By Erahodu Oseghale
Couple of days ago, one of the national newspapers published what it headlined: S’South Got Lion’s Share Of PTF Projects Under Buhari, struggling as it were to give an account of the stewardship of former head of state and Presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress, retired General Muhammadu Buhari in his four years as Chairman of the defunct Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund.
Perhaps to prove that the general parades the appropriate credentials to lead Nigeria and one that qualifies him as a detribalised and unbiased individual, that report described in a jiffy how the South-south geo-political zone got the Lion share of the PTF projects.
Unfortunately, the author of that report, a certain Muyiwa Oyinlola and his newspaper failed to explain the premise upon which the South-south zone was favoured above other zones in the country in the allotment of projects during that era and failing to make this clarification is only a result of the skewed voodoo politics which the opposition and its horde of publicists have adopted in its desperate quest for power.
It would have been a modest and sincere reportage of the circumstance that informed the circumstances that favoured the South-south over and above other geo-political zones if the report had told its readers that the geographic zone referred to as South-south Nigeria produces more than 90 per cent of the revenue of this country through crude oil which gushes from the region.
That report equally failed to inform its readers that since 1958 when petroleum was discovered in commercial quantity in Oloibiri in present day Bayelsa state, that the country has earned trillions of dollars from petroleum products and the zone in spite of the cosmetic 26.6 per cent projects executed during the PTF, its people still account for some of the poorest persons in this country.
Their poverty, both human and material was as a result of the many years of neglect borne out of a conspiracy suffered in the hand of the Nigerian nation and its exploitative western oil exploration and exploitative companies.
If truth must be told, the prize that the people of the South-south zone and their neighbours have had to pay is that they have lost the most cherished clean and natural habitat that other regions enjoy, and their people for as long as oil exists underneath their grounds, must live in an atmosphere of pollution and degradation with little or no chance of enjoying the wealth from their land.
What actually should interest a reader of that none objective and lacklustre report is why the northern part of the country which produced nothing of the revenue upon which the PTF was founded should enjoy more than 42 per cent of what it did not labour for.
It is on the basis of this lopsidedness in wealth and political distribution that this country must ensure that equity, justice and fairness are the ground norm upon which this democracy is established. And this is the reason for which the unspoken demand is made that the presidential mandate of Goodluck Jonathan is an essential balancing act which this country desires most just to remain sane and for once give the minorities a sense of belonging.
The various sections of this country must demonstrate an utmost sincere acknowledgement that the South-south zone which has paid an enormous price in ensuring that the economy of the country serves to make life more meaningful to all and sundry deserve a paltry two terms as president of this country.
That retired General Buhari as chairman of PTF allotted more projects to the South-south during his tenure is stating the obvious. It would have been criminal, unforgiveable and sheer infantile if the former head of state has done contrary.
In the same manner, while a son of the South-south zone became President of the country by divine providence, again, equity, justice and fairness demand that those which have ruled this country for most part since independence, make conscious effort to support a scion of the minority, if only to make them feel cared for and loved.
Indeed, Nigeria’s democracy must be beautifully arrayed with justice, equity and fairness if it must serve the purpose of both the majority and minority and sustain the hope which the country’s founding fathers fought so assiduously for.
Erahodu Oseghale wrote from Benin