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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / Attah Differs With Buhari On Negotiating Nigeria's Unity (601 Views)
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Attah Differs With Buhari On Negotiating Nigeria's Unity by UnyimeAfia(m): 10:09am On Jul 11, 2016 |
Ex-Gov Attah Defies with Pres Buhari, Says
Nigeria’s Unity Negotiable
Former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong
Victor Attah, has, in apparent response to
President Muhammadu Buhari, said that the
country’s unity was negotiable
Obong Victor Attah
In an interview with Vanguard in Abuja
weekend, the former governor said the only
way out of the various challenges bedeviling
Nigeria would be to adopt fiscal federalism,
saying the country, as currently constituted,
was unworkable.
He said: “Things that are happening in Nigeria
are really very worrisome. There are those who
feel some perception of injustice in the
system. It is a perception, but sometimes,
perception could be reality.
‘’We need to look at the situation holistically,
and where there is justification, you correct
them, and where there is none, you explain to
the people why they should not have doubts
or fears about them, if you wish, even-
handedness of the government towards any
part of the federation.
‘’But it points to one fundamental thing, that,
we are still in the process of forming a
country.
‘’If we had had one solid firm country, you
would have found that a lot of these fears
would not arise; there would be common
fears, common to everybody but now they are
sectional fears, sectional problems which
means we have not really forged a country
and there is an absolute and urgent need for
that to happen.
‘You have to renegotiate’
“You have to renegotiate. If you talk about
renegotiation, some people think you want to
split the country. No, it is like everytime they
tell you to go and investigate somebody, you
think it means you must go and find that
person guilty. No, do not forget that they
investigated Dr Alex Ekwueme and came back
and said in fact, he was poorer than when he
went in (to government). The people of Nigeria
are dissatisfied with the current federal
arrangement or whatever is binding them
together now and are saying they want to
renegotiate the terms of staying together.
‘’The President quoted Gowon. Gowon had
said that keeping Nigeria one is a task that
must be achieved. That task was achieved by
military means. He (Buhari) is not a military
man now, he is a democrat, a politician. So,
the only means politicians have is to
negotiate.
‘’So, what did you mean by you won’t
negotiate? If you want to keep Nigeria one
today, you must negotiate the terms and
conditions of the people staying together and
it goes back to the conference report, it goes
back to the concept of fiscal federalism.
‘’You would find out that in the final analysis,
that is what everybody would be saying to
you. Go and study as religiously as you can,
the constitutions of 1960 and 1963.
“What is restructuring? Several people have
used that word and have not been able to say
what they mean.
‘’The few that have actually attempted to say
what they mean either end up talking about
going back to the regions as we had them
before or adopting the six-zonal structure that
had been proposed for Nigeria, which actually
is in current usage but has not been
sanctioned by the constitution of Nigeria.
Others just use the word restructuring because
it is almost like a buzz word, it is a popular
thing to say now.
‘’I do not want to be caught up in the
semantics. I will subscribe, absolutely and
entirely, to the concept of fiscal federalism.
People ask what is the difference between
fiscal federalism and restructuring and I will
explain.
‘’I am convinced that fiscal federalism can be
practised with even the 36 state-structure and
one federal capital territory that we have
today in Nigeria. In fact, I can say, it is a
must, for there to be peace and harmony,
understanding among the federating units.
Kaduna State governor
‘’Why haven’t the tar sands been exploited and
so that they can go ahead and even have
more money than the South-South, if you like,
put together? It is just because we have
refused to accept the concept of fiscal
federalism. The governor of Kaduna was the
one that said there is more gold in Kaduna
than the whole of South Africa.
‘’ I am quoting the governor of Kaduna State.
So, why should Kaduna State not be able to
meet all of its obligations and put a lot of
money into the federation account, which I
condemn.”
South-South is over-exploited
The former governor also stated that the Niger
Delta area was currently over-exploited, a
development he said had partially fuelled
militancy in the area.
He said: “The South South has the feeling that
the rest of the country wants to milk it, pollute
it or completely milk it dry and then tell them
goodbye. There is that fear and it is not being
addressed because the question is why are
you preserving all your resources and
exploiting only this one?
“There is this concept of diversification. When
you talk about diversification, people just
think it has to do with going into agriculture,
apart from oil. It is not sufficient.
‘’Diversification should come in more areas
than just agriculture. If we had diversified our
source of power, today we would not feel it so
much, at least certainly not in the effect of
these bombings (of oil and gas installations).
‘’Today, we are dependent almost exclusively
and entirely on the gas turbines and then oil,
but if we had had hydro, coal and solar, those
boys would see that they are hurting
themselves because, we could say, ok, you
have cut off the source of power in your area,
so you do not have power but the other parts
of the country would still have power. ”
‘’They would see that they are not hurting
anybody other than themselves. And they
would see that in fact, it is silly,what they are
doing. So, diversification is beyond going into
agriculture.
