NIGERIA: National Conference committee insists on federation
- Wednesday, 23 April 2014 22:44
- Written by Terhemba Daka and Karls Tsokar, Abuja
• Empowers states to create councils • Northern delegates oppose regionalism, back state creation
• Again, conferees disagree on resource control
IN a unanimous decision, the Committee on Political Restructuring and Forms of Government at the ongoing National Conference Wednesday resolved that Nigeria would remain a federation with the existing 36 states structure as the federating units.
With this resolution, the committee said local councils will no longer be a third tier of government but would be a creation of a state.
Similarly, the committee agreed that any group of states may also create zonal commission to promote economic development, good government, equity, peace and security in accordance with the 1999 Constitution.
In a related development, emotions rose high again yesterday at the second day sitting of the Committee on Power Devolution when the delegates canvassed divergent positions on the controversial issues of resource control and derivation principle.
Meanwhile, the Assistant Secretary, Media and Communications, Akpandem James, yesterday clarified reports that journalists were barred from covering committee proceedings.
Fielding questions at the end of the committee’s deliberations yesterday, the co-Chairman of the Committee, Gen. Ike Nwachukwu, explained that states can now be in charge of creating or maintaining the local councils they have in their place.
“We have just agreed on the most vital aspect of our work. That Nigeria will remain a federation with the states as the federating units. The states can now be in charge of creating or maintaining the local councils they have in their place.
“The local councils won’t be a third tier of government but would be a creation of states, and the states may have a zonal commission to look after all the aspects,” he said.
Earlier, during their separate submissions on the floor, delegates from the South-East had argued that the existing states structure was skewed and created an imbalance in the number between the North and the South which delegates say should be addressed.
But tempers rose when northern delegates strongly opposed the proposal for regional form of government, saying the campaign for it was only an idea of the South-West delegates at the parley which cannot be put to work in the northern region considering the people’s ethnic diversity.
Specifically, the argument for regional government had raised emotions at the resumed sitting of the committee as different regional interests played out when each member of the committee stood to make presentations.
Delegates from the South-West who made submissions were in the frontline of the campaign for zonal system of government with some support from South-East and South-South conferees while all the northern delegates who spoke opposed the idea.
In voicing out his opposition, Senator Ahmed Mohammed Aruwa, who is representing Kaduna State at the conference, said regional government can only work in Yorubaland where, according to him, people speak only one language.
Fielding questions on the matter, Aruwa said: “The North can never accept this because we are more different from the South-West, the zonal arrangement can only work there, and you don’t expect us to just follow them like animals because the South- West wants that and then we should just accept. Such an idea does not speak the same of the North-Central people who are different from one another. Are you telling me we should go back and tell the states to dissolve and come to the centre?
“Does that make any sense? Can you go and tell Jigawa State to dissolve and go back to region? Can you tell Kano, Kogi, Zamfara states that there will be no more states, and come back to Kaduna? Does that make sense?
“So, to us, it is not about North opposing regional system, it is about common sense, I cannot just follow an idea of someone who conceived it. Just because it works well for him does not mean it should be forced on others, even in the South-East, it is not good for them. The North looks at the reality, what can be done and should not waste our time talking about impossibility.”
In supporting arguments for states creation, Aruwa said: “I need states creation from Kaduna as well. Nobody is against states creation. Did the constitution restrict states creation? No. There are criteria laid down in the constitution. Once they meet them, fine, nobody says states should not be created.”
He said delegates from the North did not come to the conference with any specific agenda like other regions. “We are putting common sense on the table, we don’t have to have an agenda like the Yoruba have and that is why they are so bitter.
The discussion on resource control and derivation pitched delegates of the southern region against their counterparts from the North and it degenerated into a shouting match between both groups.”
While the South-South delegates canvassed total resource control, the North argued for a maintenance of the status quo, as the delegates from the region argued that all the resources found across Nigeria constitutionally belonged to the Federal Government.
However, some delegates from the South-West and South-East zones stood on the fence and canvassed an increase in the derivation formula to compensate the resource rich zone and keep the country together.
