Senator Ita Enang represents Akwa Ibom North-East Senatorial District. In this interview with journalists, including LEADERSHIP’s Chibuzo Ukaibe, he chips in on the debate over the creation of state police, airs his concerns about Bayelsa State’s newly introduced coat of arms and suggests that the President re-examines the method in which groups are selected to be awarded oil blocks.
What is your reaction to the heated debate over the establishment of state police?
On the issue of state police, I am becoming a lot more concerned. I had supported the establishment of state police partially. But as a member of the constitution review committee, I will have to hear the rest of Nigerians before I will say this is how I will vote. But I am disappointed in the way the argument is going. It is going in the direction of the north against the south and that is not the aim of the discussion. The aim of the discussion is to point out the advantages and disadvantages.
But another thing that has been brought up by this debate is an individual’s opinion, during a radio programme I was invited to. This individual said that we should not support state police because of the experience we had between Azikiwe, Sarduana and Awolowo during the campaigns. He said that during the campaigns, it was not easy for Sarduana to go for campaigns in the southern parts because the state police at that time did not allow people to have free campaign and followership. And that they at that time could not go campaign freely in some parts of Nigeria because state police at that time constituted security problems. I must confess that these are all the ideas I never heard. I have heard more submission of retired IG’s of police. These are matters that we should take as inputs in deciding whether or not to have state police.
But we should also decide whether the federal government is funding the police formally and most of the logistics provided by the state and local government and taken as if it is an informal gift and not part of what is budgeted for like jeeps and other things and they are not recorded for in any system that it is given and it is done whether they should not have it. There is also the fear, as raised on that programme, that members of the public and those who will be in control of state police in the state may use the opportunity to recruit persons who may not have had the mental orientation, patriotic zeal, education and exposure to be in the state security system and the police system for a peculiar political reason.
I am not drawing conclusion on the matter but these are the issues I will take into account in taking final decision. What I plead now is that we should not allow the debate on whether or not we should have state police degenerate to a sectional team of northern and southern governors.
The unity of the country has on recent times been threatened by some regions declaring their coat of arms, are you satisfied by the actions so far taken by the president?
I am very happy with this question because I have been more concerned than you. And I want to state before I get into the analysis of the matter that Mr President should take serious and decisive actions to nip all these in the bud. First, I am impressed at the actions he has taken in respect of the Boko Haram matter. The National Security Adviser has indicated that they are dialoguing with the group. Remember at the early stage of this I had said it was easy and better to go dialoguing and to adopt the amnesty approach to it. I had also submitted that it is necessary for us to also adopt the exchange of arms for money that is the arms buy back. Nigeria is a state party to the control of small arms and light weapons.
So far, the president has taken that step but I believe that there is much more to be done in that direction. As he does that he should make it formal by getting the national assembly involved in it, because it requires some legislation. I know the state of emergency he declared in some areas have elapsed and a few of those areas are still not coming back to the real stream.
The president, I know he is concerned, but I think he should be more concerned in bringing back economic life to that area as he brings security life to that area. That itself has been a threat on the northern part of Nigeria. The southern part of Nigeria, particularly the Niger Delta are responding in some areas where they are issuing self determination, the other ones have taken steps to say we are a federation; we can have our own coat of arms and state song. They are not saying they are not part of Nigeria yet or they will not recognize the national anthem. But I believe that this should also go far enough to inculcate the love for the country. I am a lot concerned about the action of Bayelsa state.
The governor, Mr Seriake Dickson, is my friend and colleague; we worked together in the House of Representatives. I believe that the president should not just take that this is the matter of the state or that it is a matter of the law of the state. Agreed, it is a matter of the law of the state and persons who are aggrieved should go to court but coming from Bayelsa state, the state of the president, I think the president should be more concerned about it.
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There have been calls for the abrogation of the onshore /offshore dichotomy. What do you think?
I want Mr President and other persons who are interested should accept that this was a political solution to solve the problem of revenue allocation at that time; the problem of having enough money for oil in the country. I also urged His Excellency, the President and other interested parties to accept and recall that there was a time in this country when we were producing about 700, 000 barrels of oil per day and today we are producing 2.7 million barrels per day and that oil comes from the land and backyard of certain people in certain parts of this country, the South-South people, that what we should be asking for now is not the abrogation of the onshore/offshore dichotomy, it should be the extension of the literal meaning to cover the continental shelf, that is the entire maritime boundary between Nigeria and other countries. If the land is not part of Nigeria then Nigeria cannot take oil from it.
So we will be seeking for extensions, it will be akin to say that if you have solid minerals in Kano that is below 10 meters deep, the whole amount of money from that solid minerals will go to the Federal Government. You will take derivation from anything that is below 5 meters deep, if it is beyond 5 meters, it is Federal Government because the land is that of Kano. Therefore, if any part belongs to Nigeria then the derivation should come. We should also talk about the situation; the people are only taking 13 percent of derivation. 87 percent goes to the Federal Government and it is shared to all the states. Is it 13 percent and not 87 percent that goes to the Federal Government that will make the country poor? That is not right.
Let us encourage states in the north which have solid minerals to explore solid minerals and pay the revenue into the federation account and take a percent of it and not indulge and allow mining of these solid minerals and the proceed to be taken a hundred percent by the state government and those who do the mining; nothing goes to the federation account. They call it illegal mining. And if you call illegal mining, you take all the revenue to the individuals in the state and those you assigned the plot, then the other people are producing and paying into the federation account and you are taking 87 percent, that is what you said you want to take all. These are the kind of things that is causing tension, causing all the declaration and we should not do things that make more areas to make declarations because these are the things that give the Federal Government security problems.
We should look at it: of all the oil that we mining, who are the owners of the oil blocks? How many persons in the South-South have oil blocks? It is the TYs, the Mai Daribes that owned the oil blocks, mostly from the North-East second by the North-West. I want the president of this country, the minister of petroleum and the federal character commission to come let us talk about the ownership of oil blocks in this country. No single person from Akwa Ibom state owns an oil block. They own the oil block they produce hundred percent; they give the 13 percent and keep the 87 per cent. That is what is causing problem now.
Let us revoke the entire oil block and reallocate it on the basis of the equality of zones and states. Let us reallocate it using the quota of those who are from the oil bearing states; let them have some percentage of the oil block. Those who are from solid mineral states should have some percentage of the solid mineral mining block. And why are we not taking oil from the Bauchi trough, Benue trough and the Chad Basin? Niger republic is taking oil from the Chad Basin using lateral drilling. They are drilling oil from Borno and it is suspected that it is most people from Nigeria that own these oil blocks. They even have refineries refining the oil they have taken from the Chad Basin, drilling literally from Nigerian ground and they have used that to feed their refinery and I understand we are importing from Niger. This is what should be the discussion now and not the abolition of the onshore/offshore dichotomy.??????????????????
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