PHARM. PAUL ENEBELI ADDRESSES NDOKWA PEOPLE, ONE OF THE LARGEST NATIONALITIES IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION.
"I
welcome you all to our second town hall meeting in six months, holding in this
accident town of Kwale; a town that is fast becoming the oil and gas city of
Delta State. Kwale is also just a stone throw from Ashaka, the town where
Olaudah Equiano, African’s pioneer author was sold to slavery in the 18th
century. The major agenda today should have been our 2015 agenda. However,
having just come back from the National Conference (CONFAB), I have deemed it
necessary to take advantage of this forum to brief you all on the CONFAB which
I had the privilege of representing the South-South Geo-Political region. I
therefore crave your indulgence to give a brief report on the outcome of the
conference, so that we can have more time to discuss our 2015 agenda.
The CONFAB which started in March and lasted
over 5 months ended successfully in August, 2014. It was in fact brought to a
close by His Excellency, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. The 2014 conference
made over 600 recommendations that covered a wide range of topics encompassing
twenty (20) thematic issues. This issues included; Agriculture and Water
Resources, Citizenship, Immigration and related matters, Civil Society
Orgainsation, Labour, Youth and Sports, Devolution of Power, Economy, Trade and
Investment, Energy, Environment, Foreign Policy and Diaspora matters, Law
Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Reform, Land Tenure matters and National
Boundaries, National Political Restructuring and Forms of Government, Political
Parties and Electoral matters, Politics and Governance, Public Finance, Public
Service, Social Sector, Religion, Science, Technology and Development and
transport.
I will attempt to briefly touch some of the
issues which in my opinion are critical to us as a people living alongside
other ethnic nationalities in the South-South geo-political zone.
1. Agriculture and Water Resources
The
conference took far-reaching decisions to ensure safe and adequate water supply
for Nigerians. In this regard, access to safe and adequate water is part of the
fundamental human rights of every citizen of Nigeria.
In addition, recommendations were made to
streamline and harmonize Federal Government participation in agricultural
development to emphasise agricultural research and development intersectoral
linkages.
The role of States and Local Government
Area’s rest on the implementation of the policy directives of the Federal
Government and feedback to the Federal Government on policy performance.
Conference resolved that in the long term,
cattle routes and grazing resource be phased out so as to lay emphasis on
ranching.
An integrated development and livelihoods
modernization programme should be designed and implemented to address the issue
of setting nomadic into settled communities based on established cattle ranches
with further development technologies and including abattoirs, processors and
other business along the livestock value chain.
The integrated development and moderisation
program should be funded by both federal and state governments in states where
such settlements are allowed and established. The program should be undertaken
and wrapped up within a perios of 5-10 years.
Cattle rustling is however a disincentive to
ranching and must to brought under control by better policing. In the meantime,
states which have large livestock populations should endeavours to maintain
grazing reserves and the traditional institutions should be primarily
responsible for the conflict resolution between the herdsmen and farmers and
also their respective associations where resolutions have failed, then
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) centres should be the last resort.
2. Citizenship, Immigration and Related Matters
As
a means of promoting social citizenship, there is a need to make the provision
of socio-economic rights in Chapter 2 of the 199 Constitution as amended justiceable.
This is derived from the fact of basic amenities and social mobility is at the
root of the various communal strife.
On the matter of indigenship, conference
recommended that the current constitution position should be maintained but
that a new provision be inserted into the constitution to read, “The right of
any Nigerian citizen to be resident or domiciled in any party of Nigeria shall
not be abridged. Such a resident shall enjoy meets his/her basic civic
obligations”.
3. Devolution of Power
Conference
resolved that item 39 of the 2nd schedule under the exclusive
legislative rights, privileges and facilities in the place of his/her choice
provided such a person list of the 1999 constitution (as amended) should be
retained in the exclusive list as specified, but amended to read: Mines and all
Minerals, including oil fields, oil mining, geological surveys and natural gas
provides that;
a)
The
government of the states where the mining activities take place shall be
involved in relating thereto.
b)
The
government of the federal shall create a special fund to develop mines and
minerals in states where such resources are underdeveloped.
