Northern delegates to the National Conference have articulated their positions on contentious issues and circulated same to the various committees.
Some of the issues highlighted in a booklet titled ‘Key Issues Before The Northern Delegates to The 2014 National Conference’ include resource control, local government, revenue sharing fomular as well as scrapping of some agencies seen to be promoting a particular region.
The northern delegates vowed to resist any attempt by the conference to recommend total resource control as being canvassed by the delegates from the South.
They also resolved to push for the reversal of the onshore/offshore oil dichotomy, which according to them ceded a national resource to only littoral States.
The northern delegates are not equally comfortable with the existence of agencies like the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Ministry of Niger Delta and the Amnesty Programme for the ex-militants, which they posited favour only Niger Delta people and gulping huge sum of money.
Some of the positions being canvassed read:
“The north rejects the frequent assertions by the south on the population figures of the north and state clearly that the rate of population growth attributed to the north over the years is extremely understated.
“The north recommends the rejection of claim to oil resources by oil producing areas that led to the cancellation of the onshore/offshore oil dichotomy which action gave way a national resource to littoral state, seriously eroding revenue available for the distribution to all part of the country. The north demands a reversal to status quo ante.
“The North recommends that all institution and programmes established for the benefit of a few states be abolished. These include the Niger-Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the ministry of Niger Delta and the Amnesty Programme for the Niger-Delta ex-militants and the Component C of the SURE-P programme, the HYPADEC.”
“The derivation which is now at 13% should be reduced to 5% and must be limited only to on the onshore. The demand for resource control is indeed also oblivious of other relevant facts: the Nigerian constitution gave the ownership of all mineral resources found in any part of the country to the federal government of Nigeria.
“The history of revenue sharing between the Regions and the centre was 50:50, but limited to revenue derived from activities that involved human effort. All mineral resources had belonged to the centre, and this new adventure on resource control is totally new concept, and alien to the practice in the Nigerian.
“The north recommends a multi-tier local government system that brings the people closer to the government and increases their level of involvement in governance.
“The north demands a new revenue sharing formula which seeks to empower the strata of government closer to the people than the centre, i.e the states, and the local governments to be able to deliver on their governance responsibilities to the people. The formula is also to ensure a strong enough federal government for the security of the country, and give the country the stability of direction and focus on human and economic development.
“Here, we recommend a vertical revenue sharing formula as follows: federal government 26%, states 39%, local government 35%. Also we recommend a horizontal revenue sharing formula for the states and local government areas as follows: equality 35%; population 30%; population density 2%; land mass 20%; terrain 5%; internal revenue generation effort 5%%; and social development factor 3%.”
