₦airaland Forum

Ask Musiwa aka becomrich, he has the answer to everything and can even demonstrate it for you with Maps, besides, there's this rapport between you two.

come on guys, beside Lagos, tell me any other SW state that is worth discussing?

Lol, who will bell the cat? I don't think that any right thinking individual would take such risk.

And if possible at all, that would be the best thing that will happen to a state.

Lol@OP, your type don't send their girl child to school for these same reasons of yours.

Not bad at all, as per the topic head, pls who invented the word "Ban" again?

Me thinks if Achebe wasn't respected by all and sundry, nobody would have taken his book serious.

And if Mr. Gej should call any of us for an appointment or simple diner, the person would forget that a word like re*tarded ever existed.
So, to me, I think is the President. You don't have an option there, you are bound to respect him, directly or indirectly.

LocalChamp: North, South clash looms over PIB

January 5, 2013 by Fidelis Soriwei, John Alechenu, Abuja and Chukwudi Akasike, Port Harcourt 23 Comments


A North-South clash is looming over the controversial Petroleum Industry Bill currently before the National Assembly.

The central stage is the National Assembly, where senators and members of the House of Representatives are already sharply divided on the clause providing for the allocation of 10 per cent of oil revenue to oil-producing communities in the country.

Also joining the fray are leaders of the South-South, who have vowed to fight for the passage of the bill in its entirety.

The clash was sparked off by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Housing, Bukar Abba-Ibrahim, who said on Monday in Abuja that the North would oppose the PIB because it was lopsided in favour of Niger Delta states.

The All Nigeria Peoples Party senator reportedly described the PIB as “unfair and unacceptable,” especially the contentious clause.

Abba-Ibrahim had argued that the Niger Delta had several other sources of revenue from oil apart from derivation accruing from the Niger Delta Ministry, the Niger Delta Development Commission and the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

The senator said giving an additional 10 per cent of oil revenue to the oil producing communities in addition to existing ones was inimical to the prevalence of peace in the country.

He said, “Derivation is only one out of seven sources of revenue for the oil producing states. They have the Federal Government’s take home, the NDDC with over N500 billion being projects only in oil producing communities. They also have the Niger Delta Ministry with over N400 billion; Federal Government grants in the name of amnesty and oil companies doing social corporate responsibility.

“By adding another 10 per cent to the seven sources, I don’t know how you are going to have peace where resource allocation is so skewed to one side and unfair.’’

He received support on Thursday from another Northern senator, Danladi Sankara from Jigawa State, who told one of our correspondents on the telephone that the PIB must be stopped because it was designed to satisfy sectional interest.

Sankara, who is a Peoples Democratic Party senator, said that benefits accruable to the oil producing communities should not be to the detriment of other parts of the country.

“There is certainly no way the PIB will pass the way it was sent. It is clearer that the way it was crafted, only one section of the country is being favoured to benefit.

“While no one is saying they won’t benefit, such benefits cannot be to the detriment of other sections; we will not allow it. This country belongs to us all,” he declared.

But senators from the South, who reacted to the comments by Abba-Ibrahim and Sankara, disagreed sharply with them.

A senator from Abia North, Nkechi Nwaogu, said the provision of 10 per cent revenue for oil producing communities was not too much.

The senator warned that unless the host communities were taken care of, the country could start having problems that could hamper national development.

She said, “We cannot neglect the goose that lays the golden egg. I support the way the clause was captured in the bill. The figure of 10 per cent for host communities is not too much.

“The environmental degradation in the communities, is it happening across the country? If we don’t take care of the communities and we start having problems, it will affect our development.”

Also speaking, Senator George Sekibo (PDP, Rivers) faulted his Northern counterparts on the issue, saying it should be viewed from the perspective of the disturbing level of environmental degradation in the oil producing communities.

Sekibo insisted that Nigerians should look at the passage of the bill as a move to redress the environmental degradation suffered by the Niger Delta because of oil production.

He said senators should see the bill as a and not for a section like the HYPADEC bill that was passed to take care of the problem of degradation in the hydro electric power generation communities.

“The PIB that we have now is better than what was given to us before. As for whether the 10 per cent being proposed for oil producing communities is too much, that is not the right sense of judgment.

“The right sense of judgment is how much damage has been done to the environment in the last 50 years. In the next 50 years, we may not have a habitable environment in these places. As we speak, gas flaring is still going on with all the evils associated with it.

“For those who argue that the NDDC and the Niger Delta Ministry are already too much, I will say the NDDC was set up to assist with the infrastructural development of these areas. What has the Niger Delta Ministry done since apart from trying to do the East West Road, which is an initiative of the Federal Government?”

Senator Aloysius Etok (PDP, Akwa Ibom) urged the Northern senators to accept the PIB as a way of addressing the injustice done to the people of the oil producing communities over the years.

He said that it was wrong for anybody to oppose the provision in the PIB meant to take care of the communities which had suffered over 70 years of environmental degradation associated with oil production.

