Confab: Igbo Group Backs 50% Derivation, Warns North Against Taking South For Granted

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An Igbo group, Ndigbo Unity Forum, NUF, has thrown its weight behind the agitation for the adoption of 50 percent derivation for revenue coming from oil.

The President of the forum, Mr. Augustine Chukwudum, who spoke on Saturday, said anything short of 50 per cent would be acceptable.

He was reacting to the deadlock in deliberations on the contentious issue of derivation at the ongoing National Conference.

While most of the delegates, especially those from the South-South, with support from some of their counterparts from the South-East and South-West were agitating for increase in the 13 per cent derivation currently being enjoyed by the zone, others, especially those from the North-West and North-East, said the status quo must be maintained.

But the NUF president proposed a way out of the current logjam thus: "And the derivation should be shared this way, 20 percent for host states; 20 per cent for oil producing local government areas; and 10 percent for oil producing communities".

Chukwudum berated the North for trying to stall deliberations on derivation and warned them against thinking that Nigeria was their personal estate.

Urging those opposed to derivation to take a trip to the Niger Delta to appreciate the level of destruction and degradation oil exploration has caused, Chukwudum warned the North to stop taking the South for granted.

"Let the North explore resources available to them like zinc, diamond, iron ore and many others and claim their derivation", he added


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