‘Let’s implement 2014 National Conference report’

THE National Secretary of the United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy (UNDEDESS) and a member of the 2014 National Conference, Mr. Tony Uranta has called for the implementation of the recommendations of the conference report to enable Nigeria overcome her myriads of socio-economic and political challenges and sustain its unity.

Uranta spoke exclusively with The Guardian on the need for the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s led government to go beyond mere talk and expedite action on restructuring the country based on the resolutions of the exercise.

The UNDEDESS secretary general was of the opinion that President Buhari’s government was yet to come up with any policy that is seriously aimed at repositioning Nigeria or Nigerians for the better.

Said he, “Even the government itself cannot claim to have started any policy. The first thing we know, and that is what has been restated and we are bored hearing it, is that it is an anti-corruption government.”

Although he said the anti-corruption gesture of the administration was a welcomed idea, he noted that it was worrisome that too much emphasis was being placed on it with seeming nonchalant to other areas.

According to him, “WE have to accept the fact that President Buhari is on the right track by carrying out the anti-corruption war, the problem is, he needs to spread the tentacles. If we must face fact, even some of my friends who are in his cabinet have questions to answer based on their integrity as per whether they are corrupt as former governors or not.

On the decision of President Buhari to address the challenges confronting the Niger Delta area with the view to ensuring necessary remuneration, Uranta said,  “We know that this government tried to win over the hearts of the Niger Delta people and we are very happy to hear it when Mr. President started talking about remuneration in Ogoni land for example. Well, we have found out that so far, it is just talk and not one inch of the Niger Delta, including Ogoni land have been engaged even let alone remunerated. Mr. President needs to go beyond mere talk.”

Tasking the government on what to actually do to reposition the country, Uranta said,  “The government, very necessary, has to begin from ground to up. I have never believed that you need to re-invent the wheel after over 600 people who sat together to represent the whole of Nigeria resolved unanimously and consensually adopted resolutions at a National Conference that this nation has to urgently restructure itself.

“All the major issues confronting this government now, beginning from the unrest in the South East, the ongoing dangers in the North East, the clamour for self-determination in the South West, the recent clamour for self-determination in the Middle Belt and the continuation of the crisis of the cattle herdsmen who are mainly Fulani and issues that are predicated on the imbalances or inequalities of our current structure, have been carefully put in a report how they could be resolved.

Stressing that, “All the government has to do is either set up a committee or even of ministers, let him begin to address urgently the resolutions that were passed in the national conference”, he admonished the government to stop listening to feudalistic and ethnic jingoists who are impressing it on him to ignore the conference and its report, adding, “to listen to such people would mean that Mr. President would be re-emphasizing what he had already started by telling us that he is going to focus more on those areas that gave him more votes than the areas that did not, which of course is one of his biggest blunders and it is still haunting him.”

Uranta also faulted the confrontational approach of the government against the various ethnic agitations for self-actualisation like Biafra.

“I need to call on my brothers and sisters of the South East and part of the South-South and some in the South West to tread softly.  I have always been a strong advocate for freedom of association, speech and the right to aspire to any of the other freedoms under the United Nations (UN) charter including the freedom for self-determination but I am opposed to unprovoked engagement of authorities in violent manner,” he added.

On the part of government, he said, “If and when peaceful protest and issue of dialogue employing processes are deployed by the different self-determination groups, the government has the duty; in fact it is an obligation to urgently engage them in talk.”

He continued: “I have heard it in converse that this same administration has indicated talk with Boko Haram, a sect that has not indicated in anyway that it is interested in the talk, a sect that has said in every way that it does not want to be part of this system (Nigeria) but said it is part of the global system of destruction and determination for a rebrand new terrestrial called the Islamic title and yet the same administration will not even grant the indigenous people protesting under the aegis of Biafra audience. I think this government has been shooting itself in the foot.”

He described the arrest and trial of Nnamdi Kanu, who is accused of operating radio Biafra and leading the pro Biafra actualization as a miscalculation on the part of the Buhari’s administration.

According to Uranta, “It was a very big mistake. Nobody knew Kanu before his arrest, sure he was just another person shouting on his social media and holding all meetings and they arrested him, saying that he has been trying to buy arms but has he done so? Has he brought the arms into Nigeria, you turned him into a hero and made him a rallying point. That is not a conflict resolution step.

“This is not a military dictatorship or administration but a democracy. President Muhammadu Buhari was elected into office. I am one of those who have said I have been supporting ex-president Goodluck Jonathan up to May 29, 2015. But a new president came, it is in our enlightened self-interest to rally round this new administration to make sure it succeeds so that the nation itself succeeds but how can you rally around a government that itself does not like your being around him?

“A government that says no, we cannot recognize you because you are supportive of somebody outside this our caucus, a government that said I have appointed people based on the level of cronyism and prior association and not based on national interest. We are having anomalies by this administration’s insistence on doing things in its own way.