Derivation Struggle Will Continue Even After Jonathan – Uduaghan: In this interview with select journalists, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State bared his mind on national issues including the heightening political pressures, security challenges and the even the vexed issue of derivation that was not resolved at the national conference. DONALD OJOGO was there for LEADERSHIP. 2015 is fast approaching and the polity is getting heated up. As one of the leaders of the ruling PDP and a major stakeholder in the polity, what is your take on this? First, it is expected that the polity will be heated up towards 2015 because people have different interests; personal, party and of course, also regional interests and in expressing these interests, obviously, the political arena will be more active and more alive. So, it is expected that the polity will be heated up and we thought it will be worse than this by now. Recently, a governor was impeached while some are being threatened with impeachment. Don’t you think this development is coming at a wrong time particularly when we are approaching 2015? We must put the history of impeachment in proper perspective, at least in this dispensation impeachment did not start with the governors. You will recall that at the time APC was making moves to form the majority in the House of Reps and Senate, people were speculating that what was behind it was an attempt to impeach Mr. President. That was the speculation and that is why I said it did not start with the governors. Impeachment talk and all, even before the Nyako matter started, has been an issue. But having said that, the ones that are happening now, unfortunately people are linking them with the national. I think every state has its peculiarity. What happened in Adamawa is peculiar to Adamawa and what is happening in Nasarawa is peculiar to Nasarawa. Whatever will happen in Delta today is peculiar to Delta. Delta for instance in the last three months, the House of Assembly has changed its speaker, so that is the peculiarity of what is happening in Delta. Edo has its challenges. And sometimes, it is difficult for you that is not within the state to understand the kind of politics in the state that leads to change of leadership at any level. Like I said earlier, of course some people are linking it to the leadership at the centre, maybe because what is happening now are in states whose governors who are not in PDP but with majority of assembly members in PDP. Another issue on people’s mind of recent is the request by the president to access $1bn loan to fight insurgency. People are wondering why it took time for the government to realise that we don’t have the necessary military hardware and others to effectively counter insurgency. Well, the way I understand it, it is not just to fight insurgency but to improve on the capability of the military to deal with all security issues and I think we must put things in proper perspective. Yes, we seemed to have been very comfortable up till now believing that we don’t have a major security challenge and so our funding of the military has not been as adequate as it should be. But this current Boko Haram has opened our eyes to the fact that we really need to equip our military; army, air force and navy. And I think looking for this money to equip our military is not misplaced because it is Boko Haram today, we don’t know what will happen tomorrow. We’ve had even some challenges from neighbouring countries and if there is a war between Nigeria and a neighbouring country for instance, do we really have the equipment to deal with it? And like every other sphere of life, technology changes and changes by the minute, by the day and all that. I don’t believe that the military equipment used ten years ago is what countries like America and Israel are still using today so we must constantly follow up the changes that happen in every sphere of life. So, getting money to equip the military, I don’t think, is misplaced. But is it not disturbing that the issue is taking a PDP-APC dimension in the National Assembly with the opposition party telling its members not to support the request? This is not the first time the APC will be taking that kind of stand but I think at the end of the day reasons will prevail. It’s all part of democracy, you can ask for the head of anybody in the House but after debating and horse-trading, reasons will prevail. Let’s come back to PDP politics as the ruling party. It is facing some challenges like never before since its formation. Do you think it is still strong enough to retain the centre in 2015 and win more states? Yes! Let me tell you something about the PDP. Since 1998 when parties were formed, I believe that the PDP is the only party that is still existing that has not changed its name. Most of others have changed names or merged or gone out of the scene. But PDP has remained PDP since 1998 and what does this mean? This means that between when it was formed and now, it has had a presence in virtually every ward in Nigeria. Now, if you go to every ward, in most wards, PDP is either number one or number two in terms of party presence and it is the only party that enjoys that kind of presence across Nigeria. And winning the national election is based on the small-small votes that come from the various units across Nigeria. So, in terms of structure to win national election, PDP, I believe, is head and shoulder above other parties in term of structure to win national election. Yes! We must not forget that in winning national election, structure at unit level is very key; so also is the person standing for national election very key. Now, what has happened overtime is that the opposition has become stronger and we must acknowledge that. You know when the current democracy started, people still doubted; ‘will it succeed?’ So you have people who folded their arms and they were watching, they refused to take part. Some people took the risk and took part in 1999. By 2003, we had more people and by 2015, a lot more persons are now in. So, over the last 15 years or so, a lot of capacities have been built and these capacities are now aggregating either for PDP or to remove PDP. Unlike APC, there seems to be a lull in the PDP two months to the kick-off of activities, particularly the presidential primaries, by political parties. Has your party zeroed on the president as its presidential candidate? No, no. It will be unfair for anybody to stand on PDP platform now to say I want to be president when we have a big security challenge but it will eventually come. But it is happening in APC… Yes, because APC is opposition. The primary responsibility for controlling this security challenge rests on Mr. President and PDP and other parties and Nigerians. So, the presidency must be at the forefront, including the PDP platform. The primary focus now is on how to handle the security challenges and handle it very quickly too. Your state is one of the states where political activities are now heightened with pressure from people who want to succeed you. How are you coping with this challenge? First, let me say that it is easier to manage when you are contesting. When I was contesting, at least, the political terrain was easier to manage. I knew what I wanted to do, I knew the rules I wanted to make, I knew my opponents and others but now I am not contesting. I have to manage the state such that our first agenda, peace and security, is maintained such that the polity is not overheated. So that is the major challenge. The second challenge is to manage it in such a way that at least whoever emerges does not put aside what we have on ground and want to start a new race. That’s why I said it is a little bit tricky when you are not contesting but you have to ensure that all these things are properly handled. There is agitation of zoning in your state. Is that not a major challenge? No, it is not a major challenge because it has always been like that. There is no election that a region will not come out with that kind of argument. So, it is not new and it is not strange but at the end of the day somebody will emerge. As an outgoing governor, what is your idea of a likely successor? For me really, I am praying and hoping that it is somebody who understands the current policies of government and when he or she comes in, does not throw it aside. Of course, our major policy is developing an economy which we called ‘Delta Beyond Oil’. An economy that is not entirely dependent on oil. That person must also have that faith and belief and the knowledge of how to go about it. Sir, the about-to-be-concluded National Conference recommended the retention of 13% derivation principle instead of the 18% demanded by the South-South delegates. What is your take? It is unfortunate that the conference has come and gone and it was unable to resolve the major challenge in Nigeria which is the major issue; that is the issue federalism. Derivation is just one of the issues of federalism but the major issue is federalism and that is what the conference was unable to resolve. In talking about federalism, there are many aspects of it. The issue of derivation is there even the main issue of responsibility because when you talking of federalism, you are talking of federal, states and particularly, who does what. Some of us believe that the federal area is too heavy, carrying out too may responsibilities. Why, for instance, should the federal government be talking about primary healthcare and primary education? These are things that should be left for the state level. So, I said it is unfortunate that the National Conference did not deal with the major issue. It dealt with a lot of other issues but the major one is federalism which can also be narrowed down to derivation was not dealt with. Having said that, now that the people who are supposed to at least come out with a resolution are not able to do it, the problem now goes back to Mr. President; he needs to look at it and try and deal with the wishes of the oil-producing communities. As one of the governors of oil-producing states, what steps are you likely to take in order to ensure that the president reviews the derivation principle upward? We will continue to put pressure on him, he is the president and he has to do what he has to do. It should not be because he is from this area, he should not do it. Pressures were put on Obasanjo and he started the 13% principle which is the minimum. Unfortunately, the next president, Yar’Adua didn’t have time to receive pressures because his time was very short coupled with other challenges. Now we have another president, we will continue to pile pressure until he does something and if he doesn’t do something when the next president comes, the pressure will continue. Original link Read More goo.gl/zkifS9 (y) ✍comment ☏share
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 02:54:29 +0000
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