Resource Control, Power Devolution, Electoral Reform Take Centre Stage

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The national conference entered a critical stage last week with delegates in various committees pushing suggestions on how to address the myriad challenges facing the country’s democracy. Various standing committees, including the ones on devolution of power, national security, politics and governance, political parties and electoral matters, law, judiciary, human rights, legal reform, law and order and land tenure matters and national boundary, held robust and sometimes protracted debates on solutions to the tasks before the conference. The committees on public accounts and revenue, public service, energy, religion and civil society and labour matters all made far-reaching proposals on how the country can overcome its daunting challenges.
 
Resource Control Resolved
Debate on revenue sharing, resource control and the controversy over the placement of mines and mineral resources in either the Exclusive or Concurrent legislative list dominated the meeting of the power devolution committee during the week. However, compromise came at last on the issue, which had pitched the northern delegates against their southern counterparts.
At the committee’s deliberations  last week, the delegates agreed that though mines and mineral  resources, which is item 39 on the Exclusive list of the constitution, should be retained in the Exclusive legislative item but with a modification that states should be consulted when issues relating to item 39 are to be discussed. As part of the modification, the delegates agreed that a special fund be created by the federal government for states bearing mineral resources to enhance their development in states where they are discovered. According to reports given by the committee, delegates adopted a compromise position proposed by Professor Nson Udo Mbana that item 39 be retained in the exclusive legislative list with a proviso that states bearing mineral resources should be consulted and that a special fund be set aside by the federal government to help the exploration and exploitation of mines and minerals in states where it exist. 
 
Ann Kio Briggs from Rivers State, Professor Godwin Dara from Delta State, and Engr. Buba Galadimma from Yobe State all accepted and spoke in support of retaining mines and mineral resources in the exclusive legislative list.
The northern delegates had distributed a document containing what they called the stand of the North in the ongoing conference, stating that unless the 1999 Constitution was amended to take way the ownership of mineral resources from the federal government, total resource control by any Nigerian state was a breach of the covenant of the federation.  The northern delegates said that the claims for resource control were like attempts to pull out of the Nigerian federation, explaining that all regions in the country are equal stakeholders in the Nigerian oil.
Reading the communiqué of the meeting, the co-chairman, Victor  Attah, said, “Item 39 is retained in the federal exclusive list which is mines, minerals, including oil fields, oil mining and geological surveys and natural gas shall remain in the exclusive list provided the governments of states where the mining activities take place shall be involved in matters relating thereto; the government of the federation shall make special grants to develop mines and minerals in states where such resources are developed.”
 
NLC, TUC Protest
However, it was a different ball game for the leadership of the Nigerian labour movement, as they protested the removal of labour related matters from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list, stating that it would breach the implementation of national minimum wage. The National Conference Committee on Power Devolution had on Monday transferred all labour related matters from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list, with the intention to minimise national labour related industrial actions. But the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Abdulweed Umar, president of the Trade Union Congress, Bala Kaigama, chief economist of the NLC, Dr. Peter Essoh, and deputy chairman of NLC, Issa Aremu, stormed the committee’s meeting room, protesting the transfer. They explained that the decision was due to narrow-mindedness employers of labour. According to the NLC president, while addressing delegates of the power devolution committee, “This issue of retaining all labour related issues in the exclusive list was a long standing struggle, to the extent that even the Senate after listening to our explanations on this issue agreed with us that all labour related issues should remain in the exclusive legislative list.
“We were surprised that the Committee on Power has decided to transfer it to the concurrent list. This position by this committee is against the global practice where 96 per cent have labour and labour related issues in the exclusive list.
“Removing labour related issues from the exclusive list and transferring it to the concurrent list has great implication for the national minimum wage. What this means is that some states could opt not to obey the minimum wage policy, as some states could resist implementing and obeying the policy of paying N18, 000 as the national minimum wage.
“The idea of the minimum wage being in the exclusive list is protectionist as the least paid worker is in the vulnerable group. It is, therefore, our position that the committee’s report on labour and labour related matters is not in line with the position of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Speaking in the same manner, the President of TUC explained that all labour related matters should be in exclusive list because the private sector does not care for the welfare of the workers. “We urge you to create harmony in the system. Labour is a national issue and, therefore, should not be in the concurrent list,” he said.
On his part, Essoh said that it was a global practice that all labour issues should be legislated upon as a national issue. Speaking in support of the proposal, a member of the Committee on Power Devolution, Ayo Adebanjo from the South-west, said that it was in the overall interest of labour that all labour related matters are left in the concurrent list because when Chief Obafemi Awolowo made a policy of minimum wage of Five Shillings in the Western Region, it was in the concurrent list.
The co-chairman of the committee, Obong Victor Atta, said that the committee would look into their request, but said that it was regrettable that NLC and TUC were only considering minimum wage and not other issues associated with labour. He told the NLC and TUC officials that moving labour issues to the concurrent legislative list would not change anything regarding payment of minimum wage as long as the federal government makes a law and it is binding on the states.
 
