{"id":10,"date":"2012-04-01T11:00:53","date_gmt":"2012-04-01T11:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imotrumpeta.com\/?p=10"},"modified":"2012-04-01T11:07:46","modified_gmt":"2012-04-01T11:07:46","slug":"revenue-formula-controversy-rep-queries-80-oil-bloc-ownership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/?p=10","title":{"rendered":"Revenue Formula Controversy: Rep Queries 80% Oil Bloc Ownership"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Vice chairman of the House of Representatives\u2019 Committee on Customs, Hon (Barr) Kingsley Chinda has reacted to the call by the North for upward review of the revenue allocation formula in their favour ,\u00a0 saying\u00a0 that there was no basis for such review as\u00a0 Northerners own between 75%\u00a0 and 80% of the country\u2019s oil blocs as\u00a0 against Niger Deltans\u2019 less than three percent ownership.<\/p>\n

Hon (Barr) Chinda said rather than increasing the allocation to the North, any such review of the country\u2019s revenue formula\u00a0 should be in favour of the Niger Delta region that produce the oil and viewed the position of the North as a \u2018wake-up call\u2019 for\u00a0 Resource control.<\/p>\n

Speaking with The Tide\u00a0 in Abuja, Chinda who represents\u00a0 Obio\/Akpo federal constituency\u00a0 called for a reversal of the ownership of the oil blocs in the country, describing the North\u2019s dominance\u00a0 as injustice, which he said is \u2018unacceptable\u2019 and\u00a0 wondered why Niger Deltans should continue to receive \u201813% derivation and 87% deprivation\u2019 till date.<\/p>\n

Chinda punctured the North\u2019s argument that Niger Delta states benefit more from oil, saying \u201cfacts revealed that individually, non-Niger Deltans enjoy more of the resource from oil \u2013 as a list of owners of oil blocs in the country reveals about 75-80% from the North and less than three percent from the Niger Delta\u201d, adding \u201cthis is completely unacceptable and must be reversed now that the issue of revenue derivation has been brought to the fore front by the North themselves\u201d.<\/p>\n

He continued:\u201d I will say that it ( the North\u2019s call\u00a0 for review of the revenue formular) is a wake up call on the South-South, particularly the Niger Delta \u2013 that we ought to claim our constitutional and infact, natural right to our resources. It\u2019s a call to conscientize us\u00a0 on the very germane issue of Resource control. The fundamental question we must ask at this point is:\u201dWhy accept 13% derivation and 87% deprivation?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt must be noted too that the constitution did not state that derivation should be 13% but that it should be a minimum of 13%. Why must we accept the minimum? It could be 100% which is the maximum. I will therefore call on all oil-producing states to see this as an opportunity to redress the economic anomaly\u00a0 that exists in our polity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that, \u201cEven the National Political Reform Conference of 2005 which was midwife by the Chief\u00a0 Olusegun Obasanjo\u2019s\u00a0 adminisratation\u00a0 recommended an upward review from the 13% derivation which was not far- reaching enough and therefore was rejected by the oil-producing states,\u201d<\/p>\n

Hon. Chinda who distinguished himself in the 7th\u00a0 House by producing the highest number of bills so far contended that if a historical excursion is taken into the\u00a0 Nigerian derivation sharing formula, when the mainstay of the country was agriculture, the wealth from the groundnut pyramid was not brought to the central purse as they\u00a0 rather paid tax to the Nigerian\u00a0 nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, the mainstay is oil and we are denied the wealth and given peanut. This is not justice and cannot be justice\u201d, he maintained.<\/p>\n

Hon. Chinda further asked,\u201d What is the current reality? The Geese that lays the golden egg is neglected and impoverished and is gradually dying, we need to heal it. I call for an intellectual struggle to unshackle the Niger Delta from the Nigerian bondage, our people are living in penury, our cities are degraded. It is becoming clearer that we don\u2019t have a Nigerian nation but a marriage of convenience between various nations. I shall raise the issue on the floor of the house if the house will be bold enough to debate same and reach a resolution\u201d.<\/p>\n

It would be recalled that governors from the 19 northern states on Thursday, February 23, called for a review of the revenue allocation formula \u201cto reflect current realities\u201d. Chairman of the Northern Governors\u2019 Forum and governor of Niger State, Governor Babangida Aliyu said this in Abuja while inaugurating the Advisory Council of Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation and the call was supported by the North\u2019s socio-cultural organization \u2013 the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Justus Awaji, Abuja<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vice chairman of the House of Representatives\u2019 Committee on Customs, Hon (Barr) Kingsley Chinda has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-frontpage"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","elegant-magazine-featured":"","elegant-magazine-medium":"","elegant-magazine-medium-small":"","elegant-magazine-thumbnail-small":""},"author_info":{"info":["Imo Trumpeta"]},"category_info":"Frontpage<\/a>","tag_info":"Frontpage","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions\/14"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}