From inception it was obvious the composition of the ongoing National Conference was made to achieve motives inimical to the corporate well-being of Nigeria. From the ever visible Any Government in Power (AGIP) individuals who were sneaked into the conference under different shady platforms down to the skewed and serious ethno-religious membership imbalance well-intended to give undue advantage to one group over another in a highly polarized Nigeria, the present chaos in the National Conference was easily predictable.
It’s not out of tune therefore, when the conference is robbed of any semblance of credibility by the overzealousness of planted professional moles who are known for their negative attitude for Nigeria and its future. Among this lot, there are shameless people like former Deputy Senate President of Obasanjo’s third term infamy and a host of other characters with just as shady past. To assume anything reasonable will come out of the conference with this bunch is simply taking fantasy to a whole new level.
In the last few days we were treated to desperate attempts by conscienceless people like Raymond Dokpesi to sneak in doctored documents to form part of the decisions taken by the conference. In this category, not even the Deputy Chairman of the conference Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi could hold back his ambition to fulfill what I want to assume was his end of the bargain with a government determined on having its way. Not exactly something unexpected. Perhaps this might explain the dogged resolve of the government to select leaders for the conference rather than allow it elect leaders that could operate with some level of respect for the respectability of both the members and the conference. I don’t need further proof that the conference was created to achieve, with some level of constitutionality what could not be achieved initially by the “open market” approach of the federal government to serious issues threatening Nigeria’s corporate existence.
The most contentious issue before the conference, and perhaps the most contentious in modern Nigeria is the 13% derivation issue complete with the vexatious onshore/offshore dichotomy and its attendant effect on the Nigerian system. Perhaps no subject ever received as much professional and “roadside” attention as this issue since the 1914 marriage of the Northern and Southern protectorates. Funny enough, solution to this problem not only remained as elusive as the elixir of life, the problem itself have graduated from an innocent ambition to correct perceived wrongs into a multi-billion dollar bottomless cesspool of corruption as well, a tool of political blackmail.
Ever since the ascension of President Jonathan to Nigeria’s highest office, agitations for more funds to the Niger Delta received a boost by direct and contagious beneficiaries, all for different intents and purposes. Some ask for it for the obvious benefits it portends for their personal economic security, while distant agitators do so to remain in the good books of the President for the political safety and security (Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi is a good example here.
Interestingly, no one is yet to propose a cogent reason why Niger Delta should have more than the “more than enough” it already have at the expense of other regions and without justifying the billions of dollars that obviously went down the bottomless pockets of the region’s leadership class and their supportive elite leaving the ordinary masses high and dry on the brink of hunger and poverty.
The pertinent question for which the advocates of more funds to the Niger Delta should answer is, why should other regions be shortchanged when there is nothing to show for a heavy sacrifice already made? What about the billions expended on the region through the instrumentality of NDDC, 13% derivation, Local Content bill, royalties and Ministry of Niger Delta – the only ministry in the world created to exclusively service the needs of a particular region in what is supposed to be a federal arrangement? If funds lavished on the region were effectively used as some jingles and billboards in the region suggests, why is the region asking for more? If not, why not and where is the money?
One could easily hazard a guess as to the fate of the billions of dollars that accrued to the region in the last decade. The region is proudly the owner of the largest fleet of private jets – a frivolity that has put Nigeria on the global map for a wrong reason. Recently elites of the region added another hobby to an already a long list of insensitive hobbies. At the last count, Chief Edwin Clark, probably the most powerful person in the region by virtue of his closeness to the President and Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the vocal President of CAN are proud owners of brand new universities whose sources of funding were as controversial as their hasty accreditation. When will it be time enough for Nigerians to start asking the right questions?
Perhaps it was this intellectual and moral retardation by Nigerians that provoked the anger of Kano State Governor, Engr. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso. Known for his uncompromising patriotism and sincere belief in the workability of the Nigerian idea, Kwankwaso once gave a detailed account of how northern members of the National Assembly were induced to pass the onshore/offshore dichotomy bill that has proved inimical and counter-productive to the well-being of Nigeria.
Expectedly, Kwankwaso’s opinion about the skewed revenue sharing formula remained today just as the were in his earlier truncated term as Kano State governor. Expressing his views on the revenue sharing controversy at the on-going National Conference, he minced no word in giving it to the northern delegates – and I believe he spoke the minds of many northerners.
His views: “Whoever endorsed such arrangement of increasing revenue derivation to states that already have enough either does not understand the issues at stake or has ulterior agenda to kill the country”. He blamed the federal government for playing to the gallery, saying all of such ulterior motives of the President are the root causes of insecurity in the country.
He regretted that instead of the northern delegates to discuss the agenda agreed upon before they were sent, which is onshore/offshore, they went ahead to deliberate on the demands of oil producing states. He called on delegates at the conference to deliberate on the fact that northern states need better attention to fight desertification, poverty and insecurity whose effects are threatening to incinerate Nigeria. Could anything be truer?
- Dammalam wrote from Kaduna
