The Senate and politics of Niger Delta development
After the Senators’ tour of the region and the president’s budgetary promises, the oil producing communities are waiting for the concretisation of promises on Niger Delta development, writes OSA VICTOR OBAYAGBONA
The signs are ev erywhere indicat ing that the present government is committed to the idea of putting the Niger Delta question on the front burner. You could see that in the next budget as presented to the National Assembly in which President Umaru Yar’Adua allocated a large chunk to Niger-Delta issues. It also did not come as a surprise that the just concluded senators’ retreat, the very first outing of members of the upper legislative House, took place in Port Harcourt, the unofficial capital of the region.Before the budget, the senators met for five days in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, for a retreat with the theme "Enhancing the Capacity of Legislators to Promote Good Governance, Order and Peace in Nigeria."
This came as a result of several motions moved by senators from the Niger Delta to draw attention to the dilemma of the people of the region.
Out of the five days meant for the retreat, a day was set aside for them to visit the creeks in the Niger Delta for on-the-spot evaluation of the state of affairs. Yar’Adua, who was represented by Goodluck Jonathan, vice-president, told the senators that the Niger-Delta crisis was a national emergency and as such a matter of national priority.
However, before the senators left for the creeks, they received some presentations from invited speakers which included Niki Tobi, justice of the Supreme Court; Chukwuma Soludo, governor, Central Bank of Nigeria; Michael Andoaaka, minister of justice, and Timi Alaibe, chief executive, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
It was a drama of sorts when Alaibe told the senators that NDDC lost N224-billion to the Federal Government in seven years due to the government’s refusal to obey the NDDC Act regarding the funding of the commission with13 percent derivation fund.
Alaibe said the commission got N284-billion, which represented 8 percent instead of 13 percent stipulated by the Act.
Alaibe, who presented $50-billion Niger Delta Region Development Master Plan to the senators, said the master plan for the development of the area would cover a period of 15 years, admitting that the master plan was achievable but legislations should be passed to make it realisable.
The third day of the retreat saw the senators breaking into three groups to visit Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Delta. The group to Delta State was led by David Mark; the group to Bayelsa was led by Ike Ekweremadu, deputy Senate president, and the third group to Akwa Ibom by Teslim Folarin, majority leader.
Unlike the usual smooth ride they have always had, the senators squeezed themselves into boats and canoes with life jackets strapped to their bodies. At every stage of their trip, they saw first hand the damaging effect of years of oil exploration in the area on the ecology and farm lands. They were confronted by large expanse of polluted waters with traces of oil.
Ekweremadu, after the visit to the creeks of Bayelsa, agreed with agitators for an upward review of the 13 percent derivation fund to the disadvantaged parts of the country.
In an eight point communiqué read after the retreat by the Senate majority leader, Folarin, the Senate advised that unless Nigeria moved at a faster speed the dream of Vision 2020 might remain elusive.
The communiqué said there was the "need for a sound fiscal policy and improved pre-budget consultations among all stakeholders to ease the passage of appropriation bills and the full implementation of the Appropriation Act henceforth."
On the need to provide development for the people of the Niger Delta, the communiqué said "there was the need to provide the necessary legislative backing and to bridge the funding gap in order to sustain and actualise the Niger Delta Master Plan."
Other issues highlighted in the communiqué included the need to amend the Legislative Houses (powers and privileges) Act of 1957, with a view to bringing it in conformity with the 1999 Constitution.
They all agreed that there was need for an Act of the National Assembly compelling the executive to enforce Senate Resolutions that were backed by two-thirds majority.
Another issue that came up for mention was the act setting up the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC), which they claimed needed to be amended in order to ensure that offenders were effectively investigated and prosecuted.
The tour of the creeks brought out the inefficiencies in governance that had existed since the past eight years of democracy on the part of the various governors who had ruled in the Niger-Delta states. No wonder many senators were however not impressed with the level of affairs but would want the state governors of the Niger-Delta region to be held responsible for the peoples’ plight. This is partially the true, therefore blaming the level of degradation to the greed of these governors who they accused of getting their priority wrong.
With the budget read, retreat concluded and reasons adduced for the need to tackle the Niger-Delta issues squarely, the questions in the minds of most Nigerians border on how to consolidate on the gains of the senators’ first hand experience to bring meaningful development to the region.
Barely one week after the president read the 2008 budget, controversies have continued to trail its analysis by the senators and other stakeholders. This has made people of the Niger Delta in particular and Nigerians in general to start querying the rationale behind the sum and the true nature of what the said amount is going to be used for.
According to Heineken Lokpobiri, a senator from Bayelsa State, the budget is not prepared to benefit the Niger-Delta people. "If you take the budget details together, you will discover that the whole amount is meant to buy arms and ammunition for the army and navy. It is not the amount of arms and ammunition that will guarantee peace but the level of development in the region."
Agreeing with his colleague, Nimi Barigha-Amange, also a senator from Bayelsa, said he went through the figures and from the breakdown, it did not contain Niger-Delta but army, navy and other sundry matters.
"The issue is not army or navy but lack of development and if that issue is taken care of, I don’t think we need army, navy or police. It is for the executive to explain to Nigerians the percentage of the N444.6-billion voted for security that is meant for development. My people of the Niger-Delta need development and not the presence of the army or navy."
On the part of Mike Iginni, a lawyer and human-right activist (as monitored in Minaj Television), it is a tragedy, my people are bittered and seriously aggrieved about the budget.
We are not satisfied with the N69-billion meant for the NNDC, remembering the arrears owned it. "Niger Deltans are highly unsatisfied; the provision to the NNDC is unsatisfactory, so there is no sincerity in the provision for development in the budget.
We totally have no representation in this budget. Security and Niger Delta should be separated."
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