Posted by By Sam Adzegeh on
The National Political Reforms Conference raises derivation fund from 13 to 17 percent but the Niger Delta delegates think this is not a good bargain
The National Political Reforms Conference raises derivation fund from 13 to 17 percent but the Niger Delta delegates think this is not a good bargain
Emotions over resource control finally spilled over at the National Political Reforms Conference in Abuja with the entire delegates from the South-South staging a walk out last week Tuesday.
The South-South delegates walked out in protest over the conference recommendations that the derivation fund be increased from 13percent to 17percent. To them, the percentage increase was too meager and, therefore, unacceptable.
The recommendation was part of several others agreed upon by the committee of leaders of delegations which was set up earlier to deal with very knotty issues at the confab.
It is headed by Joe Irukwu, a Professor and Umaru Dikko, leader of the northern delegates. While presenting the report. This obvious threat of a showdown may have arisen for the side-stepping of the issue by the leaders, Irukwu said the committee had agreed on ten out of the eleven contentious issues before it. He listed some of the issues as resource control, rotation of presidency, the banning of ex-military personnel who participated in coups, the immunity clause and several others.
The report of the leaders which was adopted after a voice vote, recommended the rotation of the presidency between the north and the south with the north given the chance to produce the next president in 2007. It also recommends that ex-military personnel "who had taken power by force shall be disqualified from contesting the presidency".
It was also recommended that additional states be created in the south-east while the electronic voting machine was also endorsed.
The issue of the tenure of executive office holders which could not be resolved at the leaders' committee level was voted upon by the entire house, with delegates finally agreeing that the present four-year, two-tenure arrangement be retained.
Apart from the 17percent recommended for derivation, the conference also said there should be a deliberate and urgent effort to develop infrastructure and human resources in the Niger Delta while the people of the area should be involved in the process of exploration and marketing of crude oil.
But even before the walk-out by the Niger Delta delegates, it was obvious that trouble was sure to blow out over the issue of derivation. It was for the fear of this that the Afe Babalola - led committee had tactically dodged the issue and returned such responsibility to the plenary session.
Newswatch gathered that a meeting of South-South delegates which had attempted to resolve the issue had almost resulted in fisticuffs. Elders from the zone who were annoyed at the Irukwu committee's recommendation of 17percent derivation had wanted to kill the report before it was presented to the general house. Led by Edwin Clark and Itse Sagay, the elders had argued that consultations on the issue had not been completed and therefore, the report could not be taken.
Several delegates from the Niger Delta expressed bitterness at what they consider as the unsympathetic attitude of the delegates from other parts of the country to the plight of their people. Oronto Douglas, a delegate from Bayelsa State said the 17percent recommendation was unacceptable noting that it was too far below what their people and government back home expect from them. Douglas, however, reaffirmed the commitment of the South-South to dialogue.
Kimse Okoko, a professor and delegate from Rivers State said the South-South delegates would not accept the recommendation, which he described as "pre-meditated and oppressive".
The tension generated by the impasse had reached such feverish heights that most delegates even refused to comment on the issue.
Some northern delegates who spoke to Newswatch on condition of anonymity said the Niger Delta delegates were too fixated in their demands. "You do not come to such a conference with the single purpose of achieving all your intentions".
Isaac Shaahu, national chairman of the Middle Belt Forum said the 17percent derivation recommendation should be viewed by the Niger Delta delegates as an achievement, while regretting that his own preferred recommendation of 25percent could not be met Shaahu however advised the South-South to take it in the spirit of oneness and brotherhood.