The crises rocking the four month old National Conference seems to have gotten to a point of no return as different ethnic cleavages have decided to dig deeper into their trenches in what has now turned into what the late afro beat king, FelaAnikulakpokuti called ROFO ROFO FIGHT in one of his hit songs.
Confab delegates
The latest problem which may finally spell doom for the conference if not carefully handled, is the demand for civil war reparations by the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, OhanaezeNdigbo. Notice for the demand for reparation by the group was filed with the conference leadership last Thursday, after the uproar on the floor of the conference which led to another abrupt adjournment, the third within the week.
The row broke out over irreconcilable differences between mainly Northern delegates and their Southern counterparts, due largely to the issues of derivation formula, Mineral Resources Development/Intervention Fund, as well as Special fund for the reconstruction of insurgency raved Northern parts of the country.
The row was actually a carryover from the previous week which informed the prediction of this paper last Sunday, that there was bound to be a showdown at the conferred last week. The contents of the Report of the Committee on Devolution of Power was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Its recommendation of retention of the 13% derivation fund for oil producing states. That recommendation did not go down well with delegates, especially those from the South-South geo- political zone.
Following the disagreement generated by this, the a committee of “18 wise men”, three each from a geo-political zone, was empaneled to look into the matter. The committee headed by former Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, turned its report last Thursday. Rather than solution, the report became the source of bigger row which stalled further deliberations of the conference delegates.
Leaders of the Northern delegates who were yet to recover from the set back they seemed to have suffered the previous week over the decision of the conference to remove the local government structure from the constitution as well as the recommendation for the creation of 18 additional states, raised dust over the report of the Professor Gambari- committee, alleging that it was doctored. That allegation turned the conference into a very chaotic arena, almost resulting in a free for all.
Leaders of ohanaeze, The NICHE gathered, rose from that chaotic scene of the conference and headed straight to the office of the conference Chairman, justice IdrisKutigi, to file a motion demanding for reparation over the devastations and destructions that occurred in Igbo land and other parts of the South –South zone, during the 30 months civil war in Nigeria [1967-1970].
Speaking to this reporter in Abuja, Secretary General of OhanaezeNdigbo,Dr Joe Nworgu, confirmed that his group is making the demand. He said that the demand was as a result of the failure of the military regime Gen. Yakubu Gowon, to implement any of the three policies he promised at the end of the civil war in 1970. The policies came to be known as the three ‘Rs’-Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction. He said that Gowon paid lip service to the pronouncements he made to this effect and subsequent regimes after his, had continued in that path ever since.
“Yes, we have filed a motion demanding for reparation arising from the devastation and near total destruction of what is today known as the South-East geo-political zone, during the Nigerian civil war. General Gowon as Head of State in 1970, made pronouncement to the effect that the Nigerian government would embark on the famous three Rs, that is Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation. He only paid lip service to that policy statement. All those who have ruled Nigeria since afterthe civil war, have continued in that non challance . Now we are forced to make this demand as a right unless they want to tell us that we are no longer citizens of this country”, Nworgu said.
On what shape the demand for reparation will take, he said that Ohanaeze will demandone percent of the five percent recommended by the Gambari Committee as National Intervention Fund, should be set aside for reconstruction of the zone destroyed by the civil war. “ They must take into consideration, the destruction of the entire South-East geo-political zone during the Nigerian civil war. I have placed them on notice. There is no way they will discuss the general report on Monday or whenever, without factoring our demand for reparation”, he added.
The committee had recommended that “there shall be a National Intervention Fund, which will be 5%of the annual revenue accruing to the account of the Federal Government, for stabilization, rehabilitation and reconstruction of areas affected by terrorism and insurgency, in the first instance in the North –Eastos Nigeria and any other parts of the country”
It added in the alternative, that “there shall be a National Intervention Fund which shall be 5% of the annual revenue accruing to the account of the Federal Government,for the stabilization, rehabilitation and reconstruction of areas affected by terrorism and insurgency, in the first instance, in the North- East of Nigeria, North Central, North –West and any other parts of the country”.
This recommendation was a compromise on the part of the committee, to ensure a win win situation and a smooth sail for the confab which is on its last days. The committee also raised the derivation percentage from the 13 recommended by the Power Devolution Committee, to 18. It also recommended for another 5% allocation for mineral resources development in the country.
On the presentation of the report at the plenary on Thursday afternoon, one of its members, Alhaji Bashir Dalhatu, raised alarm, claiming that it was doctored. He accused High Chief Raymond Dokpesi and JihnDara, another member from Kogi, of being behind the doctoring. He claimed that the doctored version dah removed the reference to five percent from the Federation account and replaced it with “five percent of annual revenue accruing to the revenue of the Federal Government”.
He also averred that the original idea of the zonal leaders was to dedicate the five percent fund to North East, North West and North Central but the doctored version limited it to the North-East alone and introduced other parts of the country as would be – beneficiaries of the fund.
Speaking further, Dalhatu made a suggestion that the committee should be given more time reconcile the differences. That was taken and the conference adjourned for an hour but 90minutes later, the committee members emerged without any agreement among them. On their return, the committee’s position was made public by the leader of the Northern delegates and former Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Coomassie, who told the conference that the committee could not reach any agreement on the contentious issues. “Up till this evening, we have not reached an agreement and therefore any report submittedto you has no support from us”, Coomassie said.
The fact that Coomassie, leader of the Northern delegates, was the one who acted as the committee Chairman this time around, infuriated leaders of the South-South delegates at the confab. Other issues cropped up, making it almost impossible for peace to reign at the conference. This forced the leadership of the conference to adjourn till tomorrow [Monday].
Even after the forced adjournment, different cleavages were noticed within the premises holding discussions and heated augments.Former Military Governor of old River State, HRH Diette Spiff, was heard telling some Northern delegates that his people had been betrayed, According to him, “We assisted some of you to get what you want, we helped you people get additional states but when it came to assisting us to get our own demand, you abandoned us. It is betrayal”.
The man’s lamentation may not be out of place as The NICHE reliably gathered that certain allies of the South-South, had backed out of the agreements especially on the need for increased derivation for oil producing states. But this position was said to have been informed by the fact the documentary evidence at the disposal of some delegates, especially those from the North, point to the fact when added together all the intervention programmers and policies in the South- South, amounts to nearly 47% of the total revenue accruing to the Federal Government.
One of such Northern delegate who served in the committee that recommended retention of 13% derivation, told this reporter that a review of all the intervention programmes in the South-South, ranging from the NDDC, Niger Delta Ministry, Post Amnesty programme and some other special commissions, all totaling about 9, according to the source, was carried during committee work. “We discovered, based on documents available to us, that the zone alone, gets over 47% of the total revenue accruing to the federal government annually. When this fact was laid bare, members of the committee from the South- South pleaded with the rest of us not to go public with it. It was then that they agreed that we settle for 13% instead of tempering with any of these intervention funds or programmes in the zone”, said the source.
He added that when the conference returned to plenary, certain persons from the zone began moves to resurrect the issue of resource control, without wanting it to be put to vote. He boasted that if it is put to vote this week, as the North is demanding, the resource control agitators will not get up to 30% of the votes. This will likely be put to test tomorrow but how it will end remains to be seen.