President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday begged host communities of the Niger Delta to accept the three per cent equity allocated to them in the new Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, saying the country lost an estimated $50 billion worth of investments in ten years as a result of non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, lack of progress and stagnation in the petroleum industry.
The President’s plea came barely twenty-four hours after the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said the three per cent equity allocation to the host communities was a fair deal.
It will be recalled that stakeholders in the Niger Delta, especially the host communities, had been up in arms with the National Assembly for approving the three per cent equity and 30 per cent of of the annual profit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, as Frontier Basin Funds, and called on the President not to sign the PIB containing this approvals into law.
However, the Pan-Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, Host Communities of Nigeria Producing Oil and Gas, HOSTCOM, and other stakeholders of Niger-Delta, yesterday, rejected the President’s plea to accept the three per cent, saying it was too small, and lambasted the Minister of State for Petroleum for insisting that the three per cent provision for Host Communities Development Trust Fund, HCDTF, is a fair deal for the Niger-Delta.
This is even as governors elected on the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday expressed support for the new PIA, contending that the President did the right thing in assenting to the PIB.
