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Oil Blocs: Why Jonathan must step on toes – Ayemi-Botu, N-Delta monarch

By on March 31, 2013

PARAMOUNT ruler of Siembiri Kingdom in Delta State, Pere Charles Ayemi-Botu, aka Lion of the Niger, is one-time national chairman of the Traditional Rulers of Oil Mineral Producing Communities of Nigeria, TROMPCON. He had once called on President Goodluck Jonathan to review the allocation of oil blocs in the country. In this interview, he reiterates why Jonathan must urgently heed the call, saying Niger-Deltans and, indeed, Nigerians, would not forgive him if he failed to act decisively. He also argues that northern leaders are not doing enough to stamp out Boko Haram and challenges former heads of state and leaders from the North to end the insurgency by the sect.

Over the years, you have championed the call for the revocation of oil blocs by the Federal Government on the grounds that the allocation is lopsided. It was a contentious matter recently in the National Assembly. What do you say?

Under the aegis of the Traditional Rulers of Oil Mineral Producing States of Niger-Delta, TROMPCON, and one-time national executive chairman, we had a lot of problems coming from oil production in these areas and we noticed that in spite of all the problems, we were able to contain the percentage of oil being produced. However, it was discovered that for all the oil that is being produced, a section of the country is benefiting most, especially as oil now seems to be blood money. They do the manipulation mostly at the political level where everybody wants to become a head of state or president because when you are there, you control the economy.

Therefore, from the past years, we found out that North has ruled for close to 40 years and, during the period, the heads of state or presidents that came had the  prerogative to issue out oil blocs and they were not dispassionate –  there was disequilibrium and they were giving them  to their own kith and kin. We noticed that an oil bloc owner is having not less than N4 billion monthly and that money goes to a private purse and, in Nigeria, we have what is known as federal character.  Whatever that is done, we do it with equity, the issue of equity, fairness and justice is not applied in terms of the allocation of oil blocs because most of the leaders came from the North and it was given to them.

I can remember March 23, last year, when Vanguard interviewed me, I reminded President Goodluck Jonathan that the allocation of oil blocs is the prerogative of the president or head of state, and so he had to look into it unemotionally and ensure that the lopsidedness in the allocation that had bedeviled the oil industry is corrected.  Nevertheless, since the time I made the call, nothing has been done, and whenever there is the issue of 13 percent derivation or PIB, as we saw now, it is the North that will come and cry wolf, whereas they are the people who have been benefiting.

Unfortunately, the principle of derivation has to do with a percentage going to where the oil comes from and I am saying, with every sense of reasoning, that President Jonathan should not spare a moment to address the anomaly as regards the allocation of oil blocs. That is, 83 percent of oil blocs are owned by northerners, their names should be published and he should revoke them and ensure that, as we have six geo-political zones, 50 per cent should come to the South- south based on derivative.

The rest has to be distributed to the other five geo-political zones.  It is only then we will know that federalism is being truly practised in our federal system. I have said it often times, President Jonathan should be courageous – he should step on toes, he should not be seen as being unable to redress what his predecessors –  Babangida, Abacha, Abdulsalami , Obasanjo, Yar’Adua- had done wrong. Posterity and the people of Niger-Delta will not forgive President Jonathan if he does not take up this matter with all the seriousness it deserves to ensure revocation and re-allocation of oil blocs.

You said he should step on toes. Do you not think the toes may consume him?No. It is an anomaly and all and sundry have seen it that his predecessors allocated these oil blocs to their own kindred irrespective of the fact we are operating a federal character system and that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. If they have done what is seen to be foul, why must he not correct it if we want Nigeria to remain as one entity?  In the time of cocoa, groundnut and all that, the South- south was not benefiting; some sections owned it all, the North and West used it to develop their areas and nobody complained.

Now,  it is the time of  petrol- dollar, and we have acid rain, ecological problems and we,  in turn, do not have a commensurate amount realized from all the sufferings and the money is going to those who do not bear the hazards.  How can you say it is fair and, mark you,  the North that is crying to rule this country, by crook or hook,  it is all because of oil and the oil economy is lopsided because, when they came as presidents, they gave to their people.

