Every human society is forced to make changes from time to time in order to accommodate the effects of three dynamic forces, namely, rapid increases in human population, aspirations, and knowledge, referred to as “triple explosions”. Therefore, the crux of the restructuring controversy has to do with a nation’s political economy which is largely a process of determining who gets what and who controls that process, in a dynamic society. When such process becomes static, unjust and structured in favour of a privileged few, then agitation for equity arises.
The dynamic nature of human aspirations is such that some powerful people can strive to own the whole world and try to enslave others, if they can have their way. Similarly, human knowledge expands in proportion to the challenges arising from human aspirations and expanding population, such that there is a countervailing force to briddle mad human ambitions. Like Chinua Achebe would say: When birds learn to fly without perching, hunters learn to shoot without aiming. Thus we are reminded through idioms that life shuns one-sidedness.
The “Arab Spring” was such an idiom to which Mohamed El Baradei, former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, responded with an admonition: “repression + absence of social justice + denial of channels for peaceful change = a ticking bomb”. A situation, according to Schwartz’s 1st law, where less than 20% of a population controls and enjoys more than 80% of the resources of a nation, while “Nigeria has the highest number of world’s poor people”, cannot be described as just.
Any structure which sustains such lop-sidedness calls for a peaceful change. Can we not see a ticking bomb, via oil and gas natural resources all located in the southern parts of Nigeria? Is it a secret that the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970) was fought and won primarily on the basis of control of mineral oil and gas? Is it a secret that Petroleum Decree/Act of 1969 and the Land Use Act which followed soon after had some ulterior motives? Why was late Senator Francis Ellah shouted down on the floor of the Senate in the 1970s as he tried to raise issues on indirect imposition of a war indemnity on a section of the country? Are the above issues not clever schemes?
Those who are afraid of a genuine restructuring of the Nigerian polity include those who would be jittery over a demand to publish names of beneficiaries of oil block allocations. They include those who restructured and re-designed the original Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) into a Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) as No.1 of a 5-Part break-down. Why should Petroleum Host Community Bill become the last or least item of importance, whereas the zone and source of the natural resources should have primary attention?
Did Petroleum Decree of November 27, 1969, not transfer ownership of all the oil and gas reserves in the Niger Delta zone to the entire Nigerian nation? Did that clever scheme not deprive the oil-producing zone 50% derivation benefit, then transferred to the Nigerian nation? It took intense lobbying and pressure for the derivation formula to be restored to 1.5% and which now stands at 13%. Are these schemes not unjust structures?
Is it not true that the National Assembly acted with an unusual sense of urgency in approving the modified Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) within 23 minutes? Would it be wrong to suggest that some highly placed Nigerians are merely fronting for some multinational interests, waiting on the wings to buy over Nigeria’s oil and gas reserves under the cloak of divestment of upstream sector of the industry? Is it not true that seaports in southern parts of Nigeria are deliberately being placed in a state of mortgage? Why is it considered needful to embark on a Dry Port project in Kaduna which would cost quite some money?
The clamour for resource control had been drowned to the extent that it would hardly be revisited or revived. Those who are afraid of restructuring of the Nigerian polity would include those who saw to it that the latter-day effort of the Jonathan administration to reposition the country was treated as rubbish. It was with much glee that El Rufai once told Nigerians that restructuring was in the agenda of the current administration. But it was disappointing to hear the same administration describe the call for a restructuring of the polity as reflecting “parochial” interests.
Can any scheme or interest be more parochial than the disenfranchisement of a section of the country of their natural resources? To effect such clever schemes everything is done to encourage and sow the seeds of division, animosity and disunity among the marginalized groups of people through political shenanigans. We are seeing the thin division between war and politics, especially with someone celebrating the “Winning of Akwa-Ibom State” – thanks to the Will of God!
It would appear that states in southern Nigeria are under a siege, with various agencies and institutions serving as handy tools for intimidation purposes. With Delta State governor switching camp, is it not obvious that the Niger Delta zone is Nigeria’s most beautiful bride to woo and win? Why?
It is quite instructive that the President with-held his assent to the cleverly re-designed Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) – thanks to the outspokenness of Dr Okey Ellah. The underlying motive of the Bill can easily be figured out by any discerning person. Therefore, is Nigerian politics not driven by the intrigues of the oil and gas industry? Would vested interests in that industry not be afraid of restructuring of the Nigerian polity? Impoverishment of a majority of Nigerians via the inordinate ambitions of empire builders demands that structures which facilitate such anomaly should be changed peacefully. Have valued public assets not been privatized and sold for peanuts?
Dr Amirize is a retired lecturer, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.

Bright Amirize