Featured
Politics Of Oil, Solid Minerals …A Case Of Numbers Being Strength
The agitation for economic integration, political relevance and environmental protection by individuals and interest groups within the Niger Delta did not start today. Before it snow-balled into full-blown insurgency, well-meaning elite and indeed political and environmental activists had at various times made the case for the respect of the universal law on land ownership and why Nigeria’s Land Use Decree was an enactment of oppression.
Men like Chief (Senator) Melford Okilo, Chief Harold Dappa Biriye and Ken Saro Wiwa among others of blessed memory were civil in their agitations, arguments that drew global support for their noble cause. They insisted that the act of denying land owners proceeds of their inheritance was barbaric, suffocating, marginalizing and indeed oppressing.
Even with facts of history on the issue of derivation, the level of environmental hazards occasioned by oil prospection and production, the pollution of the people’s rivers and swamps, the threat to their major occupations, fishing and farming and above all, the discrimination against the youth of the affected areas, the political class weighed heavily in favour of the majority tribes dismissed the people’s agitation with a wave of the hand.
So frustrating, even the issue of derivation was also politicised. Infact, it was a case of persistent civil protest from one government to another, both civilian and military. At some point under the Buhari military leadership, derivation was as low as 1.5 percent, even with all the environmental degradation suffered by the people.
What was most annoying was that the people of the rural areas, where, oil was daily being drilled, saw electricity light in house-boats and estates of oil companies but used kerosene lamps.
The people saw oil company workers drinking bottled water and threw the wastes into their rivers, which also obstructed fishing, but drank from wells and sometimes stagnant water.
That two-class syndrome also ignited the vulnerability of the girl-child, who became play thing for highly paid oil workers. The freebies such vulnerable girls got from the predatory pastime of the red-eyed workers encouraged easily prostitution and sent many out of schools.
Employment of the males was also a pipe dream. Each oil company involved in the production of oil went to the rural communities with their own work force, and ensured sustenance of the status quo by manipulating posting of youth corps members from their own tribes who are eventually employed, instead of the qualified many within the community and state.
Even the Act providing low level jobs for locals was observed in the breach. With that, the frustrated youth thus became mere tools in the hands of oil workers, to whom they served as pimps, for cutting grass at the estates of the companies, sparingly as night guards and at other times for clearing of gutters.
Interestingly, because operational modus was signed directly with the Federal Government, the oil bearing communities, with all their environmental stakes were insulated from the operations or got peanuts. Like the proverbial man surrounded by water with none to drink, the Niger Delta youth saw unbridled affluence and financial rascality daily flaunted by oil workers to lure their sisters, aunts and even mothers out of matrimony, but could not touch.
That indeed further fuelled the violent agitation. With nothing to rely on for sustenance, since their rivers and seas were covered by oil wastes and sometimes leaks from their pipes with devastating effects on all sea creatures, sea foods like periwinkles, oysters, shrimps and mangrove crabs among others daily exterminated by pollutants and with no hope of change, what was once a civil debate, humble protest, mature agitation and simple appeal by the elite turned to violent threats, militancy and insurgency.
The major demand became Resource Control, and arrangement which would allow the people and governments of oil producing communities and states to control the resources from their God-given land, as obtains everywhere in the free world. The youth wanted true and practical federalism which would force states to pay taxes through the management of their own resources.
But for over 50 years, that simple request remains unanswered. Each time, their protestation turned to a violent kind, given that a hungry man is near-frequently an angry man, the oppressors would demonstrate their heavy handedness through the deployment of arms and ammunition to quell any insurrection while the central issue remained unsolved.
In all these years, the argument put forward by the political elite of the majority North and their South Western collaborators has been that oil is a gift from God and so belongs to all, therefore, primary owners of the land, being Nigerians, cannot lay claim of singular ownership to such resources. According to them, since the treasure remained buried beneath the land, within Nigerian geographical space, it belongs to all Nigerians, and so must be centrally manage, as if the Niger Delta became Nigeria by choice.
With that conclusion, proceeds from oil go faraway Abuja to sustain even states that contribute little or nothing, apart from being lucky to be under the protection of the majority.
That is also why the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has not been passed for nearly six years. Part of the bill seeks to make paltry allowance for oil bearing communities, not just to give them a sense of belonging but also instill in them the need to protect oil company assets located in their arears, since they are direct beneficiaries.
