Nigeria’s former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has responded to an open letter to him by leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark accusing him of hating the people of the Niger Delta region, noting that he had never shown anger or distraught to the Niger Delta region or any part of the country.
Clerk had in the open letter last week, berated Obasanjo for his position at a peace and security parley convened by the Global Peace Foundation and Vision Africa in Abuja, during which he attacked the National Secretary of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Ebipamowei Wodu, and insisted that the oil in the Niger Delta region belongs to entire country.
Clerk argued that Obasanjo’s comments that the oil found in the Niger Delta does not belong to the people of the region represents his continuous arrogant stance and disposition against Niger Delta.
However, Obasanjo in his own response in an open letter to Clerk dated December 28, while denying hating on the people Niger Delta, maintained that the oil resources in the region belongs to the entire federation as a matter of the constitution.
Obasanjo said, “Let me proceed with the most basic constitutional fact that you cannot have two sovereign entities within a State which is what your position of Niger Delta ownership claim of the crude oil found in that location amounts to.
“All those who purchase crude oil from Nigeria enter into contractual relationship with Nigeria not with the Niger Deita. The territory of Nigeria is indivisible inclusive of the resources found therein. No territory in Nigeria including the minerals found therein belongs to the area of location and this remains so until the federation is dissolved”.
This is the position of the Nigerian Constitution and international law. If there is a threat of violence to any part of Nigeria today including the Niger Delta, it is the Nigerian military backed by any other machinery that can be procured or established at the Federal level that will respond to any such threat.
In principle and practice, the position I have taken on the location of mineral resources in any part of Nigeria is the legal and constitutional position.”
Obasanjo who elaborately referred to the Nigeria-Biafra war in the letter, argued that he treated the people of Niger Delta with respect during the war, while suggesting that the people of the region would have had it worse if the Igbo had won the war.
Obasanjo continued, “I would be the last person to celebrate the civil war (a tragedy of enormous proportions) Needless to say that the war was fought in order to maintain and secure the territorial integrity of Nigeria to which the Niger Delta is integral, I leave you to second-guess what would have become the fate of the Southern minorities and your ownership claims of the crude oil located in your backyard in the event of a contrary outcome.
How do we pay homage to the memory of those who gave their lives to ensure the successful outcome of the civil war including the millions who perished on either side of the war?” he wondered.
The former Nigerian president claimed that what Clark called an outburst is his way of getting people/listeners’ attention, while suggesting that the Niger Delta leader is only accusing him of what he is guilty of.
Source: (Capital Post)
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