By Sunday Ani
South-South Renewed Call 4 Resource Control (SSRC-4RC) has called on President Bola Tinubu not to allow what happened in the old Western Region, which led to the end of First Republic with a military coup, to repeat itself.
The call was contained in a statement by Omereji Amadi, SSRC-4RC’s director of strategy, yesterday, following the crisis in Rivers State which has degenerated to the seizure of the Rivers State monthly allocation by the Federal Government.
He reminded the president how the struggle for political power in the Western Region between the late Obafemi Awolowo and late Samuel Akintola led to a bigger crisis that engulfed the entire country because the then Federal Government took sides with Akintola, instead of remaining neutral and finding a lasting solution to the crisis.
He also drew the president’s attention to a similar scenario in Rivers State, where the struggle for the control of the state power between former governor Nyesom Wike and the incumbent Governor, Sim Fubara, is tearing the state and the entire country apart while the Federal Government takes sides with Wike.
He also reminded President Tinubu about the emergence of the Niger Delta militant, which continued to deal heavy blows on the oil production until the late president Umar Musa Yar’Adua intervened through the establishment of the amnesty programme.
He, therefore, urged President Tinubu to intervene urgently before the crisis in Rivers State throws the entire country into an unprecedented mess.
“The lesson from our history is that a problem in a part of the nation, if not addressed fairly and equitably, can spiral into an uncontrollable national crisis.
“We were also witnesses to the emergence of the Niger Delta militancy about 20 years ago, which posed a very potent threat to our fledgling democracy at that time.
“However, it took the political will and leadership of President Yar’Adua, working in concert with other patriots, to bring that destructive chapter of our history to an end through the amnesty programme.
“We believe we should learn valuable lessons from our history and not allow this cycle of tragedy to arise again. This is the time for the right things to be done in Rivers State because it is easy to begin a bushfire, but no one can foretell the boundaries of its destructive conflagration.
“President Tinubu, please put out the fire now. Mr. President, your timely intervention is critical at this point to rein in and stop the architect and sponsor of this crisis.
“Nigeria has seen crises before; the pains of the past we do not wish to relive. We need leadership that can heal, not harm, unite, and not divide.
“Stand with Rivers State, Mr. President. Ensure the release of its due allocation, avert this crisis, and let justice reign.”
The group also called for resource control as a permanent panacea to the kind of crisis that has engulfed Rivers State.
“We are also seizing this opportunity to propose that the issue of resource control be given urgent consideration.
“Only resource control can ensure at no time will any part of the country be denied what is rightfully theirs on the altar of politics and personal self-interest, as is playing out in Rivers State today.
“At this point, we will like to call on Mr. President, the National Assembly, the governors, Pan Niger Delta Forum, and other like-minded associations in the Niger Delta, and indeed, all fair-minded Nigerians, to support this call for the restoration of Rivers State federal allocation and the enactment of the enabling laws for resource control,” Amadi said in the statement.