He called on all senators from the North to reciprocate the gesture of the southern senators who supported the HYPADEC bill to take care of communities devastated by electricity production.

“What is fair and equitable cannot be wrong. Nobody should be afraid of doing the right thing because doing the right thing can never be wrong.

“It is unfair for anybody to say that to give 10 per cent to oil producing communities to help ameliorate their plight is unfair.” he said.

An Action Congress of Nigeria senator from Oyo State, Olufemi Lanlehin, said the clause providing 10 per cent to the oil producing communities should be critically examined.

“Although I’m still studying the bill, the issue of 10 per cent should be carefully treated. I think there should be a holistic approach to the whole issue,” he said.

The situation is not different in the House of Representatives, which has already passed the bill to the committee stage for public hearing.

The Chairman, House Committee on Rules/Business, Mr. Albert Sam-Sokwa (Taraba State ), supported the 10 per cent provision for oil-bearing communities.

Sam-Sokwa, who is the chairman claimed that those opposing the provision did so out of sentiment.

“Nobody should be heard complaining about that money (10 per cent). This is not government but money that will come from international oil companies making investment in Nigeria.

“It is to be used to address the problems in oil communities like pipeline vandalism and oil theft. People should read the bill properly before they oppose the provision or condemn it.”

But his colleague from Enugu State, Mr. Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi, observed that the provision was skewed in favour of only communities that could produce crude oil.

Ozomgbachi explained that what Nigeria needed was a general provision that would be beneficial to “all communities producing mineral resources, not oil alone.”

He spoke further, “What we need is a general provision that sets aside a specified percentage of profit for any community that produces any mineral; it can be five or 10 per cent but let every mineral-producing community benefit.

“It is not only about oil, we need to deemphasise oil. In the South-East, some states like Enugu have coal. The communities there should be entitled to 10 per cent of the profit of what they produce.

“Same for the South-West, there is bitumen. Let them get their 10 per cent as well. In the North, let the states there benefit from whatever mineral they produce.”


Another lawmaker from South-South zone, Mr. Bassey Ewa, took a middle course, saying that Nigerians should be allowed to decide whether the 10 per cent was necessary or not.

Ewa, who is the chairman, House Committee on Gas Resources, told Saturday PUNCH that he was nominated as one of the lawmakers to conduct a public hearing on the PIB.

“Let the Nigerian public decide what is appropriate. This is why we are conducting a public hearing. It is not for us as a committee to say whether the provision is appropriate or not.”

Also speaking in separate interviews with Saturday PUNCH, some South-South leaders expressed outrage at the growing opposition to the bill by the North.

Those who spoke include the Ijaw National Congress, Mr. Robinson Esite; a former President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, Mr. Ledum Mitee; and the leader of the defunct Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Asari Dokubo.

Dokubo said, “These people do not want peace, they do not believe in negotiation; what they want is to take what does not belong to them.

“We must stand to fight; the oil belongs to us; the people of the South-South, we want 100 per cent and not 10 per cent.

“When our political leaders don’t talk, these people feel larger than life… For me, this is just a rant, they are pushing us. The solution is for us to go back to fight.”

Esite, who described the comments as unfortunate, warned that the privilege of sharing the oil resources of the Niger Delta shouldn’t be abused.

“The oil is not a collective property; it is the sole property of the Niger Delta and shared among Nigerians out of care for neighbours. This privilege should not be abused by whatever means and by whosoever.”

Also speaking, Mitee said, “It is unfortunate if a regional position is taken on the PIB. A senator is supposed to make laws for the good of the country and not for a region. You don’t need to deal with PIB in a manner that suggests throwing the baby away with the bath water.

“It is not good to give an ethnic interpretation to the PIB. Most Nigerians have agreed that the PIB should be passed into law. The communities are not getting the benefit of the oil.

http://www.punchng.com/news/north-south-clash-looms-over-pib/

The highlighted is the best way to go even when we all know that nothing much would be derived from coal unless a serious research is done in that regards.

Cool!

Are you the Nweke, else not, Can we have your source?
Thank you

Hmm, why afraid of ban? It takes violating the law of the soil to be afraid of the lightning.

Really sad, what a horrible way to start off another year!

Hmm,

only time can tell

Gej go dey laugh out loud if him dey follow this thread.

Hate is a very bad thing and yields absolutely nothing for us.

peckhamboi: Exactly, Seun is a very big fool to let Jarus go, he has displayed tremendous maturity during his term and he was an asset to Nairaland.

The new mod is not only intellectually inferior to Jarus, but he has already started threatening to ban people a few minutes after he was made moderator.

Maybe you should stick to programming, management is not your forte.


Jarus cheers for a job very well done. Buena suerte.

And that's why you are calling somebody a fool?

[quote author=GARRI (x7)]Quit this baseless "Chest-Beating" and noise making. Let ur actions speak for you..

