North Most Produce President In 2015 Or Nigeria Will Divide - Atiku's Associate

Alhaji Lawal Kaita, close ally of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, who promised Nigerians in October 2010 that the North would make the country ungovernable for President Jonathan if he won the 2011 election, is again spitting fire.

This time around he is insisting that a Northerner must emerge as President of the country by 2015 or there would be no Nigeria any more.

“We hear rumours all over that Jonathan is planning to contest in 2015. Well, the North is going to be prepared if the country remains one. That is, if the country remains one, we are going to fight for it. If not, everybody can go his way,” he said in an interview in Katsina.

Kaita, who described the emergence of the Bamanga Tukur-led NWC of the party as a grand ploy by President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the 2015 presidential race, said the North would ensure he never succeeds.

It would be recalled that Alhaji Kaita had said in October 2010 that "The North is determined, if that happens, to make the country ungovernable for President Jonathan or any other Southerner who finds his way to the seat of power on the platform of the PDP against the principle of the party’s zoning policy".

Kaita had, at that time, warned that the North should not be blamed for the calamity that will befall the country, if Jonathan emerges President.

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Northern leaders accuse Jonathan of scheming for another term

The coalition of Northern leaders, formed to articulate the region’s interest in the eventuality of a national conference, has rejected the framework for the present revenue formula and accused the presidency of a mischievous plot for another term for President Goodluck Jonathan.

The coalition involving some northern governors, politicians, academics and some of the region’s most erudite personalities in the professions alleged that the subsisting revenue formula was illegal even as it deposed that it was harmful to the oil rich Niger Delta. According to the group, too much money going to the oil rich region was fueling corruption in the Niger Delta.

The position of the northern leaders was articulated at the end of a meeting of the chairmen of its 10 committees recently convened to define the interest of the region.

The group also demanded the identification of all Generals, businessmen and others involved in illegal bunkering activities in the Niger Delta.

The Coalition of Concerned Northerners has as members, Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State; Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State; former President of the Senate, Dr. Iyorcha Ayu and some of the leading lights of the region in different professions.

The presidency immediately rebuffed the allegation of scheming for a third term as it accused the Northern leaders of sorcery on the basis that the constitution review committee headed by Justice Alfa Belgore (rtd) was yet to submit its report.

The position of the group was articulated in a statement by the group’s convener, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, following yesterday’s meeting of the chairmen of its 10 standing committees.

On the alleged plot for a third term, the group said: “The committee chairmen also noted with concern and regret the goings-on in the constitution amendment committee set up by the Federal Government under a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Alfa Belgore, where it has become clear that the Villa and the chairman are relentlessly pursuing sinister third term agenda/renewed tenure elongation for the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

“The main effort by Belgore and other hirelings of the Villa has been to create a so-called New Constitution that paves the way for Jonathan to again contest the presidential election in 2015 for a single term of seven years, that is, in addition to his current four (4) years to the nearly two (2) years he had served of the Yar’Adua Presidency.

“Belgore has nothing but contempt for issues in which the North feels cheated such as Abuja and revenue allocation and his dangerous antics have divided the committee, leading to acrimonious debates and near fist-fights with Belgore feigning helplessness while surreptitiously helping his own side. The whole country with the North as its head will rise to oppose this mischief.”

Presidency reacts

Responding to the claim, presidential spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati told Vanguard yesterday:

“It is not in any evidence in any way that the Belgore Committee which the President set up to look up at the previous outcomes of political conferences, recommendations as to constitution amemndent has submitted any report any where. I am not aware of any report that has been submitted any where making any recommendations.

“We would expect that when people who claim to be major stakeholders in the Nigerian project make contributions, such contributions will show commonsense and decency. Because to comment on the report of the Belgore committee that has not been concluded and a report that has not yet been submitted will amount to witchcraft or if you like sorcery and therefore curious and entirely mischievous. As far as I know Belgore committee has not concluded its work.

“It also appears strange to me that a group of people who would otherwise be described as distinguished Nigerians would claim that President is looking for a third term. Every intelligent man in this country knows that President Jonathan is in his first term in office, so how have they suddenly jumped from first term to third term.

