PIB: Don’t Treat South-south like Beggars, Increase Host Communities Equity to 10%, Say PFN, PDP Chieftain

Sylvester Idowu in Warri

Former Vice President, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), South-south, Bishop Simeon Okah and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Sunny Onuesoke, have berated the National Assembly for allocating a paltry three per cent to oil-bearing host communities and 30 per cent for oil exploration in the recently passed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

Bishop Okah, who’s the founder, Flock of Christ Mission and current member, National Advisory Council, PFN, warned that the South-south, which lays the golden egg, in particular, should not be treated as beggars following the development.

The cleric, while addressing journalists in Warri yesterday on the recently passed contentious PIB, warned that the situation could create youth unrest and recommended at least 10 per cent for host communities.
“I congratulate them for doing a good job. I feel it’s a good job because it has been around for a very long time. But they did something that is very bad and the whole South-south is unhappy.

“Three per cent is nothing; if it’s about 10 per cent to 15 per cent, fine. They should not treat the South-south as if we are begging them for something. It is the money from the South-south that is running the whole economy; so it is very unfair. It should be at least 15 per cent,” he noted.

Also speaking to journalists in Warri, former governorship aspirant, Chief Onuesoke, described the passed PIB as a coup against host communities of Southern Nigeria.

He said the content of the PIB was nothing short of a ploy to further rob the South that produces the oil to pay the North that doesn’t produce a single drop of oil.

According to him, it’s befuddling how the National Assembly (the Senate in particular) would cut down compensations for host communities from five per cent to three per cent against the cries of Southern Senators and redefined host communities to also mean oil-pipeline-bearing communities in the country.

“By implication, host communities now mean all states that don’t produce oil but have oil pipeline passing through them which automatically makes some Northern states that don’t produce oil to become host communities and henceforth benefit from compensations.

“Mind you, all the so-called Frontier Exploration projects are domiciled in the North: – Chad basin, Borno etc. So automatically, 30 per cent or more (totally about 48 per cent) of NNPC profits will be going to the North that does not produce a single drop of oil, while the remaining will be shared by the Federating States,” he averred.

Onuesoke, therefore, called on National Assembly members from the South to reject the ratification of the PIB and insist on a proper amendment before final ratification at the joint session.