byEtim Etim
Governor Bassey Otu of Cross River state has been spending a lot of time in Abuja, fighting hard to seize some oil wells from Akwa Ibom state. Since 2012, when the supreme court, for the second time, pronounced Cross River as non-oil producing, Cross River has been coping with marginal monthly allocation from FAAC, while the other oil-bearing states in the Niger Delta swim in petrodollars.
With improved funding to the states since 2024, Cross River’s monthly allocation has doubled to about N6 billion, but Otu is not content with that. He’s been convinced by some federal officials and politicians in Abuja that the two supreme court judgments could be sidestepped or discarded, and some wells belonging to Akwa Ibom could be handed over to Cross River.
They persuaded the governor that there is ‘’new evidence’’ in the form of new coordinates that could allocate additional offshore oil wells, outside the initial 76, to his state. Otu is expectedly excited about the prospect of earning higher revenues and is spending billions in Abuja to facilitate the realisation of this big dream. But how much more will he spend?
Unknown to the governor, these people are well practised in the art of obtaining money by deception. They lie in the name of the president or first lady, claiming that ‘’we have the president’s ears; he will do it’’. Their stock-in-trade is to dupe governors and desperate politicians seeking political positions or any favour from the presidency.
During elections, they promise to arrange for result sheets from INEC or security from the inspector-general of police or military authorities for some candidates to help secure victory at the polls, provided the candidates can pay. But they have no such power. ‘’We have already spoken to the GOC; Brigade commanders and the AIG on your behalf. You’re the next governor, Your Excellency,’’ they would tell the gullible contestant. So many politicians have fallen victim to these scammers in Abuja.
It would appear that Otu is their latest victim. He has allowed himself to be convinced that the president, on the recommendation of the boundary commission and RMAFC, will overrule the supreme court. The government has also engaged some ‘PR persons’ to appear on talk shows and interviews and repeat the government’s talking points that with ‘’new coordinates’’, an interagency committee constituted by RMAF has recommended that Cross River is the owner of some new oil wells.
Prominent Cross Riverians are also being compelled to speak out in favour of their government. A senator from the state who, in February, issued a statement supporting his governor’s efforts, confided to me: ‘’I can’t see the logic in what my state government is doing. This matter has long been settled by the Supreme Court, but I have to play along so that I’m not called a black sheep of the state or mocked as ‘Akwa Ibom Senator’ as they usually do.’’
It doesn’t matter to the government that all these are futile efforts because the matter has long been settled by the supreme court, and the president has no power to tinker with it. For them, what money cannot do, more money can do. Otu is also mindful of his reelection. He has brilliantly framed the oil well issue as an important topic for election propaganda next year.
Akwa Ibom state, on the other hand, is banking on the finality of the two supreme court judgments. It was Justice Chwukwudifu Oputa who captured the inviolability of the apex court decisions so well in the case of Adegoke Motors v Adesanya (1983): “We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final.’’
The quote highlights the supreme court’s position as the highest court in Nigeria, emphasising that its decisions are binding and final as enshrined in Section 235 of the constitution, even if such decisions might be subject to criticisms or potential errors. Justice Robert Jackson of the US supreme court had also made the same statement in 1952 while delivering a judgment.
It is therefore preposterous for some persons, acting at the behest of Cross River state, to call for President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the oil-wells matter, which had long been settled by the supreme court. The president himself dismissed such a possibility last Wednesday in his comments during the breaking of fast (Iftar) with NWC members of his party and the leadership of Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) at the State House.
Tinubu described himself as a ‘’die-hard’’ democrat and assured that he would lead by the Constitution and that the rule of law would prevail under his watch, emphasising that his administration is committed to the nation’s democratic longevity. The president said: “Some of us have been bruised struggling for democracy. We were detained, we protested, we had street demonstrations, we went into exile and all that…’’.
The president then assured his guests that since the unity and progress of the nation depend on good governance and democratic ideals, he would abide by such ideals all his life.
No ‘die-hard’ democrat would dare trifle with a matter that had been settled by the supreme court over a decade ago. It can’t happen.
• Culled from TheCable