From the point of view of arithmetics, even their claim cannot stand. So that claim is weak, it is unacceptable.

“If their concern is about the seven-year term, President Jonathan has made it clear that his proposal is out of patriotic concern about the amount of wastefulness, greed, tension, conflict that go into the search for second term. It is borne out of patriotic concern that elected officials at all levels should dedicate themselves and concentrate their efforts during a specific period,” noting that the proposal was not original to the President.

On the revenue formula

On the revenue formula, the group said: “The North rejects the current obnoxious revenue allocation law and call for its immediate review in view of its being lopsided, unfair and detrimental to the interest of all Nigerians, including the real people of the oil-producing states it appears to favour superficially.

“Oil producing states are equally victims because the revenue accruing to their states on the basis of the obnoxious derivation over-weighted formula is far beyond their executive capacity to manage. As a consequence, it encourages corruption and hyper-inflation in those states, their neighbours and the country at large. The law, as it exists, is a violation of a subsisting judgment by the Supreme Court of Nigeria, a fact openly admitted to by former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

International Law of Sea Convention

“This revenue allocation law also stands in violation of the international law with particular reference to the International Law of Sea Convention (LOSC). The LOSC treaty, which has since come into force (1982), is the principal governing law for all maritime resource issues. The LOSC is one of the most comprehensive treaties in international law and clearly stipulates in its various parts and annexes that oil and all forms of wealth found on the continental shelf or the international sea bed must belong to the countries and not just to administrative/political units (littoral states) adjoining the physical sea.

“The revenue allocation law, as it stands, is a violation of a subsisting Supreme Court judgment viz: A-G of the Federation Versus A.G Abia State and 36 others (2002) reported in 6 NWLR part 765 on pages 542-905.

“The law is an encouragement to the political class to ignore the ecological devastation as a consequence of oil-related activities while financing and encouraging terrorist agitation and criminality in that part of Nigeria for political blackmail, extortion and ransom.

Condemn award of oil blocks to Generals, others

“The meeting condemned the practice by governments in awarding oil blocks and crude oil liftings to top Generals, cronies of parties or persons in power and fraudsters, who give our country a very bad name overseas.

“We strongly recommend the revocations of all those oil blocks and oil lifting contracts and urge a comprehensive review of all manner of refined products import contracts.

“Meanwhile, all Generals and dishonest businessmen, local chiefs and war-lords involved in criminal bunkering must be identified, arrested and effectively prosecuted.

FCT land

“The Committee Chairmen also discussed the current status of Abuja as the Federal Capital Territory, whereby land belonging to identifiable peoples and communities is forcibly taken away to make way for a so-called federal capital development with virtually no compensation. The communities and peoples alienated from their lands are rendered internally displaced persons (IDPs), but lacking all the rights and privileges accorded them by UN Conventions.

“It is worth noting that from colonial era administration after unification in 1914 and the declaration of Lagos as the Nigeria’s capital, to the creation of Ibadan, Kaduna and Enugu as regional capitals, on to the creation of the old Mid-West with Benin City as capital in 1963, nowhere were the original inhabitants/owners comprehensively, pitilessly and insensitively dispossessed as in Abuja.

“The fiction of a so-called virgin land sold to the late General Murtala Mohammed was just that; a fictional and shameless invention by an obscure geographer from the South-West, to justify the heist of a peoples’ land. No land can be declared a virgin when it is occupied for several generations by peoples and communities.

What is sauce for the goose must be sauce for the gander. What has been the birth-right of Lagosians, their land, as well as Binis, Ibadans and the Wawas of Enugu, must be applicable with full force to the peoples/communities of Abuja forthwith.”

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The Politics Of Oil Blocks And The Northern Elites

I agree the North is poor. Yes, I agree the poverty has bred millions of destitutes, who have become instant and easy recruits for Boko Haram. But my question is: Who impoverished the North?

