…Insist Ita Enang morally deficient to speak on 13% derivation
By Harris Emanuel
Akwa Ibom elders and leaders have called on the Federal Government to review the oil derivation fund to the states to 50 percent.
The elders and leaders made the call against the backdrop of the fact that the current 13 per cent being paid to oil producing states was insufficient to meet the development needs of the oil-rich communities given the attendant negative effects of oil and gas exploration activities on host communities.
Coordinator, Elders and Leaders Vanguard, the group comprising Akwa Ibom State elders and leaders, Senator Anietie Okon, in a statement, yesterday, also took a critical look at the state of the nation, the crisis rocking Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, the unbridled cases of nepotism at Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and the vice like grip of President Muhammadu Buhari on the Ministry of Petroleum, insisting that restructuring was the only way out of the political and economic quagmire the nation has been sucked in.
Besides, they took a swipe at the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, describing him as morally deficient in his statement that the governors of Niger Delta were mismanaging the 13 percent derivation funds.
They said: ‘’Derivation is to the states and Ita Enang is trying to ride a very cheap horse when he has failed not only in his duty to the people and to the President. First of all, the President is the Minister of Petroleum Resources and has been responsible for the unmitigated short changing of states over derivation.
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“We would have expected somebody like Ita Enang to talk about the short changing of states. For him to talk about 13 percent, the question is, how much has the Federal Government earned and as a federal employee, how has he helped in attracting federal investments to the states?
“It stands compelling and morally deficient to make a statement on what a state government is doing or not doing because as it were, maybe on his advice, the government at the centre has come out a cropper, completely displaying ineptitude in every possible area of activity.
“We believe Ita Enang is up to his usual pursuit of doing some master’s bidding. The 13 per cent is not enough for the states and we are looking at 50 percent and that is why we are calling for restructuring. So, Ita Enang is just raising dust over nothing. And it is irresponsible for him to also say that the major oil companies are the ones causing crises in the region.
“As far as we know, Ita Enang has never done anything positive about Niger Delta when he was in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. Was he not in those Houses and what query did he raise when oil wells were given to the northerners? Let him point to any Akwa Ibom man that has an OPL to his credit.
“He is what we called, bo mi no ko, a messenger. And you know messengers do not see beyond their noses. It is not enough for him to talk about Niger Delta governors, what about his boss? What about the crisis in the NDDC and the rot in NNPC?”
