Why We Back Buhari's 3% To Host Communities In PIA ------ Dr Mike Emuh HOSCON Chair

By Wilson Macaulay

The Host Communities of Nigeria, Producing Oil and Gas (HOSCON) has said it was in support of the Federal Government ‘s 3% allocation provision in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) recently passed and signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.

National Chairman, HOSCON,  Prince Dr Mike Emuh, said this on Thursday in Abuja, during a rally at the Unity Fountain.

According to him, HOSCON has been waiting for  the last 13 years  when the committee on pipeline surveillance contract on the issue of payment of gas flare and 13 percent was set up.

He noted that an executive bill was sent to the National Assembly by the administration of late President Umaru Yar’adua.

“Since 13 years, we have been waiting endlessly, but today   what we have been  waiting for have been given to us, so we are here to celebrate this three percent for the starting point.

The HOSCON boss went down the memory lane said: “Just like the 13 percent derivation started from 1.5 percent, then it got to three percent, five percent until it became 13 percent and today, we are still asking for more.

“The issue is that, this law is a law that favours the host communities and so I want to appeal to all leaders of Niger Delta to please shelve their swords, let there be peace so that we can think of how to manage this fund,” Emuh said.

According to him,  over N44trn had been mismanaged in the past 22 years by the leadership of the Niger Delta.

He said, “However, all these things in the Niger Delta have changed. So as a result, we are saying that with what was happening in NDDC and what is happening in Niger Delta to 13 percent, we are saying that with this three percent we are going to go a long way.”

He assertted that the group gathered in Abuja from the oil producing communities to celebrate President Buhari and to tag him as the best President  that had ever ruled Nigeria and favoured the host communities and the Niger Delta region.

Continuing he explained: “No matter the insecurity and whatever happens, to destroy is very easy but to build is difficult so let us join the president to build this country.”

Emuh urged Nigerians to come together and be united, so as to bring about transformation in the nation.

He posited:, “We of the host communities are not playing politics, we are saying that what belongs to the host communities should be given to them. So, the time has come for us to reason together as a region with youths, women and men alike on how we are going to spend the three percent.”