Therefore, it has become a vicious circle, but once what is equitable and fair is done, nobody will see oil blocs as the reason to battle to become president.  That is why Jonathan should step on toes.  Nigeria should realize that all the problems we are having today is because of oil and blood money; whether it is Boko Haram, whether it is from the Niger-Delta, it is all about oil. As Jonathan is doing everything possible in the power sector to see that there is uninterrupted power supply, he must go the extra mile to redress the imbalance.

Take for example, the Nigeria Petroleum Development Fund is in the North, like we have Petroleum Training Institute in Effurun, Delta State, the one for the senior cadre is in the North, how are you carrying all these institutions to a place that does not produce oil? Are we now going to create human capital development for a people who do not have oil? You are clearly asking them to come and lord it over us? A northerner was a petroleum minister for almost three or four consecutive times and, today, he is an oil bloc owner and he does not know the adverse effect of exploration and exploitation on the people from where this oil is taken. However, he is taking away all these billions and he is living in affluence and opulence in far-away Austria.

The president refused to grant Boko Haram members amnesty on the grounds that they are ghosts, but the northerners have strongly challenged his stand. What is your take?

Iit is an irony of fate that the governor of Borno State; Dr. Junaid Mohammed and all these other people are making such comments. Let us call a spade a spade. While  I condemn  the call by the Sultan, he is my personal friend, for saying that we should grant amnesty to Boko Haram, it is because what he said sounded very disheartening. Boko Haram is  not ready for peace, these are people who kill school children, bomb school buildings while children are in class, bomb churches, bomb mosques and they say they do not want western education .

Moreover, just recently, the leader of Boko Haram, Abu Shekerau, not up 72 hours after a faction called for dialogue and amnesty, came out to say that they never asked for dialogue or amnesty; that they did not even ask for dialogue and it is a fight to the finish. Now, three days later, his eminence came out to say that government should grant Boko Haram amnesty. I know the Sultan would not have made such a call,  many people could have mounted pressure on him, but it sounds like a story told by an idiot, full of sound and fury.

Unlike the struggle of the Niger-Delta youths that had  focus, that of Boko Haram is purposeless. We have come to know Boko Haram as a faceless group with link to Al-Qaida and other terrorist groups, which abhor western education. Their agitation has no moral basis and should not be compared to the Niger-Delta struggle in which the youths took up arms for equity in the distribution of wealth from oil explored in their domain.

The focused struggle by the youths of N-Delta affected oil production and government, having noted the point of their agitation, opted to grant them amnesty. The reason was very succinct but that of Boko Haram is vague and they are faceless. You can see the Boko Haram has continued their bombings and killing more people in Kano. What kind  of group is that and these are the people that they are saying amnesty should be granted to.

Can you really say it is a faceless group when you just mentioned its leader who came out to reject amnesty?

Where did you see him, on the pages of newspapers, on the television or on the streets ? Do you know him as you know Tompolo and others?  It is what we read  in the newspapers or told the international media, which the Nigerian media quote. Let me ask the Sultan, who has he identified as members and sponsors of Boko Haram that he wants Federal Government to grant amnesty?  If government concedes to such bogus request, will he be able to name those that will be granted amnesty?

Alternatively, is amnesty to be granted to masquerades and Islamic fundamentalists from Mali, Algeria and Al-Qaida? Who is  government going to dialogue with? What concrete efforts have the Sultan and other leaders of the North made to stem the violence by Boko Haram before calling for amnesty for the terrorists, who abhor western education, but speak and send emails in English language?

As I said, I read that the leader of Boko Haram, Abu Shekarau, said it is a fight to the finish. So, from whose authority or where did the Sultan become the mouthpiece of a faceless group? Boko Haram wants to Islamize Nigeria and scrap western education. Therefore, it is premature to call for any well-meaning Nigerian to call for amnesty for the group. On the contrary, Nigeria should declare a war against Boko Haram, as France did to Malian insurgents. The Federal Government should address its own problem before sending troops to Mali.

Northern leaders are unhappy that Jonathan asked them to fish out Boko Haram members which, to them, is like he (president) abdicating his duty?

Do you not know that the president asking for this moratorium was himself  given 60 days from August to October, 2009 to end the Niger-Delta revolt? Let me ask you, when Tompolo, Ateke Tom, Boyloaf and others were doing battle  in Niger-Delta, was it Yar’Adua or Obasanjo that fished them out?  These people, if they are really fighting  a just cause, why are they faceless? The monarchs from the South- south, religious leaders, etc, and himself, all stepped into the matter.  Our governors and leaders like Chief Edwin Clark  moved into the creeks.