A caveat: I am an unabashed capitalist who believes that every citizen has a right to do good business and make profit. I salute hard work and do not disparage honest efforts. However, uncompassionate capitalism driven by pulleys of aristocracy breeds a brutal class order worthy of condemnation.

In my last article titled “Elrufai’s Amnesia: The Day Boko Haram Wore Jeans”, I categorically stated that greed and the senseless chase for power by the Fulani aristocrats and political elites of the North are responsible for the extreme poverty of the North. I still and will always stand by that. My position did not go down well with my targets; they responded vituperatively.

The recent Mallam Sanusi’s statistics was intended to mislead us by ruffling the rudder of our common sense. See, Ekiti state has a 2012 budget 0f N88 billion; Kwara state, N90 billion; Cross River state, N144 billion; Anambra state, N82 billion; Enugu state, N74 billion. Now let’s look at the 2012 budgets recently passed into law by the four major Boko Haram occupied states – Kano state has a budget of N 210 billion; Borno state, 150 billion; Gombe, N94 billion; Yobe state, 80 billion.

A simple comparative analysis shows that Ekiti state has about the same revenue as Yobe and Gombe, but only 17 students passed WAEC and NECO in Gombe state last year, while Ekiti is known for its high literacy level. Gombe state has a bigger budget that Enugu and Anambra, why hasn’t MASSOB bombed anyone. Borno state has a budget twice that of Enugu state but the poverty and unemployment level in Borno state is more than thrice that of Enugu state. Borno has a bigger budget than a Niger Delta state- Cross River, while the leaders of that state over the last decade have transformed it into the Nation’s leading tourist destination; those of Borno have transformed it into a Somalia.

Kano state gets the highest statutory allocation from the FG, because on paper Kano is the most populated state in Nigeria, yet Kano has about 1.6 million destitute Almajiris. Kano has a budget almost thrice the budget of Enugu, twice the budget of Kwara, Anambra and Ekiti, but how come almost 90% of students in Kano fail WAEC? How come the poverty level in Kano is higher than all these states put together?

Why is the North so poor? From the figures above I have shown that Southern states with lesser budgets have shown better development performance than most North Eastern states with bigger statutory allocation and budgets.

Now, I need to tackle the sensitive question of revenue allocation that has infuriated the Mallam Lamido Sanusi and Mallam Elrufai and their likes. Niger Delta states get higher revenue allocation because they contribute virtually all the eggs in the national crate. That is expected. Albeit the 13% remains grossly inadequate, the CBN Governor has suggested that the ‘Boko boys’ are resisting the disparity.

I want to posit that the North through their aristocrats and ex-military rulers (except Gen. Mohammed Buhari) rake in more oil money (from the Niger Delta) individually than any Niger Delta state, and collectively more than twice the entire Niger Delta put together. In this disquisition, I have attempted to show that 80% of crude oil and gas produced by indigenous companies is controlled by the North. It is an area they have well conquered through General IBB, Abacha and Abdulsalami. However, the loots never get back home.

In this first part I will attempt to describe the very uneven nature of the distribution of the nation’s wealth among the Northern aristocratic families and their military generals who for decades looted Nigeria. They did so blatantly, and while Nigeria was weeping about oil windfall loot and others, Nigerians would wail if they know how much of the nation’s resources these folks allocated to themselves and their business fronts before they stepped aside.

Let us therefore begin.

To the state of origin of Boko Haram: Borno State. Enter Cavendish Petroleum, the operators of OML 110 – with good yielding OBE field. This oil block was awarded to Alhaji Mai Deribe – the Borno patriarch, who even in death will remain the richest man dead or alive in the history of Borno state- by General Sani Abacha on the 8th of July, 1996. OML 110 has a proven oil reserve in excess of 500 million barrels (More than the entire 300milliom barrels reserve of Sudan). As yet with the capacity to produce about 120,000 barrels of crude oil daily from its OBE 4 and OBE 5 wells. At optimal production levels, Cavendish nets circa N4billion monthly in crude oil sales (Using current oil price of $100pb). Cavendish Petroleum’s N4bn monthly net dwarfs the monthly statutory allocation of Borno which is about N3bn and its internally generated revenue staggers around N1billion. His mansion in Maiduguri has become a tourist attraction. A simple Google search will throw up different perspectives of Mai Deribe’s palatial home.

