Delegates from the North and South divide of the country
again on Monday looked themselves in the face, as they debated the report of
the Conference Committee on Power Devolution.
The debate was heated up between the
Northern and Southern delegates over whether or not to increase the current 13
per cent derivation to oil producing states.
While some Northern delegates expressed
satisfaction with the report of the Committee which recommended retention of
the 13 per cent, others said the derivation should go up to as high as 50 per
cent.
Delegates from the South South and South
East called for an increase from the present 13 per cent to between 21.5 and 50
per cent.
Speaking on the report, former Senate
President, Adolpus Wabara, said it would be unfair for the people of the South
South to maintain 13 per cent derivation for the people of their zone.
He said when he visited Oloibiri in
Bayelsa State, it was quite glaring that there is no life in that place.
Wabara insisted that it was unfair for
the Conference to maintain status quo.
But another delegate from the North and
former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Chairman, Mohammed Bello Haliru,
agreed with the report of the Committee, saying the status quo should be
retained.
Other delegates from the South-South
like Sergent Awuse, Mike Ozehkome and a few others, also called for an increase
from 13 percent to 50 percent. But, delegates from the North like Tanko Yakassi
insisted that the 13 per cent derivation should be maintained for the oil
producing states.
At a point, a delegate from Anambra
State, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, and another one from Kogi State, Ahmadu Ali,
returned to old turf over ownership of oil deposit in the Anambra basin.
Ezeife, one time civilian Governor of
Anambra State, and Ali, a former Chairman of the ruling PDP and a delegate
representing the party in the Conference traded words on the ownership of the
oil wells in the basin.
Ezeife while contributing to the debate
of the report of the Committee co-chaired by Victor Attah and Ibrahim Commassi,
which proposed that a special fund shall be created to develop mineral resources
in the country, said as the Governor of Anambra State in 1993, he registered
Anambra Petroleum Cooperation which every Governor after him has invested in.
Ezeife argued that his effort had led to
the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity in Anambra State. He,
therefore, urged the Conference to recognise Anambra State as an oil producing
state.
On the 13 per cent derivation retained
for Niger Delta by the committee, Ezeife said the South South region
should not be allowed to go empty handed.
He suggested that 25 per cent should be
given to the region.
“In 1993 as the Governor of Anambra
State I registered Anambra Petroleum Cooperation and every Governor has
invested on it. Today we have oil in commercial quantity in Anambra State.
“I move that the Conference should
recognise Anambra State as oil producing state.
“On the issue of derivation, South-South
should not be made to go empty handed as their people will ask them what they
brought back from the Conference. I suggest we better give them 25 per cent,”
Ezeife added.
However, raising a point of observation,
Ahmadu Ali of the ‘Ali Must Go’ fame of the late 1970s, while opposing Ezeife’s
position on the location of the crude oil, told the plenary that Ezeife was
uninformed on the whole issue playing out in the crude oil discovery.
He said the oil belongs to Kogi while
the building the Anambra people are calling refinery belongs to them.
He pleaded with the Conference to
dismiss Ezeife’s information on the oil as misleading.
“I want to state categorically that the
information given by Ezeife is misleading. They have the building but we have
the oil.
“We are waiting for them to come. He
should explain what he did with the money he said he appropriated for the oil.
It is our oil,” Ali said.
The Committee among other things had
recommended that the 13 per cent derivation as contained in the 1999
Constitution be retained with a proviso that a percentage of the 13 per cent
derivation devolves to the communities (i.e. host communities) from which the
resources are derived.
The Committee had recommended:
a. That the issue of Offshore/Onshore
dichotomy should be left as it is.
It also recommended that there should be
a constitutional provision for the establishment of a Special Fund for the
development of mineral resources in the country;
b. That 4.5 per cent of the total
revenue accruing to the Federation should be devoted to this Special Fund
annually;
c. That the Special Fund should be in
the form of a Venture Capital Fund; and
d. That a competent body be established
to administer the Fund according to guidelines that shall be specified by the
National Assembly.
The committee also recommended that
mines and minerals, including oil fields, oil mining, geological surveys and
natural gas, be retained in the Exclusive Legislative list as specified in the
1999 Constitution.
Presenting the reports and
recommendations of the committee to the plenary earlier, former Governor of
Akwa Ibom State, Victor Attah, and former Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim
Coomassie, as co-chairmen, told the plenary that the committee in arriving at
the decision considered the overriding need to bring all the other mineral
resources of the country hitherto underdeveloped into mainstream development.
It is also part of the committee’s plan
to activate National Strategic Plan for exploitation of all minerals to boost
their contributions to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
But the recommendation however did not
go down without conditions.
The committee stated that the
governments of states where the mining activities take place shall be involved
in matters relating thereto.
It also provided that the government of
the federation shall create a special fund to develop mines and minerals in
states where such resources are underdeveloped.
“It also was of the view that this item
(as amended) would enable the Federal Government set up or create a special
fund that would ensure the realisation of the above mentioned goal through a
tripartite relationship between the federal government, states and investors.”
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