TONY Uranta, Secretary of United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy (UNDEDSS) is of the view that politicians seeking to run for the presidency in 2015 should be selected based on merit. He spoke with BERTRAM NWANNEKANMA.As an Ijaw leader, where do you think the pendulum for the 2015 presidency should swing'RECENTLY, President Goodluck Jonathan convened a presidential retreat with the civil societies and professional associations. Present at this retreat were the president, the vice president, the leadership of the National Assembly, members of the executives, service chiefs, and members of the major civil society organisations, including the Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO), The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA). At that retreat, chaired by the former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Salihu Modibbo Alfa Belgore, which was termed: 'Towards a popular Constitution', very many issues were freely addressed. One of the decisions arrived at was that a future constitution of Nigeria, which we all agreed had to be drafted, should not be based so much on the zoning system, but on the question of merit. Who merited to be elected into any office' Should he be denied election because of gender,colour, religion or zone' We all said, no! Merit should be merit, nothing should stand against that.Having said that however, it appears that that is in the future and an idealistic position we are seeking to achieve as a nation. But in present day Nigeria, going by the wordings of extant document we called the 1999 Constitution, everybody has the right to become for example, president of Nigeria. We must not however seek any position in such a way that it becomes an obsession or is clearly a decision to exclude some people from the right or opportunity to either vote or be voted. I will be very happy to see anybody in office come 2015, if he is so qualified in that wise. I can affirm that Goodluck Jonathan has the right to run, he may not run or may run depending on him, but if he decides to run, Nigerians should decide whether they want him based on his track records or not. Not based on whether he is Ijaw, Fulani, Yoruba or Igbo.Has Jonathan done enough to enable him run based on his performance'Jonathan deserves to run in 2015, if you look at his performance in the last one and a half years. I said so very confidently because for the first time in our homes, we have been having uninterrupted power supply for ten to twelve hours every day. The power situation is improving, kudos to Prof. Barth Nnaji, who laid down the rules; the anti-corruption fight is hitting up. In as much as some of us are not comfortable with the crisis that is attributable to the attempt to remove petroleum subsidy, at least that one act has brought about the National Assembly probe into that sector and since then, we are finding for the first time in Nigeria, very powerful interests close to even the presidency, close to apex of power being taken to court, charged and prosecuted. Of course, it is early days yet, and we may not have seen enough convictions, but I am one of those who believe that in every good advance made, we must encourage people to do good things by applauding them and you discourage bad things by criticizing them. Goodluck is also doing quite a few things in agriculture, anti-corruption, power, and roads. Unfortunately, not all of those things are going to be apparent to Nigerians living in everyday life, because a farmer plants a seed and it takes constant watering and tendering before that seed germinates, let alone gets to harvest. So those of us, who spend our time looking critically at government and government activities, have noticed a very appreciable positive development in Nigeria and we give Goodluck Jonathan kudos.Some geo-political zones have become passionate about the need for power to change hands; should there be preference for any zone'The race to the presidency should be on merit. True, we can sit down and work on the issues of who has served or who had been done injustices of not being allowed to get to the apex of power, but then, we must be aware that one of the advances made by the Jonathan's administration is that electoral process is becoming purer, it has become more purified and it is becoming closer to the ideals. We should throw up people that are best suited to lead the country and not just people that some people foist on others and they end up making a mess of everything. If Goodluck Jonathan for example, decides to run in 2015 and a better candidate shows up, let's us say from the Southeast, there is no reason why he shouldn't beat Jonathan. I believe what is necessary is that a level playing ground be allowed for all aspirants. The biggest problem we have is the non-democracy within the political parties themselves. If the parties can give aspirants level playing field, then the best candidates will emerge from the parties and if the best candidate emerge and Nigerians are allowed to choose based on merit, I don't care where the person comes from, I don't care if for the next 20-40 years, a man or woman comes from only a particular region but they should be the best that Nigeria has at that time. Merit only is the best way for us to go about it. The question must also be asked, when we said zoning are we talking about zoning between North and South or zoning among the six different geo-political zones