Posted by FESTUS OWETE on
FESTUS OWETE in this piece, chronicles the intrigues that attended the quest for 50 per cent derivation by the South-South delegates at the ongoing National Political Reform Conference, over which they staged a walkout.
FESTUS OWETE in this piece, chronicles the intrigues that attended the quest for 50 per cent derivation by the South-South delegates at the ongoing National Political Reform Conference, over which they staged a walkout.
The atmosphere at the prestigious International Con-ference Centre, Abuja, venue of the on-going National Political Reform Conference (NPPC) last Tuesday was tense. It was obvious that something unpalatable was looming. The tension could be felt as if it was a tangible object. Although, the conference sat temporarily that morning before adjourning till 3 pm that day, the tension just refused to be doused. Not even the speech of a deaf person complaining of the marginalisation of the deaf among other things and the demonstration of the mechanical voting machine by one Aminu Sani, an engineer from Zamfara State, could douse the tension.
About two hours later, the situation exploded as the delegates from the six states making up the South-South zone pulled out of the four-month old talkshop over the recommendation by the Joe Irukwu-led Committee of Leaders for a marginal increase in the derivation fund for oil-producing states from 13 per cent to 17 per cent.
Five days earlier, precisely on Thursday June 9, in a desperate move to navigate the talkshop out of impending trouble waters, its chairman, Justice Niki Tobi, inaugurated the committee (also known as Committee of Elders) with Irukwu as chairman and Dikko as vice chairman to resolve the contentious issue before the conference.
Comprising the leaders of delegations from the six geo-political zones and those of the 36 states, the committee was given the task of reaching a consensus on all the contentions issues and report back to the plenary session for debate. The knotty issues included resource control, rotational presidency, funding of local governments, tenure of the president, governors and council chairmen, use of electronic voting machine in future elections and state police. Others were creation of states, removal or retention of immunity, federating units, and banning of former heads of state. But, that of resource control was the most contentious having generated much tension while the second plenary session lasted.
Although most of the issues emerged controversial during the assignment of the 19 committees, indications that the resource control issue would become more contentious, appeared earlier. Quite early in its life, the conference, inaugurated by President Olusegun Obasanjo to chart a new political future for the country has shown signs of swimming in trouble waters over the issue. Before it dissolved into 19 committees, all of the 400 delegates drawn for the 36 states and various interest groups appeared to have taken positions at the first plenary session, which suggested that all might not be well. Therefore, keen watchers of the conference, who had predicted stormy sessions as the quest for resource control by the delegates from the South-South zone, backed by a few others from other zones, became the issue at the conference.
For the two weeks that the latter plenary session lasted, delegates struggled to out-do themselves while debating the issue. Perhaps, only about five out of the 400 delegates did not mention the issue during the seven minutes apportioned to each delegate to make contribution to the debate on the reports of the 19 committees.
For the delegates from Akwa Ibom, Delta, Rivers, Cross River, Edo and Bayelsa, which make up the oil-rich South-South zone, the message was clear: Control of whatever resources buried in their soil or increase in derivation fund for mineral producing states from the present 13 per cent to at least 50 per cent. They argued severally that just as it was enshrined in the 1960 Independent Constitution and the 1963 Republican Constitution, the derivation should be upped by 35 per cent in order for them the enjoy the resources from their region. The delegates also argued that just as it was in those documents, the federating units (and in this case, the states or regions) should only pay tax to the central) Federal Government.
The South-South people also anchored their reasoning on the fact that they have suffered environmental degradation due to the exploration and exploitation of oil in their region. They also rejected the recommendation of the Chief Afe Babalola-led Committee on Revenue Allocation and Fiscal Federalism to the effect that a technical committee should be set up to study the matter and make appropriate recommendation on the actual percentage to which the derivation fund should be increased.
But to the northern delegates, those arguments were not tenable. While most of them appreciated the recommendations of the Babalola committee that another special committee should be set up to look into the matter, others were of the view that there should be no increase at all. They were wont to offer that the people of the South-South region had enjoyed the resources derived from the groundnut pyramid, cocoa, cotton, palm fruit on which the nation survived in the past. To be sure, the northern delegates were determined to checkmate every move that the South-South people and some of their allies from the South-East, South-West and Middle Belt made to actualise the struggle for resource control.
