Posted by By Chidiebere Iwuoha in Owerri on
Imo Deputy Speaker, Chief Chuma Nnaji has described the question of resource control as a moral issue which should not be swept under the carpet.
Imo Deputy Speaker, Chief Chuma Nnaji has described the question of resource control as a moral issue which should not be swept under the carpet.
But he warned that although the people whose soils are used as avenues or sources of Nigeria's wealth should not be killed, the issue should not be treated in isolation of other problems in the country.
The lawmaker who also represents Njaba constituency in the Imo State House of Assembly pointed out that many national problems had been swept under the carpet before now.
Nnaji cited the Igbo
problem in Nigeria, and what he described as the inability of successive governments to make Igbos part and parcel of the Nigerian project.
Other problems that the lawmaker brought to the fore included, the issue of rotational presidency that would give every ethnic group the opportunity to produce the president, and the issue of true federalism .
He observed that because resource control has the connotation of monetary resources it became a front burner, saying "we must not lose sight of other equally burning issues in the country, such as marginalization, justice and equity."
On the controversial issue of derivation percentage, the Imo Deputy Speaker made it clear that he was not looking at resource control in the sense of 40% or 50% but in the sense that " Let the people from where the resources of the national wealth comes from have a say in the development of their area. We should not kill ourselves with what percentage to give to Niger Delta areas , but let it be agreed upon that the people of those areas are the most endangered species when it comes to environmental degradation and backwardness in terms of infrastructure".
Hon. Chief Nnaji was of the belief that "it is immoral in the first place, that these resources are found in these areas and we use them to develop other places".
He remembered that during the days of cocoa, coal and groundnut people were not talking of resource control because the resources were used to develop the country, adding that talking of what percentage of derivation to give would be missing the point, " because we have to look at ourselves and say let us develop those areas, let us encourage them, let us ensure that a greater part of the resources goes back to them to develop the Niger Delta region and not the question of percentage".