That too appears to the strong majority opposition too much of a sacrifice, since oil is simply a gift from God. But to whom? The same God that gave the North more fertile land for agricultural and livestock activities and rivers and swamps to Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta, Edo, among others for fishing? With such rivers, seas and swamps polluted by production of a commodity that now belongs to all, would the North also willingly share proceeds of their agricultural earnings?
Each time these questions are raised, the answer has remained the same. Oil, being buried beneath the land within Nigeria’s territory, remains a gift from God. But in their comfort zone, they forget that those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable, as the sages say.
Could that have accounted for the large scale insurgency under the Yar’Adua Presidency and subsequent pronouncement of amnesty? Unfortunately, all other projects that went with the amnesty, especially the East West Road still remain uncompleted. Still too much infrastructural deficit. Still too much discrimination against qualified manpower of Niger Delta origin.
Bottomline, Niger Deltans cannot claim benefits from their own lands, because everything sourced therefrom is a gift from God, and belongs to all.
That is why it came to me as a rude shock last week, to read that the Adamawa State Government, in Northern Nigeria is to start exporting solid minerals including uranium, gold, lead, diamond and platinum, according to that state’s Commissioner for Solid Minerals, Shanti Shashi.
Infact, Commissioner Shashi said BTP, a Swiss company has signed a $56bn contract for solid minerals exploration in a very short while.
When did gold, lead, diamond, platinum and uranium become cash crops? What different law excludes these products, buried beneath the land as Gift from God? Or is it simply a green light for resource management and control?
It is most unlikely, because even as recent as last week, President Muhammadu Buhari alluded to the fact that with all the talk about diversification of the economy, oil production still remains the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, and so would do everything humanly possible to improve production and by extension, improved earnings.
My Agony is that it is very likely that the policy of resource control would come into effect, now through the back door, and later officially only when oil in the Niger Delta dries up completely. That will be when, Borno State begins oil production in large quantities.
Here, perhaps is a window for state governments in oil bearing Niger Delta to go into partnerships with willing foreign investors to start oil prospection and production before oil dries up.
Let’s not dismiss this merely as view thought out in recession, with a near empty stomach. It is a window shut for over 50 years of oil exploration.
Soye Wilson Jamabo
Letters
Ban On Christians Fellowship In Universities
If the story making the rounds on two Nigerian universities being sued for allegation of their ban on Christian fellowship in the campus is anything to go by, then Nigeria is in for another trouble.
According to the story, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Katsina State branch, in conjunction with an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF International), has instituted an action against two universities in Katsina State for indefinitely banning Christian groups from holding fellowship meetings and worship on campuses.
The suit was said to have been filed against the two universities for violating the right to religious freedom by “indefinitely prohibiting” Christian groups from holding fellowship meetings and worship on campus.
The Christian legal advocacy group further alleged that one of the universities enforced the ban by locking all worship and fellowship centre on university grounds, preventing Christian students and groups from accessing the facilities and banning them from meeting for worship and fellowship elsewhere on campus while their Muslim counterparts at both universities have been permitted to hold worship and fellowship meetings in university-constructed worship and meeting spaces.
Recall that in 2017, there was a news report on the outlaw of any other religious or tribal association on campus besides the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria by the authorities of the Umar Musa Yar’Adua University, Katsina, Katsina State. A circular credited to the institution’s acting Dean of Student Affairs, Dr. Sulaiman Kankara, which was later disowned by the university, contained the directive.
The last time I checked, Nigeria is a democratic, circular state where every individual is free to practise any religion of her choice. Section 38 of the Nigerian constitution provides: “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.”
It is therefore wrong for a public university to indulge in this discriminatory act. A university is supposed to be an intellectual environment where people should be allowed some level of freedom. There must be robust fellowship and inter-faith relationship. People must be able to relate with each other without any discrimination or stigmatisation.
Knowing how delicate issues on religion are in Nigeria, one hopes that the authorities of the institutions concerned should swiftly look into the report and retrace their steps. The court should be objective in deciding the case and give students of other religions some leverage of freedom. It must be stated that the judgment on this case should not be delayed to avoid any retaliation in other parts of the country.
We already have a lot of issues to deal with in the country. Adding a religious crisis to it could be disastrous. Any university established and funded by either the federal, state or local government, should have freedom of religion. Let there be no more trouble in the country, please.
Waheed Abiodun,
Victoria Street,
Port Harcourt Township.
The NIMC, NCC Partnership
Reports have it that the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) disclosed that they have partnered to enhance seamless linkage of National Identification Number-SIM across the federation.