The division on the floor was apparent despite the nocturnal meetings between zones and regions during which their delegates tried to win some and lose some. As if the national talkshop is only about resource control, the northern governors and their counterparts from the South-South zone travelled to Abuja to hold discussions with their delegates. Regrettably, the meetings failed to yield any fruit as delegates expressed regional and sectional interests during the debate. In fact, at some point, the northern delegates distorted the sitting arrangement in the chamber as some of them sat strategically among the southern people allegedly to eavesdrop on their discussions and strategies. Besides, some of their bright minds during the debate reeled out statistics aimed at flooring the argument of the South-South delegates and their allies on the emotive issue of resource control. Also, at a point, as if they were afraid that the war was almost lost, the South-South people delved into the archive as well to bring out data to counter the argument of the northern delegates and their allies. But what most of the northern delegates refused to appreciate was that the quest for resource control was not only meant for the oil-bearing South-South zone but also for the hosts of other mineral resources in any part of the country, the north inclusive.
In any case, with the way the verbal punches went, it was not difficult for the conference leadership and indeed the delegates themselves to discern the trouble ahead. How then could it be averted? It was at this juncture that, after series of meeting, the leadership, in its wisdom, appointed the Committee of Leaders to meet and iron out the issue.
Indications that none of the parties was prepared to shift ground soon came. By Monday when the leaders started the meeting, both proponents and opponents of resource control refused to back down. The first argument was that though resource control was the first on the list of the contentious issues to discuss, the matter should be taken last because of its emotive nature. Sensing danger in this suggestion, the South-South delegates refused and insisted that the issue of resource control should be taken first.
As Dikko put it, 'At first, we were afraid in which order should we take the issues? The resource control happens to be number one. We say well should we avoid it and start with the simpler ones? Then later, we say, well it is now or never. So we took up resource control and we went on from morning until about 6am, we were on resource control. Resource control has become difficult but we have taken control and at the end of it all we came up with a solution.
'On the resource control alone, we spent 10 hours and it was a sleepless night," Prince Bola Ajibola, a member of the committee, told Sunday Punch.
But Irukwu, chairman of the committee, summarized it thus: 'What surprised me was that Dikko, who was my deputy, and myself did not get up for 13 hours. I didn't know it was possible for old men to do that. The reason was that he wanted to make sure that in his absence no decision was taken against the interest he believed he represented. I wanted to make sure that a decision, which I cannot defend, was not taken. I didn't know it was possible for old men at 70 to sit down for 13 hours without going anywhere."
Despite the long hours, the sacrifice paid off as the committee arrived at 17 per cent derivation. Presenting its report, Irukwu, who, at a time angered the delegates and journalists covering the conference with unnecessary preliminaries, said the committee had agreed to increase the derivation fund to 17 per cent. Before that time, the chamber had begun to experience some resentment, including the protest by Chief Edwin Clarke that he, instead of Chief Matthew Mbu, was the leader of the South-South delegation and so should have headed the zone's team to the meeting of the Irukwu/Dikko Committee. However, the Ohaneze Ndigbo National President was able to finish his presentation despite the tension that had already built up.
Other recommendations of the committee included the ban on past military heads of state from participating in future elections, allocation of funds to states irrespective of the number of local governments, rotation of presidency between the northern and the southern parts of the country and geo-political zones, use of electronic voting machine, approval of states as federating unit, creation of more states in the South-East, and immunity for the elected chief executives in civil cases only. Others were: retention of a single Nigeria Police Force and amendment of laws not consistent with the constitution including Land Divesting Act of 1993. The only issue the committee could not reach consensus on, according to Irukwu, was whether the tenure of elected executives should be six years single tenure or four years renewable tenure.
Trouble, however, began when Tobi recognized Chief Martins Elechi to speak. Unknown to many, the Ebonyi State delegate was going to move the motion for the adoption of the report. Alhaji Abdullahi Ibrahim, who chairs the Business committee of the conference, seconded the motion. Tobi took a counter motion from Prof. Omafume Onoge from Delta State, which was also seconded by Idris Milki representing Civil Society from Kogi State. When both motions were put to vote, the substantive motion was carried. But the South-South people, who were already angered by the 17 per cent derivation, instead kicked against the substantive motion, claiming that it was pre-arranged since both Elechi and Ibrahim, a former Attorney General of the Federation were members of the Committee of Leaders.
