PIA: Host communities’ deserved five percent ― Peter Obi

Former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi has decried the non-granting of the five percent demand of host communities in the assented Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

Speaking with journalists after paying a courtesy call on Governor Seyi Makinde, at the State Secretariat, Ibadan, on Thursday, the former Anambra governor argued that the host communities, from which Nigeria generated a major part of her revenue, deserved more than the three percent assented to.

He further argued that the host communities deserved all the support they requested, such that that the demand for five percent is just.

Furthermore, Obi explained that the communities needed adequate funds to prepare for the future when oil would no longer have as much value as at present.

He, however, noted that the PIA had become imperative in the nation’s oil sector.

Obi said, “The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) is needed but I thought we could have considered the five percent being demanded by host communities.

“We must learn to care for those generating resources for us whether it is petroleum, VAT. We should consider supporting communities that are generating resources that we are sharing.”

Speaking further, Obi said there was little to show for the nation borrowing and growing its debt profile.

Obi averred the nation was borrowing more for consumption rather than investment, a situation he described as improper and continuously unhealthy for the nation’s economy.

“Debt is not bad but if we borrow for consumption, debt is bad. Nigeria is borrowing for consumption. They have claimed that the money being borrowed is being invested but I ask where the investment is.

“If you have invested it, the economy will have been doing better but the economy is worse which means the money borrowed, you threw it away.

“We should borrow and invest, that is, to invest in the proper thing. What develops a nation is an education, health and pulling people out of poverty.

“But, we are throwing more Nigerians into poverty, every minute, and no country can survive with that. As long as you continue to throw people into poverty, you are escalating the problems. A lot of Nigerians don’t know where the next meal will come from. That is unacceptable,” Obi added.

Speaking earlier, Governor Seyi Makinde hinted that following that of Air Peace, more airlines will operate from the Ibadan airport.

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