State Police
State Police
The
police should be removed from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent
list. This will lead to the creation of state police by each state of the
federation.
Conference
also resolved that railways should be removed from the exclusive list of the
concurrent legislative list. This will shift the current emphasis on road
construction and lead to aggressive development of the rail sector with it
attendant multiplier effect on the economy.
Public Holidays
Conference also resolved that public holidays
be moved from the exclusive to the concurrent legislative list. This will give
states the latitude to declare holidays reflective of the values of its own
people.
4. Resource Control
4. Resource Control
Having
critically examined the issues in contention, conference recognized the need
to:
1)
Review
the percentage of revenue allocation to states producing oil (and other
resources
2)
Reconstruct and rehabilitate areas affected
by problems of insurgency and internal conflicts.
3)
Diversify the Nigerian economy by fast-tracking
the development of the solid mineral sector.
Conference
also noted that assigning percentages for the increase in derivation principle
and setting up special intervention funds to address issues of reconstruction
and rehabilitation of areas ravaged by insurgency and internal conflicts as
well as solid mineral development, require some technical details and
considerations.
Conference therefore recommended that
government should set us a technical committee to determine the appropriate
percentages on these three issues and advise government accordingly.
There should also be a constitution provision
for the establishment of a special fund for the development of mineral
resources in the country.
Conference
resolved that Nigeria shall retain a federal system of government with states
as the federating units. However, without prejudice to states constituting the federating
units, states that wish to merge may do so in accordance with the constitution
of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), States House of Assembly shall be guaranteed of
financial autonomy by law.
State
Creation
After
exhaustive debates on the issue, conference resolved as follows:
That in the spirit of reconciliation,
equity, fair play and justice, there shall be created an additional state for
the south-east zone and that state creation should be based on parity between
the geo-political zones to ensure equality of states. Additional states should
be created among the six (6) geo-political zones to bring the number in each
zone to nine (9) Consequently, eighteen (18) more states one of which shall be
ANIOMA state from Delta State to make Nigeria a 54 state federation.
Regionalism
After
extensive consideration of regionalism/zones, conference resolved as follows;
i)
That
states shall be the federating units
ii)
That
any group of states may create a self-funding zonal commission to promote
economic development, good governance, equity, peace and security in accordance
with the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria as amended.
Local Government
Areas
Conference
resolved that the list of the local government areas as contained in the 1st
schedule of the 1999 constitution as amended be removed and transferred to the
state houses of assembly.
The functions of the local governments as
contained in schedule 4 of the 1999 constitution (as amended) shall be
transferred to the states subjects to the powers of the state houses of
assembly to add or reduce the said functions of the local government.
Conference also recommended the amendment of
the constitution deleting the provision for a state independent electoral
commission.
Rotation of
Power
Conference
also recommended the inclusion of the principle of zoning and rotation of
elective office in the constitution at the federal, state and local government
levels on the bases of excellence, equity, gender, justice and fairness.
The office of the president is to rotate
between the north and south and among the six geopolitical zones. The office of
governor to rotate among the three senatorial zones, while the office of the
chairman of a local government council to rotate within the local government
area.
6. Traditional Rulers
Conference
recommended that traditional rulers should keep out of politics and recommend
the establishment of National Council of Traditional Rulers (NCTR). The
proposed council should exist at the federal level and its terms of reference
should include the involvement of traditional rulers in matters of tradition,
culture and dispute resolution. The membership of the proposed NCTR should
consist of chairmen of the state council of traditional rulers and two (2)
traditional rulers from each state including the FCT.
7. Minority Rights/Ethnic Minorities
7. Minority Rights/Ethnic Minorities
Conference
recommended that the federal government takes appropriate measures to ascertain
the exact number of all ethnic nationalities and their locations in Nigeria.
