Mark, others chart path to constitution review, N'Delta stability
From Martins Oloja, Azimazi Momoh Jimoh (Abuja) and Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu (Benin City)
THE critical issues of constitution review and lasting peace in the Niger Delta have again been visited by political leaders and parties who underscored the necessity for sincerity and patriotism in addressing them.
Senate President David Mark led the way yesterday, declaring that the Upper legislative chamber has no personal interest in the on-going review of the 1999 Constitution.
And a top official has explained President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's refusal to intervene in the National Assembly's failed attempt to hold a Joint Committee session on the review.
The Presidency official who did not want to be named said: "The President actually doesn't believe in the reported attempt to review the 1999 Constitution. He believes in amendment of the constitution as the Constitution itself provides...That is why Mr. President has not intervened in the National Assembly's reported failed attempt to sustain a Joint Committee on Review of the 1999 Constitution...No, he doesn't believe in that. That was why he forwarded some Bills only about amendment of the 1999 Constitution..."
On the Niger Delta question, a former governor from the region, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, and the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) underlined the imperative of urgent and concerted action to develop the area to preserve the peace engendered by the amnesty programme.
Mark who spoke while receiving a delegation of Ogoja State Creation Movement from the present Cross River State in Abuja said: "The Constitution Amendment is the desire of the majority of Nigerians. We have no personal interest, but the interest of the majority of our people would be the overriding interest in carrying out the exercise. We shall be objective, transparent and be guided by national interest."
The President of the Senate said he supported the agitation, but that it must be based on merit and the ultimate development for the good of all.
He said the demand for creation of states was gathering momentum nationwide, stressing however that the agitations must therefore be done honestly, for development, peaceful co-existence and not to create disharmony or targeted to severe relationship with neighbours.
Earlier, the leader of the Ogoja State Movement, Dr. Matthew T. Mbu, noted that Ogoja which was one of the 24 colonial provinces, was yet to have a status of a state compared to its contemporaries.
Mbu noted that Ogoja which at the moment has about two million people if created, has enough human and material resources coupled with a huge landmass to cater for itself.
The former Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom stressed that creation of Ogoja state would bring justice to people and give them a sense of belonging.
Among the delegation was Second Republic Senate President, Dr. Joseph Wayas.
In March this year, the federal legislative leaders had convened in Minna, capital of Niger State for a retreat organised under the aegis of the Joint Committee of the National Assembly on Review of the 1999 Constitution. The committee was originally planned to work under the chairmanship of the Deputy President of the Senate while the Deputy Speaker was slated to be Deputy Chairman.
But the deal was scuttled when some members of the House of Representatives on the 88-member committee objected to the arrangement, claiming that the Deputy Speaker of the House on the committee had to be addressed as co-chairman, rather than deputy chairman. Unable to resolve the fundamental disagreement, the two chambers have since March this year gone different ways.
The unresolved conflict arising from claims over equality or otherwise of the chambers was cited as the critical factor that also scuttled Yar'Adua's presentation of the 2010 budget proposals last Thursday in Abuja to a joint session of both of them.
But some observers and National Assembly members have accused Yar'Adua of failing to use his good offices and his capacity as the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)'s leader to resolve the differences.
But the top official who is familiar with the politics of managing party politics in the office of the President told journalists in Abuja that Yar'Adua "would not like to interfere in resolving anything about constitutional review instead of amendment that the constitution provides."
Ibori spoke at the 39th Founders' Day lecture of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) on Monday night amid protests from its students over the imposition of N5,000 on those of them who paid their school fees late as well as the poor state of hostel facilities.
Some of them also allegedly protested the choice of the former Delta State governor as guest lecturer.
In his lecture on "Fiscal federalism, amnesty and the youths," Ibori called for massive reconstruction work, especially in housing and roads to bring development to the Niger Delta.
He also called on the Federal Government to be cautious in the handling of post-amnesty problems so as not to get to a situation were any of the former militants would consider going back to the creeks, which he said, would be counter-productive. He argued that increase in oil production output did not mean total peace in the region.
"The question however that still nags the minds of the people of the Niger Delta is that of equating peace in the region to the free flow of oil and gas. An increase in oil exploration activities does not necessarily mean the resolution of the fundamental question of the Niger Delta."
He urged the Federal Government to reduce the bureaucratic bottlenecks believed to be slowing down post-amnesty programmes as the former militants were becoming impatient as expressed during a recent meeting between them and Delta State governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan.
Ibori said true fiscal federalism was the way out of the country's numerous crisis even as he lamented that revenue allocation, which started from 50 per cent to the regions had become a paltry 13 per cent as provided in the 1999 Constitution but lamented that the states still had to go to court to get the implementation of the 13 per cent.
He traced the distortion of the country's robust federal system shortly after independence to Decree 51 of 1969 enacted by the military, which tended to make Nigeria a unitary state. He said the country was yet to recover from that blow on its federal system.
