Uduaghan: Nigeria won’t break up

Against the backdrop of the impending review of the 1999 constitution and calls for the break up of Nigeria, Delta State Governor, spoke to some journalists on issues, militating against the unity, growth, and prosperity of the nation. CHIDI OBINECHE, presents the excerpts.

What is your impression about the visit of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Review to your state? What has happened was that we were highly honoured as a state to host the Senate Committee on Constitutional Review. Their coming  enriched us as a state, it exposed us. But specifically, while at the plenary session, it was quite interesting because what I could come up with was that everybody was eager to do something about our constitution. It is obviously a constitution that requires some tinkering with. There is no doubt that no constitution is perfect. America has been trying to modify its constitution for several years now and we just started in 1999 till now. Because of our experience in the last 13 years or so in dealing with the constitution, many people have experienced the flaws and they believe we need to do some changes.

People in government, executive, legislature and judiciary, who have been using the constitution to manage the country, they have seen the weaknesses. Then the Nigerian people themselves, who have been governed with the constitution, they have also experienced the flaws. So, everybody, whether you are in or outside government, believes that we need to deal with the constitution and I believe that what will come out at the end will be the people’s constitution because what has been discussed did not just start today; it is as a result of the various observations and discussions that have been going on that have crystallised into what we have today.

You raised different issues at the event, which of the issues would you consider as the most important? For us in the south-south and as a state, the issue is really, what kind of federation are we practising? People have had their own definition of federation, ‘you either have a federation or you don’t have it, there is nothing like a false or true federation’; those are academic arguments as far as i am concerned. The truth is, if we say we are in a federation, are we really practicing federalism the way it should be?
The answer is no. so for us in the south-south, i said, ‘let us practise federalism the way it is known worldwide. What does that mean? There is a centre and the various states. In a real federation, the states are not appendages of the centre. There is no one big man up there and then you have the small men, and then the big man will start distributing crumbs to the small men down there, which seems to be happening now. What we are saying is this; there are 36 states and a federal government; for us, we will call it 37 governments. Yes, the federal government is bigger than the others but there are 37 governments in Nigeria. And the various governments should be able to manage the affairs, somehow independently, with all of us converging at the centre.

Coming down to specifics, we are saying that as a federation, the federal government is taking too many things and should be confined to certain areas and let the states do a lot more than they are doing now. Why should the federal government go to build primary schools and healthcare centres or boreholes? We believe that the states should handle that. But in so doing, we also need to review the allocation formula. I hear people say that the states should be generating their IGR but the reality is that Nigeria today still depends on oil you can call it 65 or 70, whatever percentage. Most of the revenue today, either at the federal or state, we still depend on oil. That is the situation. There has to be a proper way of dealing with the funds that come from the oil: who gets what? Who has the right to get what?

And we the states of the Niger Delta, the oil-producing communities, because of the challenge we have, and the difficulties in the terrain and in developing our area, justice and fair play demands we should be getting 100% and paying tax at the centre. But if that arrangement is not on, then they should increase the derivation to the various oil-producing areas.

And then we are also talking about security. Today, every part of this country is talking about one form of security problem, or another, and we think that with our long history we need to review our security arrangement, and one of the areas that we believe should be reviewed is the area that states that the states should have their own police. And from what I have heard today, for me, i think that seems to be one of the most exciting parts.

Now, agreed that there should be a state police, what is left is what should be the relationship between the state police and the federal police. And how do we ensure that when the state police is put up, it won’t be abused by the governor; those are fine issues that can be discussed. But as for the issue of having a state police, everybody knows and I speak in my position as a governor that if we don’t go that way, our security challenges will continue to get worse. So we have all these things as a fallout, and as for us in Niger Delta, today has been a great day for us.

You mentioned that the derivation formula should be revised, to what percentage are you suggesting? The minimum should be 50 %.

When is Delta State likely to have a local government election? Secondly, why have you reacted to the Kidnapping Bill the way you have reacted even though you are the most affected? On the issue of local government, there are two federating units in Nigeria, the federal government and the states. Look at the Nigerian law, the truth is that the local government is not a federating unit; the House of Assembly can make laws for the governing of local government council.

That is to clarify the issue of federating units. In the state, in my first tenure, I did a local government election so you cannot accuse me that I haven’t conducted a local government election before. Unfortunately, their tenure finished sometime last year. And you know we had the highest number of elections in Delta State at about that period. The tenure of that local governments finished and almost at the same time, the tenure of the Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC) expired. Unfortunately too, the DSIEC we have been having, also had its own challenges, in the sense that the membership of the DSIEC with the old law is lopsided, and there have always been complaints about the membership; some senatorial districts have more than others.

So we sent an amendment to the House to ensure that there is equity and justice in the representation at the commission level. That has been passed; we are just collating the list now which we will send to the House. Once the DSIEC is put off, we will give them 3-4 months and we will do election. I want to do election, I don’t run away from it; I was a governor when a local  government election was done before and I think it can be done again, I don’t have problems with that.

The second question was about kidnapping. First, what happened was that at the time the bill was passed, I didn’t give assent to it. Then they started a second one and between the time they brought it, was also not in office and all the things that followed and so the lifespan of that assembly passed. They have resuscitated that bill; they have had a public hearing, they have not quite finished; it has not been brought back to me. When they were doing the public hearing, I sent my Attorney-General to give them my own view.

And one of the things I did send him to do was to tell them that I don’t believe in death sentence for any crime, because death sentence has not stopped any crime in this world. Instead, sometimes, it has made the crime more deadly. Right now, people that are being kidnapped, we are able to get them one way or the other. I believe that if we now put a death sentence, the kidnappers may become more desperate knowing that if they are caught they will be killed.

Thus some of them might start killing more of their kidnapped victims. We have the case of Anini in Benin City who was executed publicly but yet robbery did not stop. I also believe that all human beings have the right to life, it is my principle. But the bill has not come back to me, I need to correct that impression. When they bring it back to me and I look at it, then I will let you know whether it is acceptable or not. Right now, there is no dispute between the executive and the legislature.

A lot of attention has been placed on constitution review, is the constitution really the problem of Nigeria? Secondly, there was a dispute between your administration and an elder statesman in this state. What is the status of that dispute now? We have reconciled fully. Nothing is static in this world, I don’t make permanent enemies and I don’t think anybody should make permanent enemies. In any case, we are even enemies, we only had political differences, he had the advantage of age, experience as a former commissioner, minister, senator. He has been a lot of things, so he had that experience.

He had his own style of putting up whatever he had against me, and I also had my own style of dealing with it, by not first responding, being abusive and rude, taking him as an elder, listening and reading some of the things he was talking about and the ones i could do, I did them. It got to a point that everybody decided that it was enough and that it was not in the interest of the state or the interest of anybody. We were rating him much more better than we used to rate him.

Then, on the issue of whether it is the constitution that is our problem, the answer is yes and no. No in the sense that we as a people have our own peculiarities. We have this attitude of not being very respectful to laws. For example, if you are supposed to be using this side of the phone, you rather want to use the back so that people will be seeing the front.