‘Why we advocated part-time legislature, restructuring’
Olorogun Moses Taiga, the president general of Urhobo Progress Union (UPU), in this interview cries out that the ethnic nationality is not adequately represented in the House of Representatives like other areas in Delta State. While urging President Muham
Would you say Nigeria’s democracy is under threat based on recent gale of defections by elected representatives and siege to the National Assembly complex? I don’t think our democracy is under threat. We are in a learning curve and also experiencing the ups and downs of democratic rule. The world has changed and every nation is adopting democratic rule. With this trend, there is no way our democracy would go under. It is the same politicians that were scheming to re-circle themselves that were changing parties. We are not going to get to a situation where anybody, in his right senses would operate outside the military spectrum.
Where does Urhobo nation stand in the present realities?
The issues that are of concern to the Urhobo nation are outside the immediate political spectrum. I believe every four years, when election approaches there is always a rise in temperature, which is happening now. We should only learn to be patient with one another.
The present political heat is normal at every election time. Most politicians due to the fear of losing out or failing to retain their position, tend to make moves similar to what we are witnessing. What we are going through today is not different from what we witnessed in the past. I will only urge political actors to be cautious.
Some observers say unless
Nigeria is restructured the polity will continue to have issues, yet
President Buhari said those calling for restructuring have hidden agenda. Where do you stand on this?
I don’t think the President said that when the South South leaders and traditional leaders visited him on June 25 this year. In my address to him, we thanked him and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for appointing Governor Nasir El-rufai to chair the committee set up to look at the possibility of restructuring. We also urged him to speed up the process of El-rufai’s committee’s work on restructuring.
We also appealed to the president to consider implementing the 16 points agenda, which was sent to him by the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) through his vice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. The agenda called for the old parliamentary system of government and in addition to it we also called for the economic system of every region to produce and retain larger proportion of whatever they produced and contribute a portion to the centre.
This is what we agitated for and what the president replied was that yes to him restructuring means different things to different people. He didn’t reject our demands or suggestions. We told him that we are ready to support any party and government that would do what the Urhobo Nation wants. That is we have our requirements that are well articulated. Once any government aligned with us on what we want, such would get our support.
Can you suggest the best approach to handle restructuring?
There is no difference between devolution of power and proper restructuring they are same. When we say proper restructuring one of the things we want is devolution of power. That is there should be proper federal system where the powers of the federal and the regional governments are appropriately defined. In our presentation on restructuring we even suggested a part-time legislature because that was what we had during the First Republic. Full time legislature is a waste of money and resources. And our position was that devolution of power should accord each of the regions the power to retain their economic products.
In the First Republic the Western Region controls cocoa, rubber and palm kernel. The Eastern Region owns palm kernel and oil. The north produced groundnuts and that was what kept every region going. The fundamental thing is that you retain what you produced and contribute some potion for the upkeep of the centre. This was the situation until the military took over and they collapsed everything first as a unitary government and when Gen Yakubu Gowon (rtd) took over after the counter coup of 1966 he reversed the unitary government but did not reverse the rights of each region, which are now devolved into states while the economy is still centralized.
The challenge of restructuring is that while it is popular in the South, especially among the minority groups, north remains skeptical…?
I don’t think you are right, the Yoruba and Ibos are major tribes and all of them including the Middle Belt are calling for restructuring. I am a member of the South-south movement and we are in link with the Yoruba, Ibo and the Middle Belt. It is therefore not correct to say it is only the big boys who are saying no to restructuring. In fact, nobody is saying Nigeria should not be restructured.
But the core north is not in support of restructuring?
I don’t know that. The president said his only concern is restructuring means different things to different people. But it is the same ruling APC headed by the president that appointed a governor, ElRufai to look into the issue of restructuring.
Advocates of restructuring argue that if the ruling party were sincere, it would not have appointed someone like El-rufai that doesn’t believe in it and has never hid his disdain for it?
I am hearing it from you for the first time that El-rufai is against restructuring. What Buhari said when we met him was that restructuring mean different things to different people. I sat next to him the day we met.
What is the best time to restructure, before or after the 2019 election? My response will neither be here or there. It is the start of the process that is important. If our leaders are sincere and would also implement the 16points agenda PANDEF submitted to the president on December 2016 whether there is an overlap before the election or is concluded before does not mater. I will urge you to get the agenda and read. We met with other groups across the country and they all adopted the 16point agenda.
If there is sincerity of purpose and they start implementing the agenda now whether it is completed before the election or not, it will overtake whoever wins the 2019 election.
I urge the government to implement what was considered useful for this nation. What I will not agree with is the argument that the present National Assembly has constitutional ability to redefine restructuring.
Restructuring as contained in that 16point agenda is outside the National Assembly. I am using this opportunity to appeal to the media to join us in urging the federal government to start implementing the 16-point agenda of PANDEF.
If we start doing it today we may finish it before the election otherwise the bandwagon would have started and it cannot be stopped irrespective of the party that wins the election in 2019.
All the pressure groups have come to a consensus to support any candidate and party that has restructuring in its manifesto. From all indications, the presidency is going to the north, peradventure none of the two major parties, APC and PDP puts the issue in their manifesto, does that suggest the groups would reject them?
No sir. We try to differentiate what we want in restructuring according to the 16-point agenda to what any political party might want. For instance, a party like the APC can put restructuring in its manifesto and fail to implement it after the election. It is not whether two parties from the north want it or not and therefore if they don’t do it they would have cheated us. But if you look at the manifesto of APC, it contains restructuring in the last election but the question is has it implemented it? The issue is not about what the parties put in their manifesto or where the candidate comes from. In fact, I will put it that if one party knows that another party did not has restructuring in its manifesto; it will rush to add it to its own to ensure that they join the bandwagon. So it is not the question of having it in the manifesto it is we people and our determination to ensure it is done.
You raised the issue of imbalance of representation of the Urhobo nation in the House, how do you want the government to intervene?
I am calling on President Buhari, putting the population and the geographical size of the Urhobo nation into consideration; we should be entitled to more than three representatives at the federal level. There was a time we had more. For example my own House of Assembly used to have two and my area Udu Ugheli North and South used to have two members at the federal house before until it was reorganised by the military rulers. Our representation was reduced but we are reenacting the concept that we are too big in size to have only three representatives. We are over 53 per cent of Delta State population and yet we are getting 30 per cent of the 19 members of House of Representatives.