THAT EL-RUFAI APC COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS- A SURE RECIPE FOR MORE TROUBLES IN THE NIGER DELTA

Added by Akan Nkweini on February 6, 2018.
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THAT EL-RUFAI APC COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS– A SURE RECIPE FOR MORE TROUBLES IN THE NIGER DELTA

Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio, the foremost socio cultural organization of over 30,000 Ibibio youth of Akwa Ibom State founded in 1987 for the purpose of promoting and safeguarding the interest of the Ibibio race, the 4th largest Nationality in Nigeria wishes to make the following declarations:

  • When on August 10, 2017 the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Chief John Odigie Oyegun inaugurated a 24 member committee to make recommendations for True Federalism in Nigeria, we in Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio watched with interest but with worry and concern given the weak and amorphous representation of Akwa Ibom State in that committee. And our fears have been confirmed from the published recommendations of that committee.
  • Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio is conscious of the fact that the inauguration of the committee, its deliberations and submissions are mere Party activities of the APC totally lacking in legislative force of effect as it is. However we note, with measured optimism, that at its barest,  its initiation by the ruling Party is an affirmation of our published position and firm belief that restructuring the nation, despite repeated denials by President Muhammadu Buhari, is a doctrine which time for actualization has come.
  • However we urge that the 2014 Constitutional Conference by far more extensive and expensive and its recommendations much more elaborate, widely consultative, inclusive, comprehensive and representative be implemented with minor adjustments where necessary. The APC committee is incapable of deciding on the fate of over 180million Nigerians.
  • A careful look at the report reveals a disingenuous attempt to clothe bare-faced robbery of Akwa Ibom State’s natural resources in catch phrases like “restructuring of the country”,         “ upward review of the current revenue sharing formula in favour of the States”,  State Policing, Devolution of powers, and the likes which have gained currency and popularity in our national discourse lately.
  • Many in the Niger Delta are already carried away at the mere inclusion in the recommendations of expressions like upward review of current revenue sharing formula in favour of the States so much so that they have failed to see the kernel of the insidious intent to rob the region of the benefits of their own assets .Hidden in their report is a recommendations that all on-shore minerals (read crude oil) found anywhere in the country, its mining and ownership rights be vested in the States where found while all such minerals found off-shore, its mining and ownership be vested in the Federal Government. What the purveyors of this grand deceit are looking to foist on us is to have the revenue from the bulk of crude oil in the Niger Delta which today is being exploited, from in the most, off-shore to remain in the firm grip of the Federal Government leaving the Niger Delta with nothing as have been severally and repeatedly canvassed by prominent leaders and elites from the North. It is a well- known fact that only few of the productive oil wells in the Niger Delta are on-shore. And given the well documented lopsided ownership structure and appropriation of the 49 Oil Prospecting Licenses (OPL) and the 28 Oil Mining Licenses (OML) shared among Nigerians of other extractions then we are no longer in doubt that the conspirators and mischieve makers are still at work on their design and ill intent to impoverish our region and Akwa Ibom State in particular. to which we say, never again!
  • On the corollary this implies that all solid minerals such as gold, tin, uranium and other precious stones currently being developed in the North and reserved for future exploitation with oil money would be completely vested in the Northern States where these are found. These are exploited on land not off-shore.We note that this is totally self-serving and is only being contemplated by the establishment as a precursor to reverting back to the pre-crude oil revenue sharing arrangements of the 50s and 60s when natural resources found in each region were harnessed by regional governments and the accruing revenues retained by the regions who rather paid income tax to the central government. These were appropriated for the groundnut, tin, cocoa and coal by the Northern, Western and Eastern regions.This new old thinking by the committee leaders is in anticipation of the imminent exhaustion of crude oil from the Niger Delta Region in the next two decades coupled with the fact that our type of crude, Qua Iboe Crude, Brass River Crude,  Forcados Crude and Bonny Light are no longer viable compared to the shale oil now preferred by industrialized nations. Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio recalls and wishes to remind all Nigerians that Section 134 of the 1960 Constitution and Section 140 of the 1963 Republican Constitution stipulated 50 percent derivation formula and had also recognized 200 nautical miles of our continental shelf as areas belonging to each littoral Region for the purposes of computing derivation. But the North and West approbating and reprobating conspired and made a sudden somersault on the 50 percent derivation formula when crude oil exploitation became the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy.  General Yakubu Gowon abrogated these provisions and introduced the off-shore/on-shore dichotomy. The outcry against this injustice forced the abolition of this unpopular decree thrice in 1975, 1979 and 1992. Then re-emerged Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999 and in complicity with his tribesman Bola Ige he re-introduced this obnoxious policy in 2002 by procuring a Supreme Court judgment from a suit the duo filed obviously against the people of Akwa Ibom State. And by the time the dust settled in 2004 Akwa Ibom was placated through a political solution in the shape of Allocation of Revenue (Abolition of Dichotomy in the Principle of Derivation) Act 2004 with a paltry revenue derived from oil mining activities up to ONLY 200 metres isobath off our beaches. And now for the 5th time Nasir El-rufai and co are at it again. But we are better informed and are not going to fall for it this time.
  • For us in Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio we view this as a provocative intent by certain people to appropriate our own asset as everybody’s asset while preserving other people’s assets exclusively for their use. This we totally and most vehemently reject. And we hereby put the Nation and the world on notice that we reject in totality the insinuations of robbing our region to pay other regions.  We are strategically positioned to resist it with the last drop of strength in us.
  • The Mboho calls on the Federal Government to ensure compliance in relocating the administrative headquarters of Exxon Mobil in Nigeria to Akwa Ibom State as directed by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria through the then Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo during his duty tour of the State in March 2017. The Mboho notes that 11 months on, there has been no visible moves whatsoever from the International Oil Company at complying.
  • The Mboho urges the Federal Government of Nigeria to keep faith with, and ensure the sincere implementation of the 16-point demand presented to President Buhari by the Pan Niger-Delta Forum (PANDEF) as adopted by the Federal government.
  • Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio hereby warns the government in Abuja that the peaceful atmosphere prevailing in Niger Delta and in Akwa Ibom State today must not be taken for granted. It is but a truce and a reciprocal gesture in good faith following the promise of expeditious implementation of the 16-point demand from PANDEF and the promise by the Presidency to ensure relocation of Exxon Mobil administrative headquarters to Akwa Ibom State. One year has gone by and nothing is happening. Our patience is being stretched. The Federal Government of Nigeria has not kept their side of the deal and have been paying only lips service regarding all the agreements. The Government is quick to bandy the modest economic recovery due to prevailing peace in the Niger Delta Region. Time is ticking away and so is the clock on the time bomb in the Niger Delta. A stich in time saves nine.

 

Akparawa James Edet, NPOM                                                Akparawa (Engr) Anthony Udoekong

International Secretary General                                               International Pub Relations Officer

 

Akparawa ( Elder) Monday Etokakpan

International President

 

Footnote

For the record below are members of the committee: Other States and regions had governors, senators, ministers, etc, Who did we have?

Nasiru El-Rufai – Chairman, Olubunmi Adetunbi – Secretary, Rauf Aregbesola – Member, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu – Member‎,Abdullahi Ganduje- Member, Simon Lalong- Member,‎ Yahaya Bello – Member‎, Mohammed Abubakar – Member,‎ Sullivan Chime- Member, Kashim Ibrahim- Member,‎ Osita Izunaso- Member, Bolaji Abdullahi- Member,Ogbonnaya Onu- Member, Aisha Al-Hassan- Member, Aisha Ismail – Member, Sharon Ikeazor- Member, Rachael Akpabio- Member,Ismail Ahmed – Member, Oserheimen Osunbor- Member, Fati Bala – Member,Jasper Azuatalem – Member, Rinsola Abiola – Member,‎ and Stella Dorgu – Member.