Should the National Electricity Power Authority be privatized?
2007:PDP’ll Decide S/south’s Fate - Mbu
12.07.2004
About a week ago, former defence minister, Lt-General Theophilus Danjuma (rtd), hosted a dinner party in Abuja in honour of Senator Musa Adede, who clocked 50 recently. The occassion attracted notable politicians, captains of industry and diplomats including Chief Mathew Mbu, who spoke with Joseph Ushigiale on a wide range of issues The issue that is currently dominating discourse in the South-south is the 2007 presidency. How feasible is this venture? I think in politics, it is said that everything is possible. Politics in the South-south and Nigeria are synonymous. Politics in this country is of utmost interest to our zone as any other zone in this country and the presidency of Nigeria, as a project, belongs to all Nigerians. In our zone, we want the presidency like another zone. But that depends on the politics of the day. We mustn't forget, we have a very strong political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). I would think that a lot depends on the decision of the ruling party, PDP. If it zones the presidency to any of the six zones, apart from the South-west, that zone is heavily favoured and if our zone is the zone to clinch or get enough support of the PDP, it has a strong chance. But I must say that the presidency, as a project, involves a lot of goodwill, lobbying and alliances. So, if the South-south is keen of having the presidency, of course, it means it has to lobby and have the goodwill of other zones to come to its aid. At the moment, aspirants are not lacking, our immediate neighbour, the South-east, is very keen, so is the North, which has three zones and is very keen that power should return up there. But the question is, what is PDP's stand? I know that there are other parties, but whichever zone it favours, stands a very good chance. In the event that the South-south gets it, would you throw your hat into the ring? That is a $64,000 question. For the moment, I think it is only right for us to talk about the whole zone and leave the rest about who should carry or be the tale bearer of that goodnews, if it should come to the zone. So, why don't you wait and see. It is a lot better to wait for the adulation of the moment for time to so decide. As the country's first and youngest minister for Foreign Affairs, do you think at the diplomatic level, we did enough in the struggle for Bakassi with Cameroun? Bakassi is a very sad loss to Nigeria. In the International Court of Justice, Nigeria has lost grounds. But there is still very fertile field for Nigeria in the field of diplomacy, to work and keep the best that is good for the people of Bakassi and that is having good diplomatic ties with our neighbours or Cameroun. If we had a cordial relationship with Cameroun, there is nothing we can't do and the question of where Bakassi belongs would become absolutely infinitesimal in the sense that the real issue in Bakassi is the development and exploitation of hydrocarbons in the area. If Nigeria, in her diplomatic relations with the Cameroun, were to develop the concept of Joint Venture Partnership with Cameroun and other neighbouring countries including Equitorial Guinea, that would be a very viable concept. And if we accept that, I think Bakassi, sooner or later would become a thing of the past if we think more of the fortunes derived from Joint Partnership than we think of where Bakassi belongs. You raised objection to the manner Governor Donald Duke held on to allocation meant for councils in your state and in his reply, he described you as a senile person. Are you? I read in the papers that he made some remarks which I would consider inappropriate. But I would also concede to him, at his age, that is what we call youthful exuberance. Therefore, in his youthful exuberance, he probably overreacted to the statement that I made. What I said was more of a constitutional issue and not a personal attack on the governor. I think I was grossly misunderstood and he took it upon himself and unleashed venom on me because he thought I was attacking him as a person. What I said was that there are three tiers of government - federal, state and local government councils. If the councils are deprived of funds by whichever means, from the federation account, then they would become absolutely sterile and unproductive and the grassroots government that we are talking about would have lost its meaning. And I therefore said, if funds meant for councils don't reach them for whatever reasons, then there is no reason to keep them but to find a way to scrap the third tier of government and delete them from the constitution so that money from statutory account could be shared between the federal and state governments only and leave the councils out of it because without funds, they can't function. That was why I was so concerned, if you starve them of funds, they can not perform, become absolutely redundant and useless. You were a key player in the agreement reached between founding fathers in the old Cross River State on power sharing, are terms of this agreement still binding? The agreement that we reached between the North and the South known as the 'Accord' in the old Calabar and Ogoja provinces still exists and most of us who appended our signatures to that document and who, infact are living authors of that document, still believe in the philosophy and goodwill intended for that accord to bring about for the people of the two old provinces of Calabar and Ogoja. If we go by it, no document or agreement reached between these two old provinces could be more equitable than the accord we entered into. Under that accord, we didn't in anyway envisage that there could be a first, second or third term. What we agreed was that it would be turn by turn. If it is Ogoja today, tomorrow it would be Calabar and so on and so forth. For example, if a Calabarman is governor, Ogojaman would be deputy and vice versa. We also went on to share the key offices including the chief judge, secretary to government and important corporations. We took full cognizance of these key offices and institutions so that we can make it as equitable as possible to give a sense of belonging to both the people of Calabar and Ogoja. That was the meaning and intention of the accord and I must repeat that we never envisaged and never made room for multiple terms, but there was provision for turn by turn. That was the philosophy that drove the accord, but today, things have so changed, but the spirit of the accord still prevails and I believe in it. Do you think it is possible that the North would produce the next governor in 2007? It is only equitable, fair and politically expedient that we produce the next governor. If that is not done, then there is nothing like equity in Cross River State. If we have to act equitably and politically with a sense of decency, honour and expediency, it should go to the North because the North deserves to have it and that slot should go to the North.
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