Delta lawmakers, Onoh, others ask governors to withdraw oil suit
From Sunny Ogefere (Asaba), Lawrence Njoku (Enugu), Aniekan Bassey (Uyo), Anietie Akpan (Calabar) and Kelvin Ebiri (Port Harcourt)
PROMINENT Nigerians and groups yesterday swelled the ranks of those opposed to the suit by northern governors, asking the court to void the onshore/offshore law.
Those who criticised the governors' action were members of the Delta House of Assembly, traditional rulers from Akwa Ibom State, former governor of Anambra State, Chief Christian Chukwuma Onoh, the Niger Delta Youths Movement (NDYM) and the Union of Niger Delta (UND).
But former Lagos State Military Administrator, Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd) said that as trusted allies, the people of the North and South-South geo-political zone will resolve the matter amicably.
The Delta lawmakers called on the 22 governors that instituted the suit` against the Federal Government to withdraw it in the interest of national unity and cohesion.
Their call was sequel to the adoption of a motion brought before the House, under matters of urgent public importance, by the Deputy Speaker, Mr. Pius Ewherido.
In the motion, which was seconded by Mr. Frank Enekorogha, Ewherido said that the suit was a threat to the hopes raised by the government in abrogating the dichotomy clause from the law.
He stated that the plight of the people of the Niger Delta, their calls for the abolition of the provision and demand for fiscal federalism were genuine, which should not be sacrificed on the altar of politics.
The Niger Delta situation, he said "is peculiar because of the environmental degradation occasioned by oil exploration and exploitation activities."
The lawmaker stated that "the oil is predominantly found in the riverine area where aquatic lives have been destroyed. Even in on-shore area, vast farmlands have been destroyed due to oil spillage."
"So much poverty has been introduced into the Niger Delta characterised by low level of basic amenities," he added.
The motion was unanimously adopted when put to voice vote by the Speaker, Mr. Young Igbrude.
Onoh, in his reaction described the suit as "regrettable, saying that it would be disastrous for the country should the North continue to pursue the matter.
He told The Guardian in Enugu yesterday, that the nation's unity would be threatened if the South- South was pushed to the wall, especially over resources which primarily belong to them.
Said he: "The North seem to be ignorant of the massive environmental degradation resulting from oil exploitation. Here is a house full of excreta and inside it there is black gold. The North will like to share the revenue from the black gold but will not like to enter into it. Is it not funny. If the North pursues this suit, the consequences as regards Nigeria as a united country will be disastrous and if they push the South-South to the wall, they may resort to actions that will make the exploitation of oil in the region impossible to the detriment of Nigerian economy".
The crisis in Warri, Delta State, according to him, was already disrupting the flow and production of oil in the country. The same restive youths might still resort to making it impossible for the oil to be exploited in their area, he added.
The former governor, said that the South-South deserved whatever was passed into law by the National Assembly as regards the on-shore/off-shore oil dichotomy because the North led the agitation that facilitated the passage of the law.
He said, "The independence constitution dealt extensively on revenue allocation. At that material time, the poorest of the three regions -North, East and West was the Eastern Region. The Western and Northern regions insisted that the formula for revenue allocation should be based on 50 per cent need. This was entrenched in the constitution. When we decided to create the Mid-Western Region out of the former Western Region of Nigeria, the other governments including the North insisted that since the revenue derivable from cocoa comes from the area outside the Mid-West, the region thus created should not benefit from the income derivable from cocoa."
The Akwa Ibom traditional rulers, threatened to break their political solidarity with the North if the governors go ahead with the suit.
They described the clamour by the northern leaders as a betrayal of trust, confidence and the spirit of brotherhood that had existed between the people of the Niger Delta and the North for several decades.
The state chairman of the state's traditional rulers Obong Owen Ukafia spoke at the commissioning of the boreholes built by Marwa.
Ukafia said it was unthinkable that the North, which had gained from the South-South solidarity with it, could turn around to be the region's greatest enemies.
He stated that it was morally wrong for northern political leaders to continually rush to the South-South to seek more political alliance when indeed they are opposed to the well-being of people of the oil-producing states.
But Marwa assured the people that the issue would be resolved to the benefit of all parties.
He was in the state to commission boreholes donated to communities in the state by the Buba Marwa Endowment. Marwa said he grew up to meet the friendship and affinity between the South-South and the North, stating that regardless of the present misgivings they will continue to remain allies in their quest to make Nigeria, the pride of Africa.
The UND also called on the governors to withdraw the suit from the Supreme Court.
The Chairman of the Akwa Ibom Chapter, Mr. Kingsley Ndedu, told journalists in Uyo that the suit was "a threat to the common existence of the people of the Niger Delta in general and Akwa Ibom State in particular."
He said: "we the members of the Union of Niger Delta, Akwa Ibom State and the entire people of the Niger Delta are opposed to this misguided and belligerent action from our northern brothers to reverse the little progress we have made in our long struggle to self-actualisation and human dignity. It is an attempt to perpetually impoverish our people and we shall resist it with all our might using constitutional means available to us."
"The action of the northern governors is an after thought and ill-digested and comes too late. Before now, they had the opportunity to have made input into the bill abrogating the dichotomy before it was passed into law by the National Assembly and assented to by the President. And it seems they did, so their present action and posture is a paradox that defies logic because they are capable of taking us backwards," he said.
Similarly, the NDYM comprising various youths associations in the region, asked the initiators of the suit to expeditiously withdraw it and desist from acts capable of causing disaffection among Nigerians.
In a statement in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, National President of the group, Mr. Onengiye Elekima, said that the people of the region had come to interprete the development as the biggest conspiracy of all time aimed at depriving the neglected oil-producing communities of what was constitutionally due to them.
Insisting that it was preposterous for the governors to take such action, Elekima noted that resources derived from the Niger Delta have for over 30 years been used to run the Nigerian nation yet the region never produced a single President.`
