By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief

OIL producing communities in the Niger Delta should be given one per cent of the revenue accruing from crude oil in order to ensure uninterrupted petroleum production in the country.

Chairman of Stanbic IBTC, Mr. Atedo Peterside who canvassed this position at the 2016 Daily Trust Dialogue, in Abuja, last week, added that the same should apply to all mineral resources mined across the nation.

Latest data on oil production indicated that from an estimated 2.2 million barrels per day in the 2016 budget, daily export averaged only 1.390 million, last month (December 2016). Peterside stated: “I favour a constitutional amendment that reserves a one per cent royalty payment to immediate host communities on all mining and mineral producing activity (including limestone, oil, precious stones etc.).

“Communities will then be well incentivized to keep production activity going. This will give them some significant ‘skin in the game’, which is preferable to a long-term reliance on amnesty payments which constitute a moral hazard.

“A 13 percent derivation payment to a possibly “unaccountable and distant” State Governor is not anywhere as effective as a 1 percent royalty payment to a host community.” The banker also faulted the failure of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration for what he termed “the failure to reach some accommodation with Niger Delta militants.”

According to him, “Three previous administrations (the preceding three) ended up brokering peace deals. A failure by FGN to broker a peace deal has cost the nation over $6 billion per annum.

“Dithering over amnesty payments promised by a previous administration was ill-advised because Government is a continuum. The FGN should urgently pursue high-powered negotiations which should be brokered by persons with a healthy track record in this activity and the ancillary pipeline protection business.”