•Remains adamant as confab reconvenes Monday
•Ohanaeze demands war reparations
More acrimony and threats are expected to fly around at the national conference when it resumes tomorrow, August 11, nearly a month after its recess since July 14, and a week after the original resumption date was shifted to finalise its report.
Northern delegates say they have stumbled on a secret that the South South gets 47 per cent hand outs from the federal treasury through sundry programmes yet agitates for an increase in derivation from 13 per cent while leaders in the zone pocket a large chunk of the current allocation.
North exposes South South deception
Engr. Buba Galadima
Buba Galadima, a Northern delegate on the committee which recommended retention of 13 per cent derivation, said about nine schemes for the South South, including the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Niger Delta Ministry, Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) and post amnesty programme take 47 per cent from the federal purse.
“We discovered, based on documents available to us, that the zone alone gets over 47 per cent 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 per cent instead of tempering with any of these intervention funds or programmes in the zone,” Galadima alleged.
Sanusi blows lid on accruals to South South
Galadima maintained that any attempt to raise derivation beyond 13 per cent will be resisted.
He said the South South, the principal agitator for resource control, gets 47 per cent from the federal treasury through several intervention funds kept secret to most Nigerians until Haruna Sanusi, a member of the Committee on Power Devolution, disclosed it to his colleagues.
Galadima said Sanusi, who spent 23 years in the Federal Ministry of Finance where he rose to the rank of permanent secretary before retirement, made the documents available to Northern delegates.
“Sanusi who is an expert in this field, made available all the documents to us. From his records, we were able to know that the Niger Delta gets about N300 billion on SURE-P while the rest of the country gets a little over N100 billion,” Galadima disclosed.
He added: “The painful thing is that the leaders of this area have been very unfair to the common people from the zone. If you go there, you will weep over the level of poverty and degradation in spite of the huge sum of money they receive every year.
“The resources end up in the pockets of a handful of them while the majority of their people wallow in abject poverty.”
“We had insisted that if the derivation formula has to be tempered with, by way of an upward review, then we have to dismantle these other intervention funds.
“But South South delegates in that committee pleaded with the rest of us not to make the documents at our disposal public. They rather agreed that the status quo should be maintained.
“Unfortunately, when we resumed plenary, some delegates from the zone started agitating for reversal and we remain opposed to that.”
Making up for lost time
The conference is clawing back lost time from the two days of public holiday declared for the Muslim festival of Eid-el-Fitr on Monday, July 28 and Tuesday, July 29.
Conference Chairman, Justice Idris Kutigi, announced on Wednesday, July 30 that the secretariat had completed the report which will now be presented to plenary.
However, delegates are still at loggerheads over resource control and the stabilisation fund for the North, among other issues. The disagreement had spilled over before the recess as different ethnic groups dug deeper into their trenches.
Ohanaeze demands war reparations
One tetchy point which may finally spell doom for the conference, if not carefully handled, is the demand for civil war reparations by Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
Notice for the demand was filed with the conference leadership a day before the conference was abruptly adjourned as uproar greeted proceedings.
The row broke out between Northern and Southern delegates over derivation formula, mineral resources development/intervention fund, as well as a special fund to rebuild the North from the ruins of insurgency.
The report of the Committee on Devolution of Power was the last straw that broke the camel’s back with the recommendation of retention of 13 per cent derivation fund for oil producing states rejected by South South delegates.
A committee of “18 wise men” – three each from the six zones – was set up to examine the matter.
The committee, headed by former Foreign Affairs Minister, Ibrahim Gambari, turned in its report on July 17. But rather than provide solution, it triggered a bigger row which stalled further deliberations.
Northern delegate leaders – who were yet to recover from the setback of the previous week over the decision of the conference to remove council structure from the Constitution and the recommendation for the creation of 18 new states – raised dust over the report and alleged that it was doctored.
That turned the conference into a very chaotic scene, almost resulting in a free for all.
Ohanaeze leaders left the hall and headed straight for Kutigi’s office to file a motion demanding reparations for the destruction of Igbo land and parts of the South South during the 30 months of civil war from July 1967 to January 1970.
Lip service to three Rs
Ohanaeze Secretary General, Joe Nworgu, confirmed that the group made the demand because the Yakubu Gowon administration failed to implement the three ‘Rs’ promised after the war – Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction.
Nworgu said Gowon paid “lip service” to the policy and every other Nigerian leader since the end of the war has also done so.
“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,” he added.
He explained that Ohanaeze will demand 1 per cent of the 5 per cent recommended by the conference Committee on National Intervention Fund to reconstruct the South East.
“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,” Nworgu declared.
The committee recommended that “there shall be a National Intervention Fund which will be 5 per cent of the annual revenue accruing to the account of the federal government for stabilisation, rehabilitation and reconstruction of areas affected by terrorism and insurgency, in the first instance in the North East, North Central, North West and any other parts of the country.”
This recommendation was a compromise by the committee to ensure a win-win situation and smooth sail for the confab.
It also raised derivation from 13 per cent recommended by the Power Devolution Committee to 18 per cent, and recommended another 5 per cent allocation for mineral resources development.
Alleged doctored report
But during the presentation of the report, a member of the committee, Bashir Dalhatu, alleged that Raymond Dokpesi and John Dara doctored it by removing the phrase, “5 per cent of the Federation Account”, and replacing it with “5 per cent of annual revenue accruing to the revenue of the Federal Government.”
He also alleged that the original idea of the zonal leaders was to dedicate the 5 per cent fund to North East, North West and North Central but the doctored version limited it to the North East and introduced other parts of the country as potential beneficiaries of the fund.
Dalhatu’s suggestion that the committee be given more time to reconcile the differences was taken and the conference adjourned for an hour. But 90 minutes later, the members returned without agreement.
Leader of Northern delegates and former Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Coomassie, told the conference that “up till this evening, we have not reached an agreement and therefore any report submitted to you has no support from us.”
He infuriated leaders of South South delegates, and other issues cropped up which made it impossible for peace to reign. This forced the conference to adjourn till the following Monday.
South South alleges betrayal
Even after the forced adjournment, different groups had heated arguments.
Former military Governor of old Rivers State, Diette Spiff, told Northern delegates: “We assisted some of you to get what you want, we helped you people to get additional states but when it came to assisting us to get our own demand, you abandoned us. It is betrayal.”
Northern resolve on resource control
The main bone of contention upon the resumption of plenary is likely to be resource control.
On July 28, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) National Publicity Secretary, Mohammed Ibrahim, told Northern delegates to “uphold the positions taken so far on all issues, especially with regard to resource control, revenue sharing and the place of the local government system in the Nigerian Constitution.”
But Labour Party (LP) National Chairman, Dan Nwanyanwu, insisted that there will be no going back on the issues decided.
Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) Executive Director, Ibuchukwu Ezeike, warned against removing from or adding to the decisions taken by the conference before it adjourned.
However, Galadima said Northern delegates will insist that resource control be put to vote, expressing confidence that most delegates from outside the South South, and some from within, would vote against raising the percentage.
Before the conference adjourned, it referred the issue to President Goodluck Jonathan to decide.
