallam Tanko Yakassai, etc, etc.
In addition to these gentlemen, the Northern Governors and virtually all the political elite of the Arewa North, believe that only one of themselves is entitled to be the President of Nigeria, based on where they come from; and as a group representative, regardless of merit, quality, qualification or track record.
Let me state clearly at this stage that I do not support the call of those who insist that Jonathan must be given a second term just because he is from the South South. On the contrary, it is my view that Jonathan should contest the 2015 elections based on his record in office between 2010 and 2015. It is futile, puerile, infantile and is evidence of political and social immaturity, to base the choice of political leadership on zonal or ethnic origins. A leader must be chosen on the basis of character, track record, integrity, discipline, principles, intellect, level of enlightenment, commitment to service, political and social programme, etc. not place of origin, language or religion. But the Arewa leaders and elite have never believed in these principles.
Infact they are registered owners of the patent called “Rule by tribal, ethnic, religious and zonal origin” to ensure dominance indeed monopoly, without recourse to quality merit or qualification. Their current cry is “power must return to the North” as an entity and Nigerians have no right of choice, once this representative of the ruler zone is presented. This is democracy, Is’haq and Arewa style.
The mind set of Arewa North has always been to dominate Nigeria politically to the point of appropriation. This proprietary air is evident in Is’haq’s writing. According to him Kingsley Kuku is not grateful for what the Nigerian State (substitute Arewa North) has done for the Niger Delta. Let me quote him. “Never mind what the Nigerian State has done for the Niger Delta in recent years, with the 13 percent Derivation, NDDC, Ministry of the Niger Delta and the Billions of Naira that Kingsley Kuku expends as chair of the presidential amnesty programme.”
There you are! The great Nigerian State has done wonderful things for the Niger Delta, by returning to it, 13% of Niger Delta’s 100% owned oil and gas proceeds. Niger Delta should be grateful for being forced to surrender ONLY 87% of its assets to Big Brother. It is clear from Is’haq’s writing that someone else other than the Niger Delta, owns the Niger Delta oil and gas. Could that be Arewa North? Should Niger Deltans now be grateful for the 13% they are allowed to keep?
Nigeria today is being funded by Niger Delta oil and gas proceeds (about 80%), Lagos State VAT and Customs duties from the coastal states. Nigeria can continue to be in a state of denial about it, but this cannot change a mathematical fact. That the Federal Government appropriates all these states’ resources to itself does not change the fact of true ownership.
My question to Is’haq then is, who is the benefactor and who is the beneficiary? Niger Delta or Nigeria?
As recently as April, 2013, Governor Kwakwanso of Kano State attributed the undeveloped condition of his state to lack of equal access to Niger Delta oil proceeds with the Niger Delta States. In other words, he cannot bring any improvement to the lives of the people of Kano State without having an equal right to Niger Delta oil and gas proceeds, as Niger Delta states. Apart from this being a remarkable case of total amnesia about the identity and geographical location of Kano State, Governor Kwakwanso was admitting that he lacks the capacity to organise Kano State to generate its own funds for the running of the state, and that he is completely dependent on Niger Delta oil and gas proceeds.
In calculating the proportion of Niger Delta oil and gas proceeds being enjoyed by states, there has been total fixation with the 13% derivation provision for Niger Delta States based on what each state produces, but nothing has been said so far about local government allocations from the Niger Delta oil and gas proceeds. Every year at least 20% of the amount in the federation account is shared amongst local governments all over the country. There are 776 local government councils in Nigeria, with 419 in the North and 357 in the South. So it is clear where the bulk of the 20% goes. Kano State, a non-oil producing State, has 44 local governments gulping their shares of the 20%. Bayelsa, a major oil producing state, has only 8 local governments. And so the proportion of the share of the 20% collected by Kano, compared to what is collected by Bayelsa is 44-8 or 11-2. In other words, for every N200 worth of oil and gas proceeds collected by Bayelsa local governments, Kano State local governments collect N1,100. Kano produces no oil and gas. Bayelsa is a major producer.
Again only recently, a curious thing happened. It was reported that the Arewa Consultative Forum was interested in collaborating with the yet to be registered All Progressive Congress (APC). What is the basis of the ACF interest in APC? It is not for the purpose of seeking to know its programmes, manifesto or ideology, or contributing to its growth and popularity. No! It is to negotiate using the APC to sponsor an Arewa Presidential candidate. Such is the lust of the Arewa elite for power that ideology and programme, are irrelevant to them, as long as an Arewa of their own choosing, gets the top political slot. You will never hear of ACF negotiating for the Vice-Presidential Position. Never! It has to be the presidency. It is the duty of non-Arewas to be subordinate and to accept the spare tyre position. The audacity of the ACF is unbelievable. It is as if those who formed the APC and groomed and natured it to its present state have no idea as to who to give leadership positions. They are taken by the ACF to be so naïve and clueless that they must have been waiting for the ACF to crown their efforts with a presidential candidate.
