Bayelsa State Governor, Duoye Diri has stated that his state is broke because of unfavourable federal allocation.
He stated this in an interview on Channels Television on Thursday, February 10, to mark his second year as Governor of the South-South state.
Diri said they’ve not been treated fairly despite being an oil-producing state.
Insisting that money generated from Bayelsa cannot be taken to the federal government to be shared to states, Diri alleged that there are so many people benefitting and eating fat from the injustice.
The Governor also said this is why there’s a huge clamour for restructuring so that all states can get their deserved allocation.
Commenting on Economic Confidential listing Bayelsa among the insolvent states in the country.
He said;
“The question I ask myself is, is it just or fair that what is generated here as income comes back to Bayelsa as federal allocation. Those are the issues I keep talking about because we can’t have a chunk of money generated from our land, taken to the federal government and shared to states and in the end say Bayelsa state is insolvent and that’s why we are talking about restructuring.
“That is why the constitution has to be amended. We can’t say a particular land is for the people but what is underneath is for the FG. There is no justice in it.
“So for us we need restructuring in a way that we make income and pay taxes to the federal government. It is because of the unitary system in the name of the federal system that the resources are taken.
“If Bayelsa is said to be insolvent, then the whole of Nigeria is insolvent.
“My point is there is so much wrong with the country and that is why we are moving in cycles of under development, injustice and almost becoming a failed state.
“About the issue of royalties, you can imagine how much the communities and the state suffer from gas flaring but the federal government takes the royalties which ought not to be. The royalties belong to the people, they are the ones who suffer from the pollutants that result from resources that are from this gas as well as the oil, but there are no funds given to the people; not even the states.
“There are so many people benefitting and eating fat from the injustice. Despite talking about the issue of oil exploitation at several meetings, yet nothing has been done; and even in the aspect of amending the constitution, I raised this issue at the national assembly but it was voted out.”
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