DELTA State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, has picked holes in the increasing outcry by stakeholders in Niger Delta for the Federal Government to pay 13 per cent derivation fund directly to oil communities, describing the agitation as illogical. Governor Okowa, interacting with journalists at Asaba, the state capital, cautioned the campaigners that their current tactic would create disaffection, which antagonists of the region were looking for to divert attention from the issue of restructuring.
He noted: “I think it is important that we put our energy in the right direction because people have the wrong concepts on what need to be done. As of today, I am not a lawyer, but I believe that the constitution is very straight forward on how derivation fund should be handled and who should handle it.” ”What we are doing as at today is to drive the process in Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, where the oil-bearing communities themselves will have some leverages and be provided for in the constitution and law, which allow them to have a percentage for the various communities.
“That will help to strengthen the relationship between the communities and the oil companies because such provisions have been envisaged and that is the process that we ought to drive. “But if every community rises and say they want to control their resources, am sure that Nigeria will eventually become a banana republic and there will be no control, no country and no state. ”If you are talking about Delta state for instance, I think about 20 or 21 local government areas are oil-producing, if every community begins to control its own, I am sure that the crises and battles that will come out of it will be beyond our control.
“Though people have their views and they have the rights to such views, it is for us to follow the constitution and the laws of the land at the moment. I believe that having been able to vote governors and lawmakers, we should allow them to manage these resources and if they are not managing the resources as we want, you have the right to vote the person out in the next four years,” he said. Okowa, also chairman of South-South Governors Forum, said:
“It is not a question of I want to manage the 13 per cent, they ought to say they want to manage the 100 per cent. If you are providing 100 per cent and only 13 per cent comes to the state, what about the 87 per cent being shared among other states in the country? “You did not push for the 87 per cent, but it is the 13 per cent coming to the state that you want to manage, it does not make sense. If you really want to manage your resources you should be clear cut on what you want, but unfortunately, people just want to be heard and noticed and continue to make their comments the way they want. ”And by the time the governors are talking on their own, you are getting a group of communities talking and those ones have a different viewpoint.
By the time this division is created among the people, what then happens? They will say we are singing in different tones, that you do not have a collective voice on the true management of resources, which is the resource control we are talking about. “They divert your attention from the issues of adequate restructuring of the country the way we are to talk about it. ”So it is a lot of politics going on, but I believe the governors of the south-south are doing well enough and why do I say so? We are in this country and we see what is going on in many other states. I have visited most states in the south-south and I can see the governors of the south-south are indeed doing very well amidst the challenges we have to manage. “There is a lot of money spent in keeping the peace in the Niger Delta even though we have the military and others, people cannot say they are ignorant of this because it is a well-known fact,” the governor asserted. Covid-19 hindered our plan for BRACED Commission Governor Okowa, however, there was room for fair review, adding: “We tried to start the BRACED Commission, unfortunately, COVID-19 slowed us down, but now that we are beginning to understand things better, we have already appointed a director-general. “And I believe we will have an avenue to relate with ourselves the more, to examine and share values of governance and ideas and speak with one voice.
” FG undercutting states In his words: “There is no doubt that many times we have been shortchanged by the Federal Government because we are not in the centre of issues on how much we get and what comes to us. But as much as possible we are hoping to be able to get the best we can in the current circumstance. “As at today, there is a lot of money being owed us for derivation, we are working hard to see that will get it and pray that the government at the federal level will be magnanimous to pay us the entire backlog that they owe us.” Speaking on the control of gold deposits in Zamfara state by Zamfara state government, “You will recall that the south-south governors before now were talking about the need for restructuring and need for resource control, and obviously are on that because we feel there is the need to restructure, not just powers at the federal level to the state and local government, but also the devolution of resources.