Enter Oriental Energy Resources Limited, a company owned by Alhaji Mohammed Indimi, a Fulani and close friend of General Ibrahim Babangida. Also worthy of note is that General IBB’s first son is married to Alhaji Mohammed Indimi’s daughter – Yakolo Indimi-Babangida, who also serves as a director in the company. Alhaji Indimi hails from Borno State.

Oriental Energy Resources Limited runs three oil blocks: OML 115, the Okwok field and the Ebok field. OML 115 and Okwo are OML PSC, while Ebok is an OML JV. All of them good yielding offshore oil blocks. OML 115 on its own is 228 sqKm. On OML115 Oriental Energy Resources Limited has 60 per cent while Equity Energy Resources AS. On Okwok, Addax has 40% and on the Ebok field, Oriental Energy Resources shares with none: its 100%. AMNI produces twice as much as Cavendish Petroleum.

I will then shift to the centre of the aristocratic hegemony and capitalism in the North – Kano. Here. Enter the Fulani Prince Nasiru Ado Bayero, Mallam (Prince) Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s cousin. He is a Key shareholder and director in Seplat/Platform petroleum operators of the Asuokpu/Umutu Marginal Field with a capacity of 300,000 barrels monthly and A 30mmfcsd gas plant capable of feeding 100MT of LPG. The Ado Bayeros, Yar’Aduas and Atiku Abubakar are Nigerian holders of Intels. It is a private port that has grounded three Federal ports in the South. Intels is discussed later.

Enter South Atlantic Petroleum Limited (SAPETRO). South Atlantic Petroleum (SAPETRO) is a Nigerian Oil Exploration and Production Company that was created in 1995 by General T. Y. Danjuma. General Sani Abacha awarded the Oil Prospecting License (OPL) 246 to SAPETRO in February 1998.

The block covers a total area of 2,590km2 (1,000 sq. miles). SAPETRO partnered with Total Upstream Nigeria Ltd (TUPNI) and Brasoil Oil Services Company Nigeria Ltd (Petrobras) to start prospecting on OPL246. Akpo, a condensate field was discovered in April 2000 with the drilling of the first exploration well (Akpo 1) on the block. Other discoveries made on OPL 246 include the Egina Main, Egina South, Preowei and Kuro (Kuro was suspended as a dry gas/minor oil discovery).

In June 2006, General TY Danjuma divested part of its contractor rights and obligations to China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) for $1 billion (N160bn). Akpo exports about 230,000 barrels of condensate daily. Condensate export is not regulated by OPEC, so SAPETRO/TOTAL exports as much as possible each day. Egina exports about 75,000 barrels of oil daily.

Therefore, Akpo and Egina fields export just over 300,000 barrels of oil/condensate daily (three times what the country Ghana exports). SAPETRO (TY Danjuma) get 25% of this. Now, note I have not talked about the gas component – it’s about 2.5 trillion cubic feet. The money SAPETRO nets each month is more than the monthly statutory allocation of all the Niger states combined and also more than the oil revenue of Ghana. Do your math.

Enter AMNI (or is it AMIN?) International Petroleum Development Company. AMNI owns two oil blocks – OML 112 and OML 117. In the production sharing contract, AMNI gets 60% for owning the oil block and Total gets 40% for providing technical advice. OML 112 was awarded on the 12/02/1998 while OML 117 was awarded 06/08/1999 all by Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar. Operations started on both blocks 0n 26/02/2006. The licenses are due to expire 11/02/2018 and 05/08/2019 respectively. (Now you see why the next election is important?).

The Okoro and Setu fields in OML 112 are operated by Afren Energy, a company substantially controlled by Rilwanu Lukman. The Okoro and Setu oil fields have about 50 million barrels in reserve and currently produce/exports just a little below 20,000 barrels per day. The chairman of AMNI International Petroleum and Development Company is Alhaji (Colonel) Sani Bello a Fulani from Kontagora, Niger State. Lest I forget, Alhaji Bello’s son- Abu, is married to General Abdusalami Abubakar’s eldest daughter.

