By: Bulou Kosin.

Environmental activist, Comrade Sheriff Mulade, has called on President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly to establish a clear legal framework empowering the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to pay 13% derivation funds directly to oil-bearing communities rather than to state governors.

Mulade said that paying derivation funds to governors instead of the oil-producing communities defeats the purpose of the derivation principle and deprives the people who suffer the environmental and social consequences of oil exploration from initiating their own developmental plans.

“The oil communities, after agitating and securing a 13% derivation allocation in Nigeria’s Constitution, are still left polluted, with little or deplorable infrastructure, while their populations remain neglected,” Mulade lamented. “Even where state oil area development commissions have been established ostensibly to channel development to these areas, the derivation funds—already slashed by 50% in some enabling laws—are largely withheld by the governors of the oil-bearing states, with impunity.”

Mulade also highlighted the historical contribution of Chief (Dr.) Wellington Okrika, the Bolowei of Gbaramatu Kingdom, toward the establishment of the 13% derivation principle, noting that Niger Delta governors have since “fed fat” on the achievement without fulfilling their obligations to Okrika or the oil communities.

He further stated: “If the funds were channelled to reputable construction companies for development projects, the oil-bearing areas would have been significantly improved over the years.”