“But as at today, there are acts in the National Assembly that guide the issue of oil production which is dealt with in the constitution and with the solid minerals, those are not covered in these acts and obviously, this is already a sore point in our nation’s governance system, ”We cannot apply laws in our nation to the point in such a way that it becomes discriminatory because if people are allowed to process for their solid minerals, they should also be allowed to do same for their oil. So we are going to be very hard and try to make our voice as strong as possible … I believe that at some point in time, these discriminatory tendencies will have to be revisited in this nation at some point in time,” he added. Investment drive Continuing, the governor asserted: “We are doing everything to see how we can attract investment; we have a Delta State Investment Agency and other agencies working around to see how we can attract investment.
“We have been able to attract a few but the situation in the world is making things very difficult for investors to come in. We are also trying to ensure that we create enabling environment; we have also passed a law on the ban of development levy which has been a great challenge for the state and we just created a coordinating committee, which will be able to deal with that issue.” ”We have the Kwale Industrial Park but COVID-19 has really slowed things down for us, and the way it is going, it is going to take a longer time for people to come and invest outside their countries. “We also partnering with the Central Bank of Nigeria and other businesses in the agricultural development sector which is also an area that can uplift a lot of our people, especially in areas of cassava and oil palm development. “I believe all these are already yielding results because we are in the process of having a cassava site manufacturing company which will provide a lot of jobs and we are hoping to keep faith with this. Outbreak of yellow fever The governor, who spoke on the recent outbreak of yellow fever in part of the state, asserted:
“On the number of yellow fever cases as at last week, I am aware that 22 have died, but we hope that now that the vaccination has started we hope the situation will be brought to normal. “It takes about 10 days for people to get their immunity and hope that the death rates will be remarkably and eventually not be there any longer.” “We are definitely going to scale-up vaccination in other parts of the state. We have many vaccination units in the state and I am told that in Ika North East local government area alone, we have about 80 teams and I believe that those teams will fan out to other local governments very soon. Pensions for ex-govs Answering a question on if he planned to review pensions for former governors given the reconsideration of same by his Lagos and Kwara states counterpart, he said: “ As regards to payment of pensions for former governors of the state, I do not think I want to comment on that because there is an existing law in Delta state on that. I think there are better things for me to look into than to start looking back into the laws that did exist.” “He (Lagos governor) has the right to take a decision that he wants to take as he has his reasons for doing it and I cannot criticize him, but there are many more important things to be done now time for me to start looking on how to reverse one law or the other because that is not in my thought process at the moment.
On job opportunity created for the people by the governor of Cross River State, Okowa asserted: ‘The governor has his right to make such employments. I do not know how many people he has in his staff list as at today, but I know that as at today, we are not trying deliberately to scale down our staff list, we believe that Delta state was overstaffed. “As we came in, we had a little over 60,000 on the employment of the state government, no other state in the country had that as they had between 15000 to over 20,000 in their staff list, but on Saturday I believe that number has dropped to 50,000, a little bit below that and that is still a high number for a state government and that is still an issue.” “But when vacancies occur, we do employ people just like the way we did when we employed some science teachers. I also believe in the course of 2021, we are going to employ more teachers but it will be mainly also science-based teachers. “We will also be employing teachers for new technical schools and that will be in the early part of next year because we hope that the schools will kick off, September 2021, to engage them early enough and put them through some training and retraining before they take off in September. So we will employ according to needs and not based on pressure,” he stated.
When a child begins too ask for his right he becomes a bad child.
The actions of the child becomes irrational because they are asking for what is duly their right.
FG should pay the money directly to oil bearing communities to alleviate their pains.
No wonder some communities with no single drop of oil will be the one shouting our oyel , reaping on pains and destruction caused by oil on another man's community whereas the real oil bearing communities are dying in pains and penury.
They deserve the 13% in full to their various communities. It is their right.
As of today, I am not a lawyer, but I believe that the constitution is very straight forward on how derivation fund should be handled and who should handle it.”
