By Emeka Nze
Many delegates yesterday on the floor of the national conference lamented what they called the plight of the oil producing communities, calling for adequate steps to be taken to alleviate the suffering of the people.
Taking the lead in telling his experience after a recent trip to Oloibiri in Bayelsa state, a former Senate President, Adolphous Wabara who had earlier applauded creation of a special fund to explore minerals in other states to make them contributors of Nigeria’s commonwealth, noted that Oloibiri, a major oil producing community in Bayelsa state is in a pathetic state.
He suggested that 50 percent should go to oil producing communities and noted that no state in the country is poor but said that they were suffering from laziness to explore their own resources.
Wabara also recommended a new ratio for the sharing formula which he pegged at 60 per cent to states and 40 percent to the federal government.
A former governor of Rivers state, Chief Peter Odili stated that unless the conference, “allows principles to guide our action and unless justice is found in all we do we won’t make progress,” saying that now that the oil producing states were sustaining the nation, it is proper to ensure that communities where the oil is being produced are well compensated.
He advocated the increase of the 4.5 per cent derivation formula to 7 percent for mineral exploration in the states, adding that when this is done it would ensure that the money is equitably distributed as the states in the federation would be contributors of revenues to the federal government.
For Mike Ahamba, a federal delegate and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) the conference delegates rejected sectionalism and further suggested 25 per cent to be paid to the oil producing areas as derivation.