[/quote]Lol Afam, over to you

MegaMan2020: It is Seun's site and he is free to say what he wants. Seun as the boss of the domain was simply assuring his users that actions will be taken if the MOD doesn't do his job properly. that's all!

I'm not disputing that but they are his eyes on here and believe me, any disrespect to them is disrespect to seun. We all have stake in here also and seun is not denying that either, all I'm asking is for him to guide his workers to the road of success, since their success translates to his (seun's).

Seun: I know about his pro-Igbo bias. I think we need a little bit of that to achieve balance. I expect him to be an advocate of Igbos to a certain extent, but I also expect him to conduct his duties as a moderator without any tribal bias, because he knows that there are many Nairaland members who are ready to take his place if he messes up, and I won't hesitate to appoint them.

With due respect seun, I think the highlighted was not necessary, a little respect to your moderators won't hurt I guess. They all know the powers you wield and need not to be reminded of in the public.

Just my 2 cent

Congrats Afam,
With the number of the hidden posts I saw in one of the threads in the morning, I can comfortably say that my 2013 no.1 wish has finally come to pass.

liberty300: Information available to NEWS TRUST indicates that a Delta state Mass Transit bus has crashed while conveying passengers from Uduaghan park in Sapele to Warri. The information says all passengers on board got perished in the crash. Contrary to the initial information that it was a bus belonging to Delta Line that crashed, the accident actually involved a Delta state Mass Transit bus, as a source speaking on behalf of Delta Line denied that the bus belong to Delta Line. The source confirmed that a state transit bus crashed around Ore, after Sapele in a sharp corner few meters from a filling station, killing all passengers on board.

He said, “When I came to the office this morning, I heard the news of the accident [...] It’s one of the new Mass transit buses that Uduaghan just introduced in the state. I heard all passengers died in the accident.” A Delta Line bus driver, who pleaded not to be mentioned, said he ran into the scene of the accident when he was driving into Sapele on Monday morning. According to him, the driver was on a high speed, and, this coupled with the morning dew, he ran out of control around a sharp corner just a few metres away from a filling station in Ore

SO SAD,
The highlighted is self contradictory

Nightshift: Those are Ogbangbada masquerades!

Which part of Enugu are you from?

Billyonaire: He was asked, where is the money ? and he pleaded not to be killed. Meaning he duped someone....and the cost of the money is his phucking life.

was he with someone at the time of the incident? I think if they were mere rubbers, they would have made away with just the money and maybe a few injuries here and there.
No matter what, no amount is what taking someone's life.

Billyonaire: Thats what happens when you live in US and dupe Nigerians who send you money to make purchases for them... I am waiting for the one that has changed his phone line for the past 2 yrs after receiving my millions. I don't expect it to make news anyway.

better-still, it could have been handled the other way round, i.e. if it had anything to do with your suspicion.

Next time move onto the next pump and buy another fuel or tell the person that you are an army officer.

Cheers!

Hello OP, could you pls attach the link to the original thread here and also attach this to the original thread to help inform the new joiners well.

Nairaland seems to have missed this hall of shame thing for it's role in the promotion of disunity and bigotry among Nigerians.

On the other hand, sooner or later, the site will reach its melting point and end up like Hi5.

J12: 08160006016: 08188088808
If he asks how you got the number, tell him musiwa gave it to you.

Musiwa where are you? Your attention is needed here.

Barth Nnaji

Farouk Lawan

was researching on car prices in Nigeria but the damn username had been banned

oyb: viva the gestapo

http://www.punchng.com/news/how-sss-agents-held-me-hostage-at-home-punchman/



this is what nigeria has come to = and this is the govt of the governor some noise-makers are celebrating - thugs in the mould of abachas henchmen

Atleast nobody was hurt neither were they sent by the Governor, he was simply stopped from carrying the usually headline that could cause a pregnant woman her baby.

could it be that it was on the 15th day of the month and the helicopter had already made its 15th trip?

interesting . . . let it not turn out to be another bakassi kinda saga

Hoshea: Lady:"Do you smoke?"
Guy:"Yes I do."
Lady:"How many packs per
day?"
Guy:"3 packs."
Lady:"How much per pack?"
Guy:"$10.00 per pack."
Lady:"And for how long have
you been smoking?"
Guy:"15 years."
Lady:"So one pack is $10.00
and you have been smoking
3 packs a day which puts
your spending in a month at
$900.In a year it would be
$10,800,correct?"
Guy:"Correct."
Lady:"If in one year you
spend $10,800,not
accounting for inflation,the
past 15 years puts you
spending a total of
$162,000,correct?"
Guy:"Correct."
Lady:"Do you know if you
hadn't smoke,that money
could have been put in a
interest saving account and
after accounting for
compound interest for 15
years,you could have by now
bought a Ferrari??"
Guy:"Oh,Do you smoke?"
Lady:"No!"
Guy:"Then where is your
****ing Ferrari??"


One love, 4rom Tanzania

This pay-off line is superb