I suggest lamidi cownu and ipob miscreants should handle it. After all, na ipob dey generate crude for feeding Nigeria.
The governor should keep quiet, the community should be getting 3% I don't care how much that may be, but looking at how they have been marginalise, they deserve it. So that funds should be used only for the community that has a well.
They want to use it to cause confusion between the government and people of the oil producing community to divert their attention from the sale of gold by zamfara to CBN
crude oil is a curse to Nigeria's development because those old vultures who know nothing but to extract and just sell will never have time for the country. And the money will always be looted without the people complaining much feeling it isn't their money, jobs wouldn't be created and the economy will keep going worse. Resource control is the best at this time under a regional arrangements. And royalty paid to the FG. This will also bring about developmental, creativity challenge between the regions. Instead of this current useless system that only concentrate power at the centre and all they need is to fight for it and the region the person come from will keep defending even if he is useless to their lives.
Nigeria officially slides into worst recession since 1987
According to World Bank and NBS figures, this is also the second recession under President Muhamadu Buhari’s democratic reign — and his fourth as head of state.
Juliusmalema: When a child begins too ask for his right he becomes a bad child.
The actions of the child becomes irrational because they are asking for what is duly their right.
It is their own because it was your grandparents that buried the oil & gas in the earth Useless Peasant? I guess to you Okowa is the thief now not Hausa Fulani anymore? Confused Miscreant.
Oil communities should be given much more than that. Do you know the harm done to those communities? Go to parts of niger delta and see the devastation caused by oil exploration there The habitat has been so neutralized to nothingness, and aquatic lives destroyed, worse still, these people are living in abject penury There's no compensation whatsoever that can return them back to their normal lives. Oil producing LGAS and communities should be made to enjoy the benefits of their resources. 13% should be giving to communities where those resources are explored and even more
just look how Delta state one of the high IGR with 13% derivation look like! Delta state suppose to be rule by military as far as I'm concern because civilian rule in that state had brought absolute nothing to that state
IamWonderful: They want to use it to cause confusion between the government and people of the oil producing community to divert their attention from the sale of gold by zamfara to CBN
I believe northerners are not the people coming to the Niger Delta that is not even your own ipob region to protest for the 13% ?
Juliusmalema: When a child begins too ask for his right he becomes a bad child.
The actions of the child becomes irrational because they are asking for what is duly their right.
don't mind the idiot. I'm fully in support of that. Every negative effects of the oil occurred in the communities therefore the 13% should be spent to solve the problem of the community.
Look at him changing his mouth. Because he is from Agbor and Agbor doesn't have oil. Wasn't he the one that said Oil states should control their oil because of the Zamfara saga? These guys are only after their selfish interest.
lordmayor2013: Nigeria officially slides into worst recession since 1987
According to World Bank and NBS figures, this is also the second recession under President Muhamadu Buhari’s democratic reign — and his fourth as head of state.
Nigeria is working, Sai Baba till 2027
& how does that affect you? Before General Buhari in 1984 your father lived in poverty, after General Buhari he still lived in penury, before President Buhari 2015, you the descendant lived in poverty, after Baba Buhari 2023, you will still be in penury, like father, like pikin?
DELTA State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, has picked holes in the increasing outcry by stakeholders in Niger Delta for the Federal Government to pay 13 per cent derivation fund directly to oil communities, describing the agitation as illogical. Governor Okowa, interacting with journalists at Asaba, the state capital, cautioned the campaigners that their current tactic would create disaffection, which antagonists of the region were looking for to divert attention from the issue of restructuring.
He noted: “I think it is important that we put our energy in the right direction because people have the wrong concepts on what need to be done. As of today, I am not a lawyer, but I believe that the constitution is very straight forward on how derivation fund should be handled and who should handle it.” ”What we are doing as at today is to drive the process in Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, where the oil-bearing communities themselves will have some leverages and be provided for in the constitution and law, which allow them to have a percentage for the various communities.