Enter Express Petroleum and Gas Limited floated by Alhaji Aminu Dantata, solely for the purpose of fronting for winning oil block(s) even though he and the company are in no way qualified for the award. General Abacha awarded him OML 108 on the 1st of November, 1995. CAMAC Houston, a company owned by Kase Lawal bought 2.5% of Express Petroleum’s 60% holdings. The other 40% on OML 108 is owned Sheba E&P Limited an IBB tributary company. SEPCOL operates the Ukpokiti offshore field in Shallow water Nigeria, which was acquired from ConocoPhillips in May 2004.

Enter Shebah Exploration And Production Limited (SEPCOL) . It is the operator of the Oil Mining License 108 offshore Nigeria. Head office is in Lagos, but ‘head quartered’ in Minna. Enter Consolidated Oil. Conoil Producing Limited is an integrated upstream oil and gas company. They are the operator of six blocks in the Niger Delta as well as 25% Equity holder in the Joint Development Zone (JDZ) Block 4. Corporate Head office is in Lagos, but its ‘Headquarters’ is in Minna, Niger State.

Conoil signed a technical operator agreement with Continental Oil and Gas Limited (CONOG) to provide 100% funding and technical service agreement to operate blocks OML 59 on a 40% (Conoil) / 60% (CONOG) basis. Conoil entered into a Production Sharing Contract with the NNPC by virtue of an agreement executed on 17th October 2008.

Conoil’s has overall potential hydrocarbon resources of over 1.0 Billion Barrels of Oil and 7.0 Trillion Cubic Feet of Gas. General Ibrahim Babangida awarded the first oil block to Conoil in 1991. The company produces about 100,000 barrels per day.

Enter Rilwanu Lukman, another Fulani multimillionaire with fronted controlling holdings in Afren, the operators of AMNI oil blocks and also with very key interest in the NNPC/Vitol trading deal, Vitol is a London based oil trading company. Vitol lifts 350,000 barrels of crude oil daily from Nigeria.

Enter Intels and the Yar’Adua , Ado Bayero family and Alhaji Abubakar Atiku. The Oil and Gas Free Zone and Oil Services Centres, as well as Support Bases, are operated from government-owned facilities, leased to Intels under long-term agreements. Intels runs a ‘private port’, a venture that has systematically killed the Calabar, Warri and Port Harcourt ports. There are over one hundred major companies operating at the Intel facility in Port Harcourt. The company makes more money in profit than the government of Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta states put together. I shall give details and figures in the part two of this disquisition.

I do not need to write so much about NorthEast Petroleum registered as NorEast. NorthEast Petroleum Nigeria Limited is the holder of OPL215 license, covering an area 0f 2,564 square kilometres in water depths between 200 to 1600 metres. NorEast is the parent company of Rayflosh Petroleum Nigeria which got the 2005 bidding round and was awarded the blocks OPLs 276 & 283 closing thereupon a Joint Venture Agreement with Centrica Resources Nigeria Limited and CCC Oil and Gas.

Not surprising, NorthEast Petroleum is owned by another Fulani businessman from the North East, Alhaji Saleh Mohammed Jambo. The license was awarded to him by General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida in 1991 and then renewed in 2004. So far $50Million has been spent on the very promising Okpoi-1 and Egere -1 exploratory well.

We will table other North Eastern billionaires who make more money than their states of origin from Niger Delta oil blocks. With all these oil blocks owned by ‘North- Easterners’ in the Niger Delta, it should be clear to Elrufai and Sanusi who really benefits from the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme.

Sadly, the National Bureau of Statistics Poverty Profile Report just released shows the North East as the poorest region in the nation with 69.1 and 76.3 as absolute and relative poverty level respectively, while the South-West had the lowest poverty profile with 49.8 as absolute poverty level and 59.1 relative poverty level.