Their position was articulated in three separate presentations by elder statesman, Chief Ayo Adebanjo; Second Republic presidential candidate, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, Asiwaju Gbadegesin Adedeji and Chief Asara Asara, a royal father from Bayelsa State.
Adebanjo gave a historical perspective to the issue, recalling how the 50 per cent derivation was instituted in the 1950s along with the regional system of government as fundamental elements of true federalism.
He pointed out that the resources found on any land belonged to the owners of that land as of right.
He took time to berate those who want the status quo to remain and reminded them that it was the aberration of military rule that transferred the resources to the Federal Government.
He cautioned that if the various parts of the country want to continue to live together, they must respect the rights of one another.
He canvassed a graduated return of the derivation formula to its original 50 per cent over a period of five to 10 years.
Braithwaite renewed his call for devolution of powers to the federating states, zones or regions. He said that power devolution and confederacy would lay to rest the issue of resource ownership and control.
Adedeji said the country needed to be restructured and power devolved to the zones, adding that a substantial percentage of proceeds of resources found in any region should be retained in the region for a transitional period of 10 years while every region prepared for total resource control.
However, the North argued that the amount of resources currently going to the South-South was already so much and argued that the region ought to be satisfied by now and cease to make further demands.
Conferees, including Senator Ibrahim Mantu, Senator Jack Tilley-Gyado, Dr. Mohammed Junaid, Dr. Haruna Yerima, Col. Usman Farouk (rtd) and Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, canvassed the northern position.
They rejected the demand for total resource control but gave conditions under which they would allow states to control their resources.
The conditions include the scrapping of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and a review of the allocations to the amnesty programme for ex-militants of the Niger Delta.
In a presentation, Tilley-Gyado acknowledged that discussions on resource control had always triggered anger and suspicion among Nigerians and should be handled with utmost care.
“If the Niger Delta people are asking for 100 per cent resource control so that they take everything and pay taxes to the Federal Government, it may be a good request but the timing is wrong. We have serious security challenges across the country.
According to him, many are dying in the North-East due to the activities of Boko Haram. In other zones, there are various levels of insecurity and these are all traceable to poverty.
“At present, South-South has got the 13 per cent derivation, Ministry of Niger Delta, NDDC, Amnesty and contributions from the oil companies to the development of the host communities.
“I advise that we make haste very slowly. We have to look at resource management, resource accountability, probity and responsibility,” Tilley-Gyado said.
But Dr. Haruna Yerima, a delegate from Borno State, would have preferred the issue was not discussed because, according to him, the 1999 Constitution places all resources found in Nigeria in the hands of the Federal Government.
According to him, it would amount to treason to challenge the authority of the Constitution.
Also, the Committee on Civil Society, Labour and Sports yesterday sacked its chairperson in a unanimous decision for absenteeism.
The committee, initially led by Mrs. Bola Ogunrimade as its chairperson, was replaced by the Vice Chairman, Issa Aremu.
Aremu in a chat with journalists yesterday said the decision was “because of persistent non-appearance of the chairperson, the committee members have asked me to take over as the chairman and we intend to communicate this to the secretariat.
A cross-section of the media reported that the conference barred journalists from covering the committee proceedings.
But James, who addressed journalists at the National Judicial Institute (NJI) venue, said the leadership at no time gave any order for the media to be restricted from covering any aspect of the conference.
Out of the 20 standing committees, James said only the Committee on Devolution of Power initially barred journalists from covering its deliberations.
He explained that the leadership of the committee thought sessions were restricted and therefore were not open to direct media coverage.
He said: “You cannot say that journalists were barred from covering activities of conference committees if only one out of the 20 committees misunderstood the fact that the sittings were supposed to be open to the media.
When journalists were allowed to access the committee, its Co-Chairman, Obong Victor Attah, advised them to be fair and objective in reporting activities of the conference, pointing to a particular report in one of the newspapers that morning that there was a disagreement between him and the co-Chairman of the committee, Alhaji Ibrahim Commassie.
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