Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade yesterday decried what he
described as injustice meted on the state by the Federal Government in
terms of revenue allocation over the years.
Ayade lamented the unfair treatment when he received the Chairman of
Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Alhaji Aliyu
Ahmed, who led members of the commission on a courtesy call on the
governor in Calabar.
He said given deliberate decisions by the Federal Government and her
agencies over the years, the people of the state “feel like captives in a
place they call their own.”
Ayade said the loss of 76 oil wells by the state was a direct consequence
of the ceding of Bakassi by the Federal Government and that rather than
find a permanent solution to the fiscal challenges that arose from that
action, the Federal Government has inflicted incalculable pain on the
people.
“You took our land, took our oil wells, took us out of 13 per cent
derivation fund and reduced us to a weeping child in the Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC). The pain is incalculable. We are a captured
people by the Federal Government. We have no say because it does not
matter. We practice ethnocracy and so it does not matter how the people of
Bakassi and Cross River as a whole are in pains.
“Today we have NDDC, whose projects are based on percentage of oil
production. So, look at what we have lost from the perspective of NDDC
which keeps us as a crying child who is just in NDDC by geography not by
production as the sharing formula here is by quantum of oil production
coupled with the fact that today also , we no longer benefit from the 13
percent derivation.”
“If not for President Buhari I am sure that even the superhighway and
Bakassi Deep Seaport (being developed by the state) would have been killed
by now. But how can a people feel like captives in a place they call their
own?”
According to him, “Federal Government created a permanent injury and
sought a temporary solution. So, there is a permanent loss of oil well and
temporary allocation of revenue, how does that work?”
Wondering what indices are used by the Federal Government in deciding
allocations for the state, he said” If I have to link two villages in
Cross River State the minimum kilometers you are going to do is 5 to
6kilometers because that state’s landmass is 21,000 sqkm while you are
dealing with sister states in the Niger Delta with 3,000 sqkm. You need to
put six states together to give you our land mass.
“I do not know how you calculated and factored the revenue that comes to
Cross River without considering land mass. If land mass was a factor, land
mass alone will have given us more allocation that any other state in the
South South.
“If oil was the issue, they you should also know that you have not given a
dime for frontier exploration of our gas and hydrocarbon deposits.”
He therefore, charged the commission to use the opportunity of their
visit, which is a fact finding one, to write a report that will right the
wrongs done to the state over the years.