Clark Rejects PIB, Insists on 10% Fund for Host Communities

Deji Elumoye and Udora Orizu in Abuja

The National Leader of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, has rejected some provisions of the recently passed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), particularly the three and five per cent operating expenditure granted to the host communities.

Clark, who is also the National Leader of the South-south zone, in an open letter dated July 5, 2021 and addressed to the principal officers of the National Assembly, including the President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan; and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, described the provisions as unjust, satanic and provocative, given decades of exploitation and neglect of the Niger Delta region.

In the letter, copies of which will be sent to all the six governors of the South-south zone and other leaders of the South-south, the elder statesman lamented that the people of the Niger Delta, at home and abroad, have expressed their great displeasure over the allocation of a paltry percentage of operating expenditure to oil-producing communities by the National Assembly.

He recalled that at the public hearings in January 2021, representatives from the Niger Delta insisted on the principle of the 10 per cent equity participation.

This request, according to Clark, has fallen on deaf ears as the operating expenditure being proposed by both houses of the National Assembly, is to the disappointment of the region.

The elder statesman also said the fraudulent provision of 30 per cent of profits for further frontier oil exploration in the North calls to question claims by the current regime that it was working towards an economy away from oil.

He, therefore, insisted that the PIB must be reversed, reviewed and amended to ensure that the oil-bearing communities must now receive not less than 10 per cent of operating cost.

The former Federal Commissioner for Information stressed that if their request is not met, the Niger Delta people may be forced to take their destiny into their own hands and all International Oil Companies (IOCs) may find themselves denied access to their oil activities in such communities.

The letter read, in part, “My Distinguished President of the Senate and The Rt. Honourable Speaker of the House of Representatives, we have noticed with dismay, anger, disappointment and embarrassment, the oppressive and domineering attitude of most members of the National Assembly (NASS) over the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), now due for imminent harmonisation by the National Assembly. We have heard that the House of Representatives has seen it fit to increase the percentage from 2.5 per cent to five per cent for Upstream Host Communities – those who are directly impacted by the exploration and production activities of the oil and gas operators – whilst a percentage of two per cent would be applied to communities that are host to midstream and downstream infrastructure, such as refineries and pipelines, however, we have also heard that the Senate has only seen it fit to set the percentage as three per cent.”

The letter argued that the demand of the oil-bearing communities of the Niger Delta region was for a minimum of 10 per cent equity participation.

The letter accused Lawan, Gbajabiamila and some of their colleagues in the National Assembly, of showing their “disdain to the Niger Delta people by redefining host communities to include pipeline-bearing pathway communities, in which case states where pipelines pass through to aid them with the privilege of cheap supplies of Niger Delta petroleum products could also be entitled to the ridiculous and unacceptable percentages that the legislators are willing to cede to oil-bearing communities.”

The letter noted that the long-suffering and oppressed people of the oil-bearing communities of the Niger Delta were not surprised at the news that the National Assembly finally passed the PIB, albeit the lofty dreams and vaunted expectations of over two decades of legislative dilly-dally had been dashed.

“This unhealthy anti-climax is a predictable end as northern legislators combined with the efforts of IOCs to pass an unjust piece of legislation to deny our people the benefits of the resources in their region.”