— FG extends confab by 1 month
By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
The ongoing National Conference has rejected a minority report submitted by a delegate and member of the Committee on Devolution of Power, Ms Ankkio Briggs, who disagreed with the submission of the main panel which addressed sundry issues, including resource control and derivation.
This came following the presentation of the panel’s report at plenary yesterday by the chairman of the committee, Obong Victor Attah, who was joined on the floor by his co-chairman and former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Coomassie.
In rejecting the document, chairman of the conference, Justice Idris Kutigi, declared that there was no provision for the accommodation of a minority report in the rule book designed to regulate the proceedings of the conference.
“Minority reports are unknown to our rules. Therefore, this minority report is accepted but will be marked rejected,” he said.
But Dr Isaac Osuoka, a civil society representative from the South-south, objected to the position.
He stood up and made frantic efforts to express support for the separate submission made by Briggs but was not given the opportunity to speak, as the chairman declined to grant him audience.
Osuoka threatened to mobilise the Niger Delta people to return to the creeks if the conference failed to accede to the 50 percent derivation demanded by the people of the area.
Shouting at the top of his voice, Osuoka, who is one of the delegates representing a civil society group from the South-south, alleged that the decision of the leadership to jettison the report was a ploy to gag the minority tribes and suppress their views at the conference.
Later, he told reporters that the people of Niger Delta would take the matter “to the creeks” if the conference failed to understand the need to address the fundamental issues raised by the people.
He accused Kutigi of carrying out a vested northern agenda, saying, “The chairman has decided that they have to shoot down the minority report. The chairman was in a hurry to rule on this matter, showing there is a premeditated position with a clear instruction from his ethnic nationality to shoot down this minority report.
“We cannot move this country forward if we continue this way. The idea that majority groups can shoot down the views of the minority cannot continue to hold.
“Let us all be very clear, if this conference cannot address the fundamental issues, then we will take this battle to the creeks and address it at that level.”
Briggs said the issue of an increase in derivation to 50 percent was shot down and traded off by members of the committee in order to pacify the northern people.
“As far as I am concerned, I have done what I should do, on the fact that I am a member of a committee that refused to discuss the issue on ground of the proposal from the Niger Delta people that derivation should move up to 50 percent.
“But it was traded off against the issue of the North dropping their argument of removing Niger Delta Ministry, removing NDDC and phasing out the amnesty. And even the issue of onshore-offshore was traded off for the discussion of the 13 percent derivation.
“We didn’t discuss 13 percent derivation as to the point of somebody saying no! Okay, we agree, let it be 18 or 20 percent. That type of discussion was not held, and I felt that we were blackmailed into accepting the status quo. And therefore, on behalf of my people I objected to this very moment, and I will continue to object to the fact that it was not discussed. Not only was it not discussed, the status quo ante is not acceptable to us in the Niger Delta. And that is what led to my deciding on the minority report.”
Explaining why she wrote the minority report, she said: “I have not signed on the basis of the fact that I do not agree with one aspect of it. I will sign a document when you agree with the whole of the document. I refused to sign it because I do not agree with the whole of the document, so I can’t sign it.
“The document is yet to be discussed at plenary and is yet to be presented by the chairman and his co-chairman to the house. So, that my minority report has been rejected does not mean I will be gagged, I will still be able to speak on the floor as to why I refused to sign a document that has emerged from a committee in which I have served, and served from day one to the very last day.
“There is no doubt that this has not ended at all. There are other Niger Delta people, other South-south and others on the floor that support that derivation should increase.
“My minority report is not a personal thing for me, it is on behalf of the people that I serve and therefore has nothing to do with me as a person. I am still in the conference and still a member of that committee and will still make all the inputs I need to make that is good for my people, state, region and Nigeria.
“We are saying that we should have a situation that goes back to the times of 1963 Constitution, when people were allowed to have 50 percent of what was coming from their region but when it came to oil and gas it became a different situation. I refuse to accept that the Niger Delta should continue to receive only 13 percent derivation. I believe that there should be an increase. Not only that, I believe that there should be an increase of 50 percent for us. I also believe that we should control our resources and pay tax of not more than 50 percent. So, whether it is derivation of 50 percent or resource ownership and paying tax of 50 percent it amounts to the same thing and I think we will be satisfied. The issue of 13 percent is no longer acceptable to us in the Niger Delta.”
Meanwhile, the federal government has rejected a six-week extension demanded by the National Conference to enable it complete its work.
The office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) has therefore mandated the conference secretariat to close the conference on or before the July 17, 2014.
Chairman of the conference, retired Supreme Court Justice, Idris Kutigi, announced at the plenary yesterday that the conference would now have to adjust its schedule to comply with the directive.
He said: “We met with Secretary to the Government of the Federation yesterday and he has approved four weeks extension for us. We asked for six weeks but government approved four weeks. It therefore means we have to have additional sittings on Fridays, Saturdays and even probably on Sundays.”
He urged delegates to contribute progressively to debates rather than raising unnecessary objections, point of orders and observations on issues.
The announcement did not go down well with some delegates who insisted that sittings must not hold at weekends, starting with Fridays.
In his contribution, a delegate from Kebbi state, Dr. Bello Mohammed, suggested that if the secretariat could harmonise very well, the conference should be able to finish by the end of June, saying, “There is no need for extension.”
Another delegate, Chief Mike Ozekhome, agreed with a suggestion that the conference should start sitting each day by 9 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
In addition, he said, the lunch time should also be reduced from two hours to an hour in order to save more time.
To this end, the conference has readjusted time for commencement of deliberations from 10 a.m. to 9 a.m., with effect from Monday, May 26, 2014.