That in order to protect minorities and
ethnic group interests from extinction, because of superior pressure from other
ethnic groups and the tendency for other groups to dominate by politics of
ethnic cleansing, both the federal and regional or state constitutions shall
make the following provisions:
That we recognize the unconditional rights
and freedom of every and any ethnic nationality in Nigeria that considers
itself as unjustly subjected to real and perceived injustices of
marginalization, domination and suppression to join their kit and kin through
the instrumentality of relevant laws enacted and procedures established
consistent with either referendum or ‘plebiscite’ with their consequential
boundary adjustments provided such movements shall only be applicable to
communities with contiguous boundaries.
That for the purpose of inclusiveness,
appointments to public offices shall be based on federal and states character.
That the regions and/or states establish their own regional and/or states
character commissions.
8. Cost of Governance
The
number of political appointments and aids should be drastically reduced to free
more money for development.
9. Petroleum Industry Bill
Conference
resolved that the PIB should be passed before the tenure of the assembly
expires. The PIB should clearly criminalise gas flaring and offenders should
pay the commercial value of the gas flared.
Community
Participation
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 not make sense for business
or security of facilities. Communities prone to gas flaring should be
paid compensation for the effect of gas flaring.
Confab Report
The
detail report of the CONFAB is now in the public domain. The President has
subsequently set up an implementation committee that will advice government on
the best way to implement the recommendation of the conference. Many legal
experts have also given opinion as to the best way to handle the report of the
CONFAB.
DELTA 2015
In
another 6 months from now, in line with the timetable release by INEC, the 2015
general elections will be underway. As expect, there are a lot of activities in
the political firmament in Delta State as it concerns the Governorship of the
state as well as the Senatorial, House of Representatives and House of Assembly
elections. The NNU for the past two years have been clamouring for the zoning
of the governorship position to Delta North specifically Ndokwa nation. This
may have spurred an avalanche of our sons and daughters to indicate their
desire for the plum job of Governor of Delta State at the end of the tenure of
our Governor, His Excellency, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan.
I wish to state without fear of
contradiction, as at today your apex body, the NNU is only aware of the aspirations
of just two aspirants from Ndokwaland. This is because only these two persons
have deemed it necessary to visit the NNU executive and intimate us of their
desires and aspirations. However, as a person, I am aware of close to seven
Ndokwa indigenes that are vying for Governorship of our dear state. This is not
an encouraging situation.
In the larger polity of Delta State, we are
also aware of quite a number of politicians fro Ika, Aniocha-Oshimili and even
Delta Central and South that have come out to also vie for the Governorship of
Delta State. We are therefore calling this town hall meeting for all of us the
good people of Ndokwa Nation to discuss the way forward for us as a nationality
in the emerging geo-political equation in Delta State. Not a few well-meaning
patriots have complained to me about the large number of aspirants from
Ndokwaland. As a matter of fact, they have pointedly asked me to come out with
just one candidate. Some have also complained of what they perceive to be the
nomadic behaviour of a vast majority of our political leaders and followers and
followers and have questioned our inability to look inward and support any of
our sons and daughters. Others have also queried the apparent lack of
visibility of our Ndokwa aspirants.
Furthermore, the event of the past one week
concerning the visit of traditional rulers from Anioma congress to Aso Rock has
thrown up the fears that some of us have always had about our fraternity with
the people of the old Asaba division. Are we really part of Anioma? Must we be
overtly partisan and to what extent? Does our destiny lie in Anioma or
Urhobo’s/Isoko’s/Itshekiri’s/Ijaw’s of the Central and South Senatorial
districts? What role will the incumbent governor play? What role shall Chief E.
K. Clark play? What role will the President play? Are we prepared to walk the
talk? Are we prepared to put our money where our mouths are? Are we prepared to
sanction our people that betray our collective resolve?
