The Deputy Majority leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Peter Akpatason, amongst other issues, explained how the federal lawmakers arrived at the 5% operating expenditure granted to the Host Communities in the PIB. He spoke to Udora Orizu. Excerpts:
The National Leader of Pan-Niger Delta Forum, Chief Edwin Clark has rejected some provisions in the recently passed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), particularly the 3 and 5 per cent operating expenditure granted to the Host Communities by the Senate and House of Representatives. In your opinion, do you think the 5% is good enough?
It’s not good enough but that was the best we could get at that particular time. The reason is that legislation is a game of numbers, to get anything in the legislation you need a number and it requires persuasion and all that. And number, even when you add the Southeast and Southwest, it’s not up to the number of our colleagues in the north, so, the PIB at some point assumed a sectional dimension,