Oil, gas communities want derivation raised to 25%

Yenagoa—The Host Communities Producing Oil and Gas, HOSTCOM, of Nigeria, weekend, called for an upward review of the 13 percent derivation fund to 25 percent.

The demand, it however, said, does not in any way infer a compromise to the 10 per cent Host Communities Trust Fund imputed in the Petroleum Industry Bill as a participatory equity share in the petroleum industry.

According to the group, the enormity of the devastation on ground makes the review of the 13 per cent derivation to a more standardised form imperative to address the marginalisation of the oil and gas producing communities in the Niger Delta region.

In a paper presented at the South-South zonal public hearing on the review of the revenue allocation formula held in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, by Chief Alfred Bubor, Chief S. Benjamin and Dr. Peter Egedegbe, National Chairman, National Vice Chairman and Public Relations Officer respectively, the group described the 13 per cent as token, considering the environmental hazard faced by the oil and gas producing communities.

HOSTCOM argued that the Federal Government taking 52 per cent alone while the remaining 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory share 47.38 per cent of the revenue accruing to the Federation Account, was an aberration.

It submitted that the Federal Government should have 42 per cent, while the 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory, have 58 per cent, lamenting that the 1999 Constitution and even the Petroleum Acts of 1985, till date, had not been fair to the region that produces the oil and gas that feeds the country.

“This country should be talking of making derivation fund work for the oil and gas producing communities in the country. The revenue from oil and gas resources contributes over 80 per cent of the Gross Domestic Products, GDP, to this country and even at that the per capita income of the generality of the people of the oil and gas producing communities is zero.

“The government should encourage the oil and gas producing communities by giving them incentives coupled with an increase from the 13 per cent derivation to 25 per cent, which should be placed in the front line charge before sharing by all the tiers of government,” it said.