Both Commissions said that in recognising the significance of this initiative in enhancing security and improving service delivery, they were committed to improving processes and enhancing efficiency.
This is a welcome development. It has been worrisome why Nigerians should be made to go through the rigorous process of linking their National Identification Number (NIN) with their phone numbers every now and then. Some people who engage in online transactions have recorded some losses over the past few weeks as some internet providers barred their lines due to their inability to successfully do the linkage.
Two weeks ago, I went to a High Court for an official engagement and was shocked to see the number of people seeking to get court affidavits for the linkage of the NIN with the phone numbers so that their line will be unbarred.
It is therefore hoped that the NIMC, NCC partnership will remove all the bottlenecks surrounding the Nin, SIM linkage and make the process very seamless. It is also hoped that this will be the beginning of the process of proper identity management in the country and gradual collapse of all the various forms of identification – Drivers Licence, Voters Card, NIMC card. Bank cards etc into one identity card so that one would not have to be moving around with loads of identity cards.
Ebele Ubani,
Jabi, Abuja.
The Unwanted Strike
Just when the students of Nigeria public universities are rejoicing that there had been a no interruption in the universities’ academic calendar for sometiime, the news about the warning strike by the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, (SSANU), broke.
The Joint Action Committee of the two organisations had directed members to commence a seven day warning strike last week, following the federal government’s inability to pay their four months’ withheld salary.
I do not even understand why the government should allow labour unions to down tools before acting on their demands. Did President Bola Tinubu not direct that university workers that were on prolonged strike in 2022 and their salaries stopped by the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration after the invocation of “No Work, No Pay” policy, should be paid four months of the withheld salaries?
Have members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) not been paid in line with the president’s directive? Why were SSANU, NASU and unions concerned not paid? These bodies issued an ultimatum to the federal government. Why was there no effort to address their grievances within the window period?
It is said that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. So, the government, having paid ASUU, should also endeavour to settle SSANU and NASU so that there shall be no interruption in our academic calendar. We did no wrong by choosing public universities. Government, ASUU, SSANU, NASU and what have you should let us learn in peace and graduate at the record time like our colleagues in private universities, please.
IB Michael,
University of Port Harcourt,
Port Harcourt.
Letters
Obi Should Do More, Discordant Tunes On Minimum Wage, Akpabio’s Unguarded Comment
Obi Should Do More
The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, Mr Peter Obi, has continued to voice out his opinion on the happenings in the country. On the budget padding scandal currently rocking the upper chamber of the National Assembly, he has told the Senate to provide Nigerians with some explanations on the matter.
He said the claims and counter-claims over the alleged N3 Trillion which was alleged by Senator Abdul Ningi to have been padded into the 2024 budget, requires proper explanation as to what Nigerians must need to know regarding management of the nation’s, insisting that the suspension of Senator Ningi for three months does not address the issue.
The Labour party chieftain had also expressed his concern over the hunger in the country a few days ago. He raised the alarm that Nigerians were spending all their money on food.
It is commendable of Obi to have stood with the masses at this critical time in the nation’s history and be critical of negative happenings in the country and bad government policies. However, Obi should do more than just criticising. It is said that “a tree cannot make a forest”. Therefore, Obi should galvanise all the law makers both on the national and state levels to tow the same line with him, which should be seen as the position of the Labour Party.
In 2023, there was a revolution in the country. People of all walks of life, of various religions and tribes trouped out in support of the labour party because they believed in Mr Peter Obi. People saw the Labour Party as a needed alternative to the two most populous political parties, PDP and APC. Based on Obi’s personality and popularity, some people who ordinarily would not have won councillorship positions in their communities were elected into state and national assemblies. Many of them won the elections for free, spending no shi shi.
Painfully, after assuming the exalted positions, many of them, especially those in the national assembly seem to have forgotten the masses. It is now business as usual. Among the seven senators and 36 House of Representative members of the Labour Party in the National Assembly, which one of them has moved a strong motion about the hardship currently being faced by the masses and how to address it? How many of them stood by Senator Ningi on the budget padding revelation? What out the exotic cars distributed to them, how many of them advised that they should go for less expensive cars and the excess money channelled into developmental projects? It has become a case of one not talking while on the dining table, right?
Obi should be able to organise his party to form a formidable opposition and a party that does things differently, a party that stands with the people. If the labour party elected political office holders carry on the way they have done since they came into office, they will keep de-marketing their party, forgetting that 2027 is just around the corner.
