At S/souths Govs' Meeting, Dikibo's Death Re-echoes
From Efem Nkanga in Uyo
The South-south governors summit held last weekend in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom state has come and gone, but the thought provoking issues raised by the host governor, Obong Victor Attah in a keynote address delivered at the meeting will linger on in the minds of many at the event.
The meeting was primarily convened to deliberate on the state of the region but at a point, the unresolved murder of the South-south chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Chief A.K Dikibo, who was killed by gunmen in Delta state took the centre stage.
In his keynote address, Governor Attah while speaking on the death of the South-south chairman of of the party called for a thorough investigation of the matter.
He reiterated that the South-south must insist that the police try Dikibo's driver and orderly, who were with him at the time of his death before the issue of Dikibo's replacement could be addressed.
"It is painful for me, for anybody in the South-south to be talking about Chief Dikibo today in the past tense'' Attah stated.
He added that '' before we talk about his replacement, why can't we demand that the police must solve this murder; After all there are two people, the driver and the orderly who were with him ,from the time he entered the vehicle to the time his lifeless body was deposited in the mortuary and therefore must know what in fact happened. Why must we allow our intelligence to be insulted with such a story that a single bullet fired at an impossible angle through the windscreen suddenly turned round and hit Chief Dikibo in the back of his head with such a shattering and devastating finality where he sat in the back seat. The South-south must insist that the police try these two people who are alive today as the prime suspects in this case''.
Governor Attah spoke on the lack of unity among the governors of the zone and the effect it is having on the development of the region and also called for the appraisal of the economic cooperation and political future of the zone.
In the address titled'' South-south a re-examination'', Attah charged the governors of the region who were all in attendance except that of Cross Rivers, to maximize and focus on important issues that will propel the region instead of being distracted by irrelevant and petty issues that tend to draw the back.
''Have a collective political interest to articulate and promote; and examine and make resolutions regarding issues of peculiar interest to the zone'', he charged.
Attah, who lamented the ''lack of collective action and regional cooperation in the South-south'', called for a reappraisal of the state of the region and took the governors down memory lane, urging them to ask themselves what have become of the noble ideas they had for the region, such as the idea of the setting up of a regional power plant, which if successfully implemented will catapult the region to greater heights. because of the multiplier effects constant power supply will have on the economic the region.
Commenting on the restiveness in the Niger Delta region, the governor said has become a major concern to Nigerians, since whatever affects the Niger Delta affects the entire country. Noting that since its has defied various measures put in place to ensure peace the South-south governors should deliberate on how to restore and maintain peace in the Niger Delta region. According to him that the issue of peace is so sensitive.
He added that the region needs peace to attract investments to the area and peace to strengthen developmental efforts. He therefore called for greater efforts to redress the situation. He called for the condemnation of ''what often appears to be deliberately engineered conflict in the form of communal strife or boundary dispute'' adding that ''the presence of other nationals in our midst working in the oil industry gives an international complexion to every incident in the region''.
Attah also commented on the Electtoral ACT stating that the controversy and circumstances surrounding the Act should be put aside, while one aspect that deals with the tribunals should be corrected. He described as absolutely ridiculous and distracting, a situation where elected officers are sworn into office up to a year or more, with tribunals still sitting over their cases.
''It was possible to work out an election time table that would make it possible for elections to held, run-offs to hold; tribunals to sit and if necessary appeal tribunals to conclude every case before the known swearing in date'' He called on the Governors to take the lead and warned that care should be taken to ensure that ''at no time should we have SIEC and INEC officials simultaneously at the same polling booth", he added
On resource control, Attah urged other governors to fully explain the term ''Resource Control'' to the nation and convince everyone to adopt the philosophy ''as a panacea for peace and the engine for rapid development''.
He commended President Olusegun Obasanjo for signing the Bill abrogating the onshore/offshore dichotomy into law and the members of the National Assembly from the South-south zone for the passage of the Bill. He reiterated that it was unnecessary for the South-south governors to act as infants by trying to take credit for the abrogation.
'' Let me advise that it is not necessary for us to insert articles in newspapers and magazines trying to determine who the real victor was and who was only a noise-maker; instead of trying to determine whose style was confrontational and whose was subtle, instead of trying to say whose method was likely to succeed and whose was bound to fail, let us claim this victory collectively for the South-south", he said.
He also spoke on the economic cooperation among the states of the region and the political future of the region urging governors from the zone to deliberate on important issues that that would move the region forward and ensure its unity and development. He called on them to ask themselves what happened to all the noble ideas and plans they had for the region. Such ideas include that of the Niger Delta Bank, the oil and gas company to be called BEDROCK after the Niger Delta states of Bayelsa, Edo, Delta, Rivers, Cross Rivers and Akwa-Ibom as well as the regional power plant amongst other issues.
On the controversy over revenue allocation formula, Attah called on President Obasanjo to give the South-south zone a fair and equitable formula that will take into cognizance the peculiar burden and responsibilities of the zone. He also tasked the Governors of the zone on the need to talk to the parliamentarians from the region to persuade President Obasanjo ''to give us a revenue formula that is fair, just and equitable and truly reflects the burdens and responsibilities of the various tiers of government''.
The governor prayed that the summit will ''be a new beginning for us, a true renaissance and may the united spirit of the South-south once again rise like phoenix from its ashes''
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