PAN-Niger-Delta Forum, PANDEF, a pan Niger Delta group made up
of monarchs, leaders and stakeholders of the coastal states of the
region, yesterday, argued that the position of Group Managing
Director, GMD, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC,
rightly belongs to the South-South geo-political zone, and urged
President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint a competent person from the
region as GMD.
The group in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr
Ken Robinson, said: “PANDEF just finds it difficult to even
imagine, whether those turning the nation’s very sensitive
petroleum corporation into their private and ethnic farmland, would
have accepted an Obong Okon, a Chief Ama or an Olorogun Efe, as
Group Managing Director, if the institution were a Nigerian
National Groundnut Corporation, or Grains Board, or of any
predominantly northern-based produce, or natural resource? Why has
gold, notable in Zamfara State, not still nationalized?
“PANDEF will further insist on the reinstatement of the
practice, whereby the position of Group Managing Director of the
NNPC was, rightly, reserved for the South-South geopolitical zone,
which produces about 95 per cent of the Nigeria’s crude extraction,
equating to more than 90 per cent of the national budget.
“We strongly condemned a situation where North-West and North
East have 13 and 12 top management positions respectively in NNPC.
The glaringly evident message is that just about all the prime
positions of the NNPC are beyond the competence of all staff of the
NNPC of South- South, South -West and South -East geopolitical
zones origin, and in the entire oil and gas industry from which to
poach Nigerians of competence into the soul of national
economy.
“Meanwhile, the South- South geopolitical zone, which accounts
for about 95 per cent of the nation’s crude oil and gas extraction,
reportedly occupies only 12 lower level management positions, with
a spinning of only two, or three names, every time they seize yet
another batch of strategic positions, with their flawed propaganda
misinformation.
“We deem it necessary to further clarify the false allusion that
the South- South geopolitical zone has two members in the NNPC
board. This is simply untrue. The Minister of State, Petroleum, is
not a statutory member of the NNPC board. Thus, Chief Timipre
Sylva, former Governor of Bayelsa State, only sits on board, at the
discretion of President Buhari, who has continued to allocate to
himself, the position of Petroleum Minister.
“The NNPC Act of 1977, provides that the Board of Directors of
the Corporation shall consist of a Chairman (the Minister of
Petroleum), and the following other Members, that is: (a) The
Director-General (Permanent Secretary), Federal Ministry of Finance
and Economic Development; (b) The Managing Director of the
Corporation; (c) Three persons, to be appointed by the National
Council of Ministers.
“President Buhari has continued to violate the Act by appointing
six other members into the board. We are not oblivious of the
workings at the NNPC, where the Group Managing Director, as the
Chief Executive Officer of the corporation, is responsible for the
execution of its operational policy, activities and associated
services, on a day-to-day basis. “Neither have we forgotten how Mr
Ibe Kachikwu, as Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, was
reportedly treacherously treated, by the then Group Managing
Director of the NNPC, late Maikanti Baru, with the backing of those
who appointed both of them. “It is important to emphasize that the
false claims, fallacies, and propaganda being promoted by the
lopsided management of the NNPC, through hired spin masters, will
not deter the people of the Niger Delta region from demanding their
inalienable rights of adequate, equitable participation in the
administration, management and dispensation of the resources that
nature endowed their land with.
“It is reasonable to expect that the people of an area from
where particular revenue is generated must have suffered some
attendant consequences, arising from the activity. And such people
should be compensated by enabling them to benefit from the revenues
generated in their communities.”
“That was the basis of derivation principle, which existed
before the discovery of oil in commercial quantities, in Olobiri,
Bayelsa State.
“When revenues from cocoa (in the West) and groundnut (in the
North) were the nation’s economic mainstay, derivation was the
Revenue Allocation principle, at over 60 percent, before
Independence. It was dropped to 50 percent in 1960; and 45percent,
in 1969. It took a dizzying nosedive to 20 percent in 1975; and
further to 1.5percent in 1982; and 1 percent in 1990. It was moved
up to 3 percent in 1992, before the current 13 percent, was
specified by Section 162 (2) of the 1999 Constitution, as
amended.
“It is significant to note that derivation, as a revenue
allocation principle, has been purposefully suppressed since crude
oil became the country’s major revenue earner, with the inclusion
of factors like equality of states, land mass and population.
“Meanwhile, oil and gas exploration activities have degraded the
hitherto luxuriant, healthy ecosystem of the Niger Delta, and
damaged the indigenous people’s means of livelihood, with little or
no effort to ameliorate their consequential dire standard of
living.
“PANDEF, therefore, reaffirms the position of the Niger Delta
people, as articulated in our open letter to President Buhari, with
a fresh urgent call, underlining that Buhari should quickly correct
the imbalances in the NNPC management, and other agencies of the
Federal Government, in the interest of unity, peace and progress of
the country,” it said.