Onshore/Offshore Dichotomy
The northern delegates also took a common position rejecting the onshore/offshore oil dichotomy, which they said gave away a national resource to only littoral states and called for reversal of the system.
They also called for the abolition of all institutions and programmes established to cater for the oil producing states like the Niger Delta Development Commission. According to the northern delegates, in a paper circulated to members of the conference and the media titled, “Key Issues before the northern delegates to the national conference; Northern Nigeria the back bone and strength of Nigeria,” the North has 786,754 square kilometres land mass to the South’s 197, 022 square kilometres, with 75,025166 population to South’s 64, 973, 802 and a registered voting population of North 42,160,236 and South 31,347802.”
 
INEC, SIEC Come Under Scrutiny
A bid by some delegates in the committee on political parties and electoral matters to have the Independent National Electoral Commission take over the affairs and functions of State Independent Electoral Commissions was rejected.  Despite receiving thorough bashing from majority of the delegates, SIÈC survived the attempt to have it scraped.
Although, delegates who supported the abolition of SIÈC gave cogent reasons why the body should be stopped from handling elections at the local council level, the committee was swayed by the fact that both the constitution and a subsisting Supreme Court judgement had given states control of the affairs of local government.
In summing last Monday’s deliberation on the matter, one of the co-chairmen of the committee and a former Senate President, Dr. Iyochua Ayu, said although it would have been a better option to advocate for the return of conduct of local government election to INEC, as it used to be, the committee would rather stand with the constitution and support the retention of SIÈC. Ayu said things at INEC appeared to be improving in the present dispensation, compared to what happened during Professor Maurice Iwu.  According to him, a close study of Uwais report showed that it recommended that state electoral bodies should be properly strengthened and integrated to enable them conduct better elections, rather than scrapping them.
Another co- chairman and ex-Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani, summarised contributions of delegates, saying the committee had agreed not do anything that was fundamentally against the provisions of the constitution.  He said it was a common fact that  states had not been obeying the constitution with regard to the composition of state electoral commission and overall conduct of the council elections, adding, “In most instances, it has become a mere ceremonial practice to hold local government election. In most states, only the ruling party normally sweeps the polls.”
Nnamani said the committee should consider recommending the use of biometric voting system in the conduct of elections as a way of improving the credibility of the polls. As a way forward, he announced the decision to appoint a five-man subcommittee to suggest further ways of strengthening the state independent electoral commission and to submit its report to the committee of the whole.
The subcommittee was to be chaired by Osoba, with members as Barrister Shola, Muhammed Elayo, Mrs. Okorafor, and Musa Saliyu.
The Osoba committees report suggested the retention of the existing provisions, such as five-year tenure for SIEC members and members to be appointed by the governor subject to confirmation by the House of Assembly, and removal of SIEC members with the approval of two thirds majority of the state assembly. It also recommended that members should not be persons of questionable character and not members of political parties.
The committee also proposed some amendments to the effect that funding of SIEC should be on first line charge on the state revenue. It said in order to encourage independence of SIEC section 204 of the constitution should be amended to ensure that SIEC regulates its own procedures and the exercise of its functions, just as it is provided in section 160 in respect of INEC.
The subcommittee, however, refrained from setting tenure for local council officials and listing of composition of SIEC, on the ground that it would not be ideal to make such provisions as it would undermine the principle of federalism.
 
While briefing the delegates at the sitting of the committee last Tuesday, INEC commissioner in charge of operations, Nuhu Yakubu, put paid to the possibility of using the electronic voting system for the 2015 general election, saying it is not feasible at the moment until the National Assembly amends the relevant sections of the constitution. But he disclosed that as part of preparations for the next general elections, the commission would commence the distribution of permanent voters’ cards nationwide by May 12.
Yakubu gave assurances on the readiness of the commission to adequately take care of previous shortcomings. For instance, he told the conference delegates at the NICON Hotel meeting venue in Abuja that INEC will recruit about 750,000 adhoc staff as against the 500, 000 deployed in the 2011 elections. He explained that the increase in the number of adhoc staff was due to the ongoing constituency delineation exercise being carried out throughout the country. He also said the distribution of permanent voters cards will be carried out in two stages, beginning from May 23.
 
