By our reporter| Governors, and people of the South-South geopolitical zone on Tuesday once again, demanded the restructuring of the country, in line with the principle of true federalism to guarantee peace, security, and stability of the nation.
According to them, Nigeria is not at peace with itself and not working as it should, particularly for the people of the region.
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, and Chairman of the South-South Governors Forum, who stated this as the position of the zone during the rescheduled regional stakeholders meeting with a presidential delegation in Port Harcourt, said the people of the South-South were committed to the restructuring of the country in a way that would guarantee true federalism and devolution of powers to the states under a federal structure.
Okowa advocated for true federalism guided by the principle of derivation, revenue sharing, and control of resources by each state of the Federation as it was the case in the first republic.
According him, the kind of federation the South-South desires is one where federating units are constitutionally empowered to create their own structures like local government areas, manage their elections, and control their judiciary.
“We are all aware of the huge endowment of this country; as such, it is imperative to stress that with a little bit of efforts, imagination, hard work, sacrifice and leadership, every state of the Federation as of today, has the ability and capability to contribute to the national purse.
“This should be encouraged rather than the whole country depending substantially on a region of the country,” he said.
“What is worse and even more painful in this ugly situation is the deliberate lack of understanding, empathy and the uncompromising attitudes of some Nigerians, who have refused to understand the challenges of the South-South region of the country especially, the degradation of the environment and our waters.
“As a result, most of the demands of the region have remained unattended to while the resources of the region have been used continually to develop other parts of the country”.
Okowa also reiterated the call for the relocation of the headquarters of major oil companies from Lagos and Abuja to the South-South.
He further requested the immediate implementation of the consent judgment entered in the Supreme Court Suit No: SC/964/2016 to enable the South-South region get its share of the $55billion shortfall of collection on deep offshore and inland basin production sharing contracts.
He called for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the region’s major seaports in Port Harcourt, Calabar, Warri, in order to enhance the economic development of the region as well as the privatisation of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries.
“Enough is enough. Let us now privatise them and in doing so, however, allow the states and the region among others, considerable equity in the name of fairness and justice,” he said.
The leader of the presidential delegation and chief of staff to President Muhammmadu Buhari, Professor Ibrahim Gambari in his remark explained that the stakeholders meeting was at the instance of the President, who wanted the delegation comprising all the ministers from the region to visit and consult with representatives of the people regarding the recent #EndSARS protest.
Beyond the issue of #EndSARS, he said the President acknowledged that the people in the region have been dealing with other concerns that were particular to them, such as the degradation of the environment due to decades of mishandling and adherence to environmental standards.
Professor Gambari promised to convey the demands of the governors and leaders of the region to the President.
Present at the meeting were Governor Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Governor Ben Ayade (Cross River), Governor Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom), Governor Douye Diri (Bayelsa), and Godwin Obaseki (Edo).
Ministers present included Godswill Akpabio (Niger Delta), Timipre Sylva (State for Petroleum), Goddy Agba (State for Power), Festus Keyamo (State for Niger Delta), Osagie Ehanire (Health), and Lai Mohammed (Information and Culture).
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