Violence: Nigeria on the march to restructuring-Senate-elect Fadahunsi

By Damola Emmanuel

The Senator-elect for Osun East Senatorial District, Prince Francis Adenigba Fadahunsi, has done a critical appraisal of the security situation in Nigeria, as well as the capability of the country’s current security architecture, and gave one word of advice to the federal government: step up your game!

Fadahunsi, who was close to tears as he recalled the spiralling morbid statistics of innocent Nigerians succumbing daily to the spectre of violence in virtually every part of the country, said pointedly that the deteriorating security situation in Nigeria can never be solved through rhetoric.

“This government must walk the talk,” he said a release signed by his media assistant, Sam Segun-Progress. “As President Muhammadu Buhari prepares to constitute his next cabinet for his second term, posterity will not forgive him if he fails to choose the best of the best for this country. Nigeria is at a stage where mediocrity, fuelled by nepotism should be thrown to the hottest part of hell.

“He must put Nigeria first and put square pegs in square holes. There should be neither clan nor kinship in considering who would give the best service to this country. All the six geo-political zones must have fair representation in every stratum of government. Ethnicity, nepotism and lop-sidedness in appointments would only breed chaos and fuel under-development.”

Fadahunsi, a retired Assistant Comptroller General of Customs, took the argument further when he reviewed the various development commissions set up to douse tension in aggrieved sections of the country.

The Senator-elect for Osun East Senatorial District recalled the seemingly unrelenting restiveness in the Niger Delta region, the ensuing carnage and despoliation of the environment that provoked the establishment of the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, OMPADEC, by the General Ibrahim Babangida Administration in July 1992.

Prior to this, these areas had opposed allocations to oil-producing state and local governments rather than directly to them as oil-producing communities.

OMPADEC was established by decree No, 23 of July, 1992 for the twin purpose of rehabilitating and developing the Oil Mineral Producing Areas of Nigeria which had been devastated and suffered untold ecological disaster by the debilitating effects of oil exploration.

Despite the palliatives that OMPADEC provided for the Delta region, they could not stop Ogoni crisis and other minority agitations that shook the country to its foundation. OMPADEC could not stop youth in the region from mounting aggressive campaigns against the despoliation of their land, water and environment by oil giants like Shell, BP, etc., without commensurate investments and compensation. They took to arms to give expression to their agitation.

Despite the promise brought by democracy at its onset in 1999, Fadahunsi recounted, the agitations did not abate. This led to the establishment of yet another development commission, and successor to OMPADEC, the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, in 1999 by the new President Olusegun Obasanjo Administration. Unlike OMPADEC, which gave partial reprieve and palliatives, NDDC, has made significant inroad in addressing some of the problems in the devastated region. Apart from the creation of the NDDC, the agitations also won for the region the payment of 13% derivation to the oil producing states.

Fadahunsi also recalled the protests, though non-violent, by many prominent persons in the north, who, while countering the agitation by the Niger Delta region for a large chunk of derivation from oil because it comes from its soil, also pressed for the establishment of the Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission HEPPADC. That came into fruition in 2010 when the commission was established by an act of parliament. HEPPADC is charged with the responsibility for, among other things, managing hydro-electric power activities in the power producing areas.

The Osun East Senator-elect was not done. He noted the horrendous campaign of the terror group, Boko Haram, in the North East, which has gone on for years and resulted in thousands of deaths, still counting.

He observed that some northern elite saw the benefits that have accrued to their counterparts in Niger Delta as an inspiration to stir up similar agitation in their region, hence the emergence of Boko Haram. The insurgency, he further posited, has become a big business to both politicians and generals from the region.

The North East Development Commission, NEDC, was born in October 2016, when the senate passed the bill for its establishment to coordinate the rebuilding of the insurgency-ravaged North East region of Nigeria.

On Tuesday, April 9, 2019, the senate strengthened the establishment of the NEDC when it confirmed its members. The upper chamber, on that day, confirmed Paul Tarfa, a retired army major-general, as chairman, and Mohammed Alkali as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the commission; in addition to nine others as members of the board.

“Since Boko Haram gave birth to the North East Development Commission, and IPOB and MOSSOB gave birth to the proposed South East Development Commission, which has passed second reading in the Senate, the crises in Kaduna and Zamfara will give birth to another development commission,” Fadahunsi predicted. “The crisis in the North West is taking a new dimension that is likely to spread across the region if the federal government remains indifferent and adamant to calls by well-meaning Nigerians to step up its campaign against the relentless violence rocking the area.”

But should the status quo remain, the senator-elect said he foresaw a situation where the problems in the North West and North Central would trigger fresh agitation that may lead to the establishment of their own development commissions. And once the North West and North Central get theirs, the South West may see the establishment of development commissions as reward for violence. And some of their boys may rise up to seek for their own share of the national cake.”

“Should this happen, and it is not impossible,” Fadahunsi continued, “Nigeria would have begun a gradual but systematic march to the regional system of government. The establishment of the regional commissions induced by relentless violence is becoming fashionable and encouraging other zones to violence so they too can get the attention of government.”

Fadahunsi added everything and submitted that the federal government must, as a matter of urgency, set up a team that will nip the crises in the bud, adding that “the lackadaisical attitude of government to security matters will continue to create food for the boys.”

Concluding, he posted some rhetorical questions: “Must we use violence to get what is due? Must we lose lives, limbs and properties before we can get what is due? What is the gain of the government in all of these chaos? What is the benefit of using our scarce resources to rebuild ruins?”

The senator-elect, therefore, urged the federal government to quickly put machinery in motion into restructuring the country as an effective tool to address the diverse agitations and stop the widespread carnage and unnecessary blood-letting tainting the sanctity of our fatherland.