Niger Delta militants have used the gun to shoot for resource control and true federalism for 16 years; the intellectuals in the South-South and East have used oratory and logic to press for restructuring and power devolution so the states can have more powers and more funds to no avail.
Now, one man, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, has taken actions through lawmaking that may bring the oil region and the states closer to what guns did not do.
Wike was the governor that openly demanded for nothing short of 10 percent to host communities from the then Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) passed by the Senate. He got the governors of the South-South to adopt same demand at a meeting in Port Harcourt. This upped the agitation and became the issue in the PIB. When the Bill was signed into law, it sounded unacceptable to the masses of the region. Wike thus, emerged as the chief fighter for more resources to the Niger Delta people.
The governor also spearheaded the ban on open grazing in the south-south and this soon became the position of the entire zone and later the south east. He became the first governor in the south to submit a bill against open grazing.
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Wike has followed up with a law and creation of an agency to register visitors who want to reside in the state. This looks like an Immigration agency in a state, first of its kind, though few other states had toyed with the idea. It is believed that registration of residents could be the most effective way of curtailing migrants and herders roaming free.
This law plus the ban on open grazing have been seen as one big affront to the Fulani domination in Nigeria that is usually feared by state governments.
The impact of three laws enacted (bills signed into law) in Rivers State Thursday, August 19, 2021, is said to be nothing but direct steps to true federalism. The Bills were passed a week earlier by the Rivers State House of Assembly.
The most direct step to true federalism seems to be the case he took to court against the FG through the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). Wike won the case against the FG collecting VAT. He followed quickly with a Bill setting up machinery to collect the said VAT and it was passed into law fast, too. Thus, the governor signed the following Bills into law: the Valued Added Tax Law No. 4 of 2021; The Open Rearing and Grazing Prohibition Law No 5 of 2021; The Child’s Rights Amendment Law No 2 of 2021; The Residents Registration Agency Law No 6 of 2021 and the Naming and Renaming of Infrastructure Law No3 of 2021.
The law on VAT transfers the collection to the Rivers State government; the law on Residents Registration Agency is said to create an Immigration kind of agency that would document people coming to live in the state, while the law banning open grazing has put teeth to the ban on moving cattle freely or herders keeping guns in the state.
These are seen as strong steps that would change Nigeria as other states may copy these laws and he journey to self-determination, resource control and true federalism may have begun without waiting for a constitutional review or a national sovereign summit.
Giving hint to this thinking, the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly said at the signing event: “I am tempted to believe that Nigeria, the world over, is the only country professing federalism but with a unitary constitution. Which is the very opposite of what federalism stands for.”
The governor has maintained that the judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt had sufficiently addressed the illegality perpetrated by the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) on behalf of the Federal Government in the collection of VAT in States.
The Rivers State governor pointed out that when agencies of the Federal Government are allowed to illegally demand and collect taxes meant for states to collect, they strangulate the states financially and turn them to be beggars.
“But we (Rivers State) are standing on the part of history as representatives of the state to have taken the bull by the horn to challenge the illegality of the Federal Government through the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS).
“Of course, we are all aware that the states have already been strangulated. Most states depend on allocation from federation account. States have been turned to beggars. Hardly will any day pass that you won’t see one state or the other going to Abuja to beg for one fund or the other,” he said.
The governor said no campaign of calumny or blackmail on the part of FIRS will make what is illegal to become legal. He dismissed FIRS’ propaganda that 30 states will suffer if some states are allowed to collect VAT.
Governor Wike pointed out that the concerns should be on establishing whose duty it is to collect VAT and the constitutionality of such position before talking about who is going to suffer or not.
He contended: “In this (Rivers) state, we awarded contract to companies and within the last month we paid over N30billion to the contractors and 7.5 percent will not be deducted from that and to be given to FIRS.
“Now, look at 7.5 percent of N30billion of contracts we awarded to companies in Rivers State, you will be talking about almost N3billion only from that source. Now, at the end of the month, Rivers State government has never received more than N2billion from VAT. So, I have contributed more through the award of contract and you are giving me less. What’s the justification for it?”
Speaking further, Wike said there were plans already for FIRS to introduce Road Tax and this is likely to take away more duties from the states, and further emasculating them financially.
“Which are the roads? Are they the roads the state government is paying for or the roads Federal Government has constructed? So, at the end of the day, they have taken over the functions of the state government and the state is left with nothing,”
The governor remarked that the states have been so emasculated that they could barely survive without monthly revenue received from Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC).
Gov Wike stressed that the overbearing attitude of the Federal Government impinges on attaining financial autonomy for the legislature and the judiciary, since the states are not allowed to collect due revenues as specified by the country’s constitution.
According to him, with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) passed and signed into law, there shall be unbundling of NNPC, which means that NNPC remittance to the federation account will be less, requiring every state to look inwards on how to survive.
Wike, while thanking the state lawmakers for their courage to have given the bill speedy passage, he assured that every area that the law allows the state to collect revenue will be maximised for the survival of the state.
Speaking on the Open Rearing and Grazing Prohibition Law, No.5 of 2021, Wike said it was inimical to development and peace, for any state to condone opening grazing of cattle.
He said that cattle rearing is agricultural business and the law, which has specified ranching, is so intended in order to stem clash between herdsmen who go to destroy farmland, crops, and having problems with farmers that lead to fighting and killing of themselves.
“It is no longer a story. All of us know what our people have suffered in terms of this open grazing. Today, all Nigerians have come to accept the reality that open grazing is no longer fashionable. Even our brothers in the north have agreed that it is no longer fashionable.”
On the Child’s Rights Amendment Law No 2 of 2021, Governor Wike noted that with such law in place now, family courts can become operational in the state.
Wike said the Naming and Renaming of Infrastructure Law No3 of 2021 will promote the naming of public facilities after prominent Rivers people.
The governor also said that with the Residents Registration Agency Law No 6 of 2021, every resident in the State will be registered so that the State Government can know their status, what they do and where they reside for purposes of security planning.
On his part, the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Ikuinyi-Owaji Ibani described the collection of VAT by FIRS as the worst form of retrogressive tax in any tax regime.
He commended the governor and the state government for challenging the constitutionality of FIRS collection of VAT in states. According to him, the signing of the VAT law will ensure that Rivers’ people are not plunged into extreme poverty.
“I am tempered to believe that Nigeria, the world over, is the only country professing federalism but with a unitary constitution. Which is the very opposite of what federalism stands for.”
Speaking further, he said the law banning open grazing in Rivers State will serve as both cure to the symptom and the disease of herders and farmer bloody conflict.
He said lawmakers will continue to partner the executive in providing requisite laws that will advance the state for the good of posterity.
Leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Martin Amaewhule, said lawmakers delineated and gave speedy passage to the bills because of their relevance to the socio-economic progress of the state.
Conclusion
By these laws, perhaps, the most direct step to true federalism has been taken. If nothing else, it may embolden other states to begin to test aspects of the Constitution in court and begin to carve out autonomies, sector by sector, towards true federalism. It may prove true the warning over the years that failure to carry out organised restructuring may lead to unstructured restructuring.
