Nigeria why we must talk a no holds barred compendium by Henry Omoregie PART TWO The Census was re-conducted in 1963 but not without controversy. The figure released on February 24, 1964 is as follows: North: 29,809,000 East: 12,394,000 West: 10,931,000 Midwest: 2,536,000 TOTAL: 55,670,000. This was in contrast to the initial figure of over 60 million. Dr. Michael Okpara, Premier of Eastern Region described it as “worse than useless.” Chief Dennis Osadebey characterised it as the “stupendous joke of our age.” Chief S. L. Akintola, revelling in his supposed invulnerability having allied himself to the NPC, which mastermined the incarceration of Awolowo, gladly “accepted the census figures” and said “the figures were accurate.” Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, encumbered by his involvement in the Balewa government, could not effectively artculate the anger of his people as he pleaded that “all should remain calm” because the Census controversy “might plunge the nation into disaster.” Chief Awolowo was meanwhile effectively out of circulation. Sultan Bello had come out smoking as he threatened that “he and his party were ready for a complete showdown” and “warned all Nigerians” that his “Government has accepted the published figures.” Tafawa Balewa ignored all the protestations and went ahead to distribute the seats in the National Assembly as follows: North 168 53.8%, East 69 21 %, West (Lagos included) 61 19.6%, Midwest 14 4.5%. The Eastern Region Soilicitor General, Mr. D. O. Ibekwe “took out a writ in the Supreme Court to restrain the Federal Government from using the 1963 Census figures for delineation of the country.” But the Supreme Court said it had no jurisdiction over the case, thus the unmaking of Nigerian Federalism continued. Crisis followed that action of 1964 by Tafawa Balawa. In the West, the people took their destiny in their hands to confront the government of S. L. Akintola in an episode ingloriously referred to as “wet e.” The Tiv Riots, simmering since 1960 also came to a head in 1964 in what was called “nande nande” (burning burning) and “atem ityough” (head breaking). The whole country went up in flames which unfortunately, consumed the main actors, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sir Tafawa Balewa and Chief S. L. Akintola, as the Military ascended the political pedestal to continue the serial rigging of Nigeria’s Federalism. As at the time the First Republic went up in flames in 1966, there were different constitutions for each region and Nigeria. Each region has its own High Commissioner in London. What does this mean? It meant that every region was in control of its destiny. Most historical analysts believed that General Aguiyi Ironsi who took over the reign of power from the uncoordinated plotters of the coup was the first leader who actually practicalised Unitarism of the Nigerian political space, at least officially. Reasons for this should not be difficult to decipher given the chaos that ended the First Republic. But this particular act coupled with the fact that in the January 15, 1966 coup led by mainly Igbo officers, Sultan Ahmadu Bello, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa (both Fulani) and Chief S. L. A. Akintola (Yoruba) were killed. But this was reportedly an excuse for the July 25, 1966 coup led by Murtala Mohammed that eventually saw the installation of Lt. Colonel Yakubu Gowon as the military Head of State. If the Northern soldiers abhored Unitarism, part of the reason they had allegedly staged a vengeance coup, one would have thought that things would have been different on taking power. But alas, that was not the case. The Aburi Agreement meant to calm the nerves after the 1966 pogrom that would have guaranteed each region the control of its own destiny was violated by the North led Federal Government which went ahead to break Nigeria into twelve states. One region, the North ended up with six states. The three other regions ended up with 6 states in yet another rigging of Nigeria. And then there was the Civil War and the unmaking of Nigerian Fiscal Federalism commenced in earnest. The Constitution establishing Nigeria stipulated 50% derivation “in respect of any Mineral extracted from that region.” Sub-sections 1,2 3,4 and 5 of the Constitution explained this in detail. But this would not deter the rigging of Nigeria as Yakubu Gowon unilaterally took off 5% oil receipt of the Niger Delta leaving them with 45%. He then proceeded with another Census in 1973. At first, Gowon came out with a total of 79,758,969. The six states of the North got 51 million while the Southern six states were given barely 28,758,969. “This meant that the population of the North had jumped from 53.6% in 1963/64 to 63.8 in 1973/74 census. The Southern population had dwindled to 36.2% from 46.4%….” The Chairman of the census board late Sir Adetokunbo Ademola said “the figures published by Gowon were not my making.” Chief Obafemi Awolowo, now out of incarceration called the 1973 census a “barren exercise..” To appreciate the extent of the rigging of the census figures, a comparative analysis of the figures alloted to the North of Nigeria showed that Niger Republic with 1,266,700sq km in land space in the desert has 5,013,966 population in 1973. Chad with 1,259,200 sq km of space had 4,011,856 population in 1973. But the North of Nigeria sharing boundaries with Chad and Niger Republic and with 679,534 sq km of space had 51million! The 1990/91 Census gave the North 47,261,959. Nothing points more to rigging when you look at the 1973 figures of 51 million and 1990 figure of over 47 million. There is no scientific explanation for the reduced difference of almost 4 million. The Northerners rigged the population in favour of the North and used it as a basis to create States and local governments to the North’s advantage as ameans to siphoning resources to the disadvantage of the South. The Northern Military rulers who created states made sure that the North always had more states than the South as the table below shows: At the risk of stating the obvious, it is an open seceret that the North has 64 more local governments than the entire South – North 419 LGs to South’s 355. What is obvious is the careless abandon with which money is allocated to the states and local governments of the North such that the North takes home 21/2 times what the former Eastern Region took, and 3 to 4 times what the Western Region took and at times, as much as 10 times what the former Mid-Western Region took. According to “Nigeria: The Truth,” since 1980 when the Federation Account was introduced before the 13% derivation was resuscitated, the take home of each region in percentage of the total accrued money is as follows: North 54% East 22% West 18% Midwest 6% Not many Nigerians are aware that the Northern Region paid custom duties to the Western Region until 1976, when Murtala Mohammed took over the reigns of Government. Or that as at 1975 when Murtala Mohammend overthrew the Yakubu Gowon administration, the Niger Delta enjoyed 45% rents and royalties? Murtala Mohammed slashed it to 20% (Decree No. 6 of 1975) to assuage the Northern States, before Olusegun Obasanjo, through the Aboyade Technical Commission which recommended the removal of the remaining 20% of the rents and royalties, finally nailed the coffin of the Southern States without any protest from the people of the Niger Delta or other parts of the South.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 13:14:15 +0000
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