There is thus a mind-set, which has continued unabated since 1914 when Lord Harcourt, the British Colonial Secretary announced that “the promising and well conducted youth” without means would be joined in “an alliance with a Southern Lady of means”. Thus in this Nigerian marriage, the Arewa North, right from the beginning was the “man” and “husband” and the South the “woman” and “wife”.
The use of the term “youth” (man) for the North and “Lady”, (woman) for the South was not an accident, nor an exercise in humour. It was a deadly serious matter, with the game plan being to bring the two together in order to give Arewa North, political power over the South together with permanent control over Southern resources.
In the England of the time of Lord Harcourt, the British Colonial Secretary and matchmaker, under the common law, married women had no independent legal right over their own properties. Once a marriage was contracted, all the women’s properties automatically became her husband’s property. The woman could not enter into a contract in her own right. Her husband had to conclude all her contracts on her behalf. This peculiar Nigerian arrangement imposed by the colonial masters has with minor exceptions, continued up till today.
The logic and mode of operation is simple. Handover all states natural resources to the Federal Government. Then those who, habitually and by imperial authority, control the Federal Government, also control and dispose of such resources as of right. Therefore the revelation that Arewa North elements own 83% of Niger Delta oil blocks came to me as no surprise.
Clearly, instability, tension and crises will continue to bedevil Nigerian politics, as long as the Federal Government continues to control and disburse states’ resources. Introduce fiscal federalism, and allow states to retain their resources in return for payment of taxes for the operation of the Federal Government and immediate peace will descend on the country and everyone will head for his state for the generation of revenue and for the promotion of development. All will be quiet on the federal front and the desperate do-or-die battle to have the Presidency will abate.
Finally, there is no “Niger Delta political elite currently running Nigeria”, as Is’haq wrongly presumes. The President, is from the Ijaw Nation and he has appointed advisers and agents who assist him to run the executive arm of the government. There is no Niger Delta incorporated in this government. The vast majority of Niger Deltans are as distant from it as the disenchanted Arewa group. It is a Jonathan Presidency, not a Niger Delta or South South Presidency. For most of us outside the Ijaw geo-ethnic zone in the Niger Delta, this presidency is no different from the Obasanjo and Yar’Adua presidencies. Our demands are yet to be met by any Presidency. These are fiscal federalism including resource control, strong regions, a loose federation in which the states will control most matters of human interest and relevance whilst the federal government concentrates on matters of common interest amongst the States that can only be handled effectively at a pan Nigerian level, e.g., defence, foreign affairs, immigration, currency, customs, banking, aviation, citizenship.
Local governments and Federation Account must never be featured in federal constitution. Local Governments belong to states 100% and states can create as many local governments as they wish, but they must fund them exclusively. Federation Accounts are an excuse for dispossessing states of their resources, in favour of an unproductive federal government which on becoming bloated with these resources, dominates and controls the atrophied states into submission. The bloated, corrupt and inefficient federal government becomes the centre of a titanic and destructive struggle for control. States’ indolence and parasitic tendencies follow, resulting in an unproductive and underdeveloped country. This destructive template must be reversed.
That is the essence of the Niger Delta case. Any candidate from any part of Nigeria, whose programme contains these elements, will enjoy a massive following from the Niger Delta. For us, there must be an end to one tier of the Federation appropriating our patrimony, and then handing over a pittance to us with the demand that we must be grateful. Our case is that we must revert to the pre-independence constitutional conference pact by which regions (States) retained 50% of their natural resources and contributed 20% to the federal government and 30% to a distributable fund of which the economically weak Regions, were the main beneficiaries. That way every state developed itself first, with productive activities, before receiving a little help from richer states as complementary gestures. There was no parasitic federalism, in which idleness and monthly trips to Abuja to collect dole or state welfare package became the sole source of state existence. States that cannot survive without the monthly trip to Abuja have no right to exist as separate states. They should merge with more viable states. Even better still we need to re-structure ourselves into regions or zones, using the present 6 zones as the basis, with minor changes, like Yoruba parts of Kwara and Kogi, joining, the Western (Yoruba) Region. We must now revert to our pre-independence pact which was embodied in the 1960 and 1963 Constitutions. That is the basis of independent Nigeria.
•Professor Sagay writes from Lagos
