He insisted that the agitation to control the 13% Derivation must be thorough, noting, “If you want to manage your resources, it must be a clear cut but unfortunately, people just want to be heard”.
Okowa, made the statement on Wednesday 11th November 2020, during the quarterly media interaction held in government house, Asaba.
Hear him: “On the issue of derivation and the government by oil communities, I think it is important that we try to put our energies in the right direction.
“People have wrong concept as what ought to be done but as at today I am not a lawyer but I know that the Constitution is very simple on how our Derivation money should be handled and who should handle it”.
Okowa, who schooled agitators continued: “And I think that what we simply think is to drive a process in the PIB where the communities themselves will also have some leverage and be provided for in the Constitution and in the law to enable them to have a percentage for the various communities which we believe will help to strengthen the Communities and the strengthen the relationship between the people and the Oil companies.
“Because such provisions as has been envisaged in the community fund is such that the communities will be entitled to those funds yearly and those funds will be tied up to, also the communities will be able to secure the facilities base on the functionality of the facilities in the various communities.
“I think that is the process we ought to drive but if every Community start to begins to rise up and say we want to control our resources, I am sure Nigeria, will become a Banana Republic, there will be no control, no country, and no state. I don’t think that thing is workable.
“So, for those that think in that manner, it does not… If you are talking about Delta state for example, I know that there are about 20 or 21 local government councils that are actually Producing Oil.
“So, the truth is, if every Community begins to manage its own, I think that the crisis and the battle that will come out in the various communities will be such that it cannot be even managed.
“You see people have their rights to have their voice heard. It is for us to be able to follow the constitutionality and the laws of the lands at the moment. I believe that haven be able to put the members of the National Assembly, house of Representatives, house of Assembly and the governors, they should be allowed to manage the resources of the state.
“I believe that if someone is not doing well, you have the rights in the next election to vote the person out but if you now say every Community begins to manage their own, I just begin to worry, how it is going to be safe. It is not a situation of just saying that we want to manage our 13 percent, it is saying that we want to manage the entire 100 percent.
“Because if you are saying you are providing a whole 100 percent, only 13 percent should come to the State, 87 percent is been distributed nationally”, he added.
You do not want to manage the 87 percent that is been distributed nationally, it is the one that is coming to the state that you want to manage, it does not make a lot of sense. If you want to manage your resources, it must be a clear cut one but unfortunately, people just want to be heard.
You recall that the South-south governors not only now but in the past we have been talking of the need for restructuring. Obviously, we are on that, we still believe very strongly that there is the need for restructure this nation. There is the need to devoid not just powers from the federal, state and local government but also the devolution of resources.
As at today, there are acts of the National Assembly that guides the issues of oil production, it is also delth with in the Constitution and what we have seen with the solid mineral are those one that are not encountered with such acts. The voices of the South-south governors are going to be strong on that in the meeting we are going to have that we cannot apply laws in our nation like that.
As today the laws of the land does not give us that opportunity because oil was the main thing, there are many laws in the land that seems to restrict us from taking decision but we will try our best.
