Lagos (AFP) - When Boko Haram
captured territory in Nigeria's
northeast last year and declared
a caliphate, there were real fears
for the sovereignty of Africa's
most populous nation.
A deadline is looming for the
military to end the six years of
violence, with signs that troops
have wrested back control of
most of the towns and villages
lost to the Islamists.
But now President Muhammadu
Buhari is facing another potential
headache with the revival of
separatist sentiment in the
country's southeast and
renewed debate over the sharing
of oil wealth.
Recent weeks have seen a wave
of protests calling for an
independent state of Biafra, 45
years after the end of the brutal
civil sparked by a previous
declaration of independence.
Now, campaigners in the oil-
producing Niger delta are
demanding total control of
resources to develop the region,
which remains under-developed
despite billions of dollars earned
from crude.
Last Friday, the Niger Delta Self-
Determination Movement
(NDSDM) lobby group, declared
the current agreement, whereby
oil revenue is divided among
Nigeria's 36 states, was unfair.
"The 13 percent (share for the
Niger Delta) enshrined in the
1999 constitution by the military
is depriving us of our God-given
resources," the group's convener
Annkio Briggs told reporters in
Lagos.
"We want 100 percent control
and ownership of our oil so that
we can control our future."
- Northern 'dominance' -
Nigeria's crude-reliant economy
has been battered by the fall in
global oil prices, hampering
government spending and even
the payment of state-sector
salaries.
Crude accounts for 90 percent of
Nigeria's export earnings and 70
percent of government overall
revenue.
In 2014, the country earned $77
billion from oil exports,
according to the US Department
of Energy, down from $84 billion
in 2013 and $94 billion in 2012.
How much each state in the
federation gets from the sector
has long been a thorny issue,
exposing barely concealed
regional and ethnic rivalries.
Demands for a greater share of
oil revenue were a factor in the
violence that gripped the delta in
the 2000s until a government
amnesty programme, which ends
this year, bought off militants.
Briggs' group argues Nigeria's
political architecture, with 19
states classed as northern and
17 in the south, unfairly
penalises the southern states
where oil is found.
"Of the 774 local government
areas (administrative divisions
within each state), the north is
given almost 70 percent," she
said, calling it "manipulations
for... socio-economic and political
dominance".
She blamed a succession of
northern-dominated military
governments for forcing through
the revenue-sharing agreement
down the barrel of a gun
"without our free, prior and
informed consent".
Briggs denied calling for a break
away from the federation but
argued every region instead
should use its own natural
resources to develop itself.
The NDSDM was founded last
year during a national
conference convened by former
president Goodluck Jonathan at
which delegates recommended
the delta region received 18
percent of oil revenue.
The recommendation was not
implemented before Jonathan
left office.
- 'Politically motivated' -
Nigeria is almost evenly split
between a Muslim-majority north
and largely Christian south and
the sharp division informs most
aspects of political debate.
But the argument for so-called
"fiscal federalism" is seen by
some as unrealistic, with sectors
such as agriculture and
manufacturing not sufficiently
developed yet to be sustainable.
Anyakwee Nsirimovu, of the
Niger Delta Civil Society Coalition
pressure group, said demands
from southern pressure groups
were predictable now Buhari, a
northern Muslim, was in power.
"Why is it after the defeat of
Jonathan you see the likes of
Annkio Briggs, MASSOB
(Movement for the Actualisation
of the Sovereign State of Biafra)
and IPOB (Indigenous Peoples of
Biafra) asking for resource
control and self-determination?"
he asked.
The complaints in fact exposed
the failure of Jonathan, from the
oil-producing Bayelsa state, to
help his southern kinsmen
during his six years in power, he
argued.
"Those who lost out in the
power equation are behind the
crisis," he claimed.
But Tony Nnadi, of the Movement
for New Nigeria, said every
ethnic group had the right to
either belong to or pull out of
Nigeria, nearly 102 years after
the country was formed.
"In 1914, the so-called Nigeria
came into being through an
amalgamation of southern and
northern protectorates by the
British colonial power," he said.
"By the provisions of the
amalgamation, we have the right
since 2014 to renegotiate the
basis of our continued existence.
The experiences of various
ethnic groups "in the last 100
years have shown we cannot
continue in the marriage", he
added.
Nigeria faces separatist
pressure over oil wealth
sharing
AFP Wednesday, November 25,
2015
Joel Olatunde Agoi


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