Jonathan has hidden agenda, says Junaidu Muhammed

Stories by Patrick Andrew & Lawrence Olaoye

What’s your reaction to President Jonathan’s declaration that he has no hidden agenda?

In the first place, the moment he says he doesn’t have any hidden agenda, to me as a politician for over 40 years, he has an agenda, otherwise if he doesn’t why did he say it. Let Nigerians decide whether he has agenda or not.

We judge people not by their words but by their actions and everything about him, about his body language, about his convoluted speeches, about the actions of the cabals around him tells that not only has he an agenda but an agenda about his own tenure elongation and all he wants is to ratify that aspiration or to use the conference to ratify that nonsense and I don’t see happening.

Will you canvass for fiscal federalism?

What do you call fiscal federalism?, he thundered back.

The understanding is that you take according to what you produce.

He cuts in… Whose understanding?

That’s the common agitation by some Nigerians.

Again, he asked, “I mean agitation by who?”

Some section of the country…

Cuts in …..

Let me tell you, the options before Nigerians are very clear: you either have a country or you don’t have a country. Anything that will perpetuate the current injustice, the current irresponsible allocation of resources, illegal abinitio is not going to work.

So, whatever you call it; fiscal federalism, resource control is sheer nonsense. I don’t mind the situation whereby the people the political subunit of the Nigerian state; that is the state and local government are allowed to own what is within their own land.

But as far l am concern the territorial waters of Nigeria from the shoreline to 12 nautical miles anything off it doesn’t belong to littoral state- that has been my position even when I was in OMPADEC, it has been my position since I was at the national assembly, even when I was minority leader, anything beyond that is to me null and void.

If they want to share what is the land resource can be done provided those littoral states do not claim ownership of resources beyond 12 nautical miles. This my position, it is the position of international law, it is codified as convention anything beyond international is an invitation to anarchy , an invitation to trouble and if they want trouble over this matter there will be trouble.