Decolonization through resource control
by
There is a mystic wind blowing across the country. Its latest palpable manifestation is the unprecedented clamour for resource control by the South-South. This breeze is impacting differently upon the consciousness of the various ethnic nationalities within Nigeria and provoking archetypal responses because of the realization that this phenomenon has the potentiality to precipitate radical socio-economic and political conditions and attitudes.
All across the South-South, there is no mistaking the fact that the bottled emotions let loose by the thunderous clamour for resource control is cathartic. What all these showcase is the fact that the primordial impulse back of this latest agitation is generated by a cosmic necessity, which cannot be extinguished until it fulfills its creative purpose.
It would appear that the South-South governors are intuitively perceptive and are doing their level best to attune with the aggregate yearnings of their peoples. From their posturing there seem to be a recognition among them to treat the current struggle for resource control as the unavoidable epic battle of the long-suffering South-South minorities for the strangulation of the monstrous national myth that marginalized and defrauded them of the benefits of their God-given resources; that is the baseless myth that was conjured to give others power to rule over them and have unfettered dominion over their resources. Put succinctly, as far as the South-South is concerned, the struggle for resource control is the psychological equivalent of the war for the decolonization of the mind and territories, demystification of the senses, liberation of the intellect and emancipation of the total humanity of the natives of ethnic nationalities of the coastal states from the manacles of indigenous colonialism.
Judging from the vehemence of the condemnation for resource control from especially political leaders from the Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba ethnic nationalities, there is no doubt that this traditional profiteers of the exploitative plundering policies of government are as vexed as afraid. Through threats and blackmail, efforts are being made to canonize the phrase "Resource Control" as a national shibboleth. Put differently, if this were a military dispensation, a decree could have been cobbled to criminalized any person who dare to secretly or openly canvass the idea of resource control.
Alas, we are in a democracy and things are expected to be done according to "the will of the people" and the rule of law. To substantiate this dictum, the will of the people compelled political power to momentarily shift to the South West. The same "will of the people", according to the Vice President, is the chief reason behind the introduction of the Islamic legal system in some Northern States. Why is there so much outrage in some quarters that the "will of the people" of the South-South is compelling and propelling their elected and traditional leaders to rebel against the status quo by demanding for the total control of all the natural and mineral resources in their territory? Is the "will of people" no longer a potent political force which any leader can only discountenance to his peril? Or are the South-South leaders expected to be unresponsive to the "will of their people" because it is out of synch with the desires of the neo-colonialists?
It is apparent that in the unfolding struggle, the Victor Attahs and Iboris are reconciled to the will and aspiration of their peoples because that is the noblest thing to do in the circumstances. The confetti of intellectual, moral, legal, diplomatic and spiritual support being showered on them only advertises the fact that the South-South leaders are carrying their peoples along on this one. What this support further demonstrates is the forceful message that Akwa-Ibomities and all other South-Southerners are very sick and tired of being colonized by their own countrymen; they are saying they are thoroughly nauseated by the decaying effluvia of the on-shore/off-shore oil superstition. This policy was a cruel superstition fostered on the country, through military fiat, by the greed,, insincerity, callousness and blatant contempt of the so-called minority South-Southerners by the indigenous colonizers that controlled the reins of political power from 1960 up till date.
It is against this background that one sees the resource to the Supreme Court to be ill-advised. The structural imbalances, insults and obvious discriminations against the South-South that compelled the agitation for resource control would not and cannot be resolved in or by the Supreme Court. Throwing the Abubakar 1999 Constitution at the South-Southerners adds a comic dimension to the debate.
From the outset of the Forth Republic, the Abubakar Constitution has come under severe criticisms. Some justifiably say that it is made up of irreconcilable contradictions while no less a legal authority like Chief Rotimi Williams has publicly baptized it as the most fraudulent constitutional document ever contrived by man. With this in view, let no sane person expect the South-Southerners to accept any court ruling, based on this defective Constitution, especially if that ruling re-enforces the feelings of oppression, subjugation and marginalisation.
Perhaps it is pertinent here to expose the method or manner the ownership of, especially, crude oil was arrived at by the Federal Government of Nigeria. Before 1914 and up till 1960, Nigeria was colonized by Britain. As is historically typical of all colonizers, the British invented unique methods of maximizing the material benefits of and perpetuating colonialism. One of these was the deliberate designing and enforcing through all manners of coercion, policies, laws and attitudes that hold the colonized natives captive, inferiorize their humanity and fiendishly exploit their natural resources to the exclusive benefit of the British colonizers.
Section one of the Mineral Ordinance Act of 1945 promulgated by the British Colonial office is typical of the aforementioned policy.. This ordinance stipulated that "the entire property and control of all mineral and mineral oil, in, under, or upon any land in Nigeria, and of all rivers, streams, and water course throughout Nigeria, is and shall be vested in the crown." By the crown was meant the British Colonial Government.
