Dr Muhammadu Barkindo Mustapha, Lamido Adamawa, has thrown up another controversy at the ongoing national conference when he advocated 100 per cent resources control and land ownership by the states of the federation.
Lamido did not advocate this with a condition. According to him, while the South-South, the oil producing part of the country, wanted to control their resources, state ownership of land should be allowed to enable the North to rent their land.
His contribution at the plenary on Tuesday almost threw the conference into another round of rowdiness, when he described comments by some delegates as “ranting.”
The traditional ruler particularly took on one of the elder statesmen at the conference, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, whom he accused of castigating him a week before.
The delegate also rejected calls by some traditional rulers for a constitutional role
being spelt out in the constitution saying “what is needed was to establish a National Traditional Rulers Council of Nigeria.
He said: “Mr Chairman, speaker after speaker have said almost everything I intended to say about the president’s inaugural address. Therefore, I will just commend Mr President for convoking this conference.
“In his address, he almost exactly laid down our problems and challenges and he went ahead and advised us to be moderate, tolerant, considerate and magnanimous in our discussions. So fellow delegates, I will like to advise us to take a cue from Mr. President,” he said.
Lamido, however, told the delegates that the north would be comfortable with control over its land resources, and demanded ownership of land be reverted to states.
He said very many speakers from the Southern part of the country were calling for resources ostensibly to denigrate the North.
He said: “Mr. Chairman, I have observed that some people have started jumping the gun by commenting on issues like resource control, resource ownership, etc. In this case, let me also jump the gun to say that states which don’t have oil should allow the states which have oil to take a 100 per cent oil revenue and states which don’t have oil should take land resource.
“That means ownership of land should revert to those states and anybody who wants to use the land or the structures in the land must pay rents to those states or the traditional owners of the land, for example, the FCT,” he said.
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