of Nigeria, because it looks like now, people want us to zone north, south; if we do it like that, we are not going to be fair to every group or zone in Nigeria.The onshore/offshore dichotomy debate has suddenly resurrected and there are fears it might throw up fresh insurgency in the Niger Delta; is it fair to reawaken that debate'The problem is that people always want to reverse history in Nigeria. We have heard of people, who had said oil really emanated in the north and flows on the ground down to the Niger Delta and it is being tapped in the Niger Delta, but that it really belongs somewhere, near the Sahara. I have heard that entire preposterous hypothesis being promulgated by different people. The highest court of this land, the Supreme Court had resolved the onshore/offshore dichotomy issue. I did not see who else is now going to preside over a pre-definition of that threshold unless certain political party groups or regions in Nigeria believe that there should be no judiciary. Without the judicial system, there is no law and order. Where there is no law and order, there is not just anarchy, but chaos. We in the Niger Delta believe that some people are so blinded by their attempt not to admit to the responsibility of not developing Nigeria when they were totally in control of the reins of power and not developing their regions and zones. And they think they can obfuscate all truth by now throwing up shadows to attempt to cage reality. As a leader of the Niger Delta, all we can say is that they should have a rethink because we will not accept to live in a lawless Nigeria. This issue has been closed and it is going to remain closed or we shall know why or why not.Another contemplation from that is that, certain leaders have felt no qualms in relinquishing Nigerian territory to other sovereignties. There is issue of Bakassi, which belonged truly and fully to Nigeria, which people are mainly Efik of Cross Rivers state, and some Akwa Ibom state, indigenes. Nigeria has not only allowed Cameroon to take over her oil wealth in that portion because of a stupid decision that was made by certain military rulers in and out of Agbada, but now in the bid to redefine the borders of Cross Rivers State, they have so delineated the Nigerian map that any foreign power can sail up to Calabar port without any hindrance. Even the waters in the lagoon of the Calabar port cannot be claimed to be Nigerian anymore according to the new delineation. So, we have lost oil, and we are going to lose security, all because of poor judgment among our leaders at certain point in time. I am part of those who are calling upon Goodluck Jonathan and the National Assembly not to ratify Chapter 7 of that agreement or whatever supposedly treaty or charter that had been entered into between Cameroon or agreed with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which we still have the right of appeal at the United Nations, according to the provision treaty and we better expedite it. If government continues the policy of incrementally reducing or readily and calculatedly and or deliberately decimating us, we may have little choice than looking at very drastic alternative, God forbids, maybe along the line of Ogoni. But one thing is sure; the offshore and onshore dichotomy issue is settled and will remain settled unless anybody wants to go to war in Nigeria.This brought us to the recent proclamation of independence by the Ogoni people; many have criticized the move, what is really the position of things there'I agreed that the majority of the Ogoni people might not have been consulted before that proclamation was made. However, I think, there is a misunderstanding to large degree of what the proclamation is intended for. What the Ogoni people said they are seeking is autonomy. They did not say they are seeking self-governance, which will be the closest thing to say, secession. You can have political autonomy, you can have economic autonomy, and they want some level of control over their future and their destiny.They are only saying what you are going to hear more and more ethnic nationalities in Nigeria say in the next few months. Every ethnic nationality in Nigeria has a right to be listened to and be given equal right in Nigeria, every one, no matter how small or big. If you are an ethnic nationality with a distinct custom, culture, language and so on and you have a configured area, you should be able to be recognised and respected for what you are. When you give that to any group, they will be part of the nation peacefully; where you forcefully deny any group that, they would be non-peaceful members of the nation. People should not make the mistake of thinking that oil only affects the Niger Delta. Arepo here in Lagos state has proven that people will fight lawfully or unlawfully to maintain or control resources they believe are within their boundaries. We have to sit down now, sooner than ever, for a grassroots-driven national dialogue. I am happy that at the presidential retreat, deputy president of the senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representative, Emeka Ihedioha and the President all joined us in agreeing that national dialogue will have to take place and will be driven to a large extent from the grassroots by the members of the National Assembly,brought to the zonal level and then convened at the national level, possibly by the presidency.
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