Oil states reject North’s demand for more revenue

Punch

26 February 2012

Oil states reject North’s demand for more revenue

Anger dripped from the reply of governors and stakeholders in the oil-producing states on Saturday to the 19 Northern governors’ demand for a review of the revenue formula to give more funds to them.

The South-South governors said such a call smacked of insensitivity to the plight of the zone, evident in its over 50 years of marginalisation and environmental degradation and advised Northern governors to develop their revenue base as each state had a resource to develop.

Similarly, Niger Delta activists said states in the North should find ways of generating revenues to run their states as the region once did through groundnut pyramids, rather than seeking for more allocation from oil.

The Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum and governor of Niger State, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, had last Thursday, on behalf of his colleagues, asked for a review of the revenue formula that “reflects current realities.”