By James Orji
Hakeem Baba Ahmed, Secretary, Northern Elders Forum has added a new twist to the bitter row between two elder statesmen Edwin Clark and former President Olusegun Obasanjo over the ownership of crude oil in the Niger Delta.
Obasanjo had in a recent letter to Clark insisted that the oil deposit in the Niger Delta is a national asset. But, Clark, a highly respected Ijaw leader in the oil bearing region had rebuffed him, saying such comment is unfair to the oil bearing states.
But for Baba-Ahmed, who is regarded to be controversial due to his mostly unsavoury comments against the southern part of the country, the North can as well lay claim to Abuja, the sprawling nation’s capital, the same way Niger Delta are claiming ownership of crude oil deposit in their region.
The former secretary to the Government of the Government of the Federation, SGF who spoke on Arise Television on Thursday, said it’s unfair for Niger Deltans to claim crude oil deposit in their land, when Abuja, which belongs to the North had been appropriated by the federal government which turned the FCT to a national patrimony.
According to him, most properties in Abuja are owned by southerners who have made it their homes after the federal government had seized the Territory from the north and developed it for the benefit of all Nigerians.
He said mineral resources also abound in other parts of the country that will be used for the benefits of all Nigerians.
The NEF scribe said “what happens when we eventually find the resources to fully exploit the gold and diamond and a lot of the resources that exist in other parts of the country?
“What about the water resources, what about. Eighty per cent of the food we eat in this country are produced in the North. So, I don’t think that this is an argument that should be limited to President Obasanjo and Chief Clark. We should sit down. If the government is not going to allow a genuine productive dialogue about the way the federation works, we should do so ourselves.
“If this administration is unwilling to pay attention to the values of this, let’s wait for another administration. The world is not going to end with Buhari’s administration. President Buhari may be hostile to or this administration may be hostile to discussing these sensitive, but necessary debates, we can do that later.
“We are willing, we are open and we are looking forward to sitting down with PANDEF, Afenifere and Ohanaeze to discuss not only the issue of the use of assets but other issues that are central to the unity of this nation.”
The Ijaw leader had criticised the federal government for focusing more on the Niger Delta crude oil while gold and other solid mineral resources were being exploited in states such as Zamfara
