Campaign groung zero - Oil Belongs to the North

Confusion over Video clip of the Northern Leaders’ Conference shakes the Buhari - APC Campaign

Buhari

        

Report from Channels TV

Speculations of a renewed strategy between the presidential candidate of  All Progressive Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari  (Rtd),  and the Northern leaders over a reform of Nigeria’s political and economic structures has permeated his campaign with major blows. To make it worse, a 2014 video of a conference of Northern leaders applauding their keynote speaker Dr. Usman Bugaje resurfaced in the social media, as he made claims of why and how the Nigeria’s oil belong to the North. Observers believe that this video (see inset) validates Buhari's speculated hidden agenda, and  with may hurt his candidacy.

Bugaje, in the video made it clear that  it is wrong for any state to be labelled an “oil-producing state” because 72% of the total land mass in the country belonged to the North – claiming that  the United Nation’s law accords the Northern region the right of ownership. In his explanation of the law, he said, “Whatever mileage you get in the sea, according to the United Nations Law of the sea, is a measure of the land mass that you have; that is what gives you the mileage into the sea…and the land mass of this country, that gives that long 200 nautical miles or more into the ocean, is because of that 72% of the land mass of this country, which is the North.”

Some core members of the campaign are worried about a lack of transparency between the ex-general and his campaign group. On strict concealment, a senior campaign worker told our field reporter in Abuja, “I have never seen this video until I went to my Facebook page – the same way we had to read from the news about the secret oil deal with Tinubu. And my question is, why is everything about oil and North?” Another campaign team member tweeted, “Politicians are all the same - Can’t just trust them.”

The Northern leaders including representatives from Northern Leaders Political Forum (NLPF), The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), and other communal stakeholders have been clear with their demands regarding issues of politics and economic resources, and Buhari was adopted as a consensus candidate to champion those necessities. The group had bitterly condemned the current structures of revenue allocation, especially the derivation principle governing the allocation of revenue to oil producing states. Other concerns include a return of the political power to the North, to enable an easy return of the country to its former structure of the military era.

It may be recalled that in March 2012, a fraternity of the northern political elite including politicians from the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) met in Abuja to compose a  roadmap for the return of political power to the North in 2015. Besides issues of returning the power to the North, the group listed as a matter of priority, a pervasive poverty in the North, the deteriorating security situation, etho-religious crises, and unemployment in the region.

Buhari, it was gathered, had assured the leaders in a 2014 screening forum for consensus northern candidate, that he was the only candidate that could champion those causes based on his past record as a military leader. In the same event, the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar was rejected for being too soft and liberal with though policy issues.

Most southerners, especially from South-West, and South-South in the campaign group are divided over Buhari’s personal agenda, it was gathered. “They are definitely not the APC agenda – they are Buhari’s personal plans and I won’t comment on that” a party member told International Guardian.

Source :http://www.guardiannewsusa.com/the-north-owns-the-oil---bugaje.html
 Guardian News USA