A former federal lawmaker, Farah Dagogo, has raised issues in regards to the utilisation of the 13 per cent derivation funds by the governors of the 9 Niger Delta states, that are meant for oil-producing communities.
Dagogo, who represented Bonny-Degema Federal Constituency within the House of Representatives, made this assertion in a press release issued in Port Harcourt on Monday morning.
The assertion was signed by his media aide, Ibrahim Lawal, and despatched to PUNCH Online.
A governorship aspirant beneath the Peoples Democratic Party within the 2023 normal elections, Dagogo expressed alarm that the Niger Delta area has acquired trillions of naira constitutionally accrued to it by means of the 13 per cent derivation for over 23 years.
While noting that over N600bn of that sum has already been acquired within the first half of 2024, he criticised successive governors from the area for failing to enhance the welfare of the communities, the place folks proceed to dwell in “squalor, diseases, and reeking with the worst and highest form of poverty.”
Despite the obvious failures of the Federal Government, Dagogo acknowledged that it “has not failed to actualize a steady increment in the 13 per cent derivation to the Niger Delta governors.”
The assertion reads, “In January, N57.92 billion was launched to oil-producing states. In February, it rose to N85.10 billion, and in March, the Niger Delta oil-producing states received N166.24 billion.
“The sums had been N90.12 billion, N120.45 billion, and N106.50 billion for April, May, and June, respectively. Yes, all of us agree that this Federal Government has not lived as much as its billing.
“However, in this instance, you have to agree and acknowledge that these allocations demonstrate the Federal Government’s continued support for state governments, particularly in oil-producing regions, where the derivation funds serve as a critical source of revenue for addressing their unique challenges.”
Dagogo defined that the shortage of efficient utilisation of the funds has led the folks to develop a “subconscious apathy” in the direction of the quantities being launched.
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He lamented that the situation of oil-producing communities within the Niger Delta, on condition that the 13 per cent derivation—which is meant to help these communities in tackling infrastructural decay and degradation—is generally mismanaged and unaccounted for by the governors.
The former lawmaker additional said that as an alternative of appearing as custodians, the governors see the funds as “free monies.”
He continued, “This 13 per cent derivation is the fund put aside to help oil-producing communities in tackling infrastructural decay and degradation—my emphasis on the oil-producing communities!
“It is a constitutional requirement, and what it means is that in sharing the federation account income, 13 per cent ought to be put aside to help the event of those oil-producing communities.
“More than twenty years down the road, what’s there to indicate for the humongous monies which have are available?
“This is a really unhappy commentary because it pertains to the oil-producing communities of the Niger Delta. What we have now as an alternative are governors making an attempt to impose their stooges to proceed that lineage of plundering that fund.
“That’s the result of most in-fighting between former governors and their installed successors. Conduct an investigation into these areas, these oil-producing communities, and you will weep when you gauge their abject living conditions against what has been allocated for them. No electricity, no drinking water, no roads—total lack of basic amenities.”
The assertion additional questioned, “Why are the Governors, who obtain these funds on behalf of those communities, so detached to their plight? They have established a sample of filling their pockets with funds and persevering with to dwell giant fairly than committing them to the event of the communities.
“The reply lies in how the governor needs to expend the funds, versus its constitutional provisions.
“We need an explanation, with irrefutable facts, on how the derivation funds intended to better the lives of the people and their oil-producing communities have been expended,” he added.
Dagogo concluded, with a be aware of scepticism, that the anticipated explanations might solely be imagined, saying, “It will not produce anything concrete, especially as it seems the people have developed subconscious apathy to their deprivation.”
“I wish to strongly consider that it’s by no means too late to appropriate the wrongs of the previous.
“I also want to have a positive conviction that this set of governors will side with the right side of history and do justice to the revenues they are getting on behalf of the oil-producing communities,” he mentioned.