I’ll die for resource control — Attah
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I had not been to Uyo, capital of Akwa Ibom State, for about three years, until last weekend when I honoured Governor Victor Attah’s invitation to spend the weekend with him in Uyo. It turned out to be an eye opener, an educative incursion and 48 hours of rest, in many ways.
Four changes immediately arrested my attention. First, the skyline of the city, especially in the area called Estate is wearing a festive, bustling look, a view that tempts one to remember the noveau riche Parkview Estate and Victoria Island Extension in Lagos. There is a heavy competition in that large expanse of land as each new developer tries his or her utmost to beat the architectural design of the last builder. The houses springing up there are a major wonder to behold.
The streets too are experiencing Lagos type traffic jams. In the well-paved boulevards which reflect the pain some of the earlier regimes had taken to implement the Uyo city master plan, incidentally put together by Obong Attah years ago, Jeeps, Mercedes Benzes of all shapes and hues, are in a wondrous competition with the Hondas, the Toyotas, even as more and more Tokunboh car marts proliferate in the city.
There is hardly a pothole to be seen in the extensive drive round the city. With major streets and roads refurbished, attention, I was made to understand has shifted to the numerous inlets of roads that pour into the major roads. I was to later use this to tease Obong Attah. What, I asked him, are you doing about the potholes in the city? "Potholes?" he shot back. "No; not in Uyo! There are no potholes in Uyo"
Another easily noticeable change is in the supermarkets which are overflowing with imported consumables, with cash registers ringing continuously. Ostentatious lifestyle is the order of the day.
There is no doubting the fact, however, that a fresh breath of economic prosperity has enveloped the city.
As Obong Attah himself later testified, something positive has happened to the psyche of the people; docility has been replaced by a boldness of character, an I-can-do spirit, hard to define.
One unmistakable benefit of the visit is the new insight, a sort of perspicaciousness to the resource control fight between the oil states and the federal government. First, does the Supreme Court really have a say in a matter like resource control? What is the relationship between resource control and the 13% derivation principle? Will resource control not deprive other states of the money that comes from oil. The Akwa Ibom State governor provided me with a clear insight.
Onshore, offshore, he said, must be separated clearly from the concept of resource control. "The one, if you wish can even be considered legal; the non-legal aspect is given that Nigerians have on several occasions, among themselves agreed, and laws have even been passed that there will never again be onshore, offshore. But resource control is a revolutionary idea. And anytime you introduce anything that seems in anyway to depart from the norm or in anyway iconoclastic, people will shout ‘no, no, no’ because people in the first instance like to say ‘no’ to change even if the change is for the better. I want to remind us and we will remember when power shift was first mentioned, there was a big outcry that it was going to split this country; we can never surrender power - who started this idea? But gradually people got educated about the absolute need for this, even for the sake of the country."
According to him, the reason we are enjoying democracy is because we reconciled ourselves to the concept of a power shift and along with it an unwritten aspect which is rotatory presidency.
"Resource control now seems like another revolutionary idea. People are shouting ‘no, no, no.’ But when they begin to understand clearly what resource control means, and it is something that will take time for people to begin to understand and get used to; I accept. Even if the court were to decide today, it will go beyond the constitution. But believe me, there is nothing for the court to decide where resource control is concerned. Can you ask the court to decide whether anybody should ask for state police? Can you ask the court to decide whether anybody should call for sovereign national conference? We are calling for resource control. It is for Nigerians to debate: What is this resource control? How do we apply it? How do we attain it? And if we agree we say yes and we adopt it. If we don’t agree, we say no, and we don’t adopt it. What has the court got to do with that?"
Resource control, he said, does not mean my seizing hold; there are laws that say I cannot seize hold. If I were to seize hold of the resources, that would no longer be resource control but resource ownership, if you wish. But the ownership matter has been settled. If there was resource control, I would have a say in how even the mineral is exploited in my backyard. Nobody would be flaring gas if I have resource control. Certain benefits that come from the royalties and so on would accrue to me."
He explained that by the laws which exist today in Nigeria, if he controls those resources, "since derivation has been put at a minimum 13%, that means I will be paying a maximum of 87% into the federation account. It doesn’t mean I will be keeping all of the 100 per cent that accrue from my natural resource. I think this is what people are afraid of, that resource control means transfer of resources. No. The laws are very clear on how minerals are owned. Until they are changed we cannot depart from those laws.
"Resource control does not mean that suddenly the rest of Nigeria will not enjoy oil money. So long as derivation remains at 13 percent, they would still enjoy 87 percent," he added with a smile.
Governor Attah was to add the clincher when asked how far he was willing to pursue the cause of resource control: "I can only quote you a statement that I have made before; and it is not original: The only thing that can overtake me now, at my age, is death. And I will die to see that justice is done and that equity is maintained. You take that away from a man and you strip him naked because if you don’t treat him with respect, if you don’t treat him equitably, if you don’t give him justice, then you have turned him into a slave. I was not born a slave."