North is Responsible for the Woes of the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

The Arewa Consultative Forum in a communiqué issued at the end of its meeting in Kaduna over the weekend decried the activities of the Niger Delta militants and said that the leaders of the region and the federal government should be blamed for the resurgence of militancy in the region. The Arewa Consultative Forum accused the leaders of the region of wasting the huge resources accrued to the region in the last couple of years and failing to invest in the development of projects to enhance the standard of living of the people.

Arewa Consultative Forum would further support this by stating that “recent regimes have embarked on spirited efforts to address the problems of the Niger Delta region” Oil Minerals Producing Area Development Commission (OMPADEC) and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) were cited as some of the efforts of federal government apart from the 13% derivation formula. The concern of the North in this matter should be commended but the question remains who should be blamed for the woes befalling the Niger Delta region. As matter of fact, the North should take this responsibility which is befalling not only the Niger Delta but the nation at large including the North itself. The North having consumed nearly forty years in the leadership of the country out of the forty-eight years of the country in existence have failed to pursue national developmental policies instead corruption has reigned.

The North continues to treat the leadership position issues of the country at the federal level as if it their birthright and this portrays danger for the country at large. After nearly forty years of the leadership of the country at hands of the North, we have come to nothing. Any rationale person would have expected a southerner from perhaps the South-Eastern, South-southern region or any other part of the south to take its turn by succeeding Chief Obasanjo but because the North is eternally in love with power and because Esau must claim his birthright by means the North returned one again in 2007 with same unyielding policies everyone is tired of.

Interestingly, the ACF would allege that the 13% formula accounted for a situation in which a state in the Niger Delta region had a budget of N377 Billion while another had N53 Billion as its budget. The North also stated that as recent as last month “some states in the Niger Delta took home as much as N42 Billion while many of the non-oil producing states went home with a paltry N6 Billion”. Are all of these amounts quoted here equal to what was corruptly lost to Nigerian leaders? Again, if the total amount the North had as reported here by ACF was also spent in the North the region would have been at least developed. After all, the North is part of Nigeria and we have other Nigerians living in that part of the country. So the situation in the Niger Delta is only a little worst than what prevails in other regions of Nigeria.

Niger Delta and other regions today are existing under sever marginalization because all of the nine leaders who in the past and present ruled Nigeria have pursued ‘northernization’ policies a situation that frequently maintains the eyes of the region on the political power position of the country.

The statement or communiqué of ACF group on the Niger Delta situation amounts to nothing but ‘stricto senso’. We remember that some years back, Oodua Investment planned to establish a fast train connection between Lagos and Ibadan which would have been useful to the whole nation but the initiative was completely crushed by the insistence of the federal government that railway remains the responsibility of the centre. What centre? We know this ‘centre’ to be Northern centre. When last was Charles Soludo who being an Igbo man miraculously broke all odds to emerge a governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria allowed to perform unhindered? What happened to his naira re-decimalization policy idea?

Why are national positions in the country such as oil, security, finance, agriculture, water resources, planning, energy, culture, infrastructures so importantly domiciled in the North? We can at least tell that Obasanjo retained this formula because of the secret agreement he had with North before assuming office. Even the like of Mahmud Jega, editor of the Abuja based Daily Trust and straight talking northerner loudly lamented and wondered why most of the close aids and associates of the President from his days in Katsina government house were brought with him; the likes of Chief economic Adviser, Dr. Taminu Yakubu and the Agriculture and Water Resources Minister, Dr. Abba Ruma are part of this development and some who initially comprised of his key appointments (see The Nation, Sunday June 29, 2008)

What is the Headquarters of Nigerian Ports Authority doing in Abuja, a city with no access to sea port? And why was the capital of Lagos relocated to Abuja without the conduct of plebiscite? These are some what demonstrates northernization policies which Arewa Consultative Forum would readily blame on other regions. We all know that the Abuja was unnecessary and lacks basis from the very first day the idea of the city was conceived to this moment. If all the facilities which existed in Lagos were reduplicated in the city (Abuja) all in a bid to bring the capital of the country to the door step of the North, then there is bound to be an inevitable hardship in the country and the underdevelopments of other regions which the Niger Delta bears now (for further details, see the article on ‘Abuja: how the Nothern Oligarchy Led by the Military Junta Brought Nigeria’s capital to their Doorstep of the North, by same Author on Articlesbase.com)

In 1980 it was recommended that 1.5% of the Federal Account be set aside to tackle the problems of the oil producing areas but this became ineffective because funds ended in private pockets, bureaucrats and contractors, the result was the scrapping of the ‘1.5% committee’ in 1984 by the military junta headed by a northerner.

Next was the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) by the ACF group set up by Ibrahim Babangida administration. This project became a woeful failure under both Babangida and Abacha regimes. (OMPADEC) became pregnant with projects worth over $500 Million with the bulk of the money paid to contractors whose addresses coulpd not be traced. There was also the much publicized disappearance of $200 Million (see the Book, Where Vultures Feast: Shell, Human Rights, and Oil by Ike Okonta et al)

The history of Petroleum Trust Fund established in 1995 and headedby Gen Buhari (Retd) is well known and not any different from the story told above as Gen. Buhari (retd) was accused of nepotism and financial recklessness. How Buhari ceased to become the Head of PTF is now a history.

Abdusalami Abubakar inserted a minimum of 13% clause in the 1999 constitution of Nigeria. What is 13% to a region that produces over 80% of the total wealth of a nation?

While one is not encouraging the region to take up arms because the result if matched with the use of force will be fatal to the nation at large especially after the civil war experience of the nation which ended about 38 years ago, which the people of south east still blames on the north as the facilitators. This may further amount to another round of accusation pointing to the North once more if not amicably resolved. The federal government should therefore seek the most peaceful ways of resolving the problems in this region so that peace can reign again in the region and indeed Nigeria as a whole.