‘’You will diversify in several other areas and
one of the areas you must look at urgently
and you must begin to give confidence to
other people who have these resources is in
the solid minerals.
‘’Go and look at the ownership of Itakpe Iron
Ore. It is a mineral resource but even the
community is part of the ownership
arrangement but tell me whether anybody was
ever consulted before oil blocs were given out
in the South-South. You know what I mean?
‘’That is why recently I wrote an article and
said this Petroleum Industry Bill, let us go
softly with it.
‘’Let us be sure that everything is even-handed
because if you now come by this bill and treat
oil mineral differently from other minerals and
give the people on whose lands other minerals
are found greater advantages than you have
given to people on whose lands oil is found,
there would still be dissatisfaction.
‘’So, why can’t we come out with “Mineral
Bill”? The 10 percent that was supposed to be
given, they said no, that because this one is
governance bill. Is that happening in other
areas of mineral exploitation? It is a question
we have to answer.”
Why Buhari must look at the 2014 Confab
Report
Attah also faulted partisans who had
continued to advance reasons as to why the
President Muhammadu Buhari’s
administration must jettison the 2014
National Conference report.
While he conceded that the recommendations
contained in the report might not be totally
perfect, he said the federal government should
identify those it could implement since the
exercise was widely accepted by the generality
of Nigerians.
“You would realize one thing; that the people
who today are steering the party called APC,
were in opposition at the time to the
government in place. They did not like the
idea, because they had this notion that
whatever the government does, the opposition
must oppose.
‘’So, they opposed the conference and I think
they are just holding on to that for whatever
reason. There comes a time when you have to
acknowledge that, well, you did it because you
had to do it or you did it because you were
wrong, then you change that position.
‘’Somebody was writing, a major feature writer,
in one of the newspapers and he was trying to
support the president’s position with regards
to that conference report.
‘’He wanted to say that the president has good
reasons not to want to consider that report
because after all, and this was what he said,
President Jonathan did not even want to have
it.
‘’He waited until he was under pressure and
because he saw that the people would like it,
so he called for the conference. Now, for me,
that is an argument for somebody to look at
that conference report because if it is
something that the people would like, why
won’t you do something that the people would
like? ‘’I’ll add something else. I read where the
current Secretary to the Government of the
Federation (Babachir David Lawal) said he is
so busy with governance and that it would
take him about seven days to go through the
report; where is the time to read the report?
‘’How can you be busy governing without
being interested in knowing how the people
want to be governed? To me, it is a very
wrong argument.
‘’There are certain things in that report -I am
not saying every decision taken was correct or
right- that are imperative because they could
bring the succour, they could bring the balm
or whatever you need to create the harmony
that we want in Nigeria today. You see, when
people begin to say that they (government)
did not like it in the first instance and so they
must not honour it, if you find out that it is
something that the people want, then you
have to do it. ‘’Let’s not forget that the
campaign mantra of this government was
change. I was in the PDP then.
‘’When people asked me whether I saw my
party winning the elections, I always told them
that my party would not win and it was just
for one reason, that what I hear from
everybody is that we cannot continue this way,
so change must come.
‘’Suddenly, if you remember the campaigns,
PDP themselves started saying when we come
back we would change certain things and I
said, oh, you are now shouting change like the
opposition is shouting change?
‘’So change must come, whether they would
allow PDP to come back and effect those
changes, fine but chances are that they are
going to bring the people who conceived of
the change to come in and effect the change.
What that suggests to me is that nobody can
successfully stand against an idea whose time
has come.
‘’The time for change had come and nobody
could stop it. Today, the need for, let me
borrow your word, restructuring the fiscal
arrangement of Nigeria has come and nobody
can stand against it and I mean it. It is not a
threat, it is just one of those things you feel,
because you see and you know that this is the
case.
‘’Fiscal federalism must come and the kernel
for the establishment and operation of proper
fiscal arrangement within the country is in
that report and that report cannot and must
therefore not be ignored,” he said.
The former governor also opined that there
was no need giving financial bail-out to
states, arguing that any state that could no
longer meet its obligations should fuse with
others.
Edited by: Essien Inyang 1 Like |
Re: Attah Differs With Buhari On Negotiating Nigeria's Unity by chriskosherbal(m): 10:11am On Jul 11, 2016 |
Hmmm |
Re: Attah Differs With Buhari On Negotiating Nigeria's Unity by orisa37: 10:43am On Jul 11, 2016 |
All these were considered in Ekweremadu s request to collapse Nigeria into six fully autonomous States, Regions or Divisions. Let's do this now. 1 Like |
Re: Attah Differs With Buhari On Negotiating Nigeria's Unity by coolzeal(m): 11:12am On Jul 11, 2016 |
Niger Delta Region, the most exploited and polluted region in history of Nigeria and before her. Someday the oil will have no value and you will be left with nothing and polluted land. How would you survive? The Niger Delta leaders should be united by any means necessary, with justice and equity. Deliver your people. |
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