We Who Have No Resources to Control 

by

Bolaji Abdullahi

Since the battle over resource control escalated many weeks ago, I had promised myself not to comment on the controversy anyhow. I had two compelling reasons for adopting this "siddon look" posture. One, many of my friends and colleagues are from the Niger Delta.

I know how passionate they are on the matter and since I do not trust myself to say exactly what they would like to hear, I thought it better to keep quiet. Two, I believe for one to speak authoritatively on resource control with the degree of rage and passion required for such matters, one must be intimately involved. I am from Kwara State, therefore, I am not sure I have any resource to control. And when people begin to ask, 'which one be your own?' I wouldn't know how to respond.

However, two things happened last week that jolted me out of my complacency. One was in Lagos, the other in Maiduguri in Borno State. Alhaji Mohammed Bulama, the Managing Director of Bank of the North and a leading member of the Arewa Consultative Forum said something that must agitate the mind of anybody interested in the economic survival of his community. Speaking at the North-East Zonal sensitization seminar on business and investment organised by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC), Alhaji Bulama alleged that the north has been short-changed in terms of resource discovery. According to him, the two major exploration projects commissioned in Alkaleri, Bauchi State in 1979 and along the shores of Lake Chad in 1999 to prospect for crude oil was indeed suspended for political reasons and not because the precious commodities could not be found in commercial quantities. The north, he said, is in possession of high intelligence information to back up this claim and is therefore prepared to give the Federal Government a fight to compel the geologists to return to sites.

Alhaji Bulama, who is also the Shettima Kuwama of Borno, I must say, was only echoing what his royal father had said several times. The Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Mustapha Umar El-kanemi had always maintained that his state is practically floating on oil and only a little persistence is required before the precious commodity comes gushing forth. And with all his royal might and main, he had vowed that if it took 30 years to discover oil in the swampy jungle of the Niger Delta, the north is prepared to commend half a century to the enterprise until the goal is reached wherever it is hiding within the earth crust. But I digress. What did Alhaji Bulama said last week that had fired my interest on the issue of resource control? According to him, "In these days of advocating for resource control by some sections of the country, no zone can afford to rest in its oars as far as resource control is concerned." That, to me, was a wake up call.

The second incident, like I said, happened in Lagos. The action governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Bola Tinubu, as if taking his cue from Alhaji Bulama headed for the court. In a suit filed by the state Attorney-General, the erudite Professor Yemi Osibajo, Lagos State wants the court to declare, among several other things, that it is entitled to "13 per cent of whatever revenue is derived from the territorial waters abutting the coast of the state (Lagos)." Accordingly, Lagos State also wants the court to define "natural resources" as "any material in its natural state which when exploited has economic value." I used to think that "resources" equal only to crude oil. But thank God, in the context of the Lagos State definition, I now understand that "resources" also include all the fish, crayfish and crabs from the Atlantic. And of course, any "material in its natural state" that can bring money to the owners.

Consequent upon the instructions from these two incidents, I have ruminated carefully over the fate and fortunes of my state and those other states in the same or proximate categories with mine and hereby come up with the following proposals.

Governor Mohammed Lawal of Kwara State must proceed immediately to assemble a group of experts to conduct geological studies and sedimentology analysis of Oyun River, with the sole purpose of oil exploration. I believe, lying deep in Kwara's earth, waiting to be discovered is a limitless reserve of oil. Moreover, all boreholes and deep wells currently being dug for water should be converted to oil exploration projects. The people must be prepared to go without water. Afterall, some level of sacrifice is required from everyone if we must carry this through. Besides, since the level of injuries suffered or sustained is a substantial basis for calculating the compensation formula, the more people suffered in the process of discovering the oil, the stronger our case for reparation.

More importantly however, since oil prospecting is not such that is expected to yield immediate results, we may have to begin to turn our attention to other resources in the interim. It is heartening to hear that Kwara, Kogi, and Niger have already joined forces to crusade for the control of the River Niger and all the resources accruable there from. This, I must say is highly commendable. In addition to control, I understand our governors would be asking to be compensated for the years of exploitation of our own dear Niger, which the great Mungo Park had benevolently discovered for us. The Kainji and Shiroro dams have been major sources of electricity to this country for years. Is it therefore not in the interest of justice, that we be awarded our own 13 per cent (minimum please) of the revenue derivable from every single watts of electricity that have been generated in this country? Please note that I used the word generated, not supplied. We need to make this distinction so that somebody does not come up with the silly argument about how NEPA has failed Nigeria. Just like the oil states do not take responsibility for the failure of NNPC, we also have no business with NEPA.

Besides all these however, I think it is about time those of us who have no oil came together under a single umbrella as Association of Non-oil Producing States (ANPS) and became a little more imaginative in defining what our own resources are and how it has benefited the rest of the country, including the oil states. In this, Lagos has shown the way. And I think this is one major advantage of having someone whose "eyes are open" as governor. Lagos state has just taught us that there is no single state in this country that does not have some resources to control. Those who don't have oil have water. Those who don't have water have desert. Those who don't have desert have forest. Those who don't have forest have cows. And those who don't have cows have other marketable commodities. We must however, thank God that nobody is yet claiming ownership of the air we breath and asking for the control of it. Otherwise, were such people to ask for 90 per cent derivation of this particular resources, we wouldn't need the court to settle it.