“That will help to strengthen the relationship between the communities and the oil companies because such provisions have been envisaged and that is the process that we ought to drive. “But if every community rises and say they want to control their resources, am sure that Nigeria will eventually become a banana republic and there will be no control, no country and no state. ”If you are talking about Delta state for instance, I think about 20 or 21 local government areas are oil-producing, if every community begins to control its own, I am sure that the crises and battles that will come out of it will be beyond our control.
“Though people have their views and they have the rights to such views, it is for us to follow the constitution and the laws of the land at the moment. I believe that having been able to vote governors and lawmakers, we should allow them to manage these resources and if they are not managing the resources as we want, you have the right to vote the person out in the next four years,” he said. Okowa, also chairman of South-South Governors Forum, said:
“It is not a question of I want to manage the 13 per cent, they ought to say they want to manage the 100 per cent. If you are providing 100 per cent and only 13 per cent comes to the state, what about the 87 per cent being shared among other states in the country? “You did not push for the 87 per cent, but it is the 13 per cent coming to the state that you want to manage, it does not make sense. If you really want to manage your resources you should be clear cut on what you want, but unfortunately, people just want to be heard and noticed and continue to make their comments the way they want. ”And by the time the governors are talking on their own, you are getting a group of communities talking and those ones have a different viewpoint.
By the time this division is created among the people, what then happens? They will say we are singing in different tones, that you do not have a collective voice on the true management of resources, which is the resource control we are talking about. “They divert your attention from the issues of adequate restructuring of the country the way we are to talk about it. ”So it is a lot of politics going on, but I believe the governors of the south-south are doing well enough and why do I say so? We are in this country and we see what is going on in many other states. I have visited most states in the south-south and I can see the governors of the south-south are indeed doing very well amidst the challenges we have to manage. “There is a lot of money spent in keeping the peace in the Niger Delta even though we have the military and others, people cannot say they are ignorant of this because it is a well-known fact,” the governor asserted. Covid-19 hindered our plan for BRACED Commission Governor Okowa, however, there was room for fair review, adding: “We tried to start the BRACED Commission, unfortunately, COVID-19 slowed us down, but now that we are beginning to understand things better, we have already appointed a director-general. “And I believe we will have an avenue to relate with ourselves the more, to examine and share values of governance and ideas and speak with one voice.
” FG undercutting states In his words: “There is no doubt that many times we have been shortchanged by the Federal Government because we are not in the centre of issues on how much we get and what comes to us. But as much as possible we are hoping to be able to get the best we can in the current circumstance. “As at today, there is a lot of money being owed us for derivation, we are working hard to see that will get it and pray that the government at the federal level will be magnanimous to pay us the entire backlog that they owe us.” Speaking on the control of gold deposits in Zamfara state by Zamfara state government, “You will recall that the south-south governors before now were talking about the need for restructuring and need for resource control, and obviously are on that because we feel there is the need to restructure, not just powers at the federal level to the state and local government, but also the devolution of resources.
“But as at today, there are acts in the National Assembly that guide the issue of oil production which is dealt with in the constitution and with the solid minerals, those are not covered in these acts and obviously, this is already a sore point in our nation’s governance system, ”We cannot apply laws in our nation to the point in such a way that it becomes discriminatory because if people are allowed to process for their solid minerals, they should also be allowed to do same for their oil. So we are going to be very hard and try to make our voice as strong as possible … I believe that at some point in time, these discriminatory tendencies will have to be revisited in this nation at some point in time,” he added. Investment drive Continuing, the governor asserted: “We are doing everything to see how we can attract investment; we have a Delta State Investment Agency and other agencies working around to see how we can attract investment.