He, however, commended Yar'Adua for his pronouncement on the reservation of 10 per cent equity investment in oil and gas for host communities in the Niger Delta.
He suggested that some of the former militants could be given political appointments since they would be in a position to deal directly with their people just as he advocated that the contracts and human resource departments of the multi-national oil companies be relocated to the Niger Delta region so that they could recruit those with needed skills and qualifications from the area.
Ibori called on the Federal Government and the Nigerian Ports Authority to make importers bring in their goods through the seaports in the Niger Delta. This, he said, would also create more jobs for the people.
But a statement by Mr. Tony Eluemunor, spokesman for Chief Ibori, said the former governor was "not only a Guest Lecturer, he was also a mediator in the long lingering crisis between the school's Vice Chancellor and the students over the N5,000 punishment imposed on students who were late in paying school fees."
Speaking to journalists on Monday after the lecture, Harrison Ehimiyen explained that the students union organised protest, which nearly marred the lecture, was not in any way directed at Ibori.
He said that the disagreement, which led to the protest, had been on well before the last Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASSU) strike which shut down Nigerian universities for over three months.
According to Ehimiyen, the disagreement arose when the university authorities decided to impose a N5,000 punishment for students over late payment of school fees. He said that though he would not deny that the students seized the opportunity of Ibori's visit to the school to deliver a lecture to press home their demands, the protest would have come a week earlier but that the students union government could not meet. That fateful meeting took place last Saturday, and it was decided there to begin the strike on Monday.
"Now, thanks to Chief James Ibori, a great alumnus of the great University of Benin, we have been able to get the Acting Vice Chancellor to accede to our demands. We just hope all the promises made would be kept," Ehimiyen said.
Ehimiyen also thanked Ibori for, according to him, the former governor promised to donate a van to the students. He asked Ibori to even do more; help construct a students' hostel and or provide scholarship to indigent students. The student leader added that his greatest happiness was that he had the chance to shame Ibori's critics because he and other students escorted Ibori, a worthy ex-student of UNIBEN to the podium from which he delivered his lecture.
He said that if the lecture had failed to hold, Ibori's enemies would have said that students of his alma mater refused to allow him to address them. For emphasis, he said: "We have no problem with Ibori. We are proud of him. He too was a student activist and actually suffered for that cause. Even now, he is still an activist for the cause of the Niger Delta. And that is why we gave him a rousing welcome, we opened the closed gate for him, and we kept him company to show our love for him. We look forward to his next visit."
The PPA, which wrote to President Yar'Adua, proposed an economic status for the Niger Delta similar to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
The proposed dispensation, according to the PPA, will be facilitated by the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, China, Russia and other countries which enjoy healthy returns on investments in the Niger Delta and continue to seek and expand their investments in the region.
The PPA, in the letter to the President signed by its national chairman, Larry Esin, said: "Such status will allow strategic goods (apparel, foot wear and semi-processed agricultural products) manufactured within the Niger Delta to enter the markets of the respective countries duty free.
"The selected goods must be goods that will create maximum employment opportunities, enhance technology transfer and which will not threaten the local production of similar goods in the host country's markets."
The party also advocated a student airlift programme, similar to the 1959 Kenya student airlift, organised by the late Tom Mboya, the then Labour Minister of the East African country.
"The primary objective of the airlift is to provide formal university education and vocational training for Niger Delta youths; and to achieve this in an environment of relative stability and quality learning space. Each state of the Niger Delta will nominate 100 students, who will be placed in universities and vocational training schools in the countries mentioned above. The programme will require the active participation of the host countries though the cost of the programme may be subsidised by the Federal Government," the PPA said.
On implementation, the party said the success of the proposal would rely, to a large extent, on the organ used.
It added: "We believe that the programme should be protected from all bureaucracy and treated as a priority and emergency relief for the region. To this end, we recommend that a presidential task force be set up under the Presidency to implement this programme no later that September 2010.
"The following agencies of both the Nigerian government and host countries' governments will be involved in the negotiation, appraisal, development and implementation of the programme: United States Embassy in Nigeria; U.S. States Department, Washington DC; British High Commission, Nigeria, British Home Office, London; German Consulate, Nigeria and Ministry of Interior, Bonn, Germany.
The others are French Embassy, Nigeria, Ministry of External Affairs, Paris, France; Embassy of the Peoples Republic of China, Nigeria; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Beijing, China; Russian Embassy , Nigeria; Ministry of Foreign affairs, Moscow, Russia; Ministry of External Affairs, Abuja, Nigeria; Ministry of the Niger Delta.
"We therefore appeal to Mr. President to consider setting up a Task Force within the Presidency, charged with the responsibility of implementing this stimulus plan; utilising the model described herein. The Economic Stimulus Plan as described herein can be fully implemented within 12 months; if the Task Force is inaugurated before the end of the year."
