Posted by Musikilu Mojeed and Olusola Fabiyi, Abuja on
A National Political Reform Conference delegate from Kaduna State, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, has described President Olusegun Obasanjo's move to resolve the impasse between Northern NPRC members and their counterparts from the South-South over resource control as a waste of time.
A National Political Reform Conference delegate from Kaduna State, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, has described President Olusegun Obasanjo's move to resolve the impasse between Northern NPRC members and their counterparts from the South-South over resource control as a waste of time.
Abdullahi, who is also a former Special Adviser to the President on Food Security, said in an interview with our correspondents on Thursday night in Abuja that no matter how hard Obasanjo tried, Northern delegates would not shift ground on their opposition to the South-South's clamour for a significant increase in derivation allocation to their states.
President Obasanjo had in the past one week made frantic effort to break the logjam and restore normalcy to the conference.
He met with governors of the South-South zone last Saturday and those of the North on Sunday during which he urged them to persuade delegates from their areas to relax their hardline positions on the matter.
The president also held discussions with the leadership and some prominent delegates of the conference on the matter.
But, reacting to Obasanjo's effort, Abdullahi said, 'It is a waste of time, especially from our own point of view. The intervention is political; it is not based on facts. The facts we presented so far from the North are obvious. You cannot imagine where a state will take N1 billion in a month from the Federation Account, while other states with the same population, perhaps with more landmass, will altogether get just N1bn.
'If the facts we put in the papers are correct, which they are, as they were sourced from the Ministry of Finance, the questions I expect these people to ask is, ‘what has happened to all the billions that have been given to these states on the basis of the 13 percent derivation?' You go to these states and find nothing compared to those who are getting far less."
The delegate further said, 'The Niger Delta people should ask their leaders to tell them how they have been using their resources. That is why we said these figures should educate Nigerians, including people from the Niger Delta area, so that everybody will know the real situation."
He declared that the North had already foreclosed any negotiation on the matter, even if such hardline stance would lead to the abrupt end of proceedings.
Saturday Punch, June 25, 2005