Confab adjourns, after Resource control debate deadlocked

The inability of the delegates to agree on the percentage of derivation to be paid to the oil-producing states forced the National Conference to adjourn before time on Tuesday.  The conference adjourned at 12.58pm instead of the usual 3.30pm that the delegates had agreed to since the commencement of the Ramadan. While some of the delegates were clamouring for the increase in the 13 per cent derivation fund

currently being paid to the zone, others especially those from the North said the status quo must be maintained. Senator Ibrahim Ida in his contribution said the status quo must be maintained as recommended by the committee, adding that degradation, just like it was being experienced in the Niger Delta, was also affecting the northern part of the country. He specially mentioned Plateau State, which he said also suffered environmental degradation. But he appealed to the Federal Government to pay its debt to the Niger Delta Development Commission. Another delegate from the North, Hassan Adamu, while supporting the 13 per cent as recommended by the Committee on Devolution of Power, said the North-East had been completely devastated.

He asked the confab to come up with a plan on how to rebuild the North-East, and urged the confab to recommend seven per cent for the initiative. “We should be our brothers’ keeper,” he said. Another delegate, Mr. Abubakar Adamu from Niger State, said the 13 per cent derivation was good enough, adding that “until we see how the 13 per cent is being utilised, there is no need to increase it.” A delegate, Mr. Sidi Ali, who said there was no need for the increase, wondered how the leaders of the oil-producing states had been spending their allocation. He said an unnamed former governor of Rivers State was the owner of one of the biggest private hospitals in Abuja.

His contribution made a former governor of the state, Dr. Peter Odili, to raise a point of order, saying he was the only former governor of Rivers State at the confab. Besides, he said he was the only medical doctor among the former governors and that he was not the owner of such a hospital and challenged Ali to produce his facts. He threatened to take legal action if he failed to do so. But the Chairman of the conference, Justice Idris Kutigi (retd.), said Ali did not mention the name of the former governor he was talking about and so it might not be Odili.