Now, how will these funds be accessed? How will it filter down to every stakeholder in Niger Delta? We have never lacked in making the right policies, NDDC was brilliant. But today take a cursory look at the agency, you will notice one common feature; corruption and misuse of funds.

If the ills that made the 13% allocated to NDDC is not resolved, this bill will only fuel agitations and unrest.

People raise some good points. It IS going to be a concern if these leaders piss away the money, again. Doesn't make much sense to cry of gov't oppression, marginalization, etc when it is your own leaders oppressing you and stealing your cash.

This pretty much has to be a put up or shut up thing. Either those communities spend the money wisely, or they sit down and shut up.

nonesense

i think the fund should go directly into project like tower blocks; schools, hopitals, roads new-work with middle man meddling around

contract distributed quaterly within different firm in the sense that emm the firm that does well get more and more contract

commonsense ehhh

Edwin Clark can go to hell!!

Two disturbing facts about this PIB development are

1. The Bill will never be passed; Not with our present crop of leaders (especially legislators) who are presently receiving billions in bribes from the multinationals to sit on the bill. If not for this, how else can we explain the prooooooolonged passage of the bill for years since it was first introduced?

2. [b]If the bill sees the light of the day, it will still remain business as usua[/b]l;
     *What is the definition of oil community?
     *If the money comes, who will receive the cash? the same old corrupt Niger-Delta leaders?
     *What happened to NDDC funds, ministry of Niger-Delta funds (wonder if this still exists), DESOPADEC funds, ISOPADEC etc will still happen again to PIB funds

C'mon guys, it's just another funnel team GEJ and PDP are creating to suck us dry.

[/quote]Abeg make GEJ bring 165billion make we share am fast - I want to buy choice properties in Abuja, Dubai , Lagos and London. Who cares about ND people. Grin abeg let them find road cleaning jobs.
[quote]

Is this what this site is for? I think we should be a bit more rational with words here. Inflammatory statements don't help issues at all. The lack of care for the Niger Delta has imparted a lot on the economy and security of our country. Solutions are being sort and proffered and yet the likes of you are not appreciating the polity. Let's be rational in what we say instead of raining insults here and there on people be it from north, south, east or west. Take a look at South Africa for instance with more than 10 major ethnic tribes and yet they are the undisputed economic giants of Africa. In our diversities come strength. Love is the answer

Every serious minded Niger Deltan youth should be ready to fight for the judicious utilization of this colossal sum of money. Five years into passing of the bill, there should be a remarkable difference in our oil producing communities. If the thieving leaders are left they'd squander the money like they have done with the 13% derivative all these years. There's actually nothing to distingush between oil producing state from others irrespective of the additional allocation for over 8years! What a SHAME,

oscartawn1:

Every serious minded Niger Deltan youth should be ready to fight for the judicious utilization of this colossal sum of money. Five years into passing of the bill, there should be a remarkable difference in our oil producing communities. If the thieving leaders are left they'd squander the money like they have done with the 13% derivative all these years. There's actually nothing to distingush between oil producing state from others irrespective of the additional allocation for over 8years! What a SHAME,

No, it is the "Hausa-fulani-yoruba's" fault!!!

the fund will always be mismanaged.however the solution is not far fetched:

# do a fresh head count in the niger delta
# get all the indigens to open account for the collection of their own share of the money
#credit every individuals account directly with the push of a button

i feel that how its done in libya and others

Old story remixed, no be today

I really doubt that sharing that amount of meney will be possible. the payment of Federal Civil Service workers is hard enough, not to talk of Niger deltans who live in the bush with no passport, national ID, drivers license etc. besides, corruption from the government and greed from the people themselves will likely not allow for proper sharing of the money anyway, !!!

Bread crumbs. This money is a tiny step in the right direction but it is still not enough.

