What a wondrous afterthought!

Jonathan Calls For True, Fiscal Federalism

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* Wants Niger Delta States To Exploit Their Natural Resources
* Blames Govt For Impunity Fueling Religious Killings
Ejikeme Omenazu
Former President Goodluck Jonathan says the only option that will solve the agitation in the Niger Delta is true and fiscal federalism as practiced in the United States from whom the country copied its presidential model of government.
He said states should be allowed to exploit their natural resources as they deem fit and pay adequate taxes to the Federal Government, noting that this was also the position of the 2014 National Conference.
He also linked religious killings in parts of the country in recent time to lack of political will to check impunity among citizens and adherents of certain religious sects.
Jonathan stated these in his presentation to the US House Sub-Committee on Africa on Wednesday, February 1, 2017, as chairman, Goodluck Jonathan Foundation with theme, ‘Challenges of Nigerian Christians and the Niger Delta Question.’
It would be recalled that in checking the agitations of the regional militants his administration, an off-shoot of the Umaru Ya’Adua administration, started the amnesty programme to pacify the region.
Resource Control The Only Solution
Jonathan said, “The only option that will solve the agitation in the Niger Delta is true and fiscal federalism as practised in the United States from whom we copied the presidential model of government.
“States should be allowed to exploit their natural resources as they deem fit and pay adequate taxes to the Federal Government. This is also the position of the 2014 National Conference.
“The conference strongly recommended the adoption of fiscal federalism as the only panacea to these agitations and other challenges.”
Jonathan stressed that the issue of the Niger Delta is that of exploitation of natural resources, economy and development, adding that the complaints and restiveness are not unique to the Niger Delta alone.
He maintained that in most African nations where resources are domiciled in minority regions and the control of such resources are in the hands of majority regions, such agitations are commonplace.
Jonathan said the Niger Delta people feel that they had been suffering from the environmental hazards of the exploitation of their God-given resources, which they do not commensurately benefit from.
Going down memory lane, the former president said that in the Niger Delta, the agitations predate Nigeria’s existence in 1914, as oil palm produce (palm oil and kernel) the major raw material that fed the growth of the Industrial Revolution in Europe, largely came from the region.
These agitations, he said, took a new dimension with the discovery of crude oil in the Niger Delta, which on February 23, 1966, culminated in the declaration of the first secessionist state in post independent Nigeria, the Niger Delta Republic, proclaimed by Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro.
“His 12-day revolution was crushed by the Federal Government. It is instructive to note that Isaac Boro declared the Republic of the Niger Delta a full year and three months before May, 1967 when then Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declared the secession of the Eastern region to form the Republic of Biafra leading to the 30-month civil war.”
Interventionist Agencies Politicise Projects
Jonathan stressed that from the end of the civil war till date, the Federal Government had come up with many interventionist initiatives to pacify the Niger Delta, like the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC), set up by the military administration of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
He said, “The greatest stumbling block of these interventionist agencies was lack of continuity, resulting from an over politicisation of projects as each successive management awarded new contracts rather than continue with those awarded by their predecessors and as such, the Niger Delta is littered with many abandoned projects with very few completed projects to show for the huge monies spent.
13% Derivation Benefits Niger Delta
“During the Obasanjo era, the Federal Government, in line with our constitution and revenue laws, set aside 13 percent of oil revenues to be paid as derivation funds to oil producing states and shared on the basis of proportion of oil they produce.
“As a person from the Niger Delta, I can say that the 13 percent derivation has benefitted Niger Delta states and their people more than the interventionist agencies. For example, those who knew Akwa Ibom State before the 13 percent derivation became law will agree that the derivation fund has changed the face of that state making it almost overnight one of the most developed states in Nigeria.
“The same is true with other oil producing states though with varying degrees of development.”
Blames Govt On For Religious Killings
On religious killings in parts of the country, Jonathan traced the trend to lack of political will on the part of current political leaders to check rising wave of impunity among the citizens.
“I want to emphasise by citing these incidences that my administration had the political will to halt impunity in Nigeria and that is why killings due to religious extremism was localised to the North East with occasional killings in other zones of the North.”
He maintained that in the North East, his administration had rolled back the Islamic terrorist sect, Boko Haram, by the end of the first quarter of 2015 after the government was able to get weapons to arm the Nigerian military.
According to him, the killings did not spread to the mainly Christian South “and I believe that the fight back against impunity by my administration was the main reason for this.”
Applauds Efforts Of Religious Leaders
Jonathan applauded the efforts of then president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, who he said persuaded the Christians not to engage in any retaliation or reprisal killings, even as the association saw a genuine desire on his part to bring religious extremists to book.
He also lauded efforts of the head of the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria, His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, who he said was able to get the mainstream of the faith to publicly condemn Islamic extremism in Nigeria, which, he said, was important to show that a clampdown on extremism was and is not a clampdown on the religion
He said that he, as the nation’s president, worked through the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) to bring Christian and Muslim leaders together so they could talk to each other not at each other.
As a solution, Jonathan said: “To summarise on the issue of ethnic and religious conflicts, I recommend the establishment of the Religious Equity Commission, enforcement of our laws without fear or favour and maximum cooperation by all Nigerians especially our revered religious leaders and clerics.”
In making the submission, Jonathan said he totally agreed with the 2014 National Conference on the need to establish such a commission “that will have powers to arrest and prosecute those who contravene the law. If, as a nation, we do not kill religious persecution and extremism, then religious persecution and extremism will kill Nigeria.”
Jonathan recalled that even before setting up the National Conference in 2014, his government took certain initiatives to end impunity and reorient the minds of Nigerians through education, listing the establishment of 12 conventional federal universities and two specialised ones.
“Nine of the 12 federal universities were located in those states in Northern Nigeria that previously did not have any federal university. The Specialised Police University was located in Kano State, also in the North, bringing the total number of universities I established in the North of Nigeria to 10. The Specialised Maritime University was located in the Niger Delta.
“In addition to these, I also established 165 Almajiri elementary and high schools in each of the nineteen states of Northern Nigeria to combine Islamic education with Western education.”