Ngozi Omeje,
Umuahia, Abia State.
Discordant Tunes On Minimum Wage
I have followed the discussion on the proposed new minimum wage with keen interest and I just hope the leadership of the organised labour will be firm enough to represent the workers and refuse to fall prey to the ploy to disunite them.
It is disheartening seeing workers come up with different amounts as the proposed minimum wage. While the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, demanded that South-West states should pay N794,000 the Trade Union Congress, TUC, asked for N447,000. Similarly, workers in the Federal Capital Territory demanded N709,000, while their counterparts in the North-West clamoured for N485,000.
This idea of singing in discordant tunes is not good for strong unionism. I recall my days as a civil servant in Ibadan, Oyo state. That was during the time of Adams Oshiomhole as the National President of the NLC. The labour union was a force to be reckoned with and whenever the workers barked, the government caught cold. The increase in workers’ wages was fought for as body. There was nothing like federal workers going to the left and the state workers going to the right. Of course then, in 2000, the TUC did not exist as a separate body. The entire workers spoke in unison.
Yes, the states did reserve the right to say whether they can pay the national minimum wage or not but the national body of the NLC was carried along in the negotiation. Please, the NLC and TUC should come together and present a common front in the new minimum wage quest and ensure that workers in the states also get a fair deal. If not, some of the greedy governors will continue to subject the workers to hardship.
Pa Micheal Adeniran,
Rumuogba Housing Estate, Port Harcourt.
Akpabio’s Unguarded Comment
“Today, he’s responding to a remark by the Governor that has nothing to do with him. The opposition is urging the Senate president to be mindful of his utterances. How can he turn the burial of late Access Bank CEO, Herbert Wigwe, wife and first son, such a sad moment, to a political attack?. It’s disappointing. That’s political recklessness taken too far. We, the opposition parties, won’t tolerate such utterances anymore if it continues.”
Above was the response of a member of the House of Representatives and Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere, to the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, unguarded remark on Gov. Siminalayi Fubara’s comment during the burial of the late Access Holdings Plc GCEO, Herbert Wigwe, wife and first son last weekend.
It is hoped that Akpabio will heed to the advice and learn how to talk in public. Tracing his character as a public servant and political office holder in various capacities over the years, one would notice that the senate president lacks the act of public speaking and carriage.
Was it not recently that he announced that the clerk of the house had sent money to each of the senators’ personal account for their holiday enjoyment only to be called to other and he changed it to ”In order to allow you to enjoy your holiday, the senate president has sent prayers to your mailboxes to assist you to go on a safe journey and return.” What about the “honourable minister off your mic” shameful display.
Whoever wants to die seeking public/political office should go ahead but leave our dear governor alone.
Loveth Opusunju
Minima, Opobo, Rivers State.
Featured
Fubara Promises Rivers Support For Wigwe Varsity …Cautions Political Class On Power Tussle
Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has promised the state government’s commitment to supporting Wigwe University.
Fubara disclosed this on Saturday after the funeral service of the late Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings Plc, Herbert Wigwe, in Isiokpo, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Wigwe, alongside his wife, Doreen, and son, Chizzy, died in a helicopter crash in California near the Nevada border, United States of America.
Also involved in the crash was the Chairman of Nigerian Exchange Group Plc, Abimbola Ogunbanjo.
The governor said, “I want to say our brother has finished his work, though short. We, as a government, will do everything with the Wigwe Foundation to immortalise one thing.
“It is not the bank, the bank might have a new identity, a new boss to run it, other ventures will also have their names; but one thing that has his name is Wigwe University.
“We will do everything within our power to make sure the dream will continue to live just as he has planned it.”
Fubara questioned the mourners as to why they kept chasing worldly desires, stressing the significance of impacting lives rather than struggling for power.
“This one has to do with the political class, what is all these struggle all about? You want to kill, you want to bury, what is it all about?
“This is a man who was not a politician, he made his money through our investments, he had the world in his palm financially, he controlled even the political classes; but today, with all the power financially couldn’t control life. Is it not enough to ask ourselves why are we struggling? Why are we not making an impact on the lives of our people?” he queried.
Dignitaries present at the funeral service include the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio; Chairman, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria , Sanusi Lamido; Governors Alex Otti (Abia) Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), and Babajide Sawwo-Olu (Lagos).
Other dignitaries are former governors Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Peter Obi (Anambra), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Bukola Saraki (Kwarra), and James Ibori (Delta), among others.
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