Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, yesterday, complained about the situation in which the Federal Government had turned oil-producing states and communities to beggars for the oil and gas produced in their own territories.
The governor, represented by his deputy, Prof Amos Utuama, spoke at the Ist Delta State Oil and Gas Industry Stakeholders’ Conference, which commenced, yesterday, in Warri.
He noted that lack of equity for oil and gas communities was responsible for the crisis in the Niger-Delta and urged that the incongruity be redressed.
Uduaghan stated, “We must recall that in 1969, the course of Nigerian history was changed and the nature of economic relationship between States and Federal Government was altered in 1969 with the promulgation of the Petroleum Decree by the military government…”
He said the decree took away the rights of the States on minerals produced in their territories and placed it squarely under the exclusive control of the Federal Military Government.
His words, “Since then, oil and gas producing states have become beggars for the oil and gas produced in their own territories and now depends on allocations from the federal authorities to meet their needs and to solve the multifarious problems like the monumental environmental destructions, which accompany oil prospecting and production.”
According to him, “Every other policy in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria took its roots from the Petroleum Decree of 1969 and has further contributed to the increasing alienation of oil producing communities and states from the benefits of oil, while leaving them to suffer the hazards and permanent damages arising from oil production.
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