I think he was in power for almost 7yrs as the President of this nation...And that didn't occur to him even after CONFAB report.

But he was about to implement the confab report before your slave brothers ran to the north for a plate of poridge..now you are crying a river

True federalism= That's the only solution for all these killings..

The 2 of you up there please take a chill pill. GEJ should've been in a better position to have implemented it but

Even as bad as his administration was, it was still a million times better than what we have now.

Why did he not do it when he was in power?
This clown with his typical ogogoro drunken master moves.
War in sambisa ,troops deployed to the SW .
Fiscal federalism is a subset of the problem . It is the socio political structure that needs restructuring.

He was there for five years, why did he not introduce it.

Jonathan should shut up, or concentrate on his image laundry adventure round the globe.

Who is he calling to do this now
When he was there what did he do?

fuckerholic:
But he was about to implement the confab report before your slave brothers ran to the north for a plate of poridge..now you are crying a river

The mentality of a typical IPOBian - anyone who points out GEJ's blunders must be a Yoruba. Very puerile mindset.
Did GEJ not have all the time and leverage to implement the confab report before he lost the election? Did you fail to notice that from his body language he never really believed in restructuring but had to be pressured into it by Okurounmu and Nwabueze? Did you fail to notice that he only used the confab thing to buy time? Did he not claim that our problem in Nigeria had nothing to do with structure but had everything to do with corruption which once killed every other thing would fall in place? Did the same GEJ not frustrate the confab by advising the delegates to adopt 75% vote as basis for consensus despite knowing fully well that the universal democratic 66.67% is not easily achievable? Did he not also say he would prefer to send the report to the anti-people NASS rather than refer it for referendum to the masses who demanded the confab in the first instance? Were all these indicative of a genuine desire to implement the confab report? Go figure.

Boleyndynasty2:
The 2 of you up there please take a chill pill. GEJ should've been in a better position to have implemented it but

But what ? Wouldnt you and your slave elites have opposed it then because it will seem to favor him more having come from the treasure base region..nonsense

thesicilian:
Even as bad as his administration was, it was still a million times better than what we have now.

Very much better though I wouldn't take that as a compliment

Deadlytruth:


The mentality of a typical IPOBian - anyone who points out GEJ's blunders must be a Yoruba..

What if I tell you am not an IPOB ? but then deny you are not yoruba

fuckerholic:

But what ? Wouldnt you and your slave elites have opposed it then because it will seem to favor him more having come from the treasure base region..nonsense

please what are you saying? Who are the slave elites? Where am I from?

This Jonathan hen....Coward is too good a word to describe him. Clueless is too simple.
He is a supine cretin.
You had 6 years did nothing and now going to the examiner after the exam that you have discovered the answer to question 4.
Ijaw people sef.

fuckerholic:
But he was about to implement the confab report before your slave brothers ran to the north for a plate of poridge..now you are crying a river

Yeah, just as he was about to complete the second niger bridge before he was kicked out.

Smh.

hypocrite


You had the time and the resources then but you choose to waste ur time enriching dasuki, dezieni, your wife and their likes

omenkaLives:
Yeah, just as he was about to complete the second niger bridge before he was kicked out.

Smh.

You this clown is supposed to be sober now that your Mr clueless is missing and bedridden

Boleyndynasty2:
please what are you saying? Who are the slave elites? Where am I from?

AFONJA personified kikikikikikik

Who told GEJ that he has the right 2 call for anything?

But GEJ wasn't a senator but ex president

He could av implement true federalism

Nigeria has loads of problems to deal with jaree

fuckerholic:

AFONJA personified kikikikikikik

Am igbo, not whatever name you call it. If you don't know me please don't try to act like you do.

fuckerholic:

What if I tell you am not an IPOB ? but then deny you are not yoruba

Of course I am not a Yoruba. You can check my posts and comments to verify. I am a SS person who resents GEJ due to his abandonment of his home region while pumping money into projects for the North.