The Paramount Ruler of
Ekpetiama community in Bayelsa State, King Bubaraye Dakolo, has urged the state government to establish an oil producing areas commission in the state.
Dakolo made the call in an interview with newsmen in Yenagoa after the leadership of an NGO, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), paid him an advocacy and solidarity visit.
The monarch said the establishment of the commission would provide a framework that would enhance the development of the oil bearing communities in the state.
He also called on other state governments in the Niger Delta that had yet to establish such commissions to urgently do so.
According to him, the non establishment of oil producing area commissions in some states in the region is against the spirit behind the provision of the 13 per cent derivation principle by the constitution.
He said it was unfair for some state governments in the region to divert the oil revenue to fancy projects in the state capitals at the detriment of the oil bearing communities.
He added that “it is traditionally wrong to neglect the goose that lays the golden egg; our culture encourages communal life but marginalising the oil communities is unjustifiable.
“In Ijaw culture, the elephant meat is for all to share and eat but the elephant tusk is reserved for the hunter that killed it.
“So, we expect the governors in the Niger Delta region to right the wrongs.”
The monarch also said that the Niger Delta environment had been degraded by multinational oil companies due to weak regulatory mechanism to enforce environmental laws.
He said that oil firms had exploited the loophole to pollute the region’s environment, whereas such firms observed international best practices while operating in their home countries.
The traditional ruler further noted that indiscriminate logging of wood was harmful to the environment.