Elder statesman, Dr Alex Ekwueme, has disclosed that he would
have been voted into office as the President of Nigeria in the 1999
Presidential election instead of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, but for the role he
played in scuttling the ambition of the North for perpetual domination of the
South at the 1994 Constitutional Conference.
Ekweme said he had led the Southern Nigeria to muzzle the
plot to use the conference called by the late General Sani Abacha to entrench
the Northern domination, through a new constitution being considered through
the conference.
The former Vice-President to Alhaji Shehu Shagari said he
had rallied forces among the Southern delegates to the conference to sell the
idea of Rotatory Presidency and then the concept of power shift, which,
according to him, neutralised the plot by the North for perpetual domination of
Nigeria.
He recalled also that the Southern delegates to the 1994
Constitutional Conference fought hard to attain the 13 per cent derivation as
against the 5 per cent option proposed by the Northern delegates led by the
late Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and the late Chief Olusola Saraki.
The north, he said, never forgave him for leading the
onslaught against it at the constitutional conference, a reason he stated
northern politicians preferred to vote in Obasanjo who was brought into the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as a fresher.
Ekwueme made this known in Enugu during the just concluded
retreat of the southern leaders on the aegis of Southern Nigeria Peoples
Assembly which was held at the Nike Lake Resort, Enugu, earlier in the week.
He said, “with the case of power shift settled, the next
problem to settle was the revenue allocation ascribed to as derivation. The
north’s position was that derivation percentage had been settled by the
military at 3 per cent, but that they were prepared to go up to 5 per cent.”
“The position of the southern delegates was that as per
the 1963 constitution, the terms of which were freely negotiated and agreed by
Nigeria’s representatives, derivation was put at 50 percent and therefore only
a very substantial increase on the existing 3 percent would be acceptable.
Finally, 13 per cent minimum was proposed for derivation.
Source: Tribune
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