By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA — SENATOR Magnus Abe has raised the alarm that the threat posed by oil derivation in the country was capable of splitting the country into different parts.

Senator Abe, who represents Rivers South East senatorial district,  who is the Senate Committee Chairman on Petroleum Downstream, said with the way things were going in the country, he did not have the conviction that Nigeria would continue to remain as a united entity.
He noted that the struggle over oil derivation, negligence of other important sectors of the economy and wastages had made life so difficult and unbearable for the citizenry.

Abe said:  “Before I used to be convinced that Nigerians have made up their minds to be together, I don’t have that conviction anymore.  If we are not careful, this country can blow up and split into different parts all over the issue of oil.

“At the end of the day, even those who think they will gain from that will lose, I believe Nigeria will do better as a united, progressive, democratic country, where everybody’s right is respected, where people are treated fairly and justly, where if you contribute something you will be rewarded for your contribution and others are encouraged to contribute than bicker and fight and end up destroying ourselves.

”If you talked to me two months ago, I used to tell people that Nigerians want to live together.  As I am sitting down now, I cannot say that with same conviction; I said it two months ago.
”I think the issue challenging this country is beyond the issue of resource control or rather issue of resource generation to run this country. What we are currently having in Nigeria is sharing economy where everybody depends on whatever comes from oil.

”There are countries in this world who produce absolutely nothing and they are still making money by managing the quality of human being in their country, but in this country, the quality of our human being has begun to deteriorate everyday.

”The quality of education is falling, the standard of living is falling and the quality of life and quality of citizens are falling.  The most important, that which we should concentrate on, is getting the least attention in this country.  What is getting the most attention is oil.

“If you seat with people who think and analyse what we are doing in this country, what we are wasting in this country, what we can convert, what we are not touching in this country, what we can get our human being to do, you will be amazed on how far we are sliding.”