Oil Revenue, Power Sector
As part of efforts to address the reoccurring revenue shortfalls from the oil sector and the resultant quarrels between the tiers of government, the committee on public accounts and revenue headed by former governor of Kebbi State, Adamu Alero, had invited the chairman of Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission to explain the state of affairs with the country’s revenue earnings. The chairman of RMAFC, Engr. Elias N. Mbam, opened up on many issues, including the over-bloated cost of governance, which he said was crippling the country’s economy, and the non-transparent reporting of proceeds from the oil and gas sectors.
Working in concert with the public finance committee, the committee on energy, led by another former governor, Senator Rasheed Ladoja, took the initiative to invite a former adviser to ex- Head of State, Abdulsammi Abubakar, and then chairman of Eleme Petrochemicals, Engr. Muhammed Ibrahim, to throw more light on the operations of the oil and gas industry. Also invited was an official of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Ibrahim not only reeled out series of policy errors and summersaults, he suggested several ways to overcome the present challenges facing the oil sector. According to him, the country can attempt to regain more control of the oil sector by renegotiating most of the PSC agreements with multinational oil firms and by so doing be able to earn more revenue and dictate the terms of operations in the sector.  Ibrahim blamed the management of NNPC for abandoning innovative projects like the eight floating stations worth N8 billion built to ease fuel supply and distribution in the riverine areas of the Niger Delta.  He also lamented that Nigeria is the largest producer of compressed natural gas but ironically the country is also a net importer of the same product, blaming it on the structure of the LNG which cannot load products to tankers except deep sea ships. Ibrahim, who served as a top consultant to the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, disclosed a plot by the Chinese to corner the PMS markets in the North and South-west through setting up of small refineries in the neighbouring countries of Benin, Niger and Chad.
While making his own intervention, former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Edmund Dakoru, said depending on foreigners to build refineries for the country will not help. He was of the opinion that the federal government should learn some lessons from what small countries like Niger and Chad were doing and try to moderate its privatisation policy to allow some measure government’s leadership role in investment in refining.
NNPC’s Head of Strategy Planning, Mr. Jimoh Okon, spoke on the economics of crude oil production. He expressed concern over the activities of itinerant crude oil refiners who degrade the environment and pointed out that there was no difference between stolen and legitimate crude. He hinted that crude oil traders were a veritable link between oil thieves and legitimate businessmen.
Stolen crude, according to him, goes through the creeks and such activities take place at night with the aid of small vessels that transfer crude into large ships anchored on international waters. Okon lamented that the issue could not be tackled in isolation by Nigeria because of its international dimension, and therefore called for international collaborative efforts that might involve the use of helicopters and gunboats on the international waters.
 
Power Sector
Former Minister of Power and high-ranking officer of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Engr. Bello Suleiman, during the week told the committee on energy, which he is a member, that Nigeria’s power sector was broke. He blamed the collapse of the utility outfit to a faulty contractual agreement reached between the federal government and the United States-based power supply company, Enron, in 1998. Suleiman, in an interview in Abuja, claimed that as a result of the financial burden incurred from servicing the Enron power deal, PHCN became totally broke.
However, the Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo, countered and said the power sector was not broke. The minister who spoke through his special assistant on media, Kande Daniel, attributed the current losses in revenue to both technical and commercial issues, which he assured the ministry was making effort to reduce.
“The power sector is not broke.  The entire system has a lot of losses (both technical and commercial) which government is working hard at reducing. In some distribution companies, it is as high as 40%; meaning that for every N1 of energy, the distribution company is able to collect about 60k. The causes of losses include ageing and obsolete infrastructure, lack of metering, energy theft,” Daniel said.
 
Public Service Reform
The National Conference Committee on Public Service is recommending an upwards review of retirement age from 60 to 65 years or 40 years in service. Presently, the retirement age is fixed at 60 years or 35 years in service. The chairman of the committee, Engr. Ebele Okeke, said the committee also recommended that the labour laws should remain on the exclusive list in the constitution.
“From what we have understood, the laws protect those who have no voice. They protect the majority who are Nigerian workers because the states would like to pay them peanut. We have suggested that they should be given consideration when there are vacancies. We have suggested a certain percentage for them. We also recommended that the working environment should be made friendly to them,”  she said.
 
Extension of Conference Duration
The National Conference Secretariat on Wednesday announced the extension of the duration of the national dialogue by one week to enable its committees to make up for lost time caused by the break-off in their sitting days between May 5 and May 8 in order to make way for the World Economic Forum. In a statement issued by the Assistant Secretary, Media and Communication, Mr. Akpanden James, the secretariat said the federal government did not extend the duration of the national conference by six weeks as was being insinuated.  “If there is need for an extension, a request for that would emanate from the conference secretariat to the Presidency, and as at the time of issuing this statement no such request has been made to the Presidency and the secretariat is not aware of any formal extension of the conference duration by the federal government,” he said.
A new work plan released by the leadership of the conference said that the national conference had been adjusted following inputs from the leadership of the conference. According to the work plan obtained by THISDAY, Monday 21st-Thursday 24th July had been devoted to consideration of draft report of the conference. Week 20, Monday 28th-Thursday July 31st will be for production and signing of the final report.
But some delegates had earlier cautioned that the leadership of the conference should avoid the temptation of extending the conference. Those who were against extending the conference feared that extension of the conference was likely to eat into the 2015 general elections preparations. However, a spokesperson for the conference, James, said he was not aware of the extension. “What I know is that the period for the committees to complete their work has been extended to May 15.”
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