PAN-Niger-Delta Forum, PANDEF, a pan Niger Delta group made up
of monarchs, leaders and stakeholders of the coastal states of the
region, yesterday, argued that the position of Group Managing
Director, GMD, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC,
rightly belongs to the South-South geo-political zone, and urged
President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint a competent person from the
region as GMD.
The group in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr
Ken Robinson, said: “PANDEF just finds it difficult to even
imagine, whether those turning the nation’s very sensitive
petroleum corporation into their private and ethnic farmland, would
have accepted an Obong Okon, a Chief Ama or an Olorogun Efe, as
Group Managing Director, if the institution were a Nigerian
National Groundnut Corporation, or Grains Board, or of any
predominantly northern-based produce, or natural resource? Why has
gold, notable in Zamfara State, not still nationalized?
“PANDEF will further insist on the reinstatement of the
practice, whereby the position of Group Managing Director of the
NNPC was, rightly, reserved for the South-South geopolitical zone,
which produces about 95 per cent of the Nigeria’s crude extraction,
equating to more than 90 per cent of the national budget.
“We strongly condemned a situation where North-West and North
East have 13 and 12 top management positions respectively in NNPC.
The glaringly evident message is that just about all the prime
positions of the NNPC are beyond the competence of all staff of the
NNPC of South- South, South -West and South -East geopolitical
zones origin, and in the entire oil and gas industry from which to
poach Nigerians of competence into the soul of national
economy.
“Meanwhile, the South- South geopolitical zone, which accounts
for about 95 per cent of the nation’s crude oil and gas extraction,
reportedly occupies only 12 lower level management positions, with
a spinning of only two, or three names, every time they seize yet
another batch of strategic positions, with their flawed propaganda
misinformation.
“We deem it necessary to further clarify the false allusion that
the South- South geopolitical zone has two members in the NNPC
board. This is simply untrue. The Minister of State, Petroleum, is
not a statutory member of the NNPC board. Thus, Chief Timipre
Sylva, former Governor of Bayelsa State, only sits on board, at the
discretion of President Buhari, who has continued to allocate to
himself, the position of Petroleum Minister.
“The NNPC Act of 1977, provides that the Board of Directors of
the Corporation shall consist of a Chairman (the Minister of
Petroleum), and the following other Members, that is: (a) The
Director-General (Permanent Secretary), Federal Ministry of Finance
and Economic Development; (b) The Managing Director of the
Corporation; (c) Three persons, to be appointed by the National
Council of Ministers.
“President Buhari has continued to violate the Act by appointing
six other members into the board. We are not oblivious of the
workings at the NNPC, where the Group Managing Director, as the
Chief Executive Officer of the corporation, is responsible for the
execution of its operational policy, activities and associated
services, on a day-to-day basis. “Neither have we forgotten how Mr
Ibe Kachikwu, as Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, was
reportedly treacherously treated, by the then Group Managing
Director of the NNPC, late Maikanti Baru, with the backing of those
who appointed both of them. “It is important to emphasize that the
false claims, fallacies, and propaganda being promoted by the
lopsided management of the NNPC, through hired spin masters, will
not deter the people of the Niger Delta region from demanding their
inalienable rights of adequate, equitable participation in the
administration, management and dispensation of the resources that
nature endowed their land with.
“It is reasonable to expect that the people of an area from
where particular revenue is generated must have suffered some
attendant consequences, arising from the activity. And such people
should be compensated by enabling them to benefit from the revenues
generated in their communities.”
“That was the basis of derivation principle, which existed
before the discovery of oil in commercial quantities, in Olobiri,
Bayelsa State.
“When revenues from cocoa (in the West) and groundnut (in the
North) were the nation’s economic mainstay, derivation was the
Revenue Allocation principle, at over 60 percent, before
Independence. It was dropped to 50 percent in 1960; and 45percent,
in 1969. It took a dizzying nosedive to 20 percent in 1975; and
further to 1.5percent in 1982; and 1 percent in 1990. It was moved
up to 3 percent in 1992, before the current 13 percent, was
specified by Section 162 (2) of the 1999 Constitution, as
amended.
“It is significant to note that derivation, as a revenue
allocation principle, has been purposefully suppressed since crude
oil became the country’s major revenue earner, with the inclusion
of factors like equality of states, land mass and population.
“Meanwhile, oil and gas exploration activities have degraded the
hitherto luxuriant, healthy ecosystem of the Niger Delta, and
damaged the indigenous people’s means of livelihood, with little or
no effort to ameliorate their consequential dire standard of
living.
“PANDEF, therefore, reaffirms the position of the Niger Delta
people, as articulated in our open letter to President Buhari, with
a fresh urgent call, underlining that Buhari should quickly correct
the imbalances in the NNPC management, and other agencies of the
Federal Government, in the interest of unity, peace and progress of
the country,” it said.