With these figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, I rest my case. The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty. Let us reason together

Written By ROSS ALABO-GEORGE

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Why North can’t get more money

Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State joined elders and youths of the Niger Delta yesterday in dismissing demands by northern Governors for the scrapping of the derivation principle in revenue allocation just as it emerged that the restoration of peace to the Niger Delta has led to a daily increase of N34 billion into the federal treasury.

Noting that the Niger Delta region was today getting 100% of the pollution and other incidental damages associated with oil exploitation, the stakeholders from the region said it was unrealistic for the North to look at the benefits to the oil producing region without considering the negatives.

Among those who also rebuffed the demand were elder statesman and second republic Senator, Obi Nosike Ikpo; defunct Biafra warlord, Chief Joseph Achuzia; Leader of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Ledum Mitee and Presidential Adviser on the Amnesty Programme, Mr. Kingsley Kuku.

Answering questions from journalists in Abuja, Orji urged the leaders of the northern states to look inwards and develop resources in the north, saying that the North has been favoured in the sharing over the years.

“On restructuring of revenue, all of us are saying that it should be re-examined so that more money can be made available to the states and local governments because that is where the major action is.

“Niger State Governor was talking of continental shelf; every state is blessed with one thing or the other. You don’t carry the blessing of one state to the other. If oil has come to Niger Delta, preference should be given to the states in terms of sharing because they also suffer the degradation that comes from the exploitation of oil”.

Senator Ikpo who said he was at a loss over the demand by the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum and Niger State Governor, Nuhu Aliyu said:
“It is an untenable argument on the part of the northern governors. You cannot take what you don’t have or what you don’t contribute. The oil is in the Niger-Delta; they are the ones that are feeling the effects of the gas flaring, and they are the ones that their environments are being polluted and the ones that have been deprived of their means of livelihood due to oil exploration and exploitation.

“The north is not feeling any impact of ecological degradation; it is because of the sufferings they are facing as a result of the exploitation of oil in their land that derivation is being paid to them.”

On his part, Achuzia famed as Air Raid on account of his accomplishments in the defunct Biafran Army asked rhetorically: “Why should the revenue formula be reviewed? Is it to increase the 13 per cent derivation to 50 per cent, which is the legitimate rights of the oil and gas states or to reduce the paltry derivation”?

He said he was surprised that the northern governors who raised the issue anew could not advance informed reason for their demand, saying, “the true colour of the north is coming out for other sections of the country to see”.

Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Kingsley kuku on his part declared while addressing ex-militants that the current level of funding of the Niger Delta is still insignificant, compared with its contribution to the nation’s economy.

“What you (ex-militants) have given to Nigeria, if you don’t know, I will tell you – because you accepted peace, at the time that Amnesty was offered, crude oil production was 700, 000 bpd; things were tough; things were hard in this country.

“If you didn’t accept amnesty, even if the whole Niger Delta would die, and you said no, maybe Nigeria would be producing no oil today. But you accepted amnesty; today oil production is at 2.68 million bpd.”

Also speaking on the issue, Leader of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, (MOSOP), Mr Ledum Mitee said if the North is calling for more revenue, they must be ready to share the hazards associated with oil.

In a phone interview with Vanguard, Mitee maintained that the increase in derivation for the South-south was associated with the exploit of resources and the neglect of the area over the years.

His words, “The derivation increase which the Niger Delta or South-South asked for was because of hazards associated with the exploit of resources in their area and the years of neglect. I think the derivation is consistent with justice of this country and one would wonder on what basis the North is asking for more derivation”.

He went further, “If you look at my committee, we made recommendation for an increase in the revenue for the oil producing communities in a manner that also will boost the infrastructural development equivalent to those areas at the same time consistent with a help to boost the national unity”.

“If you are to make an increase in the revenue accrued to the South-South states and you target it in such a way that the increase will be dedicated to improvement or investment in cotton industry, though the revenue from that investment might be accrued to the South- south states, it will also create jobs in the North and these are some of the things that need to be done, it is not enough to just ask for increase just because another person gets” he submitted.

He however said, “For the South-south zone that is getting the 100percent pollution, are we also going to share the hazards associated with oil with the Northern states”.

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