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Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF),has that court action would be their last resort in to address concerns over the Petroleum Industry Act
Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Dr. Kayode Fayemi, who disclosed this in an interview with ARISE Television,reiterated the state governors’ concerns about the 30 per cent allocation for frontier exploration and the three per cent for host communities as contained in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
According to him,those provisions in the law assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari on August 16 greatly depleted the Federation Account.
The NGF chairman, who is also the governor of Ekiti State, said the governors were not carried along in the enactment of the law.
He assured that the state chief governirs would cooperate with the PIA implementation committee headed by Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva.
Fayemi commended the president for signing the Act,adding that the constitutional issues the NGF raised before the bill was passed into law were not addressed.
He said, “As a matter of fact, we have commended these major developments in our country because it is something that has been on the cards for us.So, kudos to the president for finally working with the National Assembly to get the PIA in place.
“However, we also believe that whatever we are doing should be done in accordance with the constitution so that we do not have to blame ourselves.
“The issues that governors are concerned about, and which we made clear to the National Assembly when this bill was in the process of becoming an Act, relate to ownership structure and questions of accountability and transparency so that at the end of the day, we don’t subvert the original intention behind the petroleum industries act.”
He said the forum believed the provisions of the 1999 Constitution should be adhered to with regard to concerns raised by the governors, including ownership structure, accountability, and transparency.
He punctured federal government’s handling of repatriated loots, saying the management of such funds is not the exclusive preserve of the federal government since the monies ought to be part of the federation account originally.
Fayemi said, “This is a matter that the entire forum has discussed extensively, and we have come to certain conclusions about what is called frontier funds. Whether it is three per cent or not, our concern there is that whatever you are taking into these places is a depletion of the federation account, that money will not go to the federation account, it would be spread across the few areas that you described as volunteer basis, rather than to the entire federation.
“And we worry more about the entire federation not about selected parts of the federation. For us as governors, that is a distinction without a difference. We are talking about depletion from the federation account, whether it is three per cent or 30 per cent.
“It is money that should come to federation account, that should then be subjected to fair and equitable distribution on principles of sharing, rather than one that is going to be at the whims and caprices of this new limited company.”
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