BY MICHAEL EBOH

Elder statesman and Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, has called on the Federal Government to implement the 18 per cent derivation formula agreed upon by over 400 delegates at the 2005 National Political Reforms Conference.

Speaking at the Upstream and Downstream Oil and Gas Exhibition and Conference, organised by West Africa Exhibitions and Conferences, in Abuja, Clark berated governors calling for the reduction in the derivation fund for oil producing states, saying that the governors should instead focus on boosting their Internally Generated Revenue.

He also described as falsehood, a situation where the spills in the region are blamed on the youths, saying that the oil companies should be blamed for the spills, due to their aged pipeline network and their refusal to abide by strict international standards, requiring that pipes carrying crude oil are changed after a specified period of time.

He said: “It is insulting for some governors to sit in their states to vent their anger on the people of the Niger Delta oil producing communities, with accusations that the communities are already receiving too much money from the Federal Government, referring also to the 13 per cent derivation formula and the establishment of Niger Delta Development Commission, to the detriment of non-oil producing communities and therefore, demanding a reversal of the revenue allocation formula.”

Clark said oil exploration activities in the Niger Delta had negatively affected the lives of the people, as they have become hopeless, lost their traditional sources of livelihood such as fishing, canoe-building, logging and farming due to the pollution of the rivers and forests.

“The Niger Delta people are now agitating for the derivation formula to be increased to 18 per cent in line with the recommendations of the conference, since such an increase does not require the amendment of the Nigerian constitution which put down 13 per cent as the minimum percentage for derivation.

“The present exercise being carried out by the National Assembly for the amendment of the constitution should also reflect the demands of the Niger Delta people for a revision of the derivation formula to 50 per cent, which is in line with the practice during the first republic,” Clark noted.

He added that it was insulting and an act of provocation for the governors and other individuals to argue that the oil and gas produced in the Niger Delta was a natural gift to all Nigerians and that the region does not own the resources despite the fact that the resource was produced in the region.