What oil communities, Abacha, northern leaders agreed on derivation – Okirika

A very interesting interpretation of derivation history -- the oil-producing communities were to have received the 13% - not the states ...

Vanguard

16 March 2012

What oil communities, Abacha, northern leaders agreed on derivation – Okirika

FOR the oil communities in the Niger-Delta, there is a misconception by both the Northern governors and Niger-Delta on what the 13 per cent derivation is all about. While the northern governors see it as booty for their southern counterparts and want it reduced, some South-south governors, indeed, think it is booty for them and have hijacked the fund from the oil communities, which it is meant for.

Some of the leaders of the oil communities, who fought for 13 per cent derivation, spoke to Vanguard on their disappointment and joy since former Head of State, the late General Sani Abacha of blessed memory, who they described as a hero approved 13 per cent derivation fund for oil communities. They spoke on how former President Olusegun Obasanjo tried to make the governors of the oil states comply with the original agreement that led to the approval of 13 per cent derivation by northern leaders at that time, the states that complied and those that blatantly refused.

The oil communities are spoiling for a show down, they want to draw a battle line – with whom and why? Find out from the lips of the man who co-ordinated events for the oil states in the 1994 Constitutional Conference, Chief Wellington Okirika, former national chairman of the Traditional Rulers of Oil Minerals Producing Communities of Nigeria, TROMPCON,