The Southsouth is angry with the North over the position of Northern delegates to the National Conference calling for the review of sharing of oil proceeds.
The North wants all the states of the federation to share proceeds from off-shore oil and a reduction in the current 13 per cent derivation for the oil bearing states.
Mr Amorighoye Mene, a Niger Delta leader and member of the Itsekiri Leaders of Thought; Samson Mamamu, the Regent of Ogbe-Ijoh Warri Kingdom, and outspoken activist Chief Ayirimi Emami described the paper as insulting and threat to the peace and unity of the country.
Mene, a lawyer, said: “The position of ACF and northern governor is threat to the peace, unity and peaceful coexistence of Nigeria. That is why we are calling for restructuring of Nigeria because until we do, we cannot move forward.”
He opined that the current structure of the country encourages some regions to be lazy and unproductive to the detriment of the growth and development of the country.
He said:“Some people cannot at one end of the country refuse to be productive, just lay back and enjoy oil resources without contributing anything and at the end of the day turn around to call us (Niger Deltans) fools.”
Mene also debunked claims by the ACF that the resources of the North were used to explore oil in the region, explaining that foreign investors and oil multinationals who started oil exploration did so with their funds.
“They should realise that they are talking to very educated people in the Niger Delta, who followed the developments of this country, who actively participated in the negotiation of Nigeria independence.
“This kind of assertion provokes the Niger Deltans because their position tends to look at us as uninformed, uneducated.
“When the ACF claimed that they are the owners of oil or that it is owned by Nigerian without looking at the devastating effect of its exploitation, they seem to call us fools and this is what is really annoying us, as a people who are feeling the impact of the oil exploration while people who have failed to exploit their own resources fail to realise the problem we are passing through and then begin to claim that the resources belong to them. It is provocative to the extreme,” he added.
Speaking in the same vein, Mamamu, a former Chairman of the Western Zone of the Ijaw National Congress (INC) said the call for reduction in the sharing formula “is unacceptable by both the dead and living.
“The minimum demand of the Niger Delta people is 50percent or a slight difference.”
He cautioned northern leaders and other Nigerians against debating the issue of resource control with greed and the tendency to oppress and cheat their Niger Delta people.
In his reaction, Chief Ayirimi Emami, who is the Chairman of the Itsekiri Regional Development Committee, said there is a conspiracy by northern elites to subject the Niger Delta region to perpetual underdevelopment in spite of their resources.
“The conspiracy to deprive the Niger Delta benefit of their God-given resources has been on for decades. Anybody who tried to fight the injustice is brought down. Look at what happened to Chief James Ibori; his travails today are a result of his opposition to the rape of the Niger Delta.
“People must realise that ultimately they cannot stop us from enjoying the benefits of our resources. At the end of the day, truth and justice will prevail.”
He urged the people of the Niger Delta and other parts of the country to rise up in unison to insist on true fiscal federalism and resource control.
The IYC, speaking through its spokesperson, Mr Eric Omare said the Northern position is highly provocative, insulting, inciting, unpatriotic and deliberately prepared to instigate Niger-Deltans to take up arms against the Federal Government.
source: nigerianeye
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