नीद फॉर फिस्कल फेदेरालिस्म इन NIGERIA

NEED FOR FISCAL FEDERALISM

Northern Governors are angry. Their anger is attributed to insinuations that they depend on oil proceeds from the Niger Delta region for the survival of their states. For the Chairman of the Northern Governor’s Forum, Dr. Babangida Aliyu to claim that the North is not depending on the oil resources of the South is the height of insincerity, deceit and hypocrisy. Can Aliyu tell the world the source of the funds that were used to develop Minna, the capital of his state, during the General Ibrahim Babangida era or the money spent and are still be spent on the Federal Capital Territory, where he was a key player.

The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines a parasite as a person who always relies or benefits from other people and gives nothing back. What is the contribution of Niger State to the federation account? People like Aliyu have been the bane of the North. They always refused to accept the truth and take deliberate action to correct whatever might have been wrong. Rather they would resort to ethnic and religious sentiments as well as paint a picture of southerners as the enemies of the North who must be destroyed if the North must have peace and progress. Such boastful declarations by Aliyu and his likes smacks of arrogance. And arrogance most of the time may not be a sign of courage or self confidence but an indication of inadequacies, low self esteem and inferiority complex. Trying to cover up some flaws or pretending to be what one is not.

Aliyu’s anger is that people from the Niger Delta are complaining that the North depends on the oil proceeds from the region for its developmental projects while the oil bearing communities are neglected. If this assertion is a lie, Aliyu should tell us the monthly internally generated revenue of his state and other sources of funding the Niger state government. Aliyu is behaving like the Ayatollah of Nigeria, Senator Sani Yerima, who declared Sharia in Zamfara but still went ahead and collected proceeds for vats, alcoholic drinks inclusive. Yerima and other apostles of Sharia should have insisted that VATS from alcoholic beverages should be set aside and shared among those states that do not practice Sharia law but this has not been the case. They share everything and if prostitutes were to pay vats, they would partake of it. Akwa Ibom people have a saying that (adia nkpo ino ino ke ado) whosoever shares in the booty of a thief is a thief, period. This is hypocrisy and nothing else. If you don’t allow the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages within your state why do you share in the proceeds thereof?

The Northern Governors should call off the Niger Delta bluff and reject further oil proceed-dominated federal allocations. If they can’t do that immediately then they have acknowledged that they cannot do without the oil revenue, till further notice. This means currently the North have no alternative source of income outside oil revenue. Why did they abandon agriculture, in the first place? Does the negative impact of oil exploitation activities in the Delta affect agriculture in the North? The North going back to agriculture should not be because they have been abused of being parasites rather farming would create jobs for the millions of Almajaris that roam the streets of the North. Agriculture would help check the food crisis in the country as oil is helping to check the energy crisis in the world. If the North returns to agriculture the problem of religious violence and clashes would have been reduced as the farmers after a hard day job would be too tired and unavailable as ready tools for mischief makers masquerading as religious puritans. But Aliyu should also be reminded that most of the dams and irrigation projects in the North that would be use for his agricultural renaissance were built from proceeds from Niger Delta oil. Even the subsidies on fertilizers are funded from Niger Delta oil. So when the proceeds from the agricultural revolution are harvested, for the first 50 years, the North should be entitle to five per cent derivation while 30 per cent should be given to the Niger Delta as ecological fund. The current derivation formula must be maintained whenever agriculture becomes the mainstay of the Nigerian economy and sole foreign exchange earner.

It is a contradiction that the infrastructural development in the Niger Delta does not reflect the huge resources in the region. Many have put the blame on the doorsteps of the leaders of the region but I disagreed with this line of thinking. The neglect of the region spans more than five decades and indigenous leadership in the administration of these states is less than a decade and no one can transform an area that was neglect for so long into a paradise in short time with the encumbering federal laws like the Petroleum Acts and Land Use Act, among other oppressive federal legislations. I would always put the blame on the federal authorities, though not exonerating the indigenous leaders who were in power, no matter how short. They fail to lay the foundation as well as give focus and direction as to what should be done to turn around the situation in the delta.


No man is an island. The resources that God deposited in the Niger Delta are not meant for the people alone. That is why world powers are falling over themselves to have a share of the oil through importation of the crude, and oil exploration in the region. The Niger Delta alone cannot use all the oil and gas products from their soil internally. God gave them more than enough so that they can share with others. But in sharing these resources with other Nigerians the Niger Delta people should not be left with the crumbs and the environmental degradation resulting from oil exploration activities. Everything that represents good that can be found in any part of Nigeria should be in Niger Delta by default, that is, good roads, schools, health facilities, potable water, reliable power supply, employment, sustainable development among others. Let the Niger Delta not be like the proverbial carpenter who make doors for other but have none in his house.

There is no part of Nigeria that cannot survive on its own. God knows why he brought us together and the colonialists later lump us as one country. The Akwa Ibom people have a saying that when God created mud, he also created water for washing. I believe in Nigeria and its continued existence as one country but this oneness must be on the basis of equality of all the groups that make up the country. No part of Nigeria should feel superior in the comity of all the nationalities that constitute this great country. No part of the country should feel it is indispensable. No part should think it can go all alone. No part of the country has monopoly over any virtue or vice. I always tell people that there is nothing wrong with Nigeria. No country is like Nigeria and will never be, despite our shortcomings. Nigeria is a great country and would always remain great. But the problem of Nigeria is we, Nigerians, simply.

For national unity, peace and stability we should do good to all manner of Nigerians no matter where they come from. The North opposition to 50 per cent derivation formula, (which they enjoyed in the 60s) at the National Political conference showed that they depend on oil resources. And given 50 per cent to communities that generate federal revenue would reduce what they get. Let us maintain the standard and adopt fiscal federalism as it practice in other parts of the world. Let the derivation percentage not be shifted or manipulated to suit certain interests depending on where the resources are coming from. Let us have a common standard of measure whether it is petroleum resources, palm oil, cocoa, groundnut or cotton. Fiscal federalism would put an end to this suspicion and abuse as each state would retain 50 per cent of they generate from their state.