At this stage, as if it had already been planned, the entire South-South delegates walked out of the conference. Addressing the press outside the hall, the leader of Bayelsa State delegation and National President of Ijaw National Congress, Prof. Kimse Okoko, said: 'Procedurally, the motion to accept a committee report is not usually moved by members of that committee. The person that moved the motion for the adoption of the report and the seconder were members of the committee that prepared that report. Obviously, that was wrong and it must have been pre-arranged.
'Secondly, a member of the committee from the South-South dissociated himself from the decision today before we came to the plenary session. He said he was withholding his proposal for a percentage of derivation, which meant that there was no consensus on that matter."
Okoko, surrounded by all the delegates from that zone, said: 'Unless and until the secretariat of the conference sends out the document through the committee to iron out the issues of non-consensus in some of these key areas, we do not consider it necessary, or in fact advisable to participate any further until the fundamental issue is resolved."
With this parting threat, the entire delegates from the South-South zone left the International Conference Centre for the Rivers State Estate in Wuse 2 District of the Federal Capital Territory where all the delegates from Rivers State are lodged.
In the main, while the South-South delegates were protesting outside, some delegates from the South-East and South-West also walked out in protest over Tobi's insistence on taking a vote on the tenure of president and other executive officers, which was the only issue on which the Irukwu Committee failed to reach a consensus.
Commenting on the situation, Prince Bola Ajibola expressed surprise at the action of the South-South delegates, saying that their leaders consented to the 17 per cent at the Committee of Leaders' meeting. But one of the South-South leaders at the meeting, Mr. Gamaliel Onosode, debunked the claim, saying that the committee did not reach consensus on the issue of resource control. Onosode said he and other five other leaders of the zone protested to no avail.
However, it was gathered that for several hours that night following the walk out, the South-South delegates met and also consulted with their state governors on the next line of action. Even so, Tobi, who apparently was and is still in quandary, being an indigene of the Ijaw ethic group in Delta State, made spirited efforts to woo the South-South people. The Business Committee, which was expanded for the purpose, dispatched some elders, namely Chief Barnabas Gemade, General Jerry Useni and two others to liaise with the leaders of the South-South delegation. Both sides eventually met after which the South-South delegates were promised that the procedural issue would be redressed upon resumption of plenary on Thursday. Babalola also reached out to the leaders of the oil-bearing states and gave a similar assurance. It was not to be as Tobi quickly adjourned the session after a few minutes of sitting on till Wednesday next week.
In any case, at that time, the South-South delegates were holed up at the Rivers Estate mapping out further plans. A the end of that meeting, the delegates, led by Clark, prepared a letter and sent it to Tobi, which was read at a press conference by Admiral Mike Akhigbe, leader of Edo State delegation. In it, they asked for the upward review of the fund to 25 per cent, which will then graduate to 50 per cent within a period of five years. That was after another letter was written to Tobi by the leaders of the 19 northern states and FCT, insisting that every matter that was concluded on Tuesday should not be revisited since that would be contrary to the Standing Rules of the conference.
The northerners declared: 'We reject unequivocally any attempt which has the tendency to reopen, review, rescind, reconsider or amend all decisions taken on that day under the guise of addressing purported allegations of procedural irregularity as this will amount to a flagrant violation and disregard of Order 3 Rule 3 and Order 6 Rule 2.
'We view any attempt to proceed along the lines recommended by the committee as irregular. What is worse, it may lead to unnecessary and avoidable polarization of delegates at the conference."
As it is, the stand-off has worsened. Although, high-level consultations have begun between the governors on both sides and their delegates are believed to have commenced, no one is sure how the matter would be resolved. But Tobi, who admitted that the last one- week, had been tough for him, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa and Prince Bola Ajibola, all of whom are delegates, have assured that the South-South delegates will return to the conference billed to end on the same Wednesday.
Sunday Punch, June 19, 2005