Governor of Cross River State, Professor Ben Ayade, said the new Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) perpetuated injustice against his state.
Ayade was quoted as saying this while receiving in audience some members of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), led by the state’s representative, Ntufam Eyo Nsa Whiley.
Whiley said they were in the state to sensitise the government and the people on the forthcoming stakeholders meeting with the leadership of the commission to collate views on the review of the current revenue formula.
Ayade expressed scepticism about the new attempt to review the revenue formula, saying it may not herald anything positive for the state.
Recalling how the Senate Committee on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) that toured the state failed to mirror the grievances of Cross River in the bill before it was finally signed into law, the governor said the experience was enough “for us to express our deep and sincere distrust in the entire exercise and processes of RMAFC”.
A statement from the governor’s office quoted him as saying, “As I spoke to the Senate Committee on PIB then, I will choose same to communicate the position of Cross River State, which is that we do not have faith in this exercise, neither do we believe that it will end properly.”
With particular reference to the PIB, Ayade said, “As far as we are concerned as a state, we have been reduced to want in body in spirit and in soul,” adding, “There is no indication whatsoever that the review of the revenue allocation will be based on the principle of jurisprudence, equity and fair play.”
He recalled, “When the PIB committee visited, I took my time and articulated in the best of professional grammar to explain to them that producing communities are not as delicate and sensitive as impacted communities. Cross River State bears the brunt of production, but today the PIB is signed into law, insensitive to the oil impacted communities to which Cross River State belongs.
“In the same PIB, 30 per cent of revenue is set aside for frontier exploration, luckily the Calabar basin, which they refused to recognise in that category which stretches from all the mountain basins, cutting across the whole of Bakassi, Biase Odukpani, Okuni, Ogoja, Yala, is heavily impregnated with hydrocarbon. The geo-coordinates have been issued by myself since 2016 to the federal government. Today, we watch and see how the 30 per cent set aside for the frontier exploration will be managed. And we will see what will happen to the Calabar basin.”
Ayade queried a scenario, “where Edo, Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom states; and Cameroon all have oil and Cross River will not have oil? And you sit on this injustice and it goes on year after year after year?”
According to the governor, “The principle under which RMAFC is set out and the way they are operating so far is inconsistent with the provisions of the law that established it. I would like to have this on record that you have failed to use your mandate judiciously. You have failed to understand that the law empowers you to review the formula not based on obnoxious principles.”
The governor charged RMAFC to do what is fair, just and right, saying, ”Even as we come to articulate our position, if the majority of the people who are satisfied with the present situation carry the day, we would have spoken in futility and in vain.
“It is clear that the law has taken all our rights and vested them on RMAFC, so no matter how we shout and scream, the buck stops on your table, even the stabilisation funds that are now being shared among all the states that was not the spirit and intent of the stabilisation funds. The basis for everything that the constitution had envisaged to balance the financially disadvantaged states is being taken off and that is the role of RMAFC.”
The committee, which has a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Barr Efefiom Ekong as chairman, has as members, His Royal Majesty Etim Okon Edet, chairman, Traditional Rulers Council, Chief Gersh Henshaw, Professor Mike Okom, Stella Odey-Ekpo, Pastor John Ewa, Comrade Ben Ukpepi, Dan Obo, Betty, representative of the market women, among others.
