Environmental and Human rights activist, Annkio Briggs has said that the 3 per cent provided for host communities in the Petroleum Industry Bill passed by the National Assembly is unacceptable and a slap on the face of long-suffering oil-producing communities in the Niger Delta.
Speaking in an interview with StandardObservers on Monday, the Niger Delta Amazon said that the 10 per cent proposed for oil-producing communities was justified.
She said that the discussion about three per cent is a discussion that Nigerians should not even be having, describing the President Muhammadu Buhari-led regime and the national assembly as lawless.
She said: “This PIB deal is a deal that has gone on for too long; it was dragging on in the National Assembly. Ya’rdua came and met this deal, it was actually Ya’rdua that added the ten per cent as an executive bill, and this was done while we were negotiating for amnesty. It was part of the proposal that we discussed with him on behalf of the oil-producing communities, and so, to find it today in the hands of APC and APC National Assembly that has already promised that whatever the president brings to it, it will pass it, it is very clear that this is the plan to deny the oil-producing communities of the Niger Delta region and the other three states outside of the region that produces oil, their right.
“The issue of ten per cent for the oil-producing communities is a justified percentage. As a matter of fact, we actually have been asking for a hundred per cent resource ownership; control and management of our resources. So, the fact that we’ve been reduced to the level where we are prepared to accept for ten per cent to go to the people that suffered so much for the exploration of oil and gas; then for some privileged Nigerians who have oil wells in the Niger Delta and some states that don’t produce oil to actually get a bigger share of the revenue that is coming out f the Niger Delta is unacceptable. It’s painful; that is where we find ourselves in Nigeria today. What else can I say?”
On the warning by former Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson that the injustice meted out to oil-producing communities might lead to another crisis in the region, she said that the 3 per cent in the PIB has the capacity to create problems in the region.
She said: “I think that what the former governor of Bayelsa state said doesn’t need to come from him for it to be the truth. The reality is that definitely, these are one of the things that have the capacity to create future problems in the Niger Delta through adjudication because a lot of people are not happy.
“A lot of oil-producing communities are not happy with the fact that this is what the federal government, in the person of President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly have decided. The oil-producing communities are not happy that people that don’t produce oil have decided that not only are we not entitled to anything but that the federal government will continue to take, really and truly by force of the 1999 constitution, what does not belong to them.
“And they have gone further to also put into law by adding that there should be thirty per cent for oil exploration in the frontiers. What frontiers? It is exploring for oil in the North, that is basically what it is. Now, how do you take thirty per cent of what is coming from a community and offer them only three per cent, and then you turn around and offer yourself thirty per cent to explore for oil and gas; oil and gas where? in the North? The oil companies that are exploring should invest in the exploration and not use the resources of the Niger Delta people, including those of Imo, Abia and Ondo people, who are also oil-producing, to explore for oil and gas with thirty per cent of what is coming from there.
“For instance, in Imo and Abia, the total output of oil that comes out of those states is not up to five per cent. So, now, you are taking from the little that they have and you are taking thirty per cent out of the little they have, giving them three per cent and taking thirty per cent to explore for oil exploration in the North. How fair and how justified is this? and what kind of people make laws that are so blatantly unjust and unfair and put a rubber stamp on it? So, you don’t need Dickson to tell you that even if it doesn’t take place today, that in the future, this three per cent, definitely will cause problems. You don’t need Annkio or Seriake Dickson to tell you that. It’s a reality.”
Speaking on the Electoral Act amendment, especially the contentious electronic transmission of votes, Briggs said that Nigeria is a country that has presented itself to the world as ridiculous.
She noted that the reasons for the decisions the lawmakers took during the electoral act amendment debate is shameful and embarrassing.
“How do you say that you will have people participate in an election with electronic gadgets i.e identifying the cards, identifying the fingerprints of the people that are going to vote, and then disallow the same system from transmitting the information to a central collation point for onward movement to make sure that these figures are the right figures?
“You saw senators standing up and lying that they don’t have networks in their communities and you see other senators telling them from the same state that they are lying. I don’t know whether you saw some of the videos of people thumb printing in Lagos state over the weekend during their elections; you would see that this is exactly why they are resisting the transmission of the results through the network. Now, the NCC has no role to play in elections, it has no powers according to law where it participates in conducting elections. It is INEC that conducts elections and INEC said it has the capacity. People like MTN, Airtel, the service providers rather are saying that this is something that they can do.
“MTN is saying that they have almost covered ninety per cent of Nigeria, no matter how remote the areas are. If you bear in mind that I come from the creek areas, where transportation during elections is difficult and normally, the creek areas bring in their elections quite late because of materials getting to them late and because of materials leaving these communities late. Now, even in our case, if you say that network is not stable in those areas, you then concentrate between now, if you are really truthful to the people of Nigeria, on finding a way to make sure that people who don’t have a network now will have before 2023 to make sure that results are transmitted.
“Don’t forget that there is a lot of violence during elections, but, if you are able to transmit these results during elections from either Port Harcourt or Abonnema or Buguma or wherever you are able to transmit them, you then cannot change the figures anymore. so, I have referred to this decision by the National assembly and the house of reps, and the president and APC as a plan, an authentic plan to rig election. This is the plan they have to rig election and that is why you see a lot of PDP members crossing over to APC because they have been told that that’s the only way that they can win the election in 2023. So, this is my opinion and my analysis, based on the information that is on the ground.
“The information is that the National assembly has passed it and said that it should not be transmitted. Therefore, if that is the case, then this is the plan and so, I am concerned because I see no reason why the National assembly that is supposed to be the voice of the ordinary man’ not the politician but the ordinary man will decide to take our voice.
“I’ve said in the past that this government does not intend to hand over power and it would look for any means to hold onto power. We’re now seeing very clearly one of those means by which it intends to hold onto power and that is by making sure Nigerians who take their time out to exercise their basic human right to vote for who they want to represent them, that their vote is not going to matter because whoever they vote for, it the person that the political party or the federal government or the cabal chooses that is going to represent them, which again, is a disgrace, politically and democratically.
