Quest for more money: What the North should do – Sen Ewherido

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

SENator Pius Ewherido, DPP, Delta Central, is unarguably one of the foremost political players in his native Delta State. He was before his advent to the Senate, Deputy Speaker of the State House of Assembly and Acting Speaker of the House.
The lawyer turned businessman and politician was able to build on his political acumen to defy the odds to emerge as the only DPP Senator in the seventh Senate.

Senator Ewherido who is presently the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Marine Transport, spoke in a telephone interview on the contentions raised by elements in the north for a scrapping of the derivation principle in revenue allocation. Excerpts.

What is your response to the agitation by northern leaders for a scrapping of the derivation principle of revenue allocation?
My simple view is that they should limit their agitation to a review of the revenue formula in respect to the proportion to the centre and to the other tiers, they should restrict it to that because if you touch on the Niger Delta thing, that would be a very, very sensitive matter. What gets to the Niger Delta is a product of the 13%. So in my thinking, that is strictly for minerals and resources from the region. The 13% derivation in the constitution is misread by people to mean as if it is only for oil. My understanding of it is that it should apply for whatever resource that is obtained from any area of the country.

Ecological degradation
Don’t forget the environmental and ecological degradation of the Niger Delta area is not even over, it is still there and so long as oil is around, the potential for further degradation  is there.
But speaking as somebody from the area I will say that till date, very many parts of the Niger Delta are still cut off from civilization.

But how do you posit that with the argument from the north of increasing disparity in development between the north and south?
I think that is the reason why they should concentrate on the agitation of cutting down the allocation to the centre rather than looking at what goes to the Niger Delta. Because if you want to define it in terms of what goes to the Niger Delta states they would miss the point.

Senator Ewherido

How?
That the gap is widening is not the fault of the south and if you say south generally it is not the whole south that is benefiting from derivation in oil revenue.

The argument is that one state in the Niger Delta gets what goes to a whole zone in the north?
But if you compare the kind of work they have to do in the South-South that argument will not hold and that is despite the fact that some of our Governors shy from facing what they should do squarely. The magnitude of work to be done in the Niger Delta is much especially in the riverine areas. We still have a lot of communities that are cut off.  We have not done a fifth of the bridges that will link the Niger Delta, so there is so much work to be done in the Niger Delta.

So, if you compare the work to be done and what is there already, there is a real problem.
My pain too is that some of our Governors are not facing those challenges headlong. Instead of concentrating on major bridges and major projects that will transform the place I don’t seem to understand the agenda of some, although a few of them are trying.

Like who?
I think Amaechi is doing a good job, I also think that Akpabio is doing a good job.

What is then your advice to northern leaders?
My advice to them is to first of all let us curb the problem of insecurity because today insecurity in the north is affecting investment in the north and it is the same problem that happened to the Niger Delta in the days of crisis. You know that nobody will invest in an atmosphere of crisis. So, let us arrest the crisis. If there is peace in the north today, investors will be attracted to the north. I have always said that the private sector has more to offer than the government, the government is just a catalyst providing the enabling environment for industry to thrive.

So, let the problem of insecurity be tackled and let investment be encouraged and in that way they can build on their areas of comparative advantage in terms of mineral resources and agricultural resources. We shouldn’t make it look like oil is the only thing that this country can benefit, no. I don’t think so. There are so many resources in the north that can be developed, I think the northern Governors should concentrate on developing some of these resources. And they should also try to tackle the problem of having too many children in the north that are not in school. This thing also has bearing on tomorrow.