Resource Control and Yar’adua Presidency
The beauty of Democracy is, when an electoral illegality is
believed to have been committed, it can only be overturn by a legal or
constitutional means. Despite the fact that, the process that led to the
emergence of Umaru Musa Yar’adua as Nigeria’s President-elect was dented
by gross irregularities and widespread rejection of the election
results, Yar’adua is Nigeria’s President-elect as declared by ‘almighty’ INEC, until it is decided otherwise by a competent court of law.
Of recent, the political atmosphere of Nigeria was clouded by two
burning political issues: the call for power shift by the North, and the
call for resource control by the South–South, these two‘regionally-coloured’ political issues have so much overwhelmed the political
system of Nigeria to the extend that, they have successfully influenced
the permutations in the politics of the country- a typical example is
the Yar’adua–Goodluck presidential ticket presented by the ruling
PDP; Yar’adua to satisfied the power shift agitation in the north,
Goodluck to pacify the Niger Delta. But one interesting question is, is
the concession of the vice presidential slot to the Niger Delta going to
calm down the agitations in the Niger Delta? Certainly not, it will
only answer the problem of the region at the political front, which is
merely a quarter of the problem in the Niger Delta. The recent bombing of
Goodluck’s country home by militants, have certainly sent a clear
signal
to those in authority that, the bulk of the problem in the Niger
Delta is socioeconomic; which is also the main problem of the entire
Nigerian state.
Oil, which is the key sustainer of the economy of the Nigerian state,
is also the main factor that contributed to her crocodile-phase
development. The discovery of Oil in Nigeria has brought laziness in the
larger society- the complete neglect of agriculture which was hitherto the
main source of revenue for the nation, hence, the stifling of creativity
in revenue-generation especially at states and local government levels,
degradation of the environment in the oil producing communities,
corruption among the political class, uncontrolled spending spree by
governments, and stunted growth in industrialization, all because of the easy
money oil provides. Due to the huge earnings in oil, coupled with some
period of oil booms and windfalls, the management and distribution of
this huge amount of petrodollars to the benefits of the entire Nigerian
populaces has become painstaking, Herculean and sensitive issue, which
entails the employing of complex technicalities and formulae
in the re-distribution of the oil revenues. The management and
distribution of oil revenues has raised many questions and debates both in
political and economic tunes, one of them-the Resource Control struggle.
Proponent of Resource Control argued that, the current system had
distorted fiscal federalism, rendered the Niger Delta poor, and they
believe the introduction of some criteria in the sharing formula was a
veiled attempt at favouring other parts of Nigeria above the oil producing
areas, thus, they argued, the need for Resources Control. Moreover,
these proponents of resource control see the issue within three prisms; ‘Absolute’ resources control, ‘Relative’ Resource Control or, an
upward increase in the 13% derivation index. Absolute’ resources
control imply that all states take full control of the mining and sales of
resources on their land, keep the bulk of the revenue accruable from the
resources, but give “pocket money” to the centre, while relative
resources control imply that, the status qua on the sharing formular be
maintain but states will be in charge of awarding the lucrative oil
blocks and choosing which oil company will be allowed to explore for oil.
The
third type of resource control, calls for an upward review of the 13%
derivation index to something around 50% or above.
Opponents of resources control are of the view, a happy-go-lucky
tempering of the re-distribution mechanism of oil revenues would
facilitated the disintegration of the Nigerian state, and a state that controls
or retain the kind of money derivable from oil, can easily declare
independence and become a country of it own. Allowing states to allocate
oil blocks will promote animosities between communities in the Niger
Delta, because it would be a controversial issue, as who will be
responsible for the allocation of the oil blocks will be a contentious issue; is
it the state government? Is it the government local government? Is it
the communities or the clans? Or is it the local chiefs? These horny
issues will raise its heads, because the Niger Delta is made of different
ethnic groups, and there is disconnection of the leadership from the
citizenry, rather than generate healthier competition in development;
absolute resource control will only end in generating tension
among communities in the Niger Delta.
Another point raised by opponents of resource control is, resource
control may distort the Nigerian social order- if all the oil revenues go
to the Niger Delta region, the region will witness an unprecedented
influx of Nigerians from all the corners of the country- thus, the
beginning of another social crisis.
Nevertheless, between these diverging thoughts, opinions and
suggestion on resources control, there is always a middle-line approach, which
most Nigerian governments try to adopt, but it has failed woefully,
because of the lack of genuine political will for constructive
engagement with the real and grassroots stakeholders in the Niger Delta, who
have been pushed to the wall and this had made the youth in that area
crisis citizens, majority of them never experienced a normal national
political life in the political setting called Nigeria .
Nigeria needs a bold measure to rehabilitate these promising citizens
to a healthy and productive life. The major leeway is to produce a
desirable environment for negotiation with the real and grassroots
stakeholders in the Niger Delta, who are the problem owners, give more
concessions, including more sacrifice by the Nigerian state, which is a hard
measure, but very necessary, this will diffuse tension, sanitise the
environment and win the support of majority of Niger Delta masses who are
the real and true stakeholders. However, the Niger Delta people should
be aware; they will be safer and well-off in the greater Nigeria.
Zayyad I. Muhammad
Jimeta, Nigeria
zaymohd@yahoo.com
