Former
Vice-President Atiku Abubakar on Tuesday said
that if he had emerged President in 2007, he would have sold part of the
Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for the sake of developing the
Niger Delta.
According to him,
except the Niger Delta crisis was resolved, the country may not enjoy stable
electricity supply.
Atiku spoke
in Abuja at the launch of a book titled: “We Are All Biafrans,” written by
Chido Onumah. The former VP was chairman of the occassion. His words: “I think
the Niger Delta should be handled with a stick and carrot approach. In 2007,
before I ran for president, I met with various stakeholders on the Niger Delta
issue and they came up with a policy.
“Part of the
recommendations was that the ministry be moved to the Niger Delta and not
Abuja. We have had administrations that did not do their homework on the Niger
Delta.
“If I had won, I
would have sold 10 per cent shares in the NNPC; that will give me $20 billion,
which would build infrastructure for the Niger Delta, but we will always end up
with accidental leadership.
“Bring peace and
development to the Niger Delta then they will stop blowing up pipelines. Then,
we will get gas and then power can be stable, but until then, we will not get
it.”
The APC chieftain
also urged Nigerians to give President Muhammadu Buhari a “pass mark” for his
efforts in the first year of his administration.
Atiku said that of
the five areas the Buhari administration pledged to face, he has accomplished
two and should be encouraged.
He said: “He
promised to look into issues like power, insurgency, unemployment, corruption
and diversification and if you are to take two out of five, you can give him a
pass mark.
“He has dealt with
corruption and with Boko Haram. “For power, give him time.” Atiku also
recommended “a smaller, leaner Federal Government with reduced
responsibilities” to tackle the myrad of threats to the Nigerian State.
He said: “State and
local governments should control education, health, agriculture, roads and
other infrastructure. “A true federal system will allow the federating states
to keep their resources while the Federal Government retains the power of
taxation and regulatory authority over standards.
“The result will be
a political and governmental system that empowers local authorities and gives
them greater autonomy to address peculiar local issues, while enhancing
accountability and contributing to the general good of the country.
“Such a robust federal
system will reduce the tensions that are built into our current
over-centralized system.”
Other
recommendations from Atiku were: Autonomy for states; a tax-centred revenue
base; enhanced, diversified economic activities and productivity in order to enlarge
their tax bases. He also proposed an end to the indigene-settler dichotomy, the
creation of a state police to complement the federal police and help in the
fight against crime.
He called for a
restructuring of the country, saying: “Nigeria is not working as well as it
should and part of the reason is the way we have structured our country and
governance, especially since the late 1960s.
“The Federal
Government is too big and too powerful relative to the federating states. That
situation needs to change and calling for that change is patriotic. “We must
refrain from the habit of assuming that anyone calling for the restructuring of
our federation is working for the break-up of the country.
“An excessively
powerful centre does not equate with national unity. If anything, it has made
our unity more fragile, our government more unstable and our country more
unsafe.”
The author of the
book said he believes in true federalism and that the 214-page would sensitise
the reader to note that most, if not all, of the problems of Nigeria were
located in the way the country was structured.
A journalist,
blogger and human rights activist, Onumah called for a look at the
socio-political restructuring of Nigeria to ward off “a looming catastrophe
that could endanger our collective well-being”.
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