No agreement on resource control
Delegates demand N2.6tr for Biafra victims
Months of screaming, shouting and swearing ended yesterday at the National Conference, with delegates failing to agree on key issues.
The plenary ended abruptly, leaving the resource control controversy hanging.
Conference Chairman Justice Idris Kutigi (rtd) announced that plenary would resume on August 4 when delegates are required to consider and approve the draft reports of the conference for presentation to the Federal Government.
Signs that the conference might end without a compromise on resource control emerged immediately delegates settled for the business of the day.
Justice Kutigi said the “50 wise men”— chairmen, co-chairmen and deputy chairmen of committees who were scheduled to meet on Friday to resolve some knotty issues in the recommendations of the Committee on Devolution of Power could not meet.
He blamed the inability of the select group to meet on the closure of the Abuja Airport, which he said prevented those invited for the meeting from attending.
Insiders, however, said that northern delegates shunned the meeting“because of their opposition to the 18 per cent derivation principle proposed for the oil producing states of the Niger Delta”.
Justice Kutigi told delegates that he was still of the view that the group should be given some time to resolve the controversy surrounding the proposed 18 per cent derivation principle, five per cent solid mineral fund and five per cent insurgency fund.
He briefly adjourned proceedings and mandated the select groups to meet for two hours and report back to plenary.
This is coming after days of fruitless discussions Justice Kutigi held with leaders of geo-political zones, other principal officers and chairmen of all the standing committees to resolve the matter.
The two hours Justice Kutigi gave the select group ended up to be five hours as members emerged from their meeting venue wearing gloomy faces.
Apparently as a last-ditch effort to resolve the logjam, Conference Deputy Chairman Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi invited five members of the group – General Ike Nwachukwu, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, Chief Olu Falae, Hon. Mohammed Kumalia and General Geoffrey Ejiga- for “special discussion”.
Akinyemi’s effort to broker compromise on the issue also failed.
Insiders said after over five hours close-door meeting with the leadership of the conference, southern and northern delegates did not agree on some of the issues thrown up in the initial meetings of some regional leaders.
Our correspondent gathered that three issues were raised during the meeting. These are 18 per cent derivation for mineral producing area, five per cent for the development of solid minerals and five per cent for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of states in the northern region ravaged by insurgency and internal conflicts.
While northern delegates were said to have insisted the five per cent for reconstruction and rehabilitation should be only for the North, southern delegates were reported to have argued that the fund should be for the entire country.
The disagreement between on the issue was said to have split the delegates along South and North lines.
Our correspondent also gathered that it was suggested that since there were other areas funded from the Federation Account outside the issues being considered, “it would be proper to have a technical committee to take a global look at the revenue allocation framework and determine the appropriate percentages on the three issues under consideration and advise government accordingly”.
The selected group was also said to have “critically examined the issues in contention and recognised the need to review the percentage of revenue allocation to oil producing states, including those producing other resources; to reconstruct and rehabilitate areas affected by problems of insurgency and internal conflicts; and the diversification of the economy by fast tracking the development of solid minerals”.
When the conference reconvened, Justice Kutigi announced that the select group, “having critically examined the issues in contention, recognised the need to:
.review the percentage of revenue allocation to states producing oil and other resources;
.reconstruct and rehabilitate areas affected by problems of insurgencies and internal conflicts; and
.diversify the economy by first tracking the development of the solid minerals sector.
He said: “The conference also notes that assigning percentages for the increase in derivation principle and setting up special intervention fund to address issues of reconstruction and rehabilitation of areas ravaged by insurgency and internal conflicts as well as solid minerals development requires some technical details and considerations.
“Conference, therefore, recommends that government should set up a Technical Committee to determine appropriate percentage on the three key issues and advise government accordingly.”
Tension was high as Justice Kutigi hurriedly put the decisions to voice vote.
What followed was a thunderous “aye”.
Justice Kutigi ruled that the decisions and others had been duly adopted.
Members of the 50-man committee came under fire yesterday for recommending that the Federal government should set up a technical committee on the most suitable derivation formula for the country.
Some delegates reacted angrily following the decision of the conference to stand down recommendation on derivation principle.
The Conference, on the recommendation of the 50-man committee, urged the Federal Government to set up a technical committee to advise it on the most appropriate percentage for derivation, solid mineral development and insurgency intervention fund.
According to the protesting delegates, the decision amounted to the Conference shirking its responsibility and passing the buck to the President.
Sola Ebiseni, a delegate from Ondo State on the platform of Local government system, said: “As far as I am concerned, there was no decision taken today. What we did today was simply to abdicate our responsibility by throwing the issue back at Mr Preident, who sent us here to assist in proffering solutions to some of our national challenges.
“What we fully failed to appreciate about what a National Conference is all about is that it is an extra-constitutional assembly of the people to critically examine all the issue that were pushed to us in a federation like ours where we have to constantly review the terms of our national engagement as a country.
“To now come at the tail end, while considering critical issues and say we couldn’t take a decision and push it back to the President, to me, is a crafty way of adopting the status quo and refusing to talk about it.
“If a technical committee must be set up, after all plenary has been adjourned till 4th of next month, I would have expected the Chairman to set it up, made up of the members of the conference itself.
“Without sounding immodest, I do not see anywhere in Nigeria where people with more technical know-how are assembled than those at this conference.
In Ebiseni’s view, “The credibility of the conference won’t be affected because we have succeeded in making far-reaching and lasting decisions that, if eventually implemented would make the country better in the long run”.
Mohammed Kumaila, a delegate from Borno and a member of the 50-man committee, said recommending certain percentages to be taxed on the Federation without data and facts on revenue accruable to the government was responsible for the decision to allow government to shoulder the responsibility.
Chief Olu Falae, leader of the Southwest delegation and a member of the Elders’ Committee, said the final decision was the most reasonable thing for the Conference to do.
Kumaila is one of the four leaders who met with Conference Deputy Chairman, Prof Bolaji Akinyemi shortly before the final decision was read by the Chairman, Justice Idris Kutigi.
Kumaila said: “What informed the decision was that we realised that it would be foolhardy to create percentages on the Federation Account without necessarily evaluating its impact on the existing obligation of government.
“This is because we are creating additional five per cent derivation for the Southsouth, another five per cent for minerals development, another five percent for reconstruction of insurgency affected areas.
“Meanwhile, apart from this 15 per cent, if you remember we have created some forms of percentages in other sectors but the cumulative effect of all this on the Federation account has to be looked at critically.
“This is because as it is now, all the states and local governments, including the Federal Government, have existing obligations but without looking critically at these obligations and their implications, going on to create these percentages is very dangerous.
“To go ahead and do this would only make us a laughing stock by the the time experts sits down to look at what we have created.”
“What we are saying is that it is the work of a Technical committee, we don’t have the time or the technical expertise at this point to be able as a conference to look at this in detail and be able to make informed recommendation that would be sustainable.”
Falae, who corroborated Kumalia’s stand, said it was the inability of the 50-man committee to arrive at a consensus on the issues that necessitated the idea of the Technical Committee.
