After a five-hour closed doors meeting by the Consensus Group of the National Conference, delegates agreed to maintain the 13 per cent status quo on derivation.
They however proposed that President Goodluck Jonathan should set up a Technical Committee to decide on the appropriate percentage for oil producing states and areas destroyed by insurgency in the country.
This position of the Confab falls short of the expectations of the South South that the region would at least get a five percent increase in derivation from the present 13 per cent.
They have been agitating for an increase to at least 18 per cent.
The Eagle Online recalls that it was a battle between the South and the North on whether to increase the derivation or not, a development which forced the conference to adjourned abruptly twice.
Speaking on the position of the Consensus Group, the Chairman of Conference, retired Justice Idris Kutigi, said President Jonathan should set up technical committee to decide on the appropriate percentage for oil producing states and areas destroyed by insurgency in the country.
After the pronouncement of the Consensus Group’s resolution by Kutigi, delegates expressed divergent views on the position.
A South South activist, Ann Kio Briggs, expressed dissatisfaction with resolution of the Conference.
Briggs said it failed to address the problem of the Niger Delta people who have been clamouring for an increase in derivation to oil producing states.
Also, a former Governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba, said a technical committee will in the best position to determine the exact percentage of derivation that will go to oil producing states in the country.
Osoba added that the recommendations of the conference, if implemented, will go along way in developing the country.