A meeting of the leaders of the militant groups was convened, all of them, including Tompolo, Dokubo-Asari, Ateke Tom, were there to agree on the way forward. On our part, the royal fathers resolved that they should be a ceasefire and  they should give peace a chance. What are the efforts of the governor of Borno State and leaders to prevail on Boko Haram to stop the carnage? What have the northern leaders discussed with the Boko Haram people and what is the way forward from their discussion?

This is how elders and leaders should act in a situation like this. Do they want Jonathan to come to the North and commend them for not talking to their boys and arriving at the way forward? They  should fish them out, we saw when former President Olusegun Obasanjo went to the North on his own volition with a view to appeasing them to drop arms. I have not heard that the Sultan did such a thing and you know this Boko Haram started  immediately when President Jonathan contested for the 2011 election and the likes of Muhammadu Buhari came up  to say that he would make Nigeria ungovernable if Jonathan wins. Votes were still being counted when some places started catching fire in the North and, right from that time till date,  these things are happening. Remember that before then, some northern leaders declared  Aso Villa a no- go area for Jonathan;so, to an extent, Boko Haram has a political dimension, it is all with a view to making Nigeria ungovernable for President Jonathan.

The Federal Government asked Boko Haram people to come out for dialogue; nobody came out, so why are people blaming Jonathan for saying that they are faceless. Why have people like Alhaji Shehu Shagari,  General Buhari, Babangida, Abdulsalami not gone to the Boko Haram members, wherever their headquarters is,  to meet  with their leaders and tell them to sheathe their sword? The Sultan is the head of the Muslim body in Nigeria, he is the supreme head and Boko Haram says they want to Islamize Nigeria from the North to the West. Are the Boko Haram members not living with them?

I think what the North wants to do with Boko Haram is to chase away Jonathan so that they will come back and continue with their perpetuation of the oil wealth. Those who are sponsoring Boko Haram do not mean well and Jonathan said the home truth that they are lackadaisical in tackling it because, they feel Jonathan will be run out of Aso Villa with the violence. If this crisis escalates the more, they are calling for disintegration of Nigeria, I have said it before, we are likely going to have an Oduduwa Republic, Republic of Biafra,  Ijaw Republic and all that. To avoid that, the federal government should declare a full-scale war on Boko Haram, appoint military administrators in the affected states and let soldiers go house to house and fish out the Boko Haram members since they do not want to point them out.

You are concentrating energy on the sharing of oil blocs, but the North is saying that South- south governors are squandering the 13 per cent derivation that is already coming to you people?

It is another story that sounds so funny, It is not the responsibility of  northerners to be crying wolf that the money is not being well spent just because they want to stop the PIB. In the late fifties and early sixties, the principle of derivation was 50 per cent to the producing area, 50 per cent to the Federal Government and that was agro economy. Did anybody from the South cast any aspersion against the North or South-west on how they used their money to develop their respective region?

It is not their business, it is not their duty. During the time of agro economy, we were benefitting only from the 50 per cent that got to the Federal Government, the 13 per cent derivation we are talking about now  is a tip of the ice berg.  I was in the group that met with the late General Sani Abacha and discussed that the hitherto 3 per cent oil derivation be jerked up to 50 per cent. The general of blessed memory said he was going to give us not less than 13 per cent as at that 1994 and there was a proviso that 25 per cent will be given in subsequent times,  until we make the 50 per cent because what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

If at any time in the history of this country, a people or certain sections were benefiting from the principle of derivation vis a vis agro economy and now, God has turned the table round for oil to be the mainstay of the economy, we should also benefit. 13 per cent compared to 50 per cent cannot be said to be up to 33 per cent of that 50 percent. So, frankly, the North has no say about how the South is spending the money because the inherent problems we face here, such as water and airborne diseases, are not borne by them. 13 per cent is not enough to cushion the effects of the problems the people face here, that is why we are asking for 50 per cent and 10 per cent in the present PIB of whatever accruable should be given to the actual oil-bearing communities.

 

 

[Vanguard]