This scenario raises many questions. I do
hope that this gathering will be able to answer these questions and more so
that after today the Ndokwa Nation will come out stronger, united, more focused
and decisive on our commitment towards producing the Governor of Delta State
come 2915. Let me once again reiterate the NNU’s unshakable commitment to the
emergence of a governor of Ndokwa extraction come 2015.
DELTA NORTH
SENATORIAL TICKET
Related
to the issue of 2015, it should be the concern of all of us who becomes the
Senator representing Delta North in the National Assembly. I believe that as
much as we are desirous of producing the Governor of Delta State come 2015, we
should not be oblivious of the need for us to decide who represents all of us
in the senate come 2015. I am aware that there are quite a number of aspirants
mainly from the Aniocha-Oshimili constituency who have thrown their hat into
the ring for the position of Senator. I believe that the Ndokwa Nation must not
sit back but must participate actively in who becomes the Senator representing
Delta North. This august gathering will also do well to come up with a
candidate who all of us can be proud to support.
There is no gainsaying the fact that we must
also determine for ourselves who represents us in the House of Representatives
and House of Assembly for Ndokwa- East Ndokwa, Ndokwa West and Ukwuani Constituencies.
POLITICAL DEBATE
For
some time now, there has been some form of clamour from the generality of our
people for the American style political debate for persons aspiring for
elective officers within our area of influence. As a matter of fact, during my
first Town Hall Meeting which held in April of this year, our people spoke very
loudly on the need to organize not just a political debate but also a forum for
elected and appointed public office holders to also give an account of their
respective stewardship. We are convinced that our democracy has come of age and
that strongly support this clamour. Accordingly, we are working with the Ndokwa
Study Group under the leadership of the acting chairman Dr. Norris Ovili to
collaborate with us to organize debates in Ndokwa-East, Ndokwa-West and Ukwuani
Local Government Areas respectively.
We however want to note here that the
debates for prospective political office holders should be for those who have
emerged as candidates of their respective parties and not mere aspirants. We
also believe that when this done at the LGA levels, the people are in a better
position to take a considered decision on the suitability of otherwise of the
prospective candidates.
I am sure that in a short while the Ndokwa
Study Group will come out with a timetable for this all important debate. Let
me at this juncture thank the Ndokwa Media Network for their laudable effort in
organizing the Ukwuani Debate on the 26th of September, 2014. Our
people must begin to take their destiny in their own hands despite the obvious
shortcomings of our democratic process and experiments in Nigeria. As the
saying goes, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a step”.
RAFFLE DRAW
You
will recall that at the last Biennial General Assembly held in December, 2013
part of the programme of activity was the organization of a raffle draw in
which certain prizes were to be won, Unfortunately, the planning committee ran
into a hitch in the process of organizing that part of the programme. I
promised thereafter that we would make future plans to ensure that we carried
the programme through.
I am therefore delighted that today we shall
be conducting the raffle draw that was not to be the last Biennial General
Assembly. I wish to thank you all who have participated in this raffle draw for
your patience and understanding. I also wish to thank all those who have
contributed in whatever way to the success of this rescheduled raffle draw.
CONCLUSION
I
wish to thank you all once again for answering this clarion call to discuss
issues of critical importance to our survival and progress as a nation. Our
people have a rich heritage of survival and excellence even in the face of
daunting obstacles. That is why our eleven year old son, Olaudah Equiano, sold
into salivary in the 18th century bought his freedom and with dint
of hard work and tenacity became the first ever African author. We are today,
again faced with a similar challenge, albeit in a different form and from a
different foe. History beckons on all of us here today to do the needful for
the emergence of a new look Ndokwa Nation that is free from the shackles of
marginalization, that is progressive, assertive and respected both nationally
and internationally.
I am confident that we have both the human
and natural resources to achieve this and more, by His Grace.
Long
live the Ndokwa Nation!
Long
live Delta Stat!
Long
live the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Paul
Osogbe Enebeli, FPCPharm, FANPharm, FPSN"
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