In recent times, the Federal Government has been working on two options towards resolving the Niger Delta crisis. As the option of holding either a summit or a series of discussions is being considered, the FG has also stepped up its military campaign aimed at reducing criminal activities in the region. While clearing the air on the choice of Professor Ibrahim Gambari as the steering committee chairman of the abandoned Niger Delta summit, the Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, however, re-opened the controversial derivation principle and the FG�s position on it. In the opinion of the VP, the present 13 per cent derivation figure cannot be reviewed upwards without going through constitutional amendment.
Though the Vice President believes, rightly, that a new derivation figure is at the heart of the Niger Delta crisis, he thinks it will be impossible to arrive at a new figure without amending the 1999 Constitution. The position of the Supreme Court on derivation is however different from the commonly held opinion.
As clearly stated in the Supreme Court�s judgment delivered in April 2002 on the seaward boundary of a littoral state, nothing in the 1999 Constitution says the amount paid to producing states should be 13 per cent. The figure is just the minimum payment permitted by the Constitution. The ceiling is not fixed and can therefore be moved upwards if there is the political will to do so. The argument against an immediate increase in the derivation figure is therefore baseless.
There is a growing consensus that the main solution to the crisis is an upward review of the derivation sharing formula for the proceeds of the nation�s petroleum and gas resources from the present 13 per cent.
Those who are against an upward review of the derivation percentage have argued, for instance, that some states in the Niger Delta took home as much as N42 billion while many of the non-oil producing states got a paltry N6 billion. The opponents of the review therefore insist that if the huge resources have not translated into developmental projects and enhanced living standards for the people, then a further increment will be useless.
More than a year into the Yar�Adua administration, it is regrettable that this view is still holding back peace in the region. Instead of dousing tension, the administration�s budgetary proposal of N444.6 billion for Security and the Niger Delta, which is 20 per cent of the total Federal Government budget for 2008, is yet to make any impact on the security in the volatile region. As the proposed summit hit a dead end, the British government�s offer of military assistance to the country has also been roundly condemned.
Unfortunately, the present crisis can be traced back to January 1966 when Nigeria stopped operating a truly federal fiscal structure. The result of the skewed federal structure is that the region that produces 80 per cent of the nation�s revenue has turned out to be the most underdeveloped and the worst environmentally abused.
A United Nations Development Programme report states that �the Niger Delta is a region suffering from administrative neglect, crumbling social infrastructure and services, high unemployment, social deprivation, abject poverty, filth and squalor and endemic conflict.�
The Supreme Court has already cleared the way for the derivation percentage to be increased without amending the Constitution. The National Political Reform Conference has also recommended an increase in the level of derivation from the present 13 per cent to 17 per cent in the interim.
The FG should immediately work on the diversification of the economy to stop the present total reliance on oil. Each state should explore its own resources in line with federal principle.
Source: The Punch