A delegate at the National Conference, Goddy Uwazurike, on Wednesday, said the National Conference was unable to achieve desired results on the issue of derivation, because they had fallen into a trap, set by some members.
Criticisms for the Conference seemed to have increased following a major disagreement which ensued over the issue of derivation and resource sharing/control. Many analysts had said this was the crux of the matter as it was perceived as the root of major other national issues including unemployment, insurgency, etc.
However, Uwazurike spoke in defence of the Conference. “We fell into a trap,” he said.
“Some people came forward and said instead of us standing up here to argue and debate, why don’t we have this small group that will negotiate and see how we can reach agreement… (that was the trap) and we said, fine, let there be no acrimony.
“They came back, the man who was reading what was supposed to be the recommendation, from what we heard, read what was not the recommendation.
“That thing shocked many people. The recommendation was simple. 18 percent derivation, 5 percent would come from the Federation Account for the maintenance of areas damaged by terrorism and so on, beginning with North East.
“It’s a national fund, but the man went and said beginning with North East, North West, North Central and the rest of the country. Then some of them said, no we don’t even want the rest of the country; it’s only for us.
Asked why appropriate changes were not made upon discovery of the error, Uwazurike, explained that the man in question called in sick after he was told to make corrections, after which a larger committee took over “which was still another trap. So by the time we all came back to sit down, the tension was already high”.
He, however, noted that a decision was reached to adopt the report by the committee, which stated that status quo should be maintained.
Speaking on the most critical breakthrough of the Conference, Uwazurike noted that Conference recommended that the creation, management, funding of the local government should be the business of the State government, although the LGs would be fully autonomous.
The recommendation also states that State Finance Committees should be set up the same way the FAAC has an Allocation Committee. This Committee will be in charge of disbursing money to the local governments.
“Any money coming from the States should be handled by the local government directly, provided it is an elected local government and provided the governor has no power to sack such a person, the House of Assembly has no such powers to sack such a person.”
“The second breakthrough we have is that any state that desires State Police should go ahead and get one, provided they can fund it.
State Police will only handle state matters including murder, stealing, road network and so on, while Federal Police will handle bank fraud, treason and so on.
National Assembly Can’t Achieve What National Conference Has
Uwazurike, also commended the achievements of the Conference thus far, noting that the National Assembly cannot achieve such, as it is “bound by too many rules”.
Mr Uwazurike, a part of the sub-committee on judiciary matters, reacted to comments – in the public domain, as well as those by some delegates – describing the entire process as a failed effort, based on the assumption that some concrete recommendations were not made.
“Opinion is free and you are free to say anything”, Uwazurike said, noting that those who consider the Conference a failure must be “living in the moon” because delegates took pains to make recommendations.
“We have taken steps. We made painstaking efforts, line by line, to discuss national issues; whether is it executive, whether it is judicial, whether it is legislative. We took pains”.
Although some delegates have also publicly berated the effort, Uwazurike insisted that such delegates were “visiting delegates” and not “regular delegates”.