“We have been able to attract a few but the situation in the world is making things very difficult for investors to come in. We are also trying to ensure that we create enabling environment; we have also passed a law on the ban of development levy which has been a great challenge for the state and we just created a coordinating committee, which will be able to deal with that issue.” ”We have the Kwale Industrial Park but COVID-19 has really slowed things down for us, and the way it is going, it is going to take a longer time for people to come and invest outside their countries. “We also partnering with the Central Bank of Nigeria and other businesses in the agricultural development sector which is also an area that can uplift a lot of our people, especially in areas of cassava and oil palm development. “I believe all these are already yielding results because we are in the process of having a cassava site manufacturing company which will provide a lot of jobs and we are hoping to keep faith with this. Outbreak of yellow fever The governor, who spoke on the recent outbreak of yellow fever in part of the state, asserted:
“On the number of yellow fever cases as at last week, I am aware that 22 have died, but we hope that now that the vaccination has started we hope the situation will be brought to normal. “It takes about 10 days for people to get their immunity and hope that the death rates will be remarkably and eventually not be there any longer.” “We are definitely going to scale-up vaccination in other parts of the state. We have many vaccination units in the state and I am told that in Ika North East local government area alone, we have about 80 teams and I believe that those teams will fan out to other local governments very soon. Pensions for ex-govs Answering a question on if he planned to review pensions for former governors given the reconsideration of same by his Lagos and Kwara states counterpart, he said: “ As regards to payment of pensions for former governors of the state, I do not think I want to comment on that because there is an existing law in Delta state on that. I think there are better things for me to look into than to start looking back into the laws that did exist.” “He (Lagos governor) has the right to take a decision that he wants to take as he has his reasons for doing it and I cannot criticize him, but there are many more important things to be done now time for me to start looking on how to reverse one law or the other because that is not in my thought process at the moment.
On job opportunity created for the people by the governor of Cross River State, Okowa asserted: ‘The governor has his right to make such employments. I do not know how many people he has in his staff list as at today, but I know that as at today, we are not trying deliberately to scale down our staff list, we believe that Delta state was overstaffed. “As we came in, we had a little over 60,000 on the employment of the state government, no other state in the country had that as they had between 15000 to over 20,000 in their staff list, but on Saturday I believe that number has dropped to 50,000, a little bit below that and that is still a high number for a state government and that is still an issue.” “But when vacancies occur, we do employ people just like the way we did when we employed some science teachers. I also believe in the course of 2021, we are going to employ more teachers but it will be mainly also science-based teachers. “We will also be employing teachers for new technical schools and that will be in the early part of next year because we hope that the schools will kick off, September 2021, to engage them early enough and put them through some training and retraining before they take off in September. So we will employ according to needs and not based on pressure,” he stated.
STATES GOVERNMENT IN NIGERIA ARE OPPRESSING CRUDE OIL PRODUCING COMMUNITIES.
Go to Forcados, Ogulagha, Brass, etc it all exploitation by both the state government and federal government.
Does it not shock the public to learn that there is not bridge linking up Escravos with Warri maintown despite 60 years of crude oil exploitation in the Niger delta region?
ransomed: Pay directly to communities. It is long overdue. Governors are agents of underdevelopment.
End governors looting now.
Ok, they should pay the money to the Local Government Chairman? What is the name of that your Local Government Chairman again? These is the resource control you have in mind for Biafra?
OP is simply being mischievous with this headline. And to you daft guys already calling Okowa names just to defend the agitating communities, if you wouldn't read the whole article due to its length, then at least try to read up the bolded part.
How Nairaland first page is always filled with people who analyse headlines outside of supporting articles!
There's no prize for first page commenters.
If you aren't Nwamaikpe, Slawomi(I)r, Righteousness89 or two other people like that, be calming down mbok.
blacknp: & how does that affect you? Before General Buhari in 1984 your father lived in poverty, after General Buhari he still lived in penury, before President Buhari 2015, you the descendant lived in poverty, after Baba Buhari 2023, you will still be in penury, like father, like pikin?
Drop your account details, let me bless you bro. I know how it feels to think everyone is the same as you
