NIGERIA'S UNITY IS NEGOTIABLE -- Obong Victor Attah disagrees with Buhari

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   In an interview with Vanguard in Abuja weekend, the former governor said the only way out of the various challenges bedeviling Nigeria would be to adopt fiscal federalism, saying the country, as currently constituted, was unworkable. He said:  “Things that are happening in Nigeria are really very worrisome. There are those who feel some perception of injustice in the system. It is a perception, but sometimes, perception could be reality. ‘’We need to look at the situation holistically, and where there is justification, you correct them, and where there is none, you explain to the people why they should not have doubts or fears about them, if you wish, even-handedness of the government towards any part of the federation. ‘’But it points to one fundamental thing, that, we are still in the process of forming a country. ‘’If we had had one solid firm country, you would have found that a lot of these fears would not arise; there would be common fears, common to everybody but now they are sectional fears, sectional problems which means we have not really forged a country and there is an absolute and urgent need for that to happen.

‘’The President quoted Gowon. Gowon had said that keeping Nigeria one is a task that must be achieved. That task was achieved by military means. He (Buhari) is not a military man now, he is a democrat, a politician. So, the only means politicians have is to negotiate. ‘’So, what did you mean by you won’t negotiate? If you want to keep Nigeria one today, you must negotiate the terms and conditions of the people staying together and it goes back to the conference report, it goes back to the concept of fiscal federalism.

He said:  “The South South has the feeling that the rest of the country wants to milk it, pollute it or completely milk it dry and then tell them goodbye. There is that fear and it is not being addressed because the question is why are you preserving all your resources and exploiting only this one? “There is this concept of diversification. When you talk about diversification, people just think it has to do with going into agriculture, apart from oil. It is not sufficient.

‘’Go and look at the ownership of Itakpe Iron Ore. It is a mineral resource but even the community is part of the ownership arrangement but tell me whether anybody was ever consulted before oil blocs were given out in the South-South. You know what I mean?

Attah also faulted partisans who had continued to advance reasons as to why the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration must jettison the 2014 National Conference report. While he conceded that the recommendations contained in the report might not be totally perfect, he said the federal government should identify those it could implement since the exercise was widely accepted by the generality of Nigerians.

…… I read where the current Secretary to the Government of the Federation (Babachir David Lawal) said he is so busy with governance and that it would take him about seven days to go through the report; where is the time to read the report? ‘’How can you be busy governing without being interested in knowing how the people want to be governed? To me, it is a very wrong argument.

-Vanguard