20022021 - INSECURITY Give us state police now - Govs

SATURDAY Vanguard, FEBRUARY 20, 2021—11
Why S’South alliance
with north should
continue — Omo-Agege
•S’South govs should stop managing 13% derivation fund
•Nothing to show for money released for development
•Ex-gov Uduaghan yet to reveal why he dumped APC
•Omo-Agege
By Emma Amaize,
Regional Editor, South-South
DEPUTY Senate President, DSP,
Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and oth
er leading politicians have discovered
an impediment in the long-standing pact between
South-South region and the North as a
political power and have quietly initiated
moves to modify the alignment.
Senator Omo-Agege representing Delta
South Senatorial district in the Senate who
related with Vanguard the subject and more,
confirmed: “For some time now, there has been
a setback in terms of the historical alignment
pattern of the South-South. I am happy to say,
however, that some other well-meaning South-
South politicians have begun to redress this
gap. We have made giant strides, but there is
still a lot of work to be done.”
He said: “With 2023 fast approaching, the
South-South politicians and the people will
have another opportunity to determine whether
to remain in opposition or to return to our
traditional political dispositions. It is my hope
that the APC as a party, will see the opportunity
that lies ahead in doing business with the
South-South and will do everything possible
to take advantage of the emerging opportunity.”
Senator Omo-Agege declined suggestion
that politicians from the zone usually compromise
interests of the region when it comes
to political horse-trading with their Northern
counterparts, saying: “I do not agree with your
profiling of South-South politicians. First, the
North is not the enemy of the South-South as
your question seems to suggest. Secondly, in
politics there are limits to what an individual
politician can do without concerting with others.”
“Therefore, compromise which is simply to
adapt one’s own position to make it acceptable
to others in order to reach an agreement
is necessary and inevitable. In fact, politics is
all about compromise. It is the only way to get
things done for your people and move forward.
“This applies to all politicians, including
Northern politicians. For South-South politicians,
the need to make concessions and compromises
is even greater because we are minorities.
Some of these concessions are easy to
make but others may require sacrifices. But it
is wrong and inappropriate to say that politicians
from South-South pander to the north.
“Thirdly, the North and the South-South regions
have cooperated to the mutual benefit of
both regions. And because of the cooperation
and compromises we have had, the North and
the South-South have historically had strong
alliances. At the heart of the North - South-
South alliance is our common interest and
commitment to justice and the unity of our
country which have enabled us work together
for the good of our people and the country at
large.
“The truth is that the South-South has always
allied with the national ruling party at
each point in time; a tendency you really cannot
fault if you must be Pan-Nigerian. In the
First Republic, majority of the people in what
is today South-South were in the NCNC, the
dominant party in the Eastern region which
went into alliance with the NPC,
the overwhelmingly dominant party in Northern
Region, to form the national government.
“If you recall, the first most prominent South-
South politician at Independence, the late Festus
Okotie-Eboh was the National Treasurer
of NCNC and the NPC/NCNC alliance made
it possible for Okotie-Eboh to become Finance
Minister in the Tafawa Balewa Federal Government.
“Let us not forget that the alliance also
helped in the creation of the Mid-Western region.
Okotie-Eboh was particularly very instrumental
to creation of Mid-Western region.
Did Okotie-Eboh compromise the interest of
the Midwestern region? The answer is an emphatic
no. Indeed, history has it that when Tafawa
Balewa developed cold feet on the creation
of the Mid-Western region at the last
minute, it was Okotie-Eboh who told him it
was too late to withdraw support. And in the
spirit of cooperation and the alliance of NPC
and NCNC, Balewa gave the final okay.
“In the Second Republic, the control of the
South-South shifted to the Hausa-Fulani dominated
NPN which won the former Cross River
State that consisted of the present Akwa Ibom
and Cross River states. There was also the
former Rivers State which consisted the present
Rivers and Bayelsa states. In 1982, the Shagari
NPN administration established the Delta
Steel Complex in the South-South.
“During this Fourth Republic and consistent
with the historical antecedents, the South-
South had been controlled by the national ruling
party until 2015 when the All Progressives
Congress won the presidency. And over this
period, the 13 per cent Derivation principle
was implemented as enshrined in the constitution,
the NDDC and the Amnesty Program were
established. We also had the Vice President and
ultimately the President,” he asserted.
N’Delta govs abuse, sidetrack
13% derivation fund
On whether his outburst against South-
South governors on the 13 per cent derivation
was not a mere campaign strategy for his future
political ambition, he said: “The fact that
the impact of the oil wealth coming from the
Niger Delta is not felt by the people who live in
the oil producing communities has been a
source of concern for me, over the years. It is
also a concern directly shared by numerous
communities who play host to critical multibillion-dollar
oil and gas assets, and who bear
the burden of environmental degradation.”
“You know very well that industrial
waste, oil spillages, gas flares, fire disasters,
acid rains, flooding, erosion and so
on, caused by decades of oil and gas exploration
have led to the pollution of farmlands
and fishponds, which has left the
host communities with poverty and disease.
“It is to ameliorate this pitiable conditions
of the people that 13 per cent of the
revenue generated from oil sales was set
aside in section 162 of the Constitution as
derivative fund to develop the region. Twenty-one
years and many governments later,
the condition in the Niger Delta remains
dire with little or nothing to show for the
huge sums released so far to the oil producing
states, for the development of the
oil producing areas.
“Rather than channel these funds to the development
of the requisite host communities,
governments of the Niger Delta have either
misused the funds or diverted them to the development
of non-oil producing communities
in cities and state capitals. Even in states that
have oil producing development commissions
such as Delta State, only 50
percent of the funds is allocated
to the Commission to
manage, on behalf of the host
communities. What happens
to the other 50 percent?
13% derivation
not campaign
bombast by me
“It is against this background
that a delegation of
the Oil and Gas Host Communities
of Nigeria
(HOSCON) led by the
Amayanabo of Twon-Brass
in Brass Kingdom and
Chairman, Bayelsa State
Traditional Rulers Council,
Chief Alfred Diete-Spiff visited
me, last year. At that
meeting, we discussed how
to reverse this trend. One of
their demands is that state
governments should no
longer be allowed to manage
the 13 percent derivation fund. Not only
do I support the agitation for direct disbursement
of the funds to the host communities, I
am also committed to its realization,
because it is only fair that the funds be utilized
in the appropriate areas, which the state
governments have failed to do.
So the issue of mismanagement of the 13
percent derivation fund by state governors is
not a campaign rhetoric for me. Far from
being a shot in the dark, the position I have
taken is both credible and reasonable, just as it
is a service to the people who called me to
serve, and in fact, to humanity.
The manner you walked yourself into political
limelight, especially after the mace
saga in the Senate, to become Deputy Senate
President and currently the highest South-
South political office holder in this administration
is epic, how did you do this?
I believe that all humans are born with the
same physiology. What makes one a great success
and another less successful is your effort
and the grace of God. It was not easy by any
Senator Omo-
Agege declined suggestion
that politicians
from the zone
usually compromise
interests of the region
when it comes
to political horsetrading
with their
Northern counterparts
standard. They wanted to end my political career,
just because I spoke the truth in defense of
our constitution and the rule of law. It was a
frontal attack on freedom of speech which the
constitution guarantees every Nigerian.
But they wanted to silence me, take away the
voice of the people I represent in eight local
government areas of Delta State in the Senate,
and deny them the effective representation
they deserve. And when I refused to be
cowed, they wanted to humiliate me before
my people and bury me politically. But they
failed and I survived. And there is only one
reason this has happened, and that is God.
With God on my side, I survived it. All glory
and thanks go to the Almighty God.
I thank God for giving me the courage to
stand up against tyranny and injustice; to
fight for the rule of law and what I believe is
right for our country. It was Napoleon
Bonaparte that said that ‘impossibility is
only to be found in the dictionary of fools’.
You and I can achieve anything we set out
to, if we give it all our strength and remain
resolute. Winners never quit, and quitters
never win. Never give up.
Lastly, it is important to, again, let you
know that my actions were not driven by
future political considerations. They were
based on my personal convictions and the national
interest. Let us be guided by the old saying
that evil only thrives when good people do
nothing. We must continue to speak truth to
tyrannical tendencies. The liberty
to so do is inalienably
guaranteed by the Constitution.
We must continue to be
courageous and keep taking
advantage of constitutionally
guaranteed freedom of
speech.
Why was APC unable to
keep the former governor of
Delta state, Dr Emmanuel
Uduaghan, in its fold, rather
it allowed him to return to
PDP?
Politicians do move from
one political party to another
in what we know as carpetcrossing.
It is part of the party
system of democracy. It is
not peculiar to Nigeria.
But it has become an issue
in Nigeria because the
practice is so rampant. We
have situations where people
change parties every
election cycle. It is something
we should not worry
about because our political parties are
perceived as more of platforms for contesting
elections. And that is because the
parties are perceived to have no distinct
ideologies that separate them. This is not
to say that all parties are the same. There
are differences in orientation, goals and
objectives such that some, like the APC,
are more progressive than the others.
Beyond that, people change parties for
various reasons. In the case of Uduaghan
who defected to APC a year to the 2019
election, he said he was joining APC because
of President Muhammadu Buhari’s
commitment to the Niger Delta. And a year
after the election when he returned to PDP
he said he had left PDP because he could not
breathe in the PDP.
However, he has not disclosed why he left
APC after the elections. The bottom line is that
the reasons for carpet-crossing are always a
personal thing, with actors guided by their
ambition and the needs of their constituencies.
And once the individual has decided to
move, no one can prevent it from happening.