Edwin Clark, Ijaw leader, has alleged that only members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) benefit from crude oil revenue.
Speaking with BBC Pidgin on Friday, Clark alleged that the
north does not produce crude oil but enjoys the largest share of Nigeria’s oil
revenue.
He said the south-south has been neglected and made poor
despite being the major producer of crude oil in the country.
The Ijaw leader expressed his support for southern governors
who had kicked against the allocation of 3 percent operating expenditure of oil
firms to host communities, and rejected the proposed 30 percent of the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) profit for the exploration of oil and gas
in the basins.
Clark had described the provision and allocation of 30
percent of profits in the bill for further frontier oil exploration in the
north as “satanic and unjust”.
“I support their decision. Even when they wanted five
percent, I disagreed with them. We want 10 percent. We want to be part of the
oil industry. The northerners have all the oil blocks; they don’t produce any
oil,” he said.
“For instance, in 2005, when we had the same problem at the
political conference held in Abuja, this same issue came up. We produced a
paper at that conference and one of it was to show who are the people
benefitting from the oil without contributing a kobo to the economy by the form
of oil producer.
“We discovered that north-central takes about N48 billion
yearly without contributing anything to the federation account apart from what
is produced. We are talking about oil and gas. North-west took about N49
billion; north-east, N45 billion; south-west took about N49 billion. They
contribute like less than four percent in Ondo. Then the south-east, between
Igbo and Abia, contributed like 2.5 percent at that time and got about N25
billion naira.
“Where are the south-south? We got N140 billion and how much
did we contribute? More than 91.5 percent to the coffers, yet, today we are the
poorest. Have you ever seen where wealth is produced in your backyard and you
are the poorest?
“We are the most neglected. Those who benefit from the oil
come from other areas. The oil passes through my backyard, but if I want to
benefit from it, I go to meet President Muhammadu Buhari ‘can I benefit from
this oil?’ He will say ‘yes, provided you are an APC member’.”
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