Federal Government should double this amount to include environmental clean up and specify that the 6 states only use the money for infrastructural / development projects (railways, hospitals, industries etc) these projects should be audited annually by EFCC and the African Union peer review mechanism.

SapeleGuy:

Bread crumbs. This money is a tiny step in the right direction but it is still not enough. 

Federal Government should  double  this amount  to include environmental clean up and specify that the 6 states only use the money for infrastructural  / development projects (railways, hospitals, industries etc) these projects should be audited annually by EFCC and the African Union peer review mechanism.

The bill has not been passed and might never be passed, let alone the money being disbursed and u are already talking of doubling it. Your present recommendation also amplifies my earlier question  "What is the definition of oil community?" you have just mentioned "the 6 states only" but records say we have 6 niger delta states and 9 oil producing states. Should this money be given to states or should it be given to the communities?

^
The bill says the money is going directly to the communities. It says nothing about states.
Resource control aint about states.

obailala:

The bill has not been passed and might never be passed, let alone the money being disbursed and u are already talking of doubling it. Your present recommendation also amplifies my earlier question  "What is the definition of oil community?" you have just mentioned "the 6 states only" but records say we have 6 niger delta states and 9 oil producing states. Should this money be given to states or should it be given to the communities?

The bill will be passed because sensible people will realise that we either give them something or end up losing everything.
Have you stopped to quantify how much it would cost to rectify the environmental damage to the region?
Shell were recently fined $100 million dollars for 1 oil spill, how many oil spills have taken place in the '6 states' over the past 40 years.

SapeleGuy:

The bill will be passed [/b]because [b]sensible people will realise that . . . . . . .

I just pray so. I also pray we would have 'sensible' legislators as u rightly mentioned who will stop collecting huge bribes from oil companies to kill the bill.

If they want to distribute money by blatantly sharing cash to selected people, then they have missed the point,
There is no substitute to working hard for your money, relaxing and waiting to recieve monthly stipends will never help the ND cause, in fact I will boldly say that that has killed Nigeria 2day, social order , innovation, determination to progress and protect what has been developed so far is killed by this lazy arttitue we have developed in nigeria over the years, waiting for the FG to spread the oil money around,

In places where common sense prevails, people/businesses pay their council taxes, councils pay taxes to LGs, Lgs or Cities pay taxes to states, and states to FGs, (May not be exactly like this!!!)
I such situations, people can come together and form their towns or cites as long as they meet the minimum tax and other cirteria.
Take the example of Jos North LGA, it was created by IBB to give the Hausas opportunities to control that area of Jos, this translates to opportunuity to collect your own FG share, if Jos North had to pay tax for existing, we wouldn't have all this blood spilled,

Everybody in Nairaland is complaining about the twisted logic of most policies in Nigeria but 95% of Nairalanders refuse to acknowegde the fact that these policies are contructed to encourage laziness, That is why you can have a state like ogun state with so many professors but not much real development, because nigeria has become a factory that churns out unproductive scavengers, Each region has developed its strategies and over the years fine tuned these strategies to get a greater share of the oil wealth,

Back to the main topic at hand, dispensing cash is definately not the way to go, like I said, there is no substitute for hard work, The best way forward is for communities to participate very actively in the oil industry, Mining, exploration, drilling, processing, piping, sales, shipping, refining etc,
If there is oil in your land or your offshore, communities can set up companies to manage these process, or pather with more technical firms,
They will then have more say in contracts, recruitment, development to their immidiate enviroment etc,
I have often said, It is better communities to pay the FG or state 87% tax resultng from your sweat than to wait for 13% derivation, it doesn't, and will never help any body, More derivation = More curruption,

There is a very big difference between derivation handouts and true resourse control by the owners of the oil,
Issueing monies to currupt state leaders or community chiefs will never result in infrastructural development.
The only way this would happen is if we allow proper resource control, communities mine the oil by themselves or with technical patherners, set up technical servicing companies, grow the economy in the ND and pay taxes,