At Independence in 1960, Sarduana, Awolowo and Azikiwe, who assumed the rulership of the Northern, Western and Eastern regions respectively, drastically modified the practice of this obnoxious ordinance. Since these three groups were in the majority in their different domains, they collectively agreed to fashion the 1963 Constitution in such a manner that it legitimized their control of not less than 50 per cent of all revenue accruing from the mineral and natural resources within their territories.
This arrangement was, however, changed in the 1970s. During the Gowon era of 1966-1975, two significant political and economic developments occurred. Political expediency necessitated the metamorphosis of the former three big regions into twelve states and oil became the mainstay of the national economy. The Mid-Western State (now Delta and Edo) was fractured from the big (Yoruba) Western region. The South Eastern State (now Cross River and Akwa Ibom) and Rivers State (now Bayelsa and Rivers) were caved out of the political influence and protection of the (Ibo) Eastern region. These developments encouraged and facilitated the grand plot by the troika to commander the vast natural resources of the voiceless states of the minority South.
The Civil War of 1967-1970 having psychologically and militarily vanquished the Ibos, the Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba Military Officers and politicians predominated the Gowon administration. In the early 1970s, this two big tribes ganged-up and abolished the 50 per cent derivation policy entrenched in the 1963 Constitution. To particularly spite the Ndigbos and generally to demonstrate the abiding scorn for and ensure a complete economic emasculation of the minority South-South, Gowon and his tribe of indigenous colonizers enacted the villainous Decree 9 of 1971.
In part, the essential proclamation of the decree was that "the rights of the regions (read South-South States)and the minerals (read crude oil and gas) in their continental shelves are abrogated and ownership and title to the territorial waters, continental shelf as well as royalties, rents and other revenues derived from or relating to the operations, prospecting or searching for or winning or working of petroleum from seaward appurtenances of the states are vested in the Federal Government" (controlled by the Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba militricians).
Any averagely intelligent person cannot fail to discover that the above decree was expressly a revised version of the British Colonial mineral ordinance of 1945. By this very decree, Gowon officially ordained the Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba Military officers as the new Colonial Masters of the post-war Nigeria estate. Through this decree, the Gowon junta arrogated to itself the privilege and power to replicate the injustices done by the British colonialists against the generality of the Nigerian peoples in the defeated Ibos and the rich but powerless South-South.
For all those unconscionably brandishing the so-called constitution and gleefully citing the Territorial Water Act, Exclusive Economic Zone Act, Land Use Act etc, we simply ask: How many senior military officers of South-South extraction were in the powerful cabal that fashioned the decrees that facilitated the discriminating and fraudulent policies that debarred the South-South and other minority states full benefit of their resources? How many South-South leaders were consulted before the promulgation of decrees 9 of 1971 or the Obasanjo Land Use Decree of 1976? Why did the Gowon junta jettison the 50 per cent derivation formula immediately it became established that the minority South-South were in control of 90% of the source of our natural wealth? Was there any referendum agreed to by the authentic representatives of the Nigerian peoples and interests before these obscene and fascist policies were smuggled into the 1979 and 1999 Constitutions? If we, the authentic Nigerian peoples, did not agree or consent to some fundamental issues in the Constitution, certainly we cannot and should not allow ourselves to be bound by it.
The fact we are establishing here is that if Osogbo, a Yoruba community, or Ihiala, an enclave in the Ohaneze territory or Funtua, a settlement in the heart of Arewa were to produce as much as 10 per cent of the petroleum in this country during the Gowon era, the troika of indigenous colonizers could not have abrogated the 50 per cent derivation policy of 1963.
We have said that since the outbreak of the mystic wind of change, there have been archetypal responses from different parts of the country. Some self-opinionated Northern leaders, who insisted upon and introduced the shariah Legal System in their domain are projecting the view that all on-shore and off-shore oil are the exclusive property of the Federal Government of Nigeria operating from Abuja and all the revenue there from must be shared equally to all the federation states. This kind of dubious logic can only issue from the mind set of a foppish freeloader.
In the West, the same genre that fought for and had political power handed over to them, are insulting our collective intelligence with the untruth that the struggle for resource control would sow the seed of discord and eventually dismember Nigeria. The truth of the matter, however, is that the overbearing attitude of the powerful troika who use their temporal hold on power to fashion laws and conditions and brazenly indulge in actions that deprive and injure the legitimate benefits and privileges of the minorities within the Nigeria state pose the greatest threat to this democracy and unity of Nigeria, it simply means that the foundation of that unity is faulty and needs a serious restructuring.
Relinquishing at least 50 per cent of the revenue accruing from the natural resources of the South-South states to their peoples is one of this fundamental restructuring that must be carried out now. If we frustrate the South-South peoples and other restive minority groups, by act of omission or commission, to forcefully reclaim their due, the animosity and centrifugal force that may be unleashed by that action may precipitate the dismemberment of Nigeria. Let us listen to the mystic message in the wind—"those that make peaceful changes impossible..."