Recently, the Niger Delta stakeholders presented a 16 – point request, which essentially borders on democracy of resource, community participation, environmental sustainability and infrastructure to President Muhammad Buhari, and are of course platitudes that have been somewhat addressed by the report of the 2014 National Conference, which the President deems only fit for the archives. For instance, the document submits in respect to community participation that:
“ The current divestment is bringing many indigenous operators into the sector. Accordingly, we feel that producing communities who can find the finance, and are sufficiently well organised can and should be given equity of at least 10% by the indigenous entities. For the communities to be overlooked by the government that has right of consent to these deals does not make good sense for business or security of facilities;
a. Communities prone to gas flaring should be paid compensation for the effects of gas flaring;
b. There should be provision for local community involvement and adequate military security to prevent vandalism of oil, gas and electrical equipment and lines; and
c. That where opportunities are created for communities to participate in developing oil fields from which the international oil companies are divesting, care must be taken that the divesting companies do not pass their liabilities, especially those related to massive environmental damage to the communities or other local investors.”
On issues of the environment ,it provides that :
1. “The vital need to preserve the integrity of the Nigerian environment and thus secure its sustainability for present and future generations requires clear and direct stipulations in the Nigerian Constitution. This must include justiciable rights to a safe and satisfactory (as stipulated by Article 24 of the African Charter on Peoples and Human Rights to which Nigeria is a signatory) environment including the rights to water, clean air, food, shelter. As a people living very closely to and depending for livelihoods on nature/environment we should enshrine the rights of nature to maintain its natural cycles without disruption in our Constitution;
2. Section 20 of the 1999 Constitution does not establish any legally enforceable code of environmental rights. Conference therefore decided that the Environmental Objectives of the State under Chapter II of the Constitution be transferred to the justiciable rights under the Fundamental rights chapter of the Constitution, as for example is the case under Article 48A of the Indian Constitution, Article 2 of the Angolan Constitution, Article 46 and 47 of the Constitution of Congo and Article 15(2) of the Constitution of German Democratic Republic and Articles on environment and natural resources in the Constitutions of Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Eritrea and South Africa, etc”
On Resource Democracy,it equally emphasizes that:
“
1. The right of the people to own and manage their resources by entrenching resource democracy gives rights to federating units to prospect for and develop resources in their
territories. This will remove conflicts between federating units and promote progressive and active development;
2. The power on the issue of resource management should devolve to States and local communities, in order to allow them to participate in the management of resources.
The Nigerian Independence Group do cringe at the President’s handling of the issues of Nigeria’s fragile unity and his mismanagement of such immense goodwill that could have been deployed in creating a ‘no victor, no vanquished’ spirit and appealing to all sensibilities immediately after the election, both in verbalizations, actions, and policy thrusts, towards creating the environment for the mutual appreciation of diverse identities and ultimately employing diplomacy as a veritable implement of conflict resolution
The discerning should really be worried that this epoch finds the expression, ‘Nigeria is a mere geographical expression’, most suitable more than any other era in history, in defining the reality of our national situation, in terms of integration and mutual animosity. The division, which is dimensioned along ethnicity, regionalism, partisanship and religion, became heightened in the course of the 2015 Presidential election, and remained unabated even after elections had been won and a congratulatory message symbolic of pacifism and statesmanship had been sent to the winner by the loser. The reality is that the election had significance beyond the personalities of the contestants, and what the ideas they market stand to benefit the entire nation. It was more about regional and ethnic irredentism, and the desperation to sustain or either grab power.
The regional skewness of the election results so dangerously accentuated the known fault lines upon which further acrimony and disenchantment would thrive. This is the backdrop that had offered the approach the Niger Delta avengers and other militants are deploying in engaging the state a congenial ground. It is the collective feeling of ethnic subjugation that had inspired Biafran uprising, and earned it greater appeal. It is the factor that had catalysed the mutual hatred and intolerance that account for the perennial ethnic and religious skirmishes that literally sits the nation on a time bomb. The national plunge towards an abyss of atomism should worry patriots and nationalists. A nation of over 180 million, with great potential and aspirations for greatness, cannot afford the cost of a genocidal implosion. It will also be too expensive for the global community. This is the reason the idea of ‘One Nigeria’ should have essence beyond rhetoric. Proactive steps, which the report of 2015 amply affords, have to be taken to make the reconstruction of the national psyche an imperative, and allow for inclusiveness in the perception of nationalism.
Foremost, there is the need to lessen the desperation involved in seeking presidential position, which is borne out of the hugeness of power and the enormous resources associated with the position, and essentially adopt a mutually beneficial variant of fiscal federalism that naturally dovetails with our peculiarity of ethnic plurality. A system that allows for expropriated resources of the states to be freed, and greater powers of taxation, mining, utilities delivery, and security devolved to them, would make the states the new centers of attention ,and somewhat obviate the desperation for national power grab and its associated ethnic tensions. Second, and complementary to the first, is the need to redesign the template of remunerations and perks of public officials, at all tiers, to a modest scale, such that can only attract patriots that are committed to altruistic service delivery and development. This would lessen the ‘do or die’ disposition of people to politics and the sense of power and financial entitlements they attach to it. It will also prevent the states from becoming the new flashpoints, in the event of a rejig of the status quo.
Emphasis on inequality mitigating policies and other actions that promote the wellbeing of the citizenry have the capacity to bolster the ebbing sense of nationalism. There is a direct relationship between citizens’ perception of a sense of community and good and equitable governance. It is the reason why the countries having the highest Human Development Indices’ rankings are also the most peaceful and united.
The NIG is strongly of the view that rather than pretending we are in a state of normalcy and allowing the state of the country’s disunity to fester to a point where an emergency national conference would not salvage, the Federal Government should revisit the archives and retrieve the tonnes of reports of past national conferences convoked to address the national question, distill the relevant thoughts into a white paper, and immediately implement towards a restructuring that will represent the fundamental panacea to the country’s indivisibility, regional developmental symmetry, increased prosperity,and sustainable peace.
