By: Ubong Sampson — Uyo
Former Governor of Akwa Ibom state, Architect Victor Attah has accused ex president Olusegun Obasanjo of having unlawfully taken oil wells belonging to Akwa Ibom and distributing same to Imo and Cross River states.
In an interview on Arise Television recently , Attah said Obasanjo is not the true democrat he presents himself to be, as according to him, Obasanjo was the secret hand behind the truncating of true federalism and sovereignty in Nigeria.
“The country would have seamlessly transformed into true federalism with a parliamentary system of government if Obasanjo had not trampled upon the sovereignty of the people by taking unilateral decisions that set the country backwards”, Attah said.
“We still remember how Obasanjo stopped federal allocations to Lagos State just because he had issues with the state governor. Are those the mark of a democrat that he is trying to portray himself today?
“He took over the chairmanship of the PDP Board of Trustees from Tony Anenih and was able to manipulate the party for his selfish reasons. Such acts by Obasanjo do not make him the democrat he has been trying to portray himself.”
Attah, who was governor during Obasanjo’s reign as president, said the Ogun state born retired general had the opportunity of writing his name in gold if he had done what was expected of him at the time.
“Former President Obasanjo truncated true federalism in Nigeria by his actions when he had the opportunity of writing his name in gold. Like we all know, sovereignty resides with the people but Obasanjo did not follow the principles of true sovereignty. Some of the actions he took while in power are the malaise we are still facing today.
“Sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria and there should be an act of parliament that we need a sovereign conference that will come out with a new constitution for Nigeria based on the 1963 constitution that placed mineral resources found in the regions as belonging to the owners of the land.
“Recently, Obasanjo wrote a letter to Pa Edwin Clark saying that the oil in the Niger Delta belongs to Nigeria and not the people of the region. I want to disagree with him on that. The oil in the Niger Delta belongs to the people of the region and the 1963 constitution clearly spelt that out and they were supposed to contribute to the centre and not the other way round.
The former 2-term governor said he championed the cause of resource control which he said would have recognised the Niger Delta people as the true owners of the oil but according to him, Obasanjo did everything to jeopardise resource control which he said is why the country is where it is today.
“If you go back to the 1963 constitution, there was an arrangement that the FG should pay 50 per cent to the states where the mineral resources were found, which clearly means that the mineral resources belong to the states. But when the military took over power, the rules were changed and that was what Obasanjo